Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Finding a Cure: Pediatricians vs. DAN doctors

I have always been a fan of western medicine. I require C-sections and without it my babies and I wouldn't be here. And my brother is a surgeon. And my dad is a healthcare lawyer. And my husband does provider contracts as an actuary for traditional, health insurance approved doctors. So I think it is safe to say traditional, western medicine is the family business. (Insert godfather joke here) Until they told me they couldn't help. Not when it comes to autism. The disease I wanted a cure to more than any other. Who did this you ask? Let me see:

The neurologist who told us there was no such thing as autism doctors. That they couldn't be responsible for autistic kids anymore even though it's a neurological disorder because there were too many of them. 

Every pediatrician ever. "We can't say if he will get better or not" they say. "Never do know" they say. "Try ABA therapy" they say. "Some get better and some don't." 

The very expensive developmental pediatrician. 

A child psychologist. Or two. Or three. 

NO ONE WOULD HELP US. So without hope we tried to figure it out on our own. As any good parents we did ABA with varying levels of success. We had one amazing therapist who made great headway with our son but then moved away. The rest were expensive with no results. And I mean no results over a 4 year time period. 

So we were done and frustrated and losing hope. 

My mom called me one day after many, many days of discouragement and disillusionment. Please call this quack, ahem naturopath she said. He is a DAN (defeat autism now) doctor. My friend swears by him. He says he can help. So we did it. And he gave us hope. We sat and told him the entire story, my husband and I. He listened and nodded and said he understood and he had seen it a million times. And then he said, "I can reverse this." We almost passed out in shock. "I can help your son."

Well if you are here looking for a conclusion I don't have one yet. We are doing everything he says because if nothing else he gives us hope. 

Don't ask me if it was vaccines because I don't know. 

But I used to say it wasn't. Because I trusted western medicine. I literally put my life in its hands many times. But when it comes to autism is has more than let me down. And my son down. And my husband down. So we are branching out. Stay tuned. 

No comments:

Post a Comment