Having our first appointment with Dr. Goldberg

I owe everything to a coworker of mine.  They brought to my attention Dr. Goldberg.  After filling out paper work for hours and getting it sent off, we finally got a call.  Our first appointment with Dr. Goldberg was July 19th, 2012.  He had scheduled us for an appointment for a SPECT scan on July 17th, 2012.

We spent 3 1/2 hours in the office with Dr. Goldberg.  He went over labs, SPECT scan and her whole history.  Looking at the SPECT scan was a little overwhelming.  But his words of "I know what is wrong with your daughter and I can help" can't be described to anyone that has not gone through this.

There is a virus in Sydney's brain that had caused the Autistic traits.  Also, parts were over stimulated and others inactive.  Dr. Goldberg felt that Sydney never was autistic.

One question I've always had was why hadn't anyone ever done a scan of Sydney's brain before.  I had asked the neurologist when she was diagnosed but was told that was NOT necessary.   Remember that was 3.5 years ago.  Recently I'd been reading about psychological diagnosis, which is where Autism is lumped in with, could be seen in brain scans.  Such as bipolar, depression, ADD, schizophrenics and such.  So why has autism NOT been a part of these scans?

The virus is called Herpes 6 or the technical name HHV-6.  We started her on Valtrex on July 21st, 2012.  This would start what is called the dyeing off period.  It lasts up to 3 1/2 weeks and makes them very cranky.  On day 4, her older sister Zoe announced the medicine must be working.

We also were instructed to change her diet.  We didn't know how much more restricted we could go.  She already couldn't have soy, dairy, gluten, preservatives, dyes.  Now they wanted to restrict any thing berry, tropical fruit, coconut, and we still aren't sure we understand the whole thing.  So I take pictures of the ingredients label and email to the office for a ya or nay.  They do try to explain.  The reason for this is because of the over stimulated parts of her brain.  We want to try and calm them down so she can concentrate.  Dr. Goldberg was surprised that she has never had a seizure.  Her frontal lope were very over stimulated.