Patience is a virtue

I must start this post by saying as a mother of a boy with autism, you must have patience...with everything. Patience with your child, patience with treatment and mostly patience with God.





Today was my first phone consult with Jordan's doctor, she just recently had a baby girl. Congrats Dr. K. A few days prior to this I received a call from the doctors office, Jordan's latest lab results had come in. So I scheduled the appointment and had the results mailed to me. When they came in I saw that the lead levels were still the same, but upon further notice I had two copies of the same results which were from June. The office emailed me the newest results, but the levels were still the same, actually elevated about 2μg/g.  μg/g reports how many micro-grams of lead per 100 grams of whole blood. The level for children was set at  5μg/g per blood this year which is down from 10μg/g in previous years. Jordan is at a whopping 25 this go round. I thought I was making progress with removing lead because Jordan has been doing great these past few months.

Example, Jordan can answer yes or no questions but seems it's when he wants to. I asked him if he wanted his leftover rice and he replied to me no and when I asked him if he needed to use the bathroom he answered with yes. He has been really trying hard to communicate with words, like if he needs help with the computer he says I need help please. When YouTube was disabled from his iPad recently, he brought it to me and when I went to the app store to find it and re download it, he had already typed it in to try and find it himself. Actually he typed in YouTobe, but I was very proud of his effort. He's not just coming to me when he wants to eat or help with something, he has actually asked his dad instead of waiting for me to come home from church for food and has called out to his sister Tionne to help him come out of his room one night, he still a little afraid of the dark :) He is doing very well considering his levels just won't get into that within reference range.

I really believe that Jordan is still coming into contact with some form of lead somewhere. After receiving the results I did a little more research and found that lead salts used in ceramic glazes have on occasion caused poisoning. He has used ceramic bowls and plates and I have now stopping using them. Also his stainless steel thermos has paint on the outside of it. And while he has to touch it to drink and he keeps his fingers in his mouth, I don't really know how much, if any, lead gets into his system from that. I have found online a lead testing kit that tests lead on any surface and plan on testing any and everything that I think may be a problem and probably things I don't think could be a problem either. I bought a similar kit from Home Depot last week. It only contained two testers and only did certain surfaces, but as long as I spent in the store trying to find it I wasn't leaving the store without something. I tested the paint that is rubbing off our computer table from the mouse because we don't have a mouse pad and the pajamas he was wearing at that time. Both came up negative. I'm really hoping that when I get the other kit, I will have a positive result with something because it's hard not to think he's still in contact and if he isn't here then it's somewhere else, like school, or he just has A LOT of lead in his body. So his doctor has decided to take away the DMG from him BUT has added something called Speak Smooth. It is a supplement that supports normal and healthy speech development and maintenance. However I may not see any positive results from this until his lead levels are down, but there is a possibility that I will.

In church I have been learning how to pray. That you have to be specific in what you pray for and not be general with God. That you have to keep asking God for what you want. You have to believe that He will answer your prayers. This is where patience comes into play so very much because you think if you pray you will get what you want, when you have to wait until it's Gods time to give you what you want. But also have to be thankful for what He does give you if you haven't gotten what you want. I have been praying for these lead levels to go down and while I have been confident that they will go down, they will only go down when He's ready and thinks I can handle the next step or that once I get what I want then my relationship with Him will not be over. Sometimes that's why God keeps some things in your life that you don't want, to keep you in prayer. I have faith in Him and once he blesses my son with the healing that He has prepared for him, I will forever be thankful. But I am also thankful for the progress my son has made. While he doesn't converse with me like my other kids, he tries more and more everyday. And that's good enough for me right now.