TEAM LANCE UPDATE on Medical Progress

Hello dear Friends and Family of Team Lance
(info sent out via email on 4/20/2011 to all I have email addresses for....)

It’s been nearly 5 months since Lance received the treatment of IVIG that you so generously and open heartedly supported. That’s amazing in and of itself, how time goes by!! It’s a good time to update you on his progress, since the treatment continues to unfold its benefits.

Perhaps the best way to sum it up is to tell you something that I overheard Lance saying to someone the other day that we ran into and they inquired about his wellbeing since the treatment. He said “I still have some health issues that I’m working on but the tics are so much better and overall, its not foremost in my mind or in my life anymore.”

THAT is AMAZING!!

Lance received the IVIG treatment over Thanksgiving break, and had a very rapid and dramatic response to the IVIG. Within just one week, his tics and other PANDAS symptoms went down and continued to do with a few “flurries” here and there. Many of the flurries are associated with some structural issues (cranial / neck) that we treat regularly and which nearly always lead to relief. Some may be triggered by his immune system being exposed to strep or possibly some other bug, since his immune system has a tendency to misfire. Some are just related to the healing process which isn’t linear; it’s more of an upward spiral kind of thing. The IVIG reduces inflammation and also helps Lance’s body battle the strep by resetting the immune system’s ability to work properly.

From the outside, I can see that Lance’s coordination is also improving, as has his mood, stress level, confidence and just overall happiness quotient. He was well enough for us to go to Disneyland for a couple of days over spring break, something we could never do either because he wasn’t feeling well enough to be away, or I was worried that the rides would trigger his nervous system or structural things, (oh, or we were just too low on funds due to the ongoing medical crisis). Anyway, he did amazing and we had fun and it was the first time I’ve been away from the house for five days in well over three years!

Undoubtedly Lance has health issues that we are working on. We recently discovered he appears to have some intestinal adhesions or scarring from the celiac disease having gotten so bad it may have damaged the tissues in there, so he gets discomfort with all that. But we’re working on it, and I’m hoping to do a totally non-surgical intervention; we’ll see what happens over time.

Meanwhile he’s excelling in school – even better than that – he finally hit an academic wall and discovered that he has to actually work hard and study to do well at Sonoma Academy. This just in. Well, it’s something he never had to do before, the information just seeped in and stuck and that was that. Now he is having to learn how to study for the first time and to that I say hurrah. He continues to make friends, DJ for KOWS radio station in Occidental, obsess over the NBA and was accepted as a writer for the popular online sports magazine Bleacher Report. His first article got over 3000 hits and two awards from the magazine for being a “hot read” J

As a result of Lance doing better, I’m doing better as well. I’ve been slowly letting down my guard and have been less anxious. I’m almost even sleeping like a normal person which gives me tremendous hope. My energy is more available for working in my practice and things in our household are just improving all around.

And that’s the update. This is possible because of you and your loving generous support of Lance and our fabulous miraculous fundraising event at Aubergine in November.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

With love
Amy