Doctor Day

Today I took Nick for a follow-up with the local DAN! doctor. Mom was very, very smart and brought along The Hab Who Nick Loves. Best. Decision. Ever. He kept Nick happy and entertained the entire time, which meant I actually got to have a conversation with the doc! Amazing. I told him that needs to go everywhere with us from now on.

Our new doc isn't as brilliant as the DAN! we were seeing in Phoenix (and paying three times as much for), but I do like that she's less medically-invasive. For instance, the old doctor's solution to Nick's yeast issues was keeping him on a high dose of Diflucan for months and months, but the new doctor is looking for natural ways to balance the flora in his intestinal track so that the yeast won't grow. I also like that she is always looking for ways to save me money on prescriptions and labs. I guess the old doc was making so much money charging three times as much for an appointment that she didn't think to consider that maybe some of her patients couldn't afford to spend $1000 on a lab test.

So, the newest thing we're going to do--we're going to start chelation. Half of you are thinking, wow, that's a dramatic step. And the other half are thinking, um, what is that? Chelators are organic compounds that latch onto metals. Put chelators into your body, they latch onto the heavy metals, and--VOILA!--you pee them out. (That's my super-scientific explanation.) Nick has dangerously high levels of lead, cadmium, and arsenic in his system, according to his blood tests. These, of course, are neurotoxins, so I'm hoping that if we get them out, Nick's cognitive function will increase.

There are several ways to do chelation, the most drastic of which is IV chelation. Yeah, I'm not doing that to my son, for so many, many reasons. Instead, I opted for suppositories. I'll give him these for three days, then on the third I'll collect his urine, which I'll send off to the lab to see which metals his body is purging.

I'm not sure what I dread more--giving him those suppositories, or trying to collect that urine.

I'll leave you all on that lovely note.