I’m guessing you’ve seen the movie…with Susan Sarandon…years ago. Me too, long before I ever dreamed I’d be parenting a child with special needs, let alone writing a blog about myelination. It was by googling “myelin” that I was reminded of Lorenzo’s Oil.

That’s because the organization that Lorenzo’s mom, Michaela, founded is called The Myelin Project. Talk about a tireless mom! This woman gave up all existence except the quest for answers for her son, who suffers from adrenoleukodystrophy, a rare disorder where the myelin is destroyed.

Well, I gotta tell you that I know a mom who has the same bulldog tenacity for research and the same drive to share her knowledge with other families. She is tirelessly looking for biochemical and medical interventions to change the brains of children with a host of neurological disorders. Her own story, and the improvements in her daughter are astounding. Her name is Dawn Rossi, and she moderates a listserve called attachasd on yahoogroups.com. The name is a signal that families of children with attachment and autism symptoms (the kinds that are intermingled and hard to distinguish) is who the list is for.

Drawing from the research that is starting to amass on biomedical interventions for autism, Dawn sought out both testing and treatment for her daughter, who had never been diagnosed with autism, but with RAD and other related diagnoses. As the tide started to drastically turn for the better in her life, she dove into the research with both feet and has built an impressive network of doctors, therapists and parents. She is making the difference in the lives of hundreds of children across the country and around the world.

Dawn will likely be totally embarrassed that I am blogging about her. (so I've decided not to tell her until after I post this!) But thinking about Lorenzo’s mom made me think about Dawn. She is a dear friend and advocate as I search for answers in LuLu’s complex brain chemistry. She researches, reads, digests much more of this complex medical information than I can ever dream of understanding - and passes it all along.

Her advice was instrumental in pointing us to the DAN! Doctor we have been using for over a year now, and to several interventions, including the HBOT we did last spring and the Actos LuLu was prescribed in November.

I clearly remember the phone call from Dawn in the summer of 2005 that started, “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but you need to hear our story…” From that point forward, Dawn has been actively changing the lives of children and families by sharing her information. All the while, reminding the parents that no one intervention works on all kids and that working closely with a doctor is mandatory. She is amazing to watch.

I’m totally honored and excited that Dawn, along with another warrior mom, Lisa Porter, and our totally awesome DAN! Doctor, Dr. Phillip DeMio, will be doing a day-long pre-conference workshop on Biomedical Treatment for Traumatized Children before ADN’s national conference on August 1. It will be so rich to have that much information in one room together, from three incredible people who care so much about our kids.

Now, we just need to figure out who will play Dawn in the movie!