Friday, November 6, 2009

Doctor doctor on the wall

I swear that is where I feel like our doctors are these days, posted like a trophy on the wall. "Look, I am a degree"...but where is the continuing education, where is the common sense, where is the research? I know, I know, I have been reminded by even my own pediatrician that they do NOT prevent, they are taught to treat illnesses, to be reactive, not proactive and they use medicine, period. We are so torn between going to our standard pediatrician who is covered by our insurance, but doesn't know a thing about what we are going through or going to our DAN! doctor who is a holistic doctor and handles many cases of children on the spectrum through biomedicine, BUT insurance will not approve any of his tests or treatments, they are considered "experimental", hence making the appointment ineligible for payment too. Until a parent is faced with these frustrations, you could never ever know how frustating it is to know that your child will only get better, if you are financially capable of fronting the cost for the doctors, many tests and the long-term treatments necessary to correct his or her health problems. How do you think it would feel to know that the only thing standing between you and your child's wellness or recovery is money, and a lot of it? Frustrating to say the least, unfair at best. On top of it, the parents need to highly educate themselves on the treatments, because there are SO many biomedical protocols out there. What works for one might not work for another, so in addition to spending a fortune, imagine spending a fortune on things that don't work so you end up with bottles upon bottles of full supplements that didn't work, just to move onto the next $40 bottle of something, that maybe doesn't work either! It's a never-ending battle and we feel SO alone since we often can't just pick up our phone and call a ped for advice. They wouldn't even run a viral titer so I can see if he has developed antibodies to the vaccinations he DID get.

Since we are caught in this position, I had some standard blood tests run on Grayson just to see where his health status is, at least it's covered by insurance. He doesn't have anemia, his hemaglobin is good, thyroid good, D levels are great, but his CBC showed elevated platelet counts. The range is 150-400 and his count is 532. I have done some researching and the scary things like leukemia aren't even an option, I won't even give that a thought, but some things did pop out at me on a few web sites. I saw mention of irritable bowel disease and clostridia as possible links. Now THIS would make sense. So while I am still uneasy at the results, I am somewhat relieved to see that the very thing we are battling could be at play here, again, supporting every route we have taken, confirming to me and anyone else who wonders about holistic quakery, that this autoimmune issue is, in fact, real! I am not trying to find something wrong with my child, I don't WANT him to be like this, he just is. The recurrent medical findings confirm that my child is not a case of hypochondria, he is ill, very ill on the inside and I intend to fix it, even if I have to do it alone! If your child had a heart disease, you would do everything, and more, in your power to help him, this is no different.

1 comment:

LoLo said...

You are a wonderful mother.Keep doing what you are doing and always go with your "gut instincts". You are treating your son as a whole person rather than a symptom. Be encourage that you are fighting for something quite worthy! :)