Gluten, casein, and botox.

There are some words that you never dreamed would become part of your everyday vocabulary. Arthrogryposis is such a common word around here that I forget most of the rest of the world has never heard it before.

With the changes we've seen in Olivia's speech, eye contact, and overall "with-it-ness" (see, there's another new word) since we took her off milk, we have decided to try to eliminate wheat, too.

Gluten-free and casein free diet, here we come.

I'm reading Healing the New Childhood Epidemics, Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies by Kenneth Bock, M.D. and Cameron Stauth. It is amazing to read the case studies from this doctor who has developed "The Healing Plan" for lots of children suffering from these four disorders. It almost seems to good to be true. Lives have changed for children because this doctor searches for the root causes of these disorders and develops individual plans to help them. Our neurologist obviously has researched this biomedical approach, because most of what I'm reading are the same things he has mentioned in our appointments.

I also bought The Kid-Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook to help us get started on this new diet adventure.

Brian took Olivia to see Dr. Frick this morning.

• The hip is in
• The socket is growing
• Her left leg is slightly longer than the right (what this means, long-term, I don't know)
• He agrees with Jeanine that botox is a good idea, to relax the muscles so we can get some extreme stretching
• He has read the research about children dying from botox injections in the legs. He said that those children have other severe issues, like heart problems, that played a part in their deaths. He has used botox for many years with no adverse effects.
• Apparently it takes up to six months to get a botox appointment, so we wait...
• Brian asked the ever present question, "Why can't she walk?". Dr. Frick said that walking is not a leg thing, it's a brain thing. I know he didn't mean that as literal as it sounds. He said that her legs have the functionality needed to walk. But, her brain doesn't do what it needs to in order for it to happen. The clonus reinforces that opinion. And so we stay right smack dab in the middle of mysteryland.
• He also reminded Brian (again) that we have to give it time. She is progressing, just very slowly. He told Brian there are so many other children he sees that are much more disabled. Yes, we know. But, we aren't going to lower our expectations and hope for her to walk just because she could "have it worse".
• Next checkup is in a year

Gluten, casein, and botox. Our vocabulary keeps expanding...