Tuesday, December 30, 2008

My Personal New years resolutions

This year I don't have a whole lot of personal resolutions...I've never really been the long list resolution type,mainly because I don't like false promises. I know I won't exersise more, or eat better, or yell at my kids less lol. But I do like to take the time to review what's wrong or right in my life and make a change, and the new year is always a fresh place to start.

For 2009 my biggest resolution is for my family and I to go back to church regularly. We are a strong Christian family who has let life's busyness and work get in the way of our worship...in 2008 we have realized we are becoming lukewarm Christians, and see the tole that is placing on our lives. Rob works days, and I work 3-11's and there is no way around that, which has put a hamper on when we can attend church. After I started work we began to only attend on the occasion Rob was off on Sunday mornings, then it became so I needed that time to catch up on all the sleep I miss during the week. Our church has been talking about starting Saturday Evening services for over a year now, which we kept saying, ok as soon as they start Sat. services we'll go regularly again, but we have decided we can't wait any longer. It took some searching but there is a large church a little over a 1/2 hour from our home that has a Sat. evening service. I have set my schedule for the start of 2009 to make sure I do not work on Saturdays. So that is my big resolution to attend church again, and get our life and family back on track w/ God.

The only other resolution we have is to pay off some debt. We are almost done paying off our van, we should be able to make a payoff w/ our tax return, and we are planning to use our payment $ to pay off some of these stupid little credit cards we've wracked up so we can get back on track w/ our finances also...

So there's my new years resolutions..anyone else making new years resolutions?

My blogging new years resolutions

So I mentioned that for the new years I wanted to have a few more daily themes that repeated themselves everyweek. For 2008 we had Menu Plan Monday, which I love so much I wanted to add a few more..so here they are!!!!!

Monday I will continue with Menu Plan Monday hosted by I'm an organizing junky. This is where I share what my family will be eating for the week, and I will share a recipe from time to time.

Tuesday will be Tackle it tuesday hosted by 5minutes for mom! This is where I will share a before and after pic of a project around the house I will tackle on tuesdays!

Wednesdays I will give you a window to my world! This is where I will share some random pic I took that will give you a glimps into my life

Thursdays will just be for random blogging, nothing special...thought it'd be too much to do something every day

Fridays will be... Food Review Fridays...this is where I review a GF/CF product we tried that week.

Tackle it tuesday

Tackle It Tuesday Meme

With the new year my plan for my blogging is to have more events that repeat every week...like menu plan monday...so I've been coming up w/ ideas for the past weeks, when this morning I ran into this one! Tackle it tuesday, I LOVE this idea!!! I hadn't come up w/ an idea for Tuesdays yet...I probably won't start this until next week, as today I need to tackle the entire house which has been sadly neglected since Christmas!

I'm throwing myself a pitty party

So it wasn't the WORST birthday in the world...no that would be the one where my parents took me to Chicago and my mom, aunt and aunts sister in law took me to this great dinner in the city. When we got back to my aunts house, my aunt discovered my uncle, his brother, and my step father, had dinged up her car while we were gone (dumb asses trying to drink and drive!) In which a huge fight errupted ending w/ me hiding in the bathroom, and my step father staying in a hotel. Yeah good times, it wasn't long after that, that I stoppped celebrating birthdays, that's how holidays, vacations, and birthday's were in my family...the pressure for that PERFECT day was too much and it always ended up in a fight. When I met Rob he was determined to change that for me, he wanted me to celebrate birthdays again...it took me a while to let my gaurd down, but I've finally started to enjoy my birthdays again, my special day, the day where it's all about me.

But today I felt like nothing was about me...my husband didn't get me a card, a $10 present, nothing. Seriously I haven't had a new pair of scrubs in over a year, you know how much it would have meant to me to get a new scrub top, or new pair of PJ's my family knows how much I love my PJ's, I haven't gotten a new pair of those in a year either...the only thing I asked the kids for was for once to be able to come home from work to a clean house...but NOPE... I got nothing. One of my co-workers offered to work for me today, but I declined, it was a very sweet offer, she thought I'd want to stay home and spend my birthday w/ my family, and usually I would, but it was obvious it was just another day to them, and it would hurt less if I was at work while they went about their day. Then after work I went to the store, got the food for the week. While I was in line I texted Tierra and asked her in she could help me bring in the grosheries, she said she would. I get home 10/15 minutes later, and find her asleep, SERIOUSLY you couldn't stay awake to help your mom bring in the damn food!!!!! WTF!!!!! Ugh I'm hurt, So I have popped open my new years eve coctail, and am sipping my sorrows away on some mailibu and pineapple juice...celebrating my birthday alone.

