Yes, Marcy I wore sneakers this time.

My husband’s distant cousin’s wife had a baby about two weeks ago. Fabulous relative that I am I finally brought over a baked item. This isn’t as bad as it sounds because they’ve had extra mothers and aunts over there since before the baby was even born so I knew that they weren’t starving. But I can’t say that was the whole reason for my tardy gift -- the reality is that sometimes it takes me a while to make it over.

I had the brilliant idea that walking over would be a nice Sunday walk with the kids. So with Bri on her scooter and Lizzy on her bike we started off. I didn’t know how far away they lived. I thought it was a short walk but it was actually 2.8 miles round trip. That’s not a nice Sunday walk for me; especially since I carried Lizzy’s bike quite a bit when it was too steep or dangerous for her to ride.

But considering that the baby weighed 10 lbs 6 oz when he was born, I really should have brought over a solid gold loaf of bread rather than a loaf of blueberry walnut bread because, you know, she earned one!

My Feet Are Killing Me

Yesterday, I took my kids to Canobie Lake Park in New Hampshire. They love amusement parks and we’d never gone there, so it seemed like a brilliant end of summer activity. Everyone had a lot of fun and we didn’t lose anyone so the day has to be classified under the label of pretty darn good. Marcy and her family went too which was great since my husband was in Chicago.

Bri, Jake and Dave took off by themselves, while the rest of us waited in a line to get on a very dumb ride. Some of my kids are old enough to wander around by themselves and take Will on rides, which is great because I am getting old! I used to love going on wild rides but I decided at 6 Flags last year that I am too old to find any enjoyment in getting my head knocked back and forth between “padded” head supports on super fun rides like the Mind Eraser.

No, someone else needs to step forward and sacrifice their brain cells in pursuit of entertainment for Will. I am fortunate in having three other children, since my husband, possessing the notoriously weak stomach his family is known for, will not go on those rides either.

My children started off the day fortified with an apple, cheese stick and juice box. Since Bri and Lizzy didn’t eat their sandwich they were immediately ravenous. Bri ate a pizza but Lizzy and Jake would only agree to eat a bowl full of fripps (a chip like thing) covered in cheese sauce. I begged them to eat a hotdog, hamburger or pizza to no avail. It was fripps or nothing. Actually the fripps were the second choice. They really wanted cotton candy or ice cream for lunch. I said no, but have no fear for Jake he did eat ice cream for dinner -- because by that time I didn’t care anymore. Bri and Lizzy stayed with the “more” nutritious fried dough.

The day ended, as usual, with rain. Whether we go to amusement parks in Massachusetts or in Utah it always rains. It’s kind of a family tradition. Perhaps I should have warned Marcy about that when I suggested that she come with us. Oops. My bad.

Books

I’ve read some good books lately.

The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden political genius of an American icon by John Ferling is really interesting. It’s a different look at Washington’s military and political career. It flushes out his character. Luckily for America, his military failures were ignored and congress put him in charge.

My dad insisted that I read The time it never rained by Elmer Kelton; and he hounded me until I finished it. It was a hard book to read –good, but hard. My dad had sheep when he was young and he said it was a true book. Ranching is a hard life.

I read Fatal Journey: the final expedition of Henry Hudson--a tale of mutiny and murder in the Arctic by Peter C. Mancall. It was quick and interesting. As to whether it tells the truth of what actually happened; well, it was based on the account of one of the men who returned. He, of course, didn’t mutiny.

Sick: the untold story of America's health care crisis--and the people who pay the price by Jonathan Cohn. Reading anything like this makes me crazy but that’s no reason not to be informed. Certainly there is a crisis in insurance coverage and its lack.

I read a bunch of books by Thomas Perry. I like the Jane Whitefield novels.

Grandma

When I look up numbers in my cell phone I skip past my grandma’s phone number. I even thought about calling it the other day. But I doubt that anyone would answer and what would I say if they did? After all I don’t want to talk to them. I don't feel like deleting it. So, for now it stays.

William's Regression into Autism

William became autistic in November of 2000; two weeks after routine vaccinations.

I was really lucky that I immediately realized what was happening. I noticed that his eye contact had disappeared and started working on improving it and by the time he had his Early Intervention appointment in early January (we had to wait until after Christmas vacation) his eye contact was much better. Because I told EI that Will was autistic they sent a specialist to the interview and he started ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) in March (we had to wait for that as well).

