Gene's Timeline:
Week 31 (8/18/02): We will do a chelation this weekend.  This was a good week at school.  I noticed that Gene is voluntarily (without prompt) waving goodbye to the bus driver each day.
  Sunday: Gene enjoyed church very much - we were at St. Mary's in Escondido - he seems to like that church.
   Tuesday: Gene's practice went better this week. During the practice game against the parents, he was able to steal the ball and kick it away (unfortunately his shoe went with it(!))
   Thursday:  Boys &  Girls club: Gene seemed to do well - again the computer lab is still not functioning - he did writing and coloring.
   Friday:  Began Round 11 using the low dose (16mg) of ALA & DMSA this time..  We went to the social again; there were a ton of kids this week, but Gene began to warm up a bit to the idea.  Maybe each week will be better.
   Saturday:  Gene played his soccer game today.  He did quite well; he is no longer requiring me to motor him through the motions, nor is he running off to the bathroom every few minutes like last year.
Week 32 (8/25/02): This was going to be an off-chelation weekend, but since Monday is a holiday, I thought we should go for it.
  Sunday: Gene had a hard time at church for some reason.
   Monday: He seems to have survived the chelation ok without any problems at school.  Got Gene's school pix back - haha - well, it looks like they attempted spiking his hair, turned out kindof weird.
   Tuesday: When Gene got to school on the bus, the aide and bus driver had a hard time getting him to get up - he was slumped over the back of the seat in front of him, with his head in his arms (like he was asleep).  While the aide was gone getting the teacher, Gene got up with a big smile on his face and explained that he had to finish his "imagination."  Gene chose to do his homework the night before (ie without prompting) vs the morning before school.  Oops, we missed Gene's soccer practice.
   Friday:  Christopher had me up all night with his asthma & needing breathing treatments every few hours, so unfortunately I overslept and had to rush Gene through getting ready for school -- don't know if that was why, but he had a very hard day at school.  Started Gene's 12th Round of ALA & DMSA. We went to the social and Gene started off very well, playing with the other kids his age, but he is still having a bit of trouble getting used to the circle time and also was getting overstimulated at part of the play time. When I gave him his midnight dosage, he woke up enough to take it and water (didn't open his eyes), but then said very "normall", "Would you close the door, please?" "Thank you." - never opening his eyes.
 Saturday:  No soccer game, due to the holiday.
Week 33 (9/1/02): The 12th chelation round went from last Friday through the holiday on Monday so it was 3.5 days.
  Sunday: Gene was a bit more hyper and stimmy today at church.
   Monday: Holiday
   Tuesday: Gene had a great day at school! This is very unusual for being the day after chelation - and this was a long chelation round.  I did notice a bit more emotionalism tonight, though, but may be just that he was tired.  I received a call back from Gene's dr. about the results being in for his latest GSDL test.  He wanted to meet on Thursday. 
   Wednesday: Gene had another great day at school.  Erin, Gene's cousin, is staying with us this month while she is off-track.
   Thursday:  Met w/ Gene's doc re: GSDL latest test - hooray, Gene had his first "normal" candida (yeast) response!  The E Coli is normal too (yeah).  The lacto & bifido shows no growth (weird since I have been giving that to him daily) Got some more HMF Forte to handle that.  There was one "pathogen" which he has never had before and a couple of imbalanced flora which he has had before which the doctor was not too concerned about.  We will try some uva ursi and up the noni and GSE to work on that.  Overall I am very pleased.  We are going to do a DMPS challenge in a couple of weeks to see what metals are coming out.
   Friday:  Started Gene's 13th Round of ALA   When Gene came home from school, I noticed that he had changed shirts during the day.  The previous one was wet around the collar like he had been chewing it; he hasn't done that in forever.  Also over the past couple of days I noticed that Gene has been lining up planes again which I don't remember him having done in a long time.  The only thing that I have done differently is upping the zinc very slightly (10mg more per day). No social today because it was raining.
 Saturday:  No soccer game, due to the Family Fun Day.  Gene did well with the picture-taking; he was not a happy camper having to wait in the hot sun for his turn, but once he got up there with the soccer ball in his hands - he gave a nice smile.  He stood with everyone else for the team picture (last year I had to hold him from the back).  On the way over to taking him to the park, I dropped off Christopher with Auntie Berry (Rebecca was there playing with Erin already) - he walked up to the door (to see what was keeping me). After I called out goodbye to everyone, he said, "Goodbye...(started to say "Rebecca" and then corrected himself) Everyone!  See you later!"  He called it out too which, normally, only if prompted would he say something, and even at that, he would just say it in normal voice.   Also, when I was looking for him (for some reason), I called out his name.  When I got no answer, I pretended he was hiding and I was having a hard time finding him then when I came to the family room (he was there) as soon as he saw me, he burst out laughing -- and said, "You found me!"
Week 34 (9/8/02):
  Sunday: Hard time at church - thinking of changing churches.
   Monday: Good day at school
   Tuesday: Hard day at school - bday w/ cupcakes that I didn't know about.
   Wednesday: Good day at school. Started elderberry supp. Rather irritable evening.
   Thursday:  Good day at school. Gave Gene option of soccer practice or not since relatives were here, but he wanted to go - and did actually practice for close to a full hour(!) (vs last year when he would out and out refuse once we arrived at the park)  He really wants to be independent and do things himself this year; last year he would allow me to motor him around and now he really wants to practice with his teammates, and do the drills on his own.