Monday, December 29, 2008

My first Blog Award

Your Top Health Blogger Award

Congratulations! Based on our review of your blog, Wellsphere has awarded you the Top Health Blogger status to recognize your contribution to helping people live healthier lives. We have prepared a personalized Top Health Blogger badge for you, which you can post to the sidebar of your blog. This badge highlights you as a top blogger within the Parenting community, and helps us distinguish you and elevate your postings on Wellsphere

We had ourselves a Merry Little Christmas!!!






Christmas has come and gone once again, and I must say it was a WONDERFUL Christmas, Isaiah was very good this year. Christmas Eve, I made a small Christmas dinner, a ham, some sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole. Christmas morning we opened gift, I got an AWESOME gift a new digital camera, I got Rob an accostic guitar. Tierra's favorite gift was her new cell phone, she was crying when she saw it, I have the cutest video of her opening it, but she won't let me post it lol. Isaiah's favorite gift was Mario Karts for his nintendo DS, Xander's was incredible hulk hands, which Isaiah now wishes he'd asked for lol. We also got the kids a wii, which we ALL love! After that we went by my moms house, and spent a little time there, at lunch exchanged gifts and came home and took a nap! Rob and I LOVE sharing a nap on Christmas day, thats our real gifts lol. Rob's family didn't have their family Christmas party until the 28...I was luckey enough to get called off of work (I was oncall but they never called me in) so I got to hang out the whole time, then we went by my nephews house w/ several of my brother and sister in laws and hung out longer...it was a really nice time!

Menu Plan Monday


This week, I'm going to be doing more slow cooker recipes than usual. I love love my slow cooker, I don't know why I don't make more meals in it, maybe it's my lack of numerous recipes, at any rate... I've got the urge for crock pot meals this week, so I'll be making my, as always everything is GF/CF and w/ as little soy as possible

Monday-Slow cooker BBQ ribs and baked beans, (I made these last week for the first time and they were a HUGE hit, and are back by popular demand this week)
Tuesday-Chili and corn bread
Wed-Pizza, and finger foods as we ring in the new year
Thur-Sweet and sour chicken
Fri-Home made chicken noodle soup in the slow cooker
I haven't picked out a recipe, I should probably use one since it's my first time ever making it homemade!

GF/CF/SF Corn Bread Recipe

I've searched for a while, for something simple w/out a 1000 ingredients. A friend lent me this recipe, I'm hoping it'll turn out good, it's just not chili night in our house w/out cornbread! I'll let you know!

BASIC CORNBREAD RECIPE

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup wfgf all purpose flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk substitute
1/4 cup oil
Mix all ingredients together well.Bake at 350 in greased pan until done approx 20 min

Monday, December 22, 2008

Menu Plan Monday




Mon - Hawaiian Chicken
Tue - BBQ crock pot spare ribs
Wed - Ham, sweet potatoes and green bean casserole
Thur - eating at moms
Fri - pizza

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Finding Isaiah's missing Pieces

I have to say I get quite excited whenever I find anything medically that pertains to Isaiah, it's like someone took a puzzle and shook it up and dropped the pieces all over the place and I am looking all over for them trying to put him back together. Every piece of imformation I find feels like another puzzle piece getting me that much closer to having my son back.

The first 5 years of Isaiah's life he was mildly autistic, for the most part we had our son, with glimpses of autism. We often forgot he was autistic, his biggest problem was that he couldn't communicate, (he talked but you couldn't hold a conversation with him) he was a little more hyper and had more meltdowns than the average 5 year old, but it wasn't horrible. Then in Kindergarten everything changed...if I knew then what I know now I would have NEVER have gotten his kindergarten shots! But I trusted my Dr. who has an article hanging in every room that vaccines do not cause autism. After that I lost my son, we rarely see the little boy we saw before. Before we had Isaiah w/ glimpses of autism, now we have autism w/ glimpses of Isaiah...it's like he's trapped in there.

That is when I began searching to find him again...so every little piece of the puzzle I feel like gets me that much closer to finding my son, and maybe getting him back. When we first moved to our house 2 years ago our neighbors would say wow I'd never guess he's autistic...it was only when you'd try to have a conversation with him...now they won't let their kids play with him because he's too "bad"...it's been a heartbreaking 2 years losing him like this.

