Will we stay on the spectrum?

Asleep. Deep in dream land. Here is my son. Like all parents I take pictures of my children sleeping. I sneak in their room while they sleep and stare at them. Perhaps we do this because they are still, and angelic. They are like we remember as infants. they are not asking for things or fighting with their siblings. They look so innocent. They just are.
Sadly over the years there have been times that I have worried that I would go in and find my son gone, just slipped away in his sleep. Do all parents feel this way? How awful this feeling is as it creeps in on you when you tip toe over to their bed. I thought it would pass as they were no longer infants, but with all of my son's medical problems that feeling has never really gone away.
I think it may now. I think we might be on the true road to recovery. This road is new to all of us. It has us questioning things that have been our foundation. It has us getting to know our son for who he really is. It has me trying to not take all the blame.
My son began taking medication of some kind when he was just one month old. He had really bad eczema. So the doctor prescribed some ointment. We used the ointment. Then we gave the vaccines that all parents do. (no I am not against vaccine, just be patient with me and my story....)
So like I have said, I have all of my son's medical records, I have the benefit of seeing the pattern. We would give him a new medication, he would get sick. We would take him back to the doctor with this new "symptom" (that was actually a side effect of the medication) and the doctor would then give him .....a new medication..... sometime he would tolerate the mediation for a little while before having the side effects. When we would take him to the doctor there was never any discussion about medication side effects.  The ointment I was slathering all over my one month old baby had all the side effects listed right there on the insert of the symptom that I had taken him to the doctor for, nausea, vomiting, weight loss, skin boils, secondary infection....
It makes me sad that we just kept him on these medicines and piled more on top of them. Now before I go on and make all of you want to throw away your prescriptions let me explain something. There is a reason this is happening to my son. A reason I plan to prove, by science, because that is how I roll. I am having him tested for a DNA problem of breaking down medication. It is called being a poor metabolizer. Not everyone is like this. Most of us are just fine. I still take my medication, I still give my daughter her medication. Nobody panic!
However, my son......well I sure wish someone would have caught this.....9 years ago.....or even 5 years ago. Two of the worst offending medications that he was affected by was Singulair and Zyrtec. That is right. Allergy medication. You have seen the ad's on T.V for these and they do warn you of the side effects, well the "nice" ones....
I have mentioned that when my son went into kindergarten he was saying things to people that were, well.....not so appropriate.... well he was also anti-social, emotional liable, moody, angry, sensitive to loud noises and oh so very thirsty. He would drink too much and therefore urinate too much. He ran like a little old man and was very uncoordinated. He had a very hard time regulating his body temperature. All of these things had us very concerned. As parents we thought there was something seriously wrong with our boy. Wouldn't you?
Now are you ready for this?
Seriously?
Do you want to know the side effects that are listed for Singulair and Zyrtec?
It may make you angry.
It sure made me mad.

Singulair- Aggressive behavior, depression, irritability, restlessness, headache ( there are many many more but these are the kindergarten side effects...he went on to develop more of the other side effects as we increased his dose)
Zyrtec- Micturition frequency(urinary frequency) , polyuria(also means urinary frequency), urinary incontinence, dehydration, thirst, muscle weakness, abnormal thinking, agitation, amnesia, depression, emotional liability, impaired concentration, nervousness, paranoia, sleep disorder, abnormal coordination, hyperkinseia( over active hyper), migraine, visual field defect, leg cramps confusion.
So .....
Why didn't the doctors look at the medications he was taking? Why didn't SOMEONE look at all the side effects and say WOW this sure seems like your son is having some problems with these medications.
While on these medications my son was tested for many things and diagnosed with many many problems. Not one of them being drug intoxication.
If you suspect that you are reacting to a medication, please talk to your doctor. If you suspect your child is reacting to a medication TALK to your doctor. If this seems to happen all the time, consider getting tested for the genetic defect. There are many labs that handle this. We are using Genelex.  They have a web site you can visit to find out more about this test.
www.healthandDNA.com
My son is now medication free for 5 days. It has been a rough 5 days. Headaches, crying head banging, (Oh wait that is me.....)

The other day he counted by two's all the way to 20 for me without stopping. This is something he could not do just a few weeks ago. He thinks he could. My husband pointed out, that he probably was doing it in his head, but just couldn't get the words out.....how sad.