Hungry

Today I got back the results from the Metametrix  lab work.  I am not happy.  Basically his entire diet showed up as a food sensitivity.  Fantastic. 

From what I understood, his blood serum was exposed to a number of different foods to see if it would have an immune response.  Whit had a “response class” of +3 (moderate) to casein (cheese), egg white, egg yolk, milk, wheat, and soybean.  Guess what we vegetarians eat a lot of?  He also had a mild response to cranberry, limas, pinto beans, almonds, and zucchini.  Awesome.

We are supposed to take these foods out of his diet for four weeks, then slowly reintroduce them to determine if he has any kind of negative reaction to them (as opposed to retesting at the lab.)  I imagine he will have a happy reaction to eating something other than nuts and fruit after four weeks.  I am really on the fence about trying an elimination diet.  I will probably have to schedule some face-time with his doctor and ask him if this is all as bullshit as it seems.

The nutritionist was concerned about his sources of protein during this diet month considering we are vegetarian.  No kidding.  She said that any nutritionist would tell you that children should not be vegetarians.  I told her that we’ve had four primary care doctors and two nutritionists in the last six years and none of them have ever mentioned that to me.  I have no patience for broad, unsubstantiated statements these days.  I guess the chiropractor who developed Brain Balance has a saying “eat meat for brain, eat vegetarian for heart” or some crap. “Nothing with a face, beyotch.”  That’s my saying.  She also gave me a giant pack of papers with food suggestions and recipes, and that was very helpful.

At our next meeting she’ll talk to me about the supplements Whit needs.  I can see from the results that he is lacking in the B vitamins, and it made sense to me how that is preventing all the amino acids in his blood from being used by his cells.  This Wednesday another woman will talk to me about behavior modification techniques.  Can’t wait.  

By the way, homework still takes two or more hours.

planted

Two kids are assigned the same appointment time at BB, and kids are cycled through at 15 minute intervals (I think--don't quote me.  It might be 30 minutes).  I've decided the mother of the 6 year old who starts with Whit must be agent planted by the BB team to encourage me.  Every week I hear her talk with the staff about how her child has gained 2 reading levels in six weeks, how he is so much less frustrated, how the cost of BB is totally justified when considering all the other therapy options, even though BB costs can't be submitted to insurance.  Today I "overheard" how her son can sit for homework now.  The discussed how important it is to do those exercises at home, how each kid only improves remarkably by doing the exercises.  Tell me that wasn't said for my benefit.

Week 2

We have been doing BB for two weeks now, although Monday it was closed for the holiday.  That gave us a chance to have Whit’s blood drawn and sent to Metametrix for the nutrition counseling part of BB.  Poor Whit was absolutely terrified and had to sit in my lap, but the woman at Any Time Lab there on P-M Rd was just excellent with him. 

Whit still seems to enjoy himself at BB, although he hasn’t been awarded any more stars for progress.  He calls the different activities “weird.”   I have not been keeping up my end of the deal with those exercises three times a day and music for 45 minutes each day.  Both of us hate that CD.  The worst is the heartbeat, followed by some weirdo mouth-breathing dude.  After a few minutes, my skin is itchy.  We do the exercises once or twice a day, and the music not at all.  And I just realized there’s a chart that I’m supposed to be filling out daily to document his progress.  Oops.  This coming week I’ll try to be more on the program. 

For the hour he’s at BB, I plan to walk around the neighborhood and get some exercise.  Yesterday it was raining, so I just hung out in my car and dozed.  I don’t really care to be in the office.  It feels like a doctor’s office considering the way it’s set up, but the gossip between the staff says there’s no HIPPA here.  The director asked Whit last week if he knew this one kid at his school, and told us she had met him and I get the impression his family is considering BB.  It doesn’t seem like my business.  And now I’m sure their family knows we’re at BB.  Obviously it’s not a secret, but it still doesn’t seem appropriate to talk about other patients.  I guess that’s the issue.  We’re not patients and not entitled to privacy.  We’re costumers to be used for networking and getting more customers.

It also didn't help when another parent’s second question to me was “What’s his diagnosis?”  Really, strange lady I just met?  Are we best friends and confidants just because we both have kids at BB?  Believe me, I totally understand how when you’re first realizing there’s an issue with your child and you’re trying everything available for help, it’s comforting to find other parents in your position.  But after five years, three evaluations and a special school, I have a really good grasp on what’s going on with my kid, and I don’t want that to be a leading topic of conversation any more.

