Right, so last update in mid-Feb Kaiden had been off kelp since the end of January to see what it effect it had on his thyroid.
Off the kelp . . . for about 4 weeks Kaiden was fine. Then he brought home a really super nasty cold virus (which he shared with me . . .) and for the 5th week, I couldn't tell if it was just him being sick, or if it was being off the kelp that wrought a change in him. He was tired, puffy eyes, crabby, unhappy, no focus, "dull" look, eyes half open, an emotional mess and TERRIBLE self injury behavior (SIB). And of course, this was right when we had our news feature . . . prompting lots of people to contact me with helpful info assuming this is what he's like all the time, which he's NOT!!!!! Seriously I cannot stress that enough, what he looked like in the news video is NOT what he's normally like. It was great exposure that I couldn't turn down for the fundraiser, but terrible timing for the world to see what our little boy is capable of.
Onto week 6 . . . the virus was mostly over, but those symptoms didn't go away. I even noticed what I thought was a tiny bit of swelling in his neck. Since I was watching for thyroid issues, I had his thyroid retested sooner rather than later. While we're still waiting for his Reverse T3 to come back, his TSH dropped a bit, and the rest was all normalized into acceptable ranges. And he grew 2" in height, gained a pound, and 1/4" in head circumference.
Wait . . . what?? Take him off the kelp and he grows?? Like a major growth spurt for my tiny child?? Okay, so it was affecting him. But it was also playing a significant role in his cognition. After the retest, I reintroduced the kelp, at half the dosage I was giving him, to see if that would bring him back to his normal sassy sweet self. And in about a day, he was happy, more focused . . . But that half dose didn't last him 8 days (previously getting 1 little scoop every 8 days). By day 6, he was such an unfocused, unhappy, self-injuring emotional wreck (and I mean self injuring to the point he should have been wearing a helmet, he is so bruised up!!) that I gave him another half dose. Seeing some good improvement, I gave him another half dose on day 7 (to put him back to the amount I had been giving him prior to January's test) and within a few hours? Back to calm, happy, focused, self entertaining, reading books. A HUGE, remarkable difference in 24 hours.
During this time, I also tried removing his evening primrose oil to see if that had any effect on the SIB, and it hasn't, so I'll be reintroducing that.
Now . . . the evening of March 16th . . . with the full moon . . . and the fish oil protocol . . . and who knows what else . . . I swear I heard him talk in his sleep again. I haven't heard him talk in his sleep since March of last year. Three times last year I heard "too hot" as I heard him kick off his covers, "sister" (no idea on that one), and "too early" around 5am one morning. This last time, I woke because he whimpered then started coughing. And as I drifted in and out of sleep (his coughing will keep me awake), I heard "I want my Daddy" and then later "I love you Dad". Now, I know my husband didn't get up and go in there . . . since being on the fish oil protocol, Kaiden's started making consonant sounds again and no longer bleating, so hopefully this is also part of the progress with fish oil. And I really hope I didn't just dream it; it was too real, too lucid.
So my question is . . . What's in the kelp that is affecting him? What is keeping his cognition up? What's keeping him from growing? If I could find something to keep him so focused that would also allow him to grow . . . that would be ideal. But I've got to figure out what's doing what. So far, my research has turned up nothing of real use; there's a lot of conflicting information out there regarding kelp and its nutritional content. I suppose this is kind of like the sweet potato situation - I have absolutely NO idea what's in sweet potatoes that triggered his benign myoclonic seizures (infantile spasms) . . . there's just nothing out there in the internet world that I can find to make that connection, but it doesn't stop it being true for Kaiden.
No comments:
Post a Comment