Noah's Therapy Part 1 - INTRODUCTION

I'm so overdue for a post on what therapies we do with Noah. Partly because I have it in my head exactly how I want it to look and it'll take a lot of time and partly because it'll involve posting pictures and I absolutely despise posting pictures on Blogger.

But if I don't sit down and do it then I'll never get around to it. So, I think it'd be easier to break it down into parts... .and who knows how often those parts will be posted... but it's a start.

Now, I want to issue a disclaimer on all of this. I don't have any medical evidence that it works. For all I know, we could be spending our money and doing exercise and giving such and such remedy and driving to Austin here and there and it might not be making a bit of difference. (Although I believe it is making a difference.) The point is, though, that it's not hurting Noah. There was a time, several years ago, when on the advice of medical doctors, we were holding Noah down each day and syringing disgusting tasting concoctions down his throat. We were holding him down while was being pumped full of chelation IV's and we were rubbing nasty "skunk cream" (it totally smelled like skunk) on him to help him detox.

And the thing is... that stuff actually works! It does. But not for Noah. Noah is what you'd call a tough nut. He's hard to crack. All these things that worked for other kids (and trust me... I've seen kids recover from autism!)... all the HBOT stuff and saunas and chelation and NAET, and vitamins, and B12 shots, skunk creams, and weird Chinese herbs, and foot baths, and QRS's, and RNA drops, and, well, you name it, it didn't work. Not for Noah. And I have a feeling there are a few of you out there who tried it all, too, and now you/re left bitter, disappointed, feeling hopeless, and pretty much broke.

Or maybe that's just me.

Anyway, I'm not saying all the above was a bunch of bunk. I do think some of the body clearings helped. Do I think they did $5,000 worth of good? Hmmmm..... And some of the diets did actually help. The Blood Type Diet gave Noah solid stools for the first time in ages. We learned a lot from the rotation diet, and I'd love to try and make coconut kefir again.

But for the most part... it didn't really help. And some things... like chelation... made it a whole lot worse.

About 4 years ago, after we'd exhausted all of our savings, our retirements, and maxed out our credit cards, and were living with my parents, we decided to give it a one-last shot and the kids and I moved to TN for 3 months on the promise that if we spent three months there at a certain clinic that Noah would recover.

Can you tell how desperate we were at that time??

When we got back - and Noah wasn't any better - and we didn't have two pennies to our name, we knew we had to stop. And that was a hard, hard decision. How do you give up on your child? We'd spent all our money and now we didn't have a dime left to try anything new.

I prayed and prayed and prayed and one day I heard God's voice and it said, "Just spend time with him."

So we stopped everything we were doing and we started noticing changes. He was sleeping through the night. He started smiling again. He seemed relaxed... and why shouldn't he be? He wasn't being held down and forced to take syringes that tasted like pig poo.

It took a lot of faith to just quit what we were doing. And, honestly, if we'd had any money at the time, I would have dived right back in to countless therapies. The only reason I listened to God was because I couldn't afford not to. Quite literally.

Over the last couple of years, though, we have introduced some new therapies into our household, but the rule is always...

1. Will it hurt Noah?

2. Can we afford it?

3. Is it a therapy that I can do at home? (i.e. Will it allow me to spend time with Noah?)

The main goal is for us to go to a therapy, learn the treatment, and continue to do it at home until we go back for new exercises or homework.

In my next post, I'll be talking about the Key Players in Noah's therapy "closet". And in further posts, I'll talk about the different exercises we do, what we consider to be essential supplements to give, what things we can't live without out, and whatever else I come up with. It's not a very good plan, but it's a plan nonetheless.

I know this might be a really boring couple of weeks here on "Recovering Noah". But, I don't know, I'm always fascinated by what other people do with their kids - especially if they have autism. So feel free to share what you do, too! I'd love to know.

So stay tuned for Part 2!