Thanks Mari, I will repost in the other and see what happens. I would rather he got his diploma as opposed to his GED. His summer class is only six weeks for 3 hours a day, 4 days a week one class. He had the second but just couldn't hack it. At this rate he will be doing summer school for the rest of his life lol.

Mrsd we live in Flint but because his dad lives in Carman Ainsworth school district my son goes there. I would have tried to get him in there through school of choice anyway. He started in FLint but as he got a little older I was quick to get him out. He has a therapist and takes medication and qualifies as an IEP student though he does not outright take any real special education classes except for a study skills class because he is not really learning deficient. He is capable. It is hard to explain. As for his stomach, yes he was taking an antibiotic, Doxycycline for like 2 years for his skin and his new skin doctor just took him off of it because he was showing signs of toxicity and his doc who did the upper GI said that may have been the cause we will wait and see. He is full aware of what no education means and that is not the life he wants. It is the pressure, the crowds, the chaos, the bullies, the racial intolerance, the unfairness when it comes to authority figures, I know the teachers and principals have final word but I have seen the unfairness first hand. It is all too much and he has a tendency to take it personally.


There is more but I am getting back to this after midnight and am in a lot of pain so I am getting off of the puter. Thank you for your input.

Uh Duh on me lol, MrsD, I just read the small print on your post and realized who you were lol. Wow I had no idea you were so close. I have read many of your posts on BT which is where I usually am.

I know exactly what you mean about those evening talks. Often when he was supposed to be going to bed he would come to my room and lay on my bed and we would just talk about everything, and laugh. Yes it is often draining and always past bedtime but I let him do it because I knew he needed it and I always wanted to keep those lines of communication open. Now he calls me all the time when he is upset, happy, has new news, beat a game, heard a funny joke, is bored or just to see what I am doing. He knows he can tell me anything. He is exhausting to be around but never boring lol.

Bizi I remember you from BT, and hoped I would hear from you and Mari, you two were a great source of comfort to me there. He wanted to go into the military for the longest time and I dreaded it. Now he is of the belief that since he has such severe flat feet that he can't yes that would be my fault. With his severe mental illness I don't know if he can. These days I am not so sure.

He would like to get into something to do with the computer gaming industry or something along those lines. He is a whiz at video games and there are few that he can't beat in a very short time. It has become a waste of money to buy him video games because he beats them in 24 - 48 hours. Now we make him rent them before we buy them. He is really looking forward to his Video Production course in the fall and maybe that will be something he would like to incorporate into it.

What I am thinking of is him doing like a fast track high school completion course and then a skilled trades type degree. I don't know if with his illness if he would qualify for anything like that or if there is anything available. I honestly think for him that would be ideal. Small classes, maybe online even, work at your own pace type of thing. He is intelligent enough to do that.

I don't know I just wish there was an alternative for him and people like him.

Gluten Free would be a big time fight and would be huge stress. He is almost of age to be on his own so I can see him running away until he is old enough to eat what he wants then coming back home lol.

Oh I have got to get off.

I will check back in tomorrow

Is a HUGE depleter of nutrients from the body.

Severe acne can be treated with EFAs...that is what worked for my son---and that is how we accidently found they fixed his ADD!

Many drugs upset the body's ability to either process the nutrients we need to live, or they actually deplete them, which then requires extra dosing and attention.

YOu don't mention the other drugs...so I cannot address those.
Here is a list of documented effects just for the doxycycline!

Bifidobacteria bifidum
Lactobacillus acidophilus
(both are needed for normal bowel function)

Calcium
Iron
Magnesium

Biotin
Inositol (low levels of this increase anxiety)


Vitamin B1 (thiamine)
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
Vitamin B3 (niacin)
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine)
Vitamin B12

Vitamin K

People with acne typically are low in zinc. Especially males.
Low zinc and low B6 cause a condition of severe anxiety
called pyroluria. There is a long thread on BT on the vitamin forum about this condition. You test it with a special urine sample sent to special labs. Once it is fixed with high dose zinc and B6, the moods settle down.

I think your son is in a tough place. No quick one pill solution.
And some of the solutions may be uncommon and not well understood by your doctors.

So I think some homework will help you both. And patience, as it takes time to heal the body. At this point you don't really know if he has all those diagnoses, or maybe just the pyroluria which masquerades as mental illness!
http://www.drkaslow.com/html/pyroluria.html
First off, start with some good organic yogurt. Stonyfield yogurt has good cultures in it.
Some Krogers carry it, and most health food stores.
http://www.stonyfield.com/
If he absolutely will not eat it...the new flavors are very good...
Then get a good probiotic with at least 4 or more strains listed on it. These are typically
kept in the frig in stores, and some online places, package them with nitrogen to keep them fresh.

