I REMEMBER WHEN…

March 26, 2012 by A Ventography! 29 Comments

ANNIE’S STORY – PART TWELVE OF TWELVE

You may be asking, “What’s point of Annie’s Story?”

One point I wanted to draw attention to is that significant progress past the age of five is possible. I have lived it with Annie.

Most of the recovery stories told in the autism community are about children who snapped out of it around age three from just a few interventions. While I am happy for those children and parents, I think there needs to be more discussion about gains made by children after age five. Their stories may not be as dramatic. Their improvements may come slower, but they do happen. In my opinion, hope should not be abandoned once our children reach a certain age. Those of us with older children need to share our successes, no matter how small, to keep each other going.

I also wanted to share a recovering story that had a lot of twists and turns, gains and losses, ups and downs. Our path has not been straight. I had to fail miserably many, many times in order to stumble upon the right combination of interventions to help my daughter. I pray that other parents can learn from my numerous mistakes and perhaps, have an easier journey.

Much to my dismay, Annie did not make significant gains due to one “magic pill” and she did not recover overnight like you often read about on the internet. The skills she has recovered are the culmination of a lot of interventions and four years of persistence.

While sequential homeopathy and craniosacral therapy had the most dramatic results for us, I believe many of the other things we did (and still do) have played a part in Annie’s progress. Just like lots of health assaults caused Annie to regress in the first place, I believe lots of treatments have helped her come back to us. To summarize, the combination of interventions that I feel have gotten Annie where she is today are:

• Diet – GF/CF, eliminating allergy foods, rotation diet, paleo diet, organic, no processed foods
• Supplements
• MB12 shots
• Mild Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)
• Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA)
• OSR #1
• Sequential Homeopathy
• Craniosacral Therapy

We are no longer doing HBOT or OSR, however, Annie is still on all the rest of the items listed above.

The third and final reason I told this story is purely selfish. It was to have a written record of all we’ve been through as a family, how far we’ve come, and all that I have to thank God for. I certainly have days when I like to wallow in sadness, self-pity, and worry for the future. But when those days come, I am going to read the following to remind myself that I should not complain. Things are not perfect, but wow…they are so much better than they used to be.

I am thankful:

• For every time my daughter is blabbering away about nothing (verbal stimming) because I remember when… she didn’t speak one word.
• For every time my daughter leaves toys strewn all over my house because I remember when… she wouldn’t play with any toys at all.
• For every morning when it takes my daughter a half hour to pick out an outfit that she will agree to wear to school because I remember when… she was so “out of it” that she didn’t even realize she was wearing clothes.
• For every time she pesters me to buy her a million toys when we go to a store because I remember when… bringing her to a store resulted in a meltdown of epic proportions or she’d get so fixated on one toy that I couldn’t get her to move.
• For every time my daughter interrupts me because I remember when… she wouldn’t acknowledge my existence and didn’t want to interact with me in any way.
• For the little scraps of paper my daughter leaves all over my house because I remember when… she couldn’t write, draw, color or cut one thing.
• For every time my daughter tries to play with another child, only to be rejected or made fun of, because I remember when… she isolated herself and stayed in her own little world.
• For every time my daughter grabs my face, turns it towards her and says, “Look!” when she wants my attention because I remember when… all she did was stare at the ground.

If Annie had not regressed, I would have taken all of this for granted. I have come to realize Annie’s regression into autism is exactly what I needed to put life into perspective. Things that used to “rock my world” no longer cause me to blink an eye. I know what true pain and suffering is and I know true joy as well.

Daily, I realize I am present at a miracle and I will never get over being amazed by it.

I’ll keep you updated on Annie’s journey. And please let me know of any interventions that have worked for your child. I’d be nowhere on this journey without the advice of smart parents who are fighting every day to make their children’s lives better.

We were given these children for a reason. I think there are certain traits we share in common. Never giving up on our children is number one.

To conclude Annie’s story, I thought it would be fitting to provide a summary of her journey into and her journey (thus far) out of autism. Seeing her progression in one place, in my opinion, emphasizes how far Annie has come. If you are interested, please click the following link: http://www.healthinducedautism.com/annie-and-brody—then-and-now.html.

For parts 1-11 of Annie’s Story, https://ventography.wordpress.com/category/annies-story/