I made an appointment with a DAN! Doctor. When we met with the doctor, he treated me like the poor parent who can’t come to terms with her son’s Autism. He did not seem to believe me when I said that I had never seen any “signs” or “red flags” for Autism earlier in Aidan’s life. My Mother (who has a background in early childhood development) was in the appointment with us, and I remember the look on her face when the doctor implied that I was a moron having not realized that my son was on the spectrum until recently. It was comforting to have someone else in the appointment with me who had SEEN my son develop and SEEN that he had developed some odd new behaviors and lost skills that he once had. I knew I wasn’t crazy, but damn! This doctor really had a way of making me feel like a complete idiot.
He ordered several tests- Organic Acids Urine test, Stool samples, CBC, Vit D, Ferritin, Zinc, and a Urinary Porphyrins test. He asked that we come back in one month to review the tests. I really didn’t like him, but I figured he could get us the information and resources we needed to help our son.
One month later, I took Aidan back to review all of the test results. He was deficient in just about everything. BIG SHOCK! Vitamin B12 was non-existent, Vitamin D deficiency, iron deficiency, the list goes on. The stool samples did not show yeast, but I KNEW he had yeast because he had a red ring around his bottom ever since a round of antibiotics. The OATS test did show bacteria and yeast levels out of range. The urinary porphyrins showed potential elevated mercury and lead.
He told me that the Urinary Porphyrins test was normal. No need for concern (even though I KNEW it showed risk for mercury and lead). Again, I thought, “He is the DAN! Doctor, he knows what he is doing. Maybe I misinterpreted the test.” He also told me that because yeast and bacteria did not show up on the stool sample that is was nothing to worry about. WTF!? His solution was to begin giving Aidan 2,000 IU of Vitamin D a day, and change his multivitamin and probiotic to one that he carried in his office. That’s it! I asked about Methyl B12 injections since he was so deficient, he said that once the probiotics kicked in to help heal his gut he would start absorbing B12 better and it shouldn’t be a problem. I said, "Well what if he CAN'T absorb B12?" He didn't feel that would be a problem!
I was so mad! We spent so much money on this doctor and he was not going to offer us any of the things I had read about. I had to fight so hard just to finally get him to prescribe an antifungal. He prescribed one week of Nystatin which did NOTHING! Aidan’s butt was still bright red and he would stay awake laughing at all hours of the night.
I felt helpless, I knew I needed to do something, but at that time, I was still so lost! I hadn’t even heard of Dr. Bock, Julie Mathews, etc. I just knew from the Generation Rescue website that I needed a DAN! Doctor, and this was the only one close enough. At that time Aidan was home with me ALL day, and I never had much time to research. I had ordered books from Amazon that I barely had time to read.
Luckily, my husband started reading Hope for the Autism Spectrum: A Mother and Sons Journey of Insight and Biomedical Intervention by Sally Kirk. He started telling me about several other books that we needed to order so that we could really be informed when meeting with Aidan’s doctors. At this point, my husband knew more then I did about the reasoning behind the typical biomed protocol used for children with ASD.
During this time, I would complain to my son’s Occupational Therapist about how horrible his DAN! Doctor was. Little did I know that just by telling her about my frustrations, she would put me in contact with a new person that would change our son’s life.
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