Hi,
You don't need to explain all the details here.
But the Special Ed accommodations are not always about how capable he is. They have to do with what he NEEDS to be successful.
Public schools hate making accommodations and often need to be pushed.
If you don't know what accommodations would help him, ask the therapist. Then get an advocate (most communities have them but I don't know how to find them except to start with nami) or a lawyer. You probably have local contacts who can help you navigate the school system.

A friend of mine has a daughter who was unsuccessful in school. She annoyed the teachers and hung out with students who were on there way to failing. He got her out in her junior year via the GED and she signed up for a few classes at the community college. She did not do well there either, but now she is a community college drop out instead of a hs drop out -- if that makes any sense.

I have cousin who could not face hs. Absolutely could not face it. His parents were spending a fortune on a private school and he stayed up all night and slept all day. They felt that there was nothing that they could do -- they had him in therapy and so on.
Finally, they withdrew him from the expensive school and then put him in the neighborhood public school. He is doing great now. This school works for him.

A niece of mine was an all around miserable person with various diagnoses that changed over the years. Finally, the parents put her in special ed for the whole day. She is doing well and is happier at home too.


Here is a link about online schools in Michigan:
http://distancelearn.about.com/od/on...iganOnline.htm

It looks like they have several schools.

After he gets treatment for his ulcer he will feel better.

How about his other meds? How does the pdoc treat the anxiety?

Mari

In 5th grade the counselor brought me in to a meeting to
arrange this for my son as he was moving on to middle school.

They told me all his teachers would know about him and his progress since they have meetings, and etc.
Well, it turned out that the Special Ed title for a student brings in special money...Federal funds... and that is all they wanted.
My signature to get money.

When my son's homeroom teacher sent me a nasty letter about my son putting his head down to rest after lunch (this was a med time with a 45 minute adjustment) we found out she had NO CLUE that he was special ed. This was 1/2 way thru the year. This homeroom consisted of non-credit activities and since my son felt "ill", he refused to read. Told her he didn't "have to"... and this ticked her off. (this was back in the "Ritalin days" for him. My son normally did not present negative behaviors in class. )

So my husband read HER the riot act, and I went in to complain to the principal. I had him disenrolled from special ed. He received not one minute of any of the promised things.

It was all about money.

I really think kids have a right to speak up and if something in the school is "not right" parents need to learn it ASAP.

First of all he is taking

Abilify 15 mg 2x day
Concerta 54 mg 1x in a.m. just raised from 36mg
Pepcid AC 30mg 1x this was just given to him by the new gastro, he was taking Zantac for like almost a year and a half which obviously did no good.
Celebrex 100mg 2x day he just started this yesterday for his back and legs. Is it possible for his bowels to be so full that they would press on nerves and cause his back to ache?
He just started Cephalexin 250mg but this will be temporary because the skin doc did not want his skin condition to go into a flare from stopping the Doxy.

He was also taking Lamictal up until September of last year when he stopped all his meds on his own without telling anyone then became suicidal and started back up again but the Lamictal was making his anger issues worse when he restarted.

Funny you should mention the bowel problems because he has been having some bowel leakage and when he had some recent xrays, due to some chronic upper and lower back pain he has been having, his bowels were so full that the whoever read them even commented on it in the report so now he is also on Miralax 1x a day. He also just mentioned to me that the leakage has started again. He still has bowel movements but he admitted that he has a tendency to hold it. His Gastro doc just called me and said she noticed some things in his esophageal tract that looks like it could indicate esophagitis so she is ordering a food allergy test and some blood work.

Mrs. D I am wondering if since he hates yogurt and he takes a mulitvitamin, because his vitamin D levels were low so at doc's orders I bought him a multivitamin with especially hight D levels, if a mulitivitamin that includes probiotics would work. I was taking one but I love yogurt so had no problem with the alternative.


This is so like him and it is severe. His explosive anger would be to the point of blackout. One of the reasons he stays most of the time with his grandmother. Our house is a bit chaotic and my fiance and he butt heads and my being Bipolar also..........well you can imagine. I wonder if his psychiatrist can order a test for this. I will definitely do some research and ask. Doing what ever I can. He has days, hours, seconds where he doesn't want to live and he is getting old enough where he will soon be on his own and I fear for him so I am trying to give him as much of a lifeline as possible. I just wish I had known sooner. We started at the age of 5 but I never knew how severe or even what it was until he took the knife to school . Which in itself is a whole nother story.

Mari thank you for the link. I was all over the place trying to find some info but not really knowing where to look and not finding anything. I do know that he can go to a specialized school with smaller classes and more one on one but he will lose his IEP status. Right now he has the opportunity to step out of class if he needs to for a breather and go to see his counselor, he can work in a special class if he needs to but the class is so small that it makes him claustrophobic so he goes to the media center because it is big and open and does his work but gets in trouble for it. Gets extensions on work, if the teacher decides to follow the schools IEP guidelines. He of course has tutors he can use and opportunity to be put in IEP classes but he doesn't really need/want them.

