I hate Decembers

I know it's been a little while since I last posted. It has been horrifically busy over here with my wife and the kids and doctors and hospitals and holidays and work, etc. etc. that I have had no time at all whatsoever to write, blog, read, or do much of anything of personal interest (other than watch the entire Lost series up to the end of Season 5....where the hell have I been and why the hell haven't I watched that series before now?)

So, my little guy started having a new symptom that I'm pretty sure can be attributed to his condition. The weekend after Thanksgiving, he had his very first, full blown Grand Mal seizure. We brought him to the ER, and the completely useless and clueless "Doctor" tried to pass it off as febrile. Really? Then why wasn't he running a fever? Seriously, the idiot doctors that the Medical Schools are crapping out makes me truly worry about the future of Medicine in the US (David Gorski, case in point). Then, the day after Christmas, he has a second seizure, much smaller this time. Ah, the joys of Autism...

Our next step, and one I was extremely reluctant to do, was to take him to a Neurologist. It was only through the pressuring of my wonderful wife, her mother, and my mother combined that I caved in and finally allowed a Neuro to look at my son.

I was well beyond pleasantly surprised.

The Neuro was very adamant about not wanting to give my little man any drugs (huge point in his favor). He was highly interested in my son's diagnosis, how he was diagnosed and whether or not his condition was regressive, i.e. normal development followed by a loss of skills, speech, etc. He watched Nate for a bit, listened to our descriptions of his seizures, and then said he would like to run several tests. He wanted to do an EEG to monitor brain activity (pretty standard from what I've read); he wanted to do some blood tests (also standard). And then he said he wanted to test Nate for heavy metal toxicity. What? A mainstream doctor wanting to see if heavy metals were atributing to a child's autism and seizures? I say again; what? Not only was I pleasantly surprised; I was floored.

Bloodwork was done today, and the EEG will happen over a 48 hour period over this weekend (can you all imagine the fun of trying to keep the leads on the head of an 8 year old who has the mental capacity of an 18 month old). It's nice that for the first time, we have a mainstream doctor who is actually LISTENING! He WANTS to help.

As to my normal stuff, I promise that I will have more stupidity "Insolence" to pick apart soon. Orac is too much of a moron not to. Too bad he's so irritatingly boorish. Also, I have a few legal matters to attend to. Like finally sending off a certain Cease and Desist order (been entirely too busy) and send a certain individual's continued correspondence (after he had been told not to) to a lawyer. Curious...his bleeting has been welcomingly silent these past few weeks. Ah well....take what blessings I can when I can.