Today I am launching a new feature on my blog:  Guest Blogger Du Jour.   I’m starting off with a bang thanks to my friend Lynn Smith.  Lynn is fairly *new* to autism and biomedical treatments; however, you’d never know that by talking to her.  This is a woman who has taken the autism bull by the horns and has tackled its ass.  Lynn’s not messing around, she’s out to bring her daughter back from the abyss of an ASD.  So without further ado, I present you with my first ever guest blogger, Lynn Smith ((and the audience roars)) [if you are interested in a guest blogger spot, please email me at charlieinwonderland@yahoo.com]:

The purpose of this post is to share our story of getting insurance approval for Dr. Arthur Krigsman through our insurance company, which will be referred to as “InsuranceCo” throughout the piece.

On April 28th we had our initial phone consult with Dr. Krigsman to review my daughter Beth’s medical history and lab results.  It was determined that the next steps would be having her scoped, pill cam, and biopsy procedure.  These were scheduled for June 2nd in Austin, TX. (more…)

By: Sheri Miller
*Note from the author: This is a summary of what I spoke about during my Diet & Autism presentation. It’s written more in a conversational tone, as I was using it as a reference for myself while I spoke.  Hopefully it may be helpful to someone!
** this article is reprinted with permission by the author

We know that diet can certainly impact many health conditions such as diabetes, Celiac disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.   And it CAN affect autism and related disorders as well.

You may ask: How? Why?
Can what we eat and drink really affect the neurological system – the brain and its functioning?  Yes.  For example, individuals with epilepsy or seizure disorders can have certain foods that may trigger seizures.  What about alcohol? It certainly affects the brain which in turn affects motor control, speech, cognition, social interaction, etc. (more…)

Charlie just came into the room and said, “Mom, check your email.”

Sure enough I had an email from him via Hallmark.com.

Apparently, instead of looking at Legos on Lego.com, he was creating a Hoops & YoYo card for me – which I’m going to share with all of you, but there are some things I want to say first:

1. Hoops & YoYo… are you familiar with this Hallmark created torture team? They are pretty damned annoying. But, Charlie thinks they are hilarious, so they are in our lives.

2.  The first “page” of the card will stay on until you click the remote.  Don’t be like my husband and leave the page up because you can’t figure out what to do… seriously, it’ll make your ears and eyes bleed. (more…)

UPDATE II:  It’s Sunday, the last day of my Cinco de Linco Loans Weekend Fundraiser for Lend4Health.org.  I set a lofty goal of $1000 in $5 loans.  So far, I’m up to $730!   If 10 of you would make a $5 loan to each of the 5 kids, I’d reach my goal.  Can you spare $25?  Remember, it’s a loan… you’ll get your money back!

UPDATE: I AM ONLY $270 AWAY FROM MY GOAL OF $1000 IN MICRO-LOANS FOR THE KIDS ON LEND4HEALTH!!!  PLEASE BE KIND AND OFFER UP A $5 CINCO DE LINCO LOAN (MAKE SURE YOU DESIGNATE IT AS SUCH)!  REMEMBER, THESE ARE LOANS, NOT DONATIONS.  YOU’LL GET YOUR MONEY BACK!

CLICK HERE TO GO DIRECTLY TO LEND4HEALTH TO SEE THE KIDS AND LOAN $5!!

There are currently SIX FIVE loans open on L4H: Aydan, Alec, Jordan, Tatum, Jaden, and Jonathan #2

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Did you see?  Did you see?  Brandon’s loan was fulfilled!  Yippeeee!  That means Charlie is the lone boy up on L4H requesting a loan.  As I said yesterday, I’m not sure if it is a conflict of interest for me to promote Cinco De Linco, and also be on the site requesting a loan.  So here’s what I’ve come up with, if you think it is, don’t participate this month (unless another child is put up on the site today); however, if you think it is NOT a conflict of interest, go ahead on over to Lend4Health and chip in!  We greatly appreciate it!

