The calm

Gotta love the calm before the storm!  I have all of my Christmas shopping done (not wrapped, that would be TOO good), the tree is up and is beautiful as ever and a lot of organizing around the house has me feeling more content in general.  I am an organizing freak and having two boys who un-organize everything I organize has me whirling in a tizzy most days, lol.  I feel so accomplished when I pull a closet apart and put it back together all nice and tidy....OCD?  Just a touch!

We just finished up rounds 43 and 18 with the boys' oral chelation.  They had an absolutely wonderful weekend with the exception of an overtired evening after getting the tree.  They were just behaving like two typical boys who had too much going on for the day.  Since the start of chelation, so much has changed!!  We have even had a few people mention that they can see the progress.  That is like music to my ears.  I know the nuances in my children and I see the changes, but I don't always expect others to see those things too.  The fact that they do is a testament to our hard work.  It's not easy following diets, cooking to order from scratch, reading every label I encounter, sending child-friendly, healthy lunches to school for a 5 year old who just wants to fit in and then, of course, there is chelation!  Last night was one of the hardest nights we've had in a long time.  In addition to dosing them at 10:30pm, 1am, and 5am, our little guy woke between 3:30 and 4:30 with painful teething, darn molars!  Needless to say, I am a zombie today!  He's pretty tired today too, poor guy.  Then coming down off chelation puts extra strain on him.  In fact, speak of the devil, his nap was just cut short, probably the effects of his DMSA wearing off.....he will have a little rough patch before getting back to his baseline some time tomorrow.  Grayson has gone far enough through chelation to not have the post-chelation issues that come with the early rounds.  As we near round 50, I see the yeast becoming easier to control, the SPD is all but gone, all we see most days are normal boy behaviors!

We went to a drum circle at his school and his initial reaction (probably habit now) is to cover his ears with loud sounds. My husband took him into the other room to talk with him briefly, preparing him for the drum circle, and before I knew it, he was sitting next to me drumming along with a smile on his face!  Less than a year ago, he would have kept his ears covered, screaming and crying until we took him out of the environment.  And I am noticing more shyness than he ever had, age-appropriate shyness!  One of his symptoms had been an over-social side, he would talk to ANYONE and usually too much, lol.  Now, I am pleasantly surprised by the bit of a shy side he is demonstrating.  I was really worried, about a year ago, that if I didn't have him right by my side, he would literally leave me to go with anyone who asked him to.  Not something a parent wants to worry about at crowded events, but luckily, back then the mitochondrial dysfunction caused by heavy metals also encouraged him to sit in a stroller or cart rather than walking by himself. 

We have plans to do another hair test some time in February.  There were big changes between hair tests we had done pre-chelation and a year into it.  Now that we are seeing more good days than bad, I am excited to see how things have changed.  With Gavin, I expect to actually see MORE metals since we are so early in the process.  It will tell us a lot about him though and I am anxious to get the big picture. 

I will have to take some time in the near future to jot down the incredible progress we have experienced.  It's nice when you see it all side by side!  That would be a lot easier than reading my blog from front to back!  An idea for a future post...