Dear GM and Lisa,

This summary is pretty long. Let me know if you need anything else.

Here goes.

He was born 6 weeks early weighing 5lbs 2 oz. I was 20 years old when I had him. I had no health problems except that I was under a lot of stress arguing with my husband. The kept him an additional day at the hospital to make sure that he would eat properly to gain weight. He was bottle fed with formula. He would fall asleep while eating and we would tap his foot to keep him awake to keep eating. After a few days he was eating and gained weight. Around the second week of life he began crying a lot, which the doctor said, was colic. We changed formulas about 3-4 times and he stayed on soymilk. The crying didn’t stop. He would sleep for 2-3 hours and then he would be up screaming. It was a high-pitched scream and he would get as stiff as a board. I would pick him up and rock or walk with him on my shoulder. If he was exhausted he would sleep when I layed him back down otherwise the motion of laying him back down would wake him back up. At 2 months he had Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Oral polio vaccines. At 3 and 6 months he had the same. During this time he had upper respiratory infections, which were treated with amoccicillun. I remember that he had really bad diaper rash, which was constantly treated with ointment. When he drank his bottle he would gulp the milk and then he didn’t want to burp. I remember when a burp was trying to come up he would lift his chin to stop it from coming out. He would be crying and eating at the same time. As he got a little older his sitting and crawling was within normal range but seemed a little delayed because of his prematurity and comparing him to a cousin that was a month younger than him. When he started to stand around furniture and walk he was clumsy and did not have spatial awareness. He would run and one time he ran right into the corner of a wall. He had a bruise on his forehead but it didn’t know him out. He always seemed scared and always wanted to be picked up. He was always up and down squirming. He was very startled by sudden noise and would be scared and cry. Also, when he walked he was always on his toes. At 12 months old he had the measles, mumps and rubella shot and I remember him having a very high fever of 104 –105 and broke out with baby measles (rosiolla). At age 2 he began to say some words but his vocabulary never built. He would say some words and then you would never hear them again. He was not potty trained until 5 years old. At age 3 he was tested at San Diego Children’s Hospital in California, USA. They said he was not retarded but had a development delay. He was enrolled in nursery school at that time. He would not play with children but would watch and play along side of them. Even at that time he would try to mimic behavior. He used to space out. He would stare for 3-5 second intervals and when we’d call his name he wouldn’t respond. He used to like to run away from me in the store, I would have to watch him constantly. You would talk to him trying to teach him things and he was always so confused. When he entered kindergarten at age 5 he would literally fall out of a stationary seat. He was in special classes. Some days were good and he could learn new things and the following day he would completely forget them. The teachers couldn’t believe it. During these years he continued to have respiratory infections, strept throat, ear infections and was treated with antibiotics. He had development testing at age 5 . The following was reported: Normal hearing, 2-21/2 year delay in expressive and receptive skills, problem with motor skills, couldn’t catch a ball or hop on either foot. Language consisted of garbled speech with 2-3 word phrases. During testing he did not want to be separated from me, he was highly distractible, difficulty attending to task and needed constant cueing. At age 8 he was tested again still remaining at the 2 – ½ - 3 year level for motor planning, 5-6 for receptive and 4 yrs for expressive levels.
From age 8-9 he started to become very allergic and tired with deep circles under his eyes. He had an asthma attack at age 9 and I started vitamin therapy because I felt that his health was being complicated by the large use of antibiotics. At age 13 he was being treated for candidiasis which we thought could have been a result of the antibiotics. At this age something very strange happened with his walking. His legs and feet became very stiff and he would slap his feet as he walked. Examination showed nothing. Over the years he would have some “normal” days where he could do and say things that was beyond his regular behavior. I thing is what always kept me searching for an answer. At age 15 he began treatment from a homeopath. The first remedy he gave him was nux vomica. For 4 days I thought a miracle had happened. He was happy and cheerful with all the appropriate communication. That stopped and we never achieved that result from any remedy again. He loved sports especially watching basketball, baseball and football. He could give you every score and what every play did when the teams played. He would buy the shirts and hats of his favorite teams and proudly wear them. He used to like to play