Here’s a shortcut:

**Here’s a thought, you could hold off until another child is put up on L4H, then make your loan and call it a “belated Cinco De Linco loan” – that would work!  So do whatever you are comfortable with!

It’s that time again! Please hop over to Lend4Health (Lend4Health.org) and make a small loan to adorable Kostantinos! Let’s get his loan funded!  **Don’t forget to designate your loan as a Cinco De Linco Loan – do this on the “Review Your Payment” page by clicking on “Add Special Instructions To Merchant”.

To date my loan-drive has raised over $800 (Tori, is this correct?)!  You can read more about my Cinco De Linco loans for L4H HERE, HERE, and HERE.  I started all this with Lincoln Loans (which evolved into Cinco De Linco Loans) HERE.

Also, take a few minutes to watch this special message from Tori over at Lend4Health!

UPDATE II 8:16AM Central Sunday: I see we’ve raised $50 so far for Ethan.  He only needs $125 more for his loan to be fulfilled.  Please consider hopping over to Lend4Health and loaning $5, $10, or even $100!  Imagine how good you’ll feel when Ethan is able to get the testing he so desperately needs.  It is the season of giving…

UPDATE 8:20PM Central Friday: I’ve decided to make this Cinco De Linco a weekend bender.  I see we’ve only raised $40… I think we can do much better than that!!  Right!?!  Come on… if you guys can just lend $5 … it WILL help Ethan, I promise!  $40 down, $135 to go!!  Let’s do this thing!

Okay, I admit it, I missed my Cinco De Linco fundraiser last month.  My excuse will not be acceptable to some of you, and for that I am sorry; but, here it is… I, Jeanne, the biggest arachnophobe in the history of arachnophobia, was bitten by a Black Widow spider on my wrist while rummaging around in our garage prepping for a garage sale.  If you’ve ever read THIS, you’ll understand when I say I went into shutdown mode.  A spider bite?  Me?  FYI: Red wine is a great way to self-medicate your psychosis away… well, it was for me.  Once I realized what was happening to my arm, I started seeing deadly spiders everywhere… of course no one else saw them… just me. I guess it’s kind of like when someone starts talking about bugs and some people start getting the itchy-scratchies.

Okay, no more dwelling in my poisonous spider hell, I’m here to raise some money for Lend4Health.  More specifically, I’m here to raise some money for little Ethan.  His mom has this message for us all:

Ethan is the oldest of three children, and he is a fabulous big brother. He received his official diagnosis of PDD-NOS from a psychologist on October 29, 2008, and saw his DAN! doctor for the first time the following day! She is wonderful, but we were all pretty overwhelmed with the amount of testing and the costs involved, but we will do whatever we can!!! The hardest thing is thinking that we will have to forgo treatments that could really help him because we don’t have the means financially. Please support our family in this process and we promise NEVER to give up on Ethan – how could we?!?!

Ethan’s loan request is for $605.  So far Lend4Health, through some very generous lenders, has raised $430!!  That means we only have to raise $175 to fulfill the loan!!  We can do that… right?!?!

So come on everyone, let’s all pull together in Cinco De Linco fashion (we raised $700 last time around) and get this boy’s loan funded!

CLICK HERE TO HELP ETHAN!

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Remember Charlie’s progress report a few weeks ago?  Well, the official report card came home today:

All A’s.  You heard me.  ALL A’s!

Along with the report card, the school sent home a bumper sticker, “My Child is an Honor Student at — Elementary,” (which Charlie immediately tried to stick on his Grandfather’s car), as well as a “Principal’s Honor Roll” ribbon.

After years of struggling to just BE in a classroom, to just be able to get through the entire day sitting in the class, this is a HUGE accomplishment.

“Huge” doesn’t even do it justice.

Way to go Charlie! 

Insert frantically screaming people here… Now, brace yourselves… We’re going sugar-free as of November 1st. Yeast are back. Time to get serious. Just discovered a new product (thank you Dr. D!!): Lakanto

More to come.