Will regressed horribly! Before he became autistic at 17 months, he was social, happy and bright. If anything was going on he wanted to be in the middle of it. He would sit on my lap and request me to read book after book to him. After he became autistic he wouldn’t listen to even a page. He started ignoring everyone. He started toe walking, stimming, sucking on his tongue and lip. He would constantly jump and run in circles and started making a high pitched keening sound. He made the sound constantly unless he was watching TV. He regressed to the cognitive level of a nine month old. He completely stopped talking and babbling. He lost every skill that he possessed. He wasn’t even capable of requesting a drink anymore. I would suddenly realize that he hadn’t had a drink in several hours and guiltily offer him one. He would contentedly sit and suck on a piece of bread in his highchair for hours. It was really weird.

He worked up to 26 hours a week of ABA plus a couple hours with an educator and psychologist. He didn’t have speech because he didn’t have enough language for that at first. But even with all of this he didn’t make any progress. He would master an activity then a couple of weeks later couldn’t do it at all. He spent his free time stimming and watching TV. He stimmed with his fingers in his peripheral vision and constantly held a crumb in his bent first finger – he used the remaining fingers to eat or play with. He sucked his lip all the time. He had constant diarrhea. And he had a lot of crapisodes! He didn’t sleep much. He would fall asleep around 11 or 12 then wake up at 3:30am. And he didn’t wake up quietly. I would sometimes hear him laughing in his room but more often it was his high pitched keen. I taught him, good mother that I am, to go into Brianne’s room when he woke up. That amazing girl slept through Will screaming and jumping on her bed with the light on and computer blaring full blast.

I am not exaggerating at all.

I didn’t sleep much for a couple years. I was sleep deprived. (One of my friends told me I was a “little wacky” during that time.) I remember right before Lizzy was born that none of my kids were sleeping through the night. I was only getting two to three hours of sleep a night. Then by some miracle, after Lizzy was born they all started sleeping through the night. I remember feeling so energetic and bouncy because I was getting hours more of sleep a night than I was use to!

Imagine that if you will, I had a newborn but was sleeping hours more a night. Sleep deprivation is an effect of autism for far too many of us.

I don't know why

Will and I were in the car when I heard a bump from the back. I glanced back to see Lizzy’s car seat on his lap. He was moving it to the back.

HPV Vaccine Side Effects

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Other Facts:

The Food and Drug Administration licensed the vaccine in 2006 to help women protect against four types of HPV. The vaccine, Gardasil, is recommended for females between the ages of 9 and 26. reference

Information on types of HPV viruses.

Gardasil Researcher Speaks Out

"Dr. Diane Harper says young girls and their parents should receive more complete warnings before receiving the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. Dr. Harper helped design and carry out the Phase II and Phase III safety and effectiveness studies to get Gardasil approved, and authored many of the published, scholarly papers about it. She has been a paid speaker and consultant to Merck. It’s highly unusual for a researcher to publicly criticize a medicine or vaccine she helped get approved. . . She says data available for Gardasil shows that it lasts five years; there is no data showing that it remains effective ... According to Dr. Harper, assessing the true adverse event risk of Gardasil, and comparing it to the risk of cervical cancer can be tricky and complex. 'The number of women who die from cervical cancer in the US every year is small but real. It is small because of the success of the Pap screening program.' ... The rate of serious adverse events on par with the death rate of cervical cancer. Gardasil has been associated with at least as many serious adverse events as there are deaths from cervical cancer developing each year." reference

Horrifying blog posting on side effects women and girls experienced.

Gardasil and Paralysis

"About 4 reports per day were filed with VAERS in December 2006 for the HPV vaccine," said NVIC Health Policy Analyst Vicky Debold, RN, Ph.D. "Some of these girls are being injured when they collapse after getting the vaccine and others are complaining of neurological symptoms that should not be ignored. Doctors and nurses should take note of the patient safety issues related to giving this vaccine. Giving GARDASIL simultaneously with any of the 18 vaccines Merck did not study in combination is not an evidence-based guideline and should involve informed consent and a signed patient release. To avoid unnecessary injuries, teenage girls should be vaccinated laying down, not be left unattended and probably should not walk or drive themselves home from the doctor's office after they get vaccinated."

The FDA staff also questioned whether the “HPV types not contained in the vaccine might offset the overall clinical effectiveness of the vaccine.” There are more than 15 types of HPV associated with cervical cancer but GARDASIL only contains HPV types 16 and 18. It is unknown whether non-vaccine HPV types will become more dominant in the future. However, there are indications this could occur because some of the seven strains of pneumococcal contained in Wyeth’s PREVNAR vaccine, which was recommended by the CDC for universal use in all babies in 2000, have been replaced by some of the more than 80 other pneumococcal strains not contained in the vaccine. reference

MERCK'S GARDASIL VACCINE NOT PROVEN SAFE FOR LITTLE GIRLS

Bottom Line: The vaccine would definitely be 100% effective in the resulting paralyzed or dead girls.