Finding biomedical answers to psychiatric, neurological and developmental issues is a hot topic of debate on some of the support group lists I read. Having spent the last two years exploring these types of interventions for LuLu, I admit that I have very mixed feelings about it all.

Like every other intervention or therapy we’ve tried, I was hoping that it was THE answer; the one thing to make her better. But as the years have waned on, I’ve realized that there isn’t a THE answer. So, what I’m left with is what will make her life better and her issues easier for her, and us, to deal with. And put in that framework, biomedical interventions may truly be the answer.

I can make myself feel pretty guilty about hospitalizing LuLu, now after the fact. Mostly this guilt stems from the fact that they didn’t DO anything to really improve her (ok, the jury is still out on one drug change). Instead they gave me a break…and inadvertently gave me a clue about her high brain histamine by sedating her with an anti-histamine and making her feel better and able to think more clearly. Yet, it was very anxiety-producing for her to be in this situation, and although I know they meant well, their only “tool” for treating her was medication and some very basic counseling (not the complex attachment & trauma therapy).

But, her hiatus in the hospital did two very positive things. First, because the hospital wasn’t really interested in maintaining her complicated supplement schedule or difficult casein-free diet, LuLu went off both for nearly a month. And in reality, she got worse. This confounded the hospital doctors, who were pretty convinced that our private psychiatrist was a good one and had her on nearly the right meds (which she does), so they tweaked these a bit and mostly just watched LuLu spin out of control (and then get back into control after her histamine level was lowered…only they didn’t connect these dots). The last week, I was able to convince them to remove the casein from her diet, and she was improving by the time she left. Again, I don’t know how much they believed this was a factor, or where just placating an insistent (“poor dear is under stress”) mom.

The second very positive thing was that I was off 24/7 LuLu duty for more than three weeks, giving me time to focus on Julie. So, I religiously took the supplements that I had started taking months ago myself, only at times I would forget to take them, forget if I had taken them, forget to buy them…we’ll you get the picture. And by the end of LuLu’s hospital stay, I was thinking more clearly – so my brain chemistry had improved. And because I’m not thinking more clearly, even with LuLu home, I’m remembering to take my supplements. I still have more “work” to do biomedically on myself – like get my adrenal glands back up to par (after years of chronic stress).

So, since LuLu was off of all supplements, we started with a blank slate, biomedically. And this, too, was a good thing, as I’m able to start back in by adding the supplements that seem to have the possibility for the biggest positive impact. At this point that is to treat the pyroluria, with B6 and zinc, and to address her high histamine level. Our next moves are to address her hormone imbalances (starting with retesting her thyroid, as her TSH levels were very high in the hospital) and address her GI issues (with a scope in December).

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