I know yet again a lot. Sorry

Yes, the back can hurt, if there is bowel inflammation.

Two years on doxy is enough to kill off all the beneficial bacteria and allow the nasties to take over.

Your son may have Crohn's.
I don't know of any multivit high in D.
I don't know of any multivit with probiotics.

The cephalexin will continue to kill off beneficial bacteria.
Your son may have Candida --this comes when beneficial bacteria are lost. Probiotics do not kill off Candida...this is a fungal organism and hard to get rid of.

If someone is low in D a high dose Vit D3 is usually given
He would need at least 2000-5000 IU daily to bring levels up and then perhaps 2000 IU daily after that. If he is really low, he needs even higher doses.

If the whole GI tract is inflamed I would start on EFAs NOW.
These fats rebuild the GI tract. I have a thread here on the subject. (some foods have them in it now, so you can get them that way...peanut butter, eggs, mayo etc.).
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread6092.html

This health crisis did not happen overnight, and it will not heal up overnight either. Doctors can give you drugs for symptoms, but they will not build new tissue, where there are
ulcers or inflammation.

A multivitamin is not enough. A multi is for daily use (as a replacement for certain foods). When drugs destroy your status completely, a person needs higher amounts.

Why is your son refusing to go to the bathroom? Holding it?
Is this about school? People with dysbiosis (nasty intestinal bugs) have very foul smelling stools. This may cause ridicule at school, and also be offensive to your son. Some boys will not go at school because there are no doors on the stalls, and they are subject to bullying in the bathrooms.
Also infections in the bowel, irritate the anu$ (there is a blocking filter for this term here), and infections/sores/ or fissures/ or even a fistula may occur. Pain in this area results in stricture of the sphincter and makes things worse. Hence, the patient avoids passing stools. This "leakage" may be from a fistula..and should be examined ASAP.

I guess you will have to prioritize things. Get the GI straightened out (it will never get better while using antibiotics-- only worse).

Chemar here has threads on how she healed her son's Crohn's disease...I'd PM her and find those links. It can be done but it requires effort and homework, and money since many of the most important things are NOT covered on insurance.

I would start looking for a holistic doctor who can perhaps put things back together for you. Traditional medicine does not know how to do this, as a rule.
I'd check and see if this spot has a holistic medical department:
http://www.hurleymc.com/

I found several hits for holistic medicine Flint on Google.
I'd seriously suggest it. The doctors who do the pyroluria testing are typically DAN doctors (Defeat Autism Now), but some others know about it too.

This is a huge problem.... so take it one step at a time.
Try to make food changes slowly, since people resist food changes (food is often a comfort).

And start researching gluten intolerance. Many many chronic GI problems go back to it. The stickies on our Gluten forum are an excellent starting place.

Hi,
Keep posting.
Maybe you'll be able to figure out some of this.

Can you write it into his plan that he is allowed to go to the library?

The teacher has to follow the guidelines. You might need to contact the school and remind / insist that that teacher follows the guidelines.
Get someone to talk to the school for you if you are not up to it.

Once you can sort out and start to fix whatever issues are going on in his GI track, his skin will start to improve. The two are closely related:
http://www.acne-resource.org/underst...digestive.html

That's good that his gastro is ordering tests for food allergies. That info will help you and him.


Mari

Yes I am still trying to figure out what moron decided the 400 IU of D3 was sufficient in our multivitamin. I did find one that has 1,000 IU. I had found a multivitamin that I was taking from Walmart that had probiotics in it but it was pretty expensive. The one he is taking now has a lot of vitamins and minerals and stuff in it. Tried to get one with a lot of extras in it. The kid drinks a lot of milk also, he would drink a gallon a day if allowed.

I just found the Department of Education guideline book and found out that those people sat there and lied to my face. I asked them at least twice if my son could test out of classes and they told me no. According to the guideline book he does have the option for any of his classes. I am flaming mad.

Well looks like I have my work cut our for me. My son's pediatrician took me aside yesterday and started the your son has more complaints than Carter has little liver pills speech. Red flag time. He still scheduled him for a neurologist for the weakness in his legs and his back pain but I am beginning to think he is starting to wonder if it is psychosomatic. I don't blame him, my son can be a drama queen but that doesn't make it any less real to him and it doesn't fix the problem.

You all have been extremely helpful now if I can just keep from going over with all this. I have a tendency with my own mental illness to obsess and stress and make my self sick. So slow and easy does it.

Thank you all so much.

Christina,

You are going to be fine.
I'm sending lots of good vibes.
M.