   Friday:  Good day at school.  Did nicely at the social today.  He participated a lot more; chose to join the boys in the clubhouse to "hang out together" and initiated some interactions with 2 girls in the group.  He was not oppositional, nor anxious, nor giggly/silly like other times.  I saw none that I can remember OCD's.  LB. Started Gene's 14th Round of ALA  
Saturday:  Gene fell asleep before dinner and so missed a whole group of supps.
Week 35 (9/15/02):
  Sunday: Today when I got back from the gym, Gene ran down from upstairs and said, "Mom! I missed you!" and came down and gave me a big hug(!)  I said to him that Dad got something from the store while he was asleep.  We were going to make some special bread last night but were out of shortening and I though I would see what his memory was like.  He only thought for a moment and yelled out "shortening! We can make our special bread!"  I just have really noticed a lot of quiet times this weekend when he is really "with it" although there have been just as many times where he has been very silly too(!)  We went to St. Mary's, where Gene has a better time, but someone else was sitting where we usually do, so that was unfortunate.  Gene was just kindof silly at church - and anxious to leave.  When we left, he noticed that Christopher was racing off on his own (I was following up the rear and Gene was in front), he grabbed Christopher's hand and walked with him.  I was very impressed! I reinforced with Christopher that Gene is his big brother and he is watching out for him.
   Thursday:  Gene pulled out a tooth at school and since it wouldn't stop bleeding (and the blood kindof freaked him out), they asked that I pick him up.  It (and he) seemed fine by then, but I went ahead and cancelled B&G Club for the afternoon in case it started to bleed again.  He just laid down and rested, but seemed okay.  Started him on Kava Kava.
   Friday:  When I called to pick Gene up at school, his teacher told me there had been an incident in the morning and was wondering if I had heard from the bus driver.  I hadn't.  Apparently he came into the classroom in the morning ready to cry.  The aide said that the bus driver was angry/frustrated that Gene had been getting out of his seat.  She said that she was going to refuse transportation in the afternoon if for some reason I didn't pick him up.  She wanted the teacher to authorize him to be "harnessed in" (which the teacher would not approve).  This all sounded weird because he had gotten on the bus in the morning in good spirits, no problems.  Since Gene was having a hard week, I gave him a rest this weekend from chelation. At the social, Gene started off a bit rough, but then calmed down after he saw they had one of his favorite games there - Charades for Kids - so almost all the kids joined in for the game.
Week 36 (9/22/02):
  Sunday: We went to St. Mary's Church in the evening and everyone was very tired; even Gene said that he was very tired (the other 2 were asleep by the time we got there).  So as you can imagine, we had some grumpy kids(!)
   Monday: Gene got on the bus without a problem, just like normal; but did had some hard times at school - mostly just tired.  Had a very trying afternoon --  he didn't want to give up his turn on the PS2 and threw a toy at Christopher's head and although he apologized, when he went to kiss him better, he bit him (not hard) and he spiraled down pretty fast after that.  I gave him a bath which calmed him down a bit and he spent some quiet time in his room before he was okay again.
   Tuesday: Gene had a couple of rough spots at school today, but had a good afternoon -- we went swimming which he enjoyed as always.
   Wednesday: Gene had a very good day at school and was very good in the afternoon.  I was very stressed because the day was very hectic (Rebecca's Bday) and in addition Rebecca and I had planned months ago to have tandum dentist appts.  At the time I thought Gene was going to be home to receive Gene from his bus, but I ended up being out of town, so I ended up having to bring all 4 kids with me to the dentist (including their cousin, Erin) -- ack!!!  But actually after Gene explored the office (and opened and closed every door :-) ...) he stayed pretty much in the lobby with the others for an entire 30 minutes and played with toys and drew pictures(! phew!)  And after everyone else had gone to the truck, (and we still had 30 minutes on the clock) I asked the dentist to take a look at a tooth that was bothering Gene.  He opened his mouth for the dentist, allowing us to pock around in there and stood very still -- WOW!! (by the way, everything is okay with the tooth)
   Thursday:  Gene just walked right onto the bus this morning (lately he has been kindof slow about it and doesn't want to stop talking to me) - the bus driver made a comment how nice that was.  Gene had another good day at school.  He had a good afternoon too - played well at soccer too.  These past couple of days have seemed more like the "good ole Gene."  I did notice that he had missed a dosage of zinc on Monday... I need to bump up the zinc again, I think, and definitely get some more B vits into him.  Gene fell asleep for a while after BG Club on the way to soccer, but then was up very late (very unusual!).  At BGC, they gave him an apple pie (which I am sure was not in his diet) - ack! I immediately pumped him with enzymes...I will need to talk with them again...I know they are trying to be kind by giving him a snack...they must be forgetting about his diet...
   Friday:  Last day of Erin staying with us.  She has been with us for the past month.  I am interested to see if there is any change in Gene.  He has seemed more stressed this past month; probably the change in environment & dynamic (ie Erin and Rebecca playing together can be pretty wild and loud) and having to do more sharing.  Started Gene's 15th Round of ALA . There was no social today due to rain.
 Saturday:  See Gene's Soccer page for pix on his game today.  He made his first goal of the season today! Yea!