Since we've started biomed I've started to see my son more often, God how I've missed him! I don't know how far we'll be able to recover our son. Every time I find a new piece to his puzzle its like a high...and it feels so good to finally have hope again!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Cod Liver Oil Study

This is the newest med we are doing w/ Isaiah, his Dr. put him on Cod Liver Oil...as I did my part to make sure I am as educated as possible on Isaiah's treatments I found one medical paper by Dr Mary Megson in which she discusses in a scientific way her work around cod liver oil supplementation, principally in relation to Autism, it had so much information that pertained to me and Isaiah. This was a very interesting paper...I got lots of great information out of it, so I thought I'd share, and as I read it jotted down my thoughts and feelings along the way...

In the very first paragraph it discusses the link between autism and the pertussis vaccine, which I find ironic running across this in the wake of the DOD announcement that DTaP causes autism.

Just in the beginning she talks about one or more parents of these children suffering night blindness, that pertains in our case (me), she also mentions the thyroid...which Isaiah has a rare genetic condition, that my grandfather shares, (it's x linked recessive so I am a carrier and all my sons have it) where on paper he appears to have hyperthyroidism, although he does not. I just feel like we're finding more and more pieces to Isaiah's puzzle here!

I can't copy and past from the paper because of the form it's downloaded in, but I have a link below,

She talks about disorders of the eye, which when Isaiah was diagnosed with his eye muscles are weak and his eyes don't come together properly(which for the life of me I can't remember the name of right now, the eye Dr. said it was common in autistic children)...also the other thing that grabbed my attention was families with Colon Cancer, which we do have a family history of on my mothers side.

I highly recommend you taking a few minutes and reading this medical paper


http://www.scribd.com/doc/2574676/Cod-Liver-Oil-suplementation-for-autism-and-psychological-disorders

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Back and busy!!!!

Tierra and I are back from Florida...man when you're gone from home for a week, I think it takes 2 weeks to catch back up!!! Tierra and I had a GREAT time in Florida! We went to all the parks at least twice, we walked around so much my feet STILL hurt lol. Her team didn't place in the top 5 which sucks, they honestly didn't do very well, maybe it was nerves or something I don't know but they did 100 times better at their last competition. Tierra did good, she nailed her parts, but the team as a whole...not so great. Oh well, we had a great time anyway! It was nice having some time for just me and my baby girl, we don't get that enough!

Isaiah is doing well, we are still seeing his DAN! Dr. and seeing great progress. His stimming is starting to lessen which is a wonderful thing for us, because with the stimming comes the hyper behaviors. He also has his first little girlfriend...it's pretty cute. Her name is Summer, he sits by her at school and they talk on the phone, she asked him if he wanted to be boyfriend/girlfriend and he said sure lol. I'm sure he has no idea that WHAT is meant by being someone's boyfriend, in his mind a girlfriend is a friend who is a girl. Poor kid is so literal he just doesn't get concepts like that.

Santa came to Xanders class the other day, I have a pic of him w/ Santa, and he's not smiling I asked him if he was scared of Santa, he said no I was just nervous lol!!! I just LOVE hearing this kid talk!

I can't believe Christmas is sooooo close!!!! I've barely started Christmas shopping! Tierra and Isaiah both want a nintendo ds game for Christmas that is sold out in all the stores, so I've bought those online, and they promise me I'll have them before Christmas, other than that, I haven't bought anything! They aren't asking for much this year, which is NICE! Tierra wants games for her nintendo, Isaiah wants guns and one game, and Xander wants EVERY toy on tv lol. So being that no one is being real specific this year I guess I'm safe to do late minute shopping. I'm off work Sat...so hopefully I can go get it all done.

Well that's about it for us right now :)

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Side effects of DTaP...AUTSIM

Well, it explains why Isaiah went from Mildly autistic to moderatly autistic after he got his kindergarten shots :(




Adverse Events Frequency Links to Clinical Management Information
Local Reaction Up to 1 of 4 children.
This problem occurs more often after the 4th and 5th doses of the DTaP series than after earlier doses.
LR2: Local Redness or Swelling < 30 mm
LR3: Local Redness or Swelling 30 to 50 mm

Fever Up to 1 of 4 children.
This problem occurs more often after the 4th and 5th doses of the DTaP series than after earlier doses.
SE2a: Mild "Viral"-Like Symptoms
SE3: Severe and/or Prolonged Nonspecific Symptoms

Fussiness/Irritibility Up to 1 of 3 children.

