We found our man!

I'll be honest..I was not in the mood to see another doctor today. I usually wake up energized and hopeful that "today will be the day we get our answer" for Carson's gut issues. I usually feel anxious and excited to meet and share all of our latest discoveries, but frankly I just wanted to be Mommy today. Carson and I had a fantastic morning. We started our day at the park and he was connecting with me so well. He learned to say "again" and I felt like everything in that moment was right. Why would I want to get a sitter to leave my kids and go "wah wah wah wah" to yet another doctor about our issues that no one seems to have the answers for. "FINE! I'll go, but I don't have to like it."-- I was actually in a great mood today, I just wasn't sure that this doctor would be "it" for us.

When I met Dr. Cavasos, he greeted me warmly and was impressed with my "large medical binder" full of lab results, records and notes I've taken along the way. I said, "Well, that's the good news. The bad news is that I didn't have the energy to fill out the eighth patient intake profile (it was 30 pages), so the binder and my loud mouth will just have to suffice." Needless to say, I appreciated that he was cool with just letting me share our story from day one.

I'll try to spare you from the nitty gritty details but the bottom line is that he agrees that all of Carson's symptoms are due to his GI issues. He believes that Carson was born with "leaky gut" aka "secretory vesicle swelling." His issues started at birth but several doctors have suggested this was an environmental trigger, so I was pleased with his explanation.

There is way too much to cover...in summary:
We are going to have IgG testing conducted to determine which foods are triggering an immune reaction (we have already done IgA and IgE testing and he strongly believes Carson's issues are IgG related and I do as well.) This test will show us how his body reacts to 96 foods. We have done extensive food allergy testing in the past and we know that his immune system is reacting. This is not a true IgE food allergy. I am excited to find out what the test reveals. As most of you know he is only able to eat five foods. It would be thrilling to expand his culinary resume a bit.

He went through the entire comprehensive nutritional evaluation with me and was able to explain every single detail! The other doctors have basically just said, "These are horrible test results and you need to find an expert." So, to have a person sit with me one-on-one for two hours and go through all 52 pages is my hero! I learned so much today. One of the issues I am concerned with is the outrageously high level of ammonia is his bloodstream. Dr. Cavasos explained that Carson is unable to break down protein, causing huge levels of dihydroxyphenylpropionic acid (that was fun to type), ammonia, etc. to invade his blood stream and on top of it, his body is unable to detoxify properly. It is nearly impossible for his stomach to function in these conditions. He said in just about every way imaginable his GI system is shut down. After he handed me a tissue, he asked me to look at his computer screen. He pulled up an identical test of a previous patient. "JJ" has levels that looked just like Carson! I was shocked to see that he had the exact same test available...and that he had treated a patient like my son. He told me that when "JJ" was four years old, he was an Autistic child that was unable to speak and was a "gut kiddo" just like Carson. Then he pulled up a screen shot taken 11 months later...THE LEVELS WERE NORMAL! I saw it with my own eyes. He just looked at me and said, "We can fix this. It is not going to be easy and it will not happen overnight, but we will correct your son's gut dysfunction."

Finally, he addressed the supplements. He agreed that the supplements we were giving him are necessary for Carson because he is hugely deficient in so many areas, but he explained that we are basically throwing the supplements in the trash and irritating a wound by giving them to him with his gut in this state. He said that once we are able to establish balance and proper digestion his body will be able to absorb these supplements as needed. That made perfect sense to me! I loved knowing that taking him off the supplements (for now) is indeed the right decision. We have seen such tremendous progress, I can hardly imagine what he will be like after we get his gut healed up. I believe the lingering Autistic behaviors will disappear with time. I do think we will have to remain on a gluten free diet and make permanent dietary changes, but I can live with that.

Long story long, he gave me a treatment plan to address the acids and toxins in the blood and we will wait and get the IgG tests back to see where we need to make adjustments in his diet. We will see Dr. C again in four weeks. I absolutely know we found our man! I sent an email to a group of prayer warriors today even admitting my hesitations, but also said that I wouldn't limit God and I would give this guy a chance." I am very thankful for this day. I'll keep you posted...

"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."- Matthew 17:20

And all God's people said, "AMEN!"