7.27.2003

Our DAN/biomedical meeting to discuss Leelo's hair, blood, urine, and stool tests was Friday. Totally reeling from the results--our boy who eats five things is allergic to them all and everything else in the universe plus we have to pull him off sugar and put him on 5 or 10 or 60 supplements 2x/day. Plus B12 shots, accupressure...does that cover it? So far we've determined that he can eat almond butter. And maybe homemade spelt puffs. But lo, we've been instructed to vary his diet so as to not create additional food insensitivities, so must figure out other options.

What's a concerned, completely overwhelmed mom to do? Run to the coast for the weekend! Commune with sea lions, get drunk with partner, slurp oysters, pretend problem doesn't exist. (Many thanks to my folks, who came early for the ABA training sessions and watched the kiddlings while Seymour and I had our indulgent denial weekend.)

However now we are back and I have to write up the actual discussion notes and attack plan so as to make sense of it all. Will post that soon.

My dear darling friends' reaction to the DAN meeting results: "You have to use The Crazy Book?" (My friends are the best. They read everything I give them on autism, bring me articles, and refuse to let me mope in the corner. Plus they are liberal Bush-hating freaks.)

Now, let me be clear on this--I think Karyn Seroussi's book Unravelling the Mystery of Autism is an invaluable resource. I bow down before her harrowing experience and efforts to help others. After due diligence, we are pursuing many if not all of the therapies she advocates. But, just as she has a problem with non-believers whom she confronts with her CF/GF party line in the grocery store and then disparages in print when they don't jump on her bandwagon that very instant, I have a problem with her tone--it verges on hysteria. I can practically feel her eyes bulging. And I feel for that poor woman in the grocery store. Her child was newly diagnosed and she was probably still in one of the grief stages that precedes acceptance. I'll bet she would have appreciated a nice, calm ration of information, instead of an attack.

On a completely different page, I also spent a lot of the weekend enjoying blogathon. It is comforting to know that other people keep their kids' placentas in the freezer.

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