This problem generally occurs 1-3 days after the shot.
SE-xxx: Other Systemic Events

Drowsiness Up to 1 of 10 children.

This problem generally occurs 1-3 days after the shot.
SE-xxx: Other Systemic Events

Anorexia Up to 1 of 10 children.

This problem generally occurs 1-3 days after the shot.
SE2a: Mild "Viral"-Like Symptoms

Vomiting Up to 1 of 50 children.

This problem generally occurs 1-3 days after the shot.
SE5: Nausea and/or Vomiting
SE18: Gastrointestinal Illness

Seizure About 1 of 14,000 children. SE13: Neurological Disease, Severe

Inconsolable Crying, 3 hours or more Up to 1 of 1,000 children. SE-xxx: Other Systemic Events

High Fever, Over 105°F Up to 1 of 16,000 children. SE3: Severe and/or Prolonged Nonspecific Symptoms

Large Local Reaction Up to 1 of 30 children.

Sometimes the 4th or 5th dose of DTaP vaccine is followed by swelling of the entire arm or leg in which the shot was given.
LR4: Local Redness or Swelling 50 to 120 mm, but not extending below elbow
LR5: Local Redness or Swelling > 120 mm without complications

Anaphylaxis Less than 1 out of a million doses. SE11: Anaphylaxis, Generalized Allergic Reaction

Long-Term Neurologic Reaction, Including Seizures, Coma, or Decreased Level of Consciousness Rare. This is so rare that it is hard to tell whether it is caused by the vaccine. SE13: Neurological Disease, Severe

Permanent Brain Damage Rare. This is so rare that it is hard to tell whether it is caused by the vaccine. SE13: Neurological Disease, Severe

Nodule LR1: Subcutaneous Nodules

Arthus-Type Reaction LR6: Local Redness or Swelling > 120 mm or extending below elbow

Brachial Neuritis LR7: Numbness, Burning, or Tingling At or Distal to Injection Site
SE14: Focal Neurological Disease

Peripheral Neuropathy LR7: Numbness, Burning, or Tingling At or Distal to Injection Site
SE14: Focal Neurological Disease

Hypersensitivity SE9: Generalized Skin Reaction (pruritic or non-pruritic), not suggestive of anaphylaxis

Autism SE13: Neurological Disease, Severe


Demyelinating Diseases SE13: Neurological Disease, Severe

Encephalopathy SE13: Neurological Disease, Severe

Guillain-Barré Syndrome SE13: Neurological Disease, Severe

Hypotonia SE13: Neurological Disease, Severe

Hypotonic/Hyporesponsive Episode SE13: Neurological Disease, Severe

Cranial Mononeuropathy SE14: Focal Neurological Disease

Respiratory Tract Infection SE17: Respiratory Illness

Diarrhea SE18: Gastrointestinal Illness






http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/12/dtap-side-effec.html

Monday, December 8, 2008

Leaving for Florida

In a few short hours my daughter and I will be on a plane headed for Florida. Her cheerleading team has once again made it to the National Cheerleading Competition in Orlando Florida!!!!! I'm so excited for the girls, they have worked so hard to get here. So there will be no posts from me this week, no Menu Plan, as I'm sure my children will be eating hot dogs and spegetti all week long lol, well they might have sloppy joes and tacos too! Those are the 4 things my honey makes lol. See ya when I get back, hopefully w/ the news that we made it to the nations top 5!!!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Autism Parents: Tom Daschle wants your story

Daschle asks Americans for health care stories


Email this Story

Dec 6, 5:16 AM (ET)

By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama and his aides are determined not to repeat the mistakes the Clinton administration made 15 years ago in trying to revamp the nation's health care system. Some of the lessons learned: Move fast, seize the momentum and don't let it go.

Tom Daschle, Obama's point man on health reform, discussed the early strategy for revamping the nation's $2 trillion health care system. Details of Obama's proposals won't be finalized for a while, but the political and public relations strategy is coming into place.

The strategy begins with giving people the chance to highlight their concerns and experiences. Daschle invited people around the nation to hold what amounts to house parties from Dec. 15-31. Obama's transition team will gather the information that's provided from those meetings and post the material on its Web site, .http://change.gov

By asking anybody and everybody to share their health care experiences, Daschle is confronting one of the major criticisms of 15 years ago: that the effort to craft former President Bill Clinton's plan for universal coverage was too secretive.


"We have to make this as inclusive a process as possible," Daschle, the former Senate majority leader from South Dakota, said in a speech in Denver, his first since Democratic officials confirmed last month that he had been offered the job as health and human services secretary and that he had accepted.

