Alternative Medicine Los Angeles

My oldest boy is a firecracker. I’ve never actually seen him cross a room without wiggling, jumping or making one of his many trademark faces. We first had him assessed a year and a half ago, when he was three. They said he was a smart kid that was experiencing uneven development. Okay, no worries. We had him assessed again recently and were assured that, no, he didn’t have the ADHD that I had so dreaded. Instead, they feared absence seizures due to some eyelid fluttering they noticed.

However, when the report finally came to us in the mail, it was a different story. I read the words ADHD combined type at least ten times. The kicker was when they said he would be a “good candidate for medication.” I had expressly told the doctor that I was not a big fan of medication and that I would do everything in my power to avoid it.

This is what they wanted me to show his kindergarten teacher? I quickly called the doctor. Once we connected, she admitted that yes, he did fit the profile for ADHD, combined type. Why hadn’t she told that to me during our meeting?

If you ask me, I am starting to believe from my research that his characteristics, consistent with being a Visual Spatial Learner or VSL, are the very same set of characteristics that also define ADHD. I don’t actually believe that even the experts know the difference at this point.

The doctor I spoke to is an ADHD expert. She said 1 in 13 children are diagnosed with ADHD. How many aren’t? How many slip under the radar because of higher intelligence or because they are girls and do not act out in the same way? As a person who likes to have the answers, it is very frustrating to not know who to trust and what to think. I can only imagine that there are literally millions of parents out there right now who are thinking the same things.

Do I trust people (who do not seem to know what they are doing) who tell me that drugs are the answer? Why are there so many ‘cases’ of ADHD? If ADHD involves the brain, why isn’t there a definitive test to determine if a child has it? If there is, where is it and why isn’t the technology everywhere?

I plan to share my answers with everyone as I go on this journey. If you have found some of your own, please take the time to share them with me at feedback@modernsage.com. I would really appreciate it.

On a lighter note, if you are an overworked mom, you may get a little gentle stress relief with our latest quiz.

What type of WAHM are you?

Tags: ADHD, ADHD combined type, ADD, boys, attention deficit disorder, VSL, visual spatial learner, parenting add child

The exciting story of Terry Wallis, who was involved in a car accident when he was 19 and now woken up after spending 19 years in a vegetative stats has shaken the medical community and bring new hope of coma victims everywhere.

Three years ago, Mr Wallis uttered his first word, “Mom”, and has shown continual, although limited, improvement.

Since speaking his first words, Wallis’s speech has improved and he has regained some movement in his legs, but his short-term memory is very poor and he does not understand what has happened to him.

A US and New Zealand team of researchers scanned his brain using a technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to try and understand his recovery. 

Using this method, the scientists were able to look at Mr Wallis’s brain and to see any damage or reorganisation of his white matter.

White matter is the part of the brain that contains nerve fibres wrapped in an insulating fatty substance, called myelin. It is responsible for transmitting information in the brain, whereas grey matter processes it.

The researchers believe the most likely explanation is that axons, the long thin connections that make links between different brain cells, have re-grown.

Last month, it took a medical team led by Dr. Chen, 3 hours to perform an operation to remove the inner left arm.  At first there was much debate about which arm would be removed because both left arms were so fully developed but it became obvious that the inner arm would be the most likely candidate for removal.

It appears early reports that the left arms were not functional was untrue and even though both left arms were functional it was decided removal of one would be best long-term.

There have sure been many times in my life a third arm would have come in “handy”…but I do agree the social stigma would be potentially damaging.