Ok, enough bitching.  Whit sailed through homework Thursday night, but it helped that Christopher was here talking him through it.  Whit does a lot for Christopher that he would never do for me.  Maybe next week we’ll get the Metametrix results.  I’ll let you know.

End of Week 1

I wrote this yesterday, and forgot to post it.  Oops.

When I picked up Whit from school today, he was in a superbly ugly mood & he did not want to go to Brain Balance.  He hates the BB music CD and we should be listening to Science Friday on NPR.  He doesn’t understand how BB could possibly work, what is ADHD any way, and what does ‘deficit’ mean when used like that?  He also thinks it’s none of their business if he has over an hour and a half of screen time on weekend days.

He was upset because this is the first Friday of 12 that we won’t be able to go to Dairy Queen after school and meet up with his good pal Daniel and sometimes Jackson.  It’s hard on me too.  I really like sitting around DQ with their moms and having a soda, and going to Petsmart after wards to look around.  Sacrifices must be made.

When he came out from BB though, it was a whole other story.  He had gotten his first star for going up a level in balance beam and two core exercises (one of those is the yoga pose Bridge, but I don’t know the second.)  He very happily taped it up in the hallway along with the hundreds of other stars, and he’s been in a great mood ever since.  When we got home he went back to his room to play with his playmobil people instead of going straight to his ipad. Good times.

Day 1

One Brain Balance appointment down, 35 more to go.  Whit seemed to have had a good time at his appointment.  He did complain that the 3-D glasses he had to wear for one exercise actually made him cry because they hurt his eyes (not boo-hoo cry, but his eyes teared.) 

I had intended to sit in the waiting room and get some reading done, but no.  I was called back to an office to sign media wavers, information release waivers (for the school—I didn't have the heart to say we ought to leave the school out of it.  When I asked for her thoughts on Brain Balance, my principal suggested I put Whit in a dance class. Sooo maybe not a whole lot of support on that front.) 

Some home exercises were also explained.  There are MANY!  Four eye-tracking exercises to be done three times a day, a music cd we have to listen to for 15 minutes, three times a day, and a three body yoga-like exercises three times a day.  Every day.  He also has to do pushups and situps three times a week.  I was really surprised that Whit didn't give me grief about doing these exercises this morning.  Each daily exercise only takes about a minute, so it’s not too bad.

Today I have to call and make an appointment to have Whit’s blood drawn one early morning.  Part of BB is about elimination diet if he shows sensitivity to any foods.  The test will cost $495 (IgG for gluten, some blood plasma amino acid test, and a urine test for organic acid something-or-other—it made more sense when the doctor/nutritionist woman was explaining it to me!)  So I will just forget that story on NPR yesterday that Chris alerted me to, about how clinical studies show elimination diets don’t really have any effect on ADHD. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/01/09/144796050/for-kids-with-adhd-the-elimination-diet-falls-short-of-success  My kid gets SO HANGRY!!!

Here we go!

We start tomorrow! I show up with my boy and a check for $4900, after putting down a deposit of $500 in November. That's in addition to the $300 we payed for the ridiculous assessment test. More on that later, if you're interested. He'll go three times a week, one hour each session. Brain Balance is a franchise business that says this about themselves on their website (http://www.brainbalancecenters.com/): The Brain Balance Program® is an individualized and comprehensive approach to helping children with neurobehavioral and learning difficulties surmount their unique challenges.

Here is what I hope we get out of it:

• Easy homework takes 15 minutes of work, instead of 15 minutes of work and two hours of staring/rolling/slumping/tapping pencils/singing/whining/chit-chatting/walking around
• Less disruptive, goofing off behavior at school
• Ability to remember and perform three or more tasks given to him at once (now I have to ask him to do things one at a time, & maybe I can get two "get your socks on and brush your teeth." Usually I send him back to his room for one task, and find him playing with Mario figures, or drawing/writing ten minutes later)
• Not so ready with the word No when I ask him to do something. Luckily he limits this to me and doesn't share it with his teachers, and he winds up what doing what I asked without a fuss, but almost always his first response is No. Booger.

And that's it. Focus and willingness. Is that too much to ask? I know I could put him on ADHD meds and be done with it, but while we have the money, I want to exhaust other options first. (Well, not all other options. Chris says, "More beatings!")

Wish us luck!

Christopher would like to add to our list

• willingness to try new foods
• less anger & sulkiness when honest, gentle, constructive criticism is offered