Monday, November 9, 2015

Where we are in late 2015

In June of 2015 I took John to Poland for a week of MNRI and 4 days of fun in Greece. It was awesome. He really benefited from the MNRI partly because the Polish Specialists have been doing it so long and are really exceptional but also because he was abroad and has been very interested in world events in Europe and the middle east. He reads about and is interested in world politics, so it was a natural extension of his interests. I think he also felt a little less like "poor me, I have had such a crappy childhood with autism" and more like "hey, I'm finally doing something in my life like other young people." Some of his friends have been abroad and he can now talk about his experiences, too.

Not long after he came back from Europe, he started buying and reading books on middle east and that part of the world. He started with Jimmy Carter's book on Palestine which he got for about $4. When he finished that, he ordered the new book on Saudia Arabia that is on the best sellers list. Now he is reading a book on Afghanistan. This is certainly progress by any measure.

I had taken my daughter to Poland for the 2 week MNRI camp the year before (2014) and found that it is inexpensive enough that, even with airfare, it costs about the same as getting treatment in the U.S. And, if the child is a young adult who would like to travel, all the more reason.

During Svetlana's Assessment of my daughter, she really enlightened us about her seizures. She recognized that she is struggling to process information and said that she "needs lots of sleep to function well." She also connected her eye-rolling tic to her seizures which are especially manifest in her ocular nerves in her left eye. She warned against TV and computer screens and the flickering lights, even seen with driving.

Sure enough, after 1 day of MNRI, her eye rolling went away. Unfortunately, after my daughter began watching computer screens again, it came back. I learned on that trip that she has a addiction to computer/TV/iPhone screens. (She is not alone; I think it is rampant in our society.)

John also needed his computer/TV time restricted. Svetlana pointed out that he was not benefiting from treatment as well as he should because he needed to use his reflexes to  allow them to develop more; hard to do when one is immobilized (physically and mentally) in front of a screen.

As part of John's Home Program, we do the active Archetypes every day (10 minutes) and I work on his hands and feet reflexes for another half hour. He is looking for a job and his life continues move forward. He still hopes to attend college and I think he will.

A big part of our challenge is also paying attention to food. I believe that gmo foods, food additives, and Round Up and other chemicals in our foods are damaging our stomachs and causing all kinds of havoc in our brains, from autism to bipolar disorder. It is hard for kids to stay away from that stuff when it is ubiquitous.