basketball in the yard or at school. He also was always concerned with what day it was. When a new month started he would make sure that every calendar was changed. He always wanted to please. He would always try something new to eat because it thought it pleased us. You asked about his nails. He had white spots on them before he started vitamin therapy. He has acne all over his back and pus filled pimples around his nose. He has poor visual tracking. He says he’s looking at something and it looks like he’s looking elsewhere. He has a very high tolerance for pain. One time he cut his finger on a basketball hoop, didn’t tell his grandmother and waited 3 hours until I got home to take him to the hospital which required 28 stitches. He used to love popcorn and mountain dew soda. He was always receptive to diets and treatments in the hopes of getting better. It hurt him to see his cousin drive a car and have girlfriends. He would ask when would he be able to do this. If he felt good and performed better he would ask why he can’t feel like that all the time. He was evaluated by a neuropsychiatrist at age 15 the findings were as follows. He had difficulty making eye contact (he could never close one eye to look through a camera lense), he would constantly look away and speak in a quiet passive manner. He holds back because he is afraid of criticism. He showed a great deal of attentional fluctuation. He loses focus quickly. He would stutter more during moments of stress. Testing showed 7-8 year delay in development. He finished high school at age 21. He received one on one teaching throughout. He had a job coach and worked at the local casino from age 22 – 25. During this time he was very tired and drawn along with his regular disabilities. The homeopath was treating him with aethusa, luet, baryta c, calcarea sulphurica, hellebores. All of these showed some improvement at he was being treated. From November 1998 – April 1999 he started receiving cranio sacral treatment. During this time changes started. After a treatment he would become very quiet for a couple of days and then he would bounce back. He said that his arms were working better at that time. He was receiving these treatments once a week. He also was not happy with the department he was working in at that time. Also, he would meet girls at lunch break and when he could not communicate with them they would realize his handicap. All of this was going on at the time of his breakdown. When he finally broke down in April 1999 he started to lose weight because he was not eating at work. He started throwing away all of the things he used to like. He didn’t eat anything he used to like. He wouldn’t wear any shirts with writing on them. He did not want to watch any sports at all. He would constantly talk about the people he did not like on the job. He would talk about the girls he met on the job and would fabricate having a relationship with them to the point of getting married. He would say that he was going to a college, because his brother was going to college at that time. He was in another world. He wouldn’t sleep. He would wake up in the middle of the night talking and yelling. He started this very aggressive behavior. He wouldn’t listen to anyone. His brother had to tackle him on the lawn to keep him from running down the road because “he was moving out to be on his own” The homeopath tried opium, hyoscymus , sulfur, with no results. We then went to a psychiatrist who diagnosed him with depression, put him on drugs and he worsened to the point that he would lay in bed all day, wet/mess his pants, couldn’t shower himself or dress himself. He was a vegetable. He was placed in a psychiatric hospital for 2 weeks and they gave him even more drugs. The performed an EEG, MRI and Cat scan which were normal. I took him off all meds in December 1999 and he slowly started getting his functionality back, although he is still in deep thought, will laugh at whatever his thoughts are, doesn’t sleep well, eats very slowly, not very talkative. The psychiatrist now thinks it’s medical but has no idea where to go. I am trying neurofeedback, which uses a computer program to pattern the brain waves. He is receptive to this. We should know in 10 – 15 treatments if it is helping.
I feel that he knows everything that is going on but his lack of communication is really starting to bother him. He tried so hard for all these years with no results and probably figures there is no answer and why bother. He’s watching me while I type this and knows it’s about him.
My feeling is that the disability is getting him down and he figures what’s the use in trying. I think his thoughts are consumed with things of the past whether they are good or bad and this is the mood that he ends up in. If the cause of the neurological symptoms cannot be found, how can this ever improve. Maybe this is why the homeopathy is not working. I think there is an underlying problem but cannot find a place that is willing to search.

I’m not sure how much you can conclude from all of this. It's hard to express because most of it is how I perceive what is going on with him. I really appreciate your trying to help. I feel that the more I try to reach out that perhaps there is an answer somewhere.

Thank you