The effort will expand the circle of people who believe they have a stake in next year's debate, analysts said.

"Last time, we're talking 15 years ago, in part because the process was done behind closed doors, it was hard to see what the impact would be on people," said John Rother, public policy director for the advocacy group AARP. "It was about systems, it was about budgets, it was about insurance companies. It didn't translate to people very easily."

"They are clearly trying to do it differently and help the American public see the case for reform in human terms," he said.

Daschle maintains the efforts to bring about universal health coverage in the first two years of the Clinton presidency took too long. In a book published earlier this year, he urged the next president to act immediately to capitalize on the goodwill that greets any incoming administration. His speech and recent behind-the-scenes meetings with lawmakers and consumer groups address that point.

"We need to be on the offense," Daschle said.

He cited other lessons, too. This time around, lawmakers can't try to address every detail when it comes to legislation.

"Details kill," Daschle said. "If we get too far into the weeds, if we produce a 1,500- or 1,600-page bill, we're going to get hung up on all the details and we're never going to get to the principles."

Once Congress does take up a health plan, it also can't divert attention to other subjects, he said.

"Let's not put it down, let it lie there for months and months and figure out a time when we can get back to it later," Daschle said at a Colorado Health Care Summit organized by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.

Nevertheless, any health care overhaul will have an enormous price tag. During the campaign, Obama said he planned to pay for expanding health coverage in part by increasing taxes on the wealthy and requiring larger businesses to provide health coverage or contribute a portion of their payroll to a new public insurance plan. The current recession provides a significant obstacle to both options.

Daschle did not provide any details about how the incoming administration would pay for expanding coverage. Instead, he made the case that not dealing with health care would make the country's economic problems worse because companies like General Motors spend more on health care than steel and Starbucks spent more on health care than on coffee.

"Health care is going to destroy many of our manufacturing industries unless we fix the system," he said.

While Daschle did not go into any details about what shape Obama's health plan will take, he did promise that health care remains a top priority.

He outlined an array of problems with the current system familiar with many of its participants: high costs, lack of access and mediocre quality. He said the myth has long been that the U.S. had the best health care system in the world, but statistics and an increase in medical tourism show that's not the case.

Many of the interest groups integral to revamping the health care system have acknowledged that the status quo can't continue. But details will determine whether an agreement amenable to all sides is possible.

Health insurers put out their own plan earlier this week that mirrored some of Obama's proposals, like expanding government programs such as Medicaid to help out the poor. But the insurers' plan also differed with Obama's on two key points. They want to require that people buy health insurance, while Obama only supported a coverage mandate for children. They also oppose requiring companies to provide insurance or pay into a pool, referred to as the "play or pay" mandate.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

BREAKING NEWS: DTaP causes autism

I listed the article below for everyone to read, but I have to share my feelings...I am in tears reading this. I had sluffed of the idea of vaccines causing Isaiah's autism because we know Isaiah has had autism since he was an infant...we don't know why we don't know how but we know he has it...some parents their children were fine then they got the MMR shot and bam they were gone, that wasn't the case w/ Isaiah, we've never had him...since he was a baby he's shown signs of autism. But now to know that a shot he recieved as a very young baby, is known to cause autism is breaking my heart. To think he could have been, should have been, normal, how different our lives could be...should be, I don't know if I should be pissed, sad, or happy, I'm a mixture of emotions right now. Anyway here's the article:

When it comes to fighting autism, maybe we should send in the Army.

Autism and the military have a deep history together. Children of service members are reportedly almost twice as likely to have autism (1-in-88) than those in the general population (1-in-150). Meanwhile, the Department of Defense quietly spends millions in taxpayer dollars researching the possible causes of autism at far-from-the-spotlight centers around the country.

Recently, several documents have been brought to my attention which, when viewed together, suggest that the Department of Defense has legitimate concerns about vaccine injuries and their possible connection to autism, perhaps more so than other branches of the Federal Government.

These documents raise several questions that I am currently trying to get answered from DOD officials:

1) Autism may be an "adverse event" of Tripedia (DTaP) use

According to the website of the Vaccine Healthcare Centers Network, run by DOD and CDC, autism is listed as an "adverse event" associated with use of the Tripedia triple vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis.

My questions are: Why does autism appear here? Does VHC consider autism to be a possible adverse event of DTaP use, or has it simply been reported that way by parents?

