Success Stories - Lauren Blackburn
While on vacation in Florida in the Spring of 2008, my husband and I and our three children were all diagnosed with strep throat and put on antibiotics. My youngest son Joseph required four subsequent rounds of antibiotics to completely wipe out the infection. Following the third round, however, he began to exhibit symptoms of absence seizures. They began slowly, one or two every three or four days, but increased over time. We took him in to our local pediatrician who recommended that we take Joseph to a pediatric neurologist.
The following week we were able to see a pediatric neurologist. There Joseph was diagnosed with classic absence seizures. He was put on ethosuximide, a calcium blocker that, in Joseph's case, effectively suppressed the symptoms of his malady.
We were told that it was entirely possible that Joseph would "outgrow" the seizures by his teen years. We presented the case, asking the question, might there be any relationship between the intense antibiotic usage and the development of the seizures? We were told by our local pediatricians in no uncertain terms that "there was no relationship." While his pediatric neurologist suggested that even if there was, which he was not willing to concede either, that there was no way to track that relationship. Hence no conventional physician was able to proceed any further with Joseph's cure.
So we pursued alternative therapies and their practitioners. After taking Joseph to see a few alternative practitioners, none of which we were able to proceed with, we learned that our local internist (Matt Brown, MD) had prudently invited a licensed naturopathic physician, with a clinic in Charlotte, to practice in his office once a month.
In brief, after an initial free phone consultation, we made our first appointment with Michael Smith, ND in April 2009. My husband and I and Joseph spent three hours with Dr. Smith at that first appointment. He recommended treatment for Joseph on four fronts: 1) Remove all the neurological irritants in Joseph's seizure medication, namely the red dye and the sweetener saccharin, by getting his medication compounded, 2) Put Joseph on high grade probiotics, 3) Put him on an intense dosing of omega fatty acids, and 4) Put Joseph on an homeopathic remedy.
By July 2009, Ross and I had significant cause to suspect that Joseph was healed. So we opted to "look under the hood," in the words of his pediatric neurologist, for the second time. (We had done so under his supervision during the previous February 2009, when after just three days of minutely decreasing Joseph's seizure medication he had a seizure, so we immediately returned to his normal dose.) At the beginning of July, I decreased his medication by .5 mls for one week, and Joseph exhibited no seizure symptoms. So we backed off another .5mls. Again, Joseph seemed fine, no seizure symptoms. By the end of the month we had taken him entirely off his seizure medication and Joseph appeared entirely healed, manifesting no seizure symptoms whatsoever.
I phoned Dr. Smith in Charlotte to tell him all that had transpired in July and the remarkable evidence that we were observing in Joseph. Dr. Smith indicated that he thought our son was healed, and he did not have any reason to suspect that the seizures would return.
Our indebtedness to Dr. Smith for his exceptional skill and passion for bringing effectual cure to his patients is incalculable. Our youngest son is no longer suffering absence seizures. Joseph is well!
Lauren Blackburn