2) Patients who have bad vaccine reactions should avoid multiple vaccines in the future

According to this VHC slide, any patient who has a "Systemic Event" following immunization - defined as "symptoms and signs of illness after vaccination" and "any reaction that does not involve the injection site" - should avoid multiple vaccines in the future, if possible.

My questions are: Is that standard DOD policy? Is there an alternative schedule for these patients? Does this advice apply to children of service members as well? Why is this information not shared with civilian doctors and pediatricians?

3) Patients who develop serious neurological diseases might need vaccine exemptions in the future

This VHC slide says that a patient who develops a severe neurologic disease following vaccination might need temporary or permanent exemption from future vaccines. Such diseases include peripheral neuropathy, encephalopathy (including autism, presumably) Guillain-Barré syndrome and progressive focal neurologic disease. Such patients should be given temporary exemptions from future vaccinations.

Meanwhile, risks for recurrent reactions should be assessed before additional doses are given, and "permanent vaccine exemption may be required."

Again, is this DOD policy? Are such exemptions given? Because autism is listed as a "severe neurological disease," would those patients (ie, children of service members) also be exempt from future vaccinations? And, on a related note, does VHC consider autism to be a "neurological disease," as opposed to a developmental/behavioral disorder?

4) Mercury, and possibly thimerosal may cause autism and dementia

According this slide (#22) on the vaccine preservative thimerosal, from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), "exposure to mercury in utero and children may cause mild to severe mental retardation and mild to severe motor coordination impairment." The slide also seems to indicate that autism and dementia might questionably be "health effects" of mercury or thimerosal exposure.

My question is: Why does autism appear on a list of health effects on a slide about thimerosal, even if it is followed by a question mark?

5) Alternative biomedical treatments may be prescribed for thimerosal exposure

The same slide says that "treatments" for thimerosal exposure include: "Methyl-B12, ointment DMPS, & glutathione (GSH)." These are all alternative (some would say fringe, radical and dangerous) treatments being used today by thousands of autism parents and their children's physicians, with varying degrees of success (including reports of full recovery).

Methyl-B12 - has been shown to repair damage to the process of methylation, and to restore methionine and glutathione levels in patients with autism to within normal ranges.

DMPS - is a sulfur-based amino acid used in the process of chelation - in which sulfur molecules bind with heavy metals such as mercury, and eliminate them from the system.

Glutathione - is a sulfur-based protein that binds with heavy metals and eliminates them from the system. It is also a powerful anti-oxidant. Many children with autism show signs of glutathione depletion, heavy metal accumulation and oxidative stress.

My questions are: Was the speaker simply refering to treatments that some people have tried, or is the AFID endorsing these treatments for thimerosal toxicity and/or autism? On what evidence is this based? Are Methyl B-12 and GSH, like chelation, cosidered standard of care in the military for mercury toxicity? Can you explain why autism families in the military have these treatments covered, (at thousands of dollars a year), even if they also have an autism diagnosis? Is this why military insurance will pay for visits to doctors in the Defeat Autism Now network, which advocates the use of these non-traditional treatments?

I eagerly await the replies from VHC and AFID officials, and will update this blog as soon as I hear anything.

Meanwhile, regardless of the Pentagon's positions on the above questions, we know for certain that DOD is concerned about the risk of injury from multiple vaccines.

In fact, it may even need to reconsider the practice.

"We have preliminary findings from one of our many on-going research studies that suggest a relationship between adverse events and multiple vaccinations exist," US Army Colonel Renata J. M. Engler, MD, director of the VHC, (a "collaborative network" of the Defense Department and the CDC), wrote to Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). "These findings will require validation, but heighten our concern for the current clinical practice of multiple vaccinations."

"The more drugs one is exposed to, the greater the likelihood of having an adverse event so as vaccine numbers increase, and (sic) we will see more people who have efficacy or safety issues," Col. Engler said. "The standard of care (ie, in the context of mixing vaccines) is to minimize drug exposures because of the recognition that the more drugs being used, the greater the chance of a reaction and potentially a serious adverse event."

I wonder when the CDC and America's pediatricians will issue an equally thoughtful and cautionary statement, instead of their usual reassurance that small children can easily get 100,000 shots at once, without a single "serious adverse event" among them.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Menu Plan Monday


Monday-Sloppy Joes
Tue-Meat loaf and mixed veggies
Wed-Pizza...I just found some GF/CF pizza crust that I'm going to try this night
Thur-sweat and sour chicken
Fri-homemade crock pot chili