Darkness – Page 4 – thetruesuperman

The Real Superman Part XXI

The Real Superman Part XXBI

By Jeff King

It has been about a month since I last wrote on the blog. I have been busy working and also with college. I have also been looking into getting CBD oil legalized here in Maryland. One of my older son’s Nicholas most recently introduced me to a young man who is an advocate for NORML in Maryland. His name is Chris Hartsell and he has asked Terri and I to go down to Annapolis Maryland to sit in on a legislation session concerning the legalization of medical marijuana, but more importantly the CBD oil that we are so desperately trying to get for Dylan. I informed him that I would definitely be interested in this, and that I would like to bring Dylan as well and perhaps share our story with the Governor, and the legislative committee concerning this matter. We definitely have a story to tell and we want these lawmakers to hear it.

Although we are not currently member of NORML and after having hearing some of the chapters leaders testify on video in Annapolis, I actually see why many of them are not taken seriously; however, I intend to change that. If I am asked to testify, I believe I bring a personal and heart-felt story to the message of why this plant should be legalized, and made available to patients that are suffering from different ailments. As I have mentioned before, I do not use marijuana, nor do I even drink alcohol. I am not condemning anyone for what they may do though.

I have personally witnessed a few people who were dying of cancer, and even one person, who was very near to me die of AIDS. These people were in constant pain and I watched as these diseases ate away at their bodies and left them former shells of themselves. The friend who died of AIDS couldn’t eat, or do anything, because he was in such miserable pain. He began to smoke marijuana for the last six months of his life. Through this plant, he was able to get back some normalcy to his life. He could cope better with the pain, he also could eat, because it helped him with the nausea that he would get from his AIDS meds. Ultimately, he still died, but at least he lived his last days with some sort of peace.

I have researched many children and adults who have suffered from epilepsy and other ailments. The medicines that are prescribed to them is nothing more than legal poisons that have vicious and debilitating side effects. For example Dylan has to take two different medications to try to control his seizures, yet even these two medicines combined together working in concert with his VNS still doesn’t keep these vampires at bay. I call them vampires, because these seizures, and the medications used to combat them have robbed Dylan of his quality of life. The side effects for Keppra in children include sleepiness, accidental injury, hostility, nervousness, and weakness and even suicidal thoughts! Wow so my 12 year old son may or may not have thoughts of injuring, or killing himself? That is frightening! The side effects of Vimpat which by the way shouldn’t even be prescribed to any patient under 17 years of age, but because Dylan has intractable epilepsy, where no medication seems to work, he was prescribed this medication. The side effects include dizziness, spinning sensation, drowsiness, blurred/double vision, nausea, vomiting, tiredness, loss of balance or coordination, difficulty walking, shakiness (tremor), headache, or memory problems. I must say, he has lost a lot of his cognitive abilities, and there are days that he cannot walk at all. We witness the tremors, so this is a great medication for people! Now I get to CBD oil, AKA, Charlotte’s Web. I have researched hundreds of cases of children and adults who suffered from uncontrollable seizures, such as Dylan has. This oil has worked miracles in all the cases I have read about. I have talked to some of the parents via email and most of them said, that they’re not even sure that their child would be alive today if it wasn’t for this oil. “CBD oil or Realm Oil) for intractable seizures in children with Dravet Syndrome. These children can suffer 40 or more seizures per day; the seizures are often prolonged in length. The oil is made a from a special strain of marijuana called “Charlotte’s Web” that has extremely low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that leads to the “high”. However, the strain has elevated levels of cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-psychoactive component that has been shown to have a number of therapeutic benefits, including those that limit seizure activity. The oil is taken in an oral liquid form, not smoked like traditional marijuana. News media has showcased several families from states that do not allow the CBD oil. These families have moved to Colorado from their home states to access the oil legally for their children who suffer from the debilitating seizures”. (http://www.drugs.com/illicit/cannabis.html). I find it hard to believe that the Governor of Maryland, who by the way I voted for, who also has cancer hasn’t considered introducing this bill into legislation. Just today, I was sent an email from my friend Chris Hartsell informing me that the Anne Arundel County Executive that I also voted for has said that he would be against any legalization of medical marijuana, or any of it derivative’s. This fool doesn’t even realize how this could help Dylan and children like him. Hell this could help thousands of ill children as well as adults. These politicians would rather get behind big pharmacy and liquor than consider really helping their contingents that he promised to help for their vote. His banner reads, “People Before Politics” What a crock of BS. Steve! I say put your money where your mouth is and do the right thing for the people of the community. By being against this you are aligning yourself with the corporate clowns, who want to continue to push their poison on the people regardless of the harm that it is doing.

Before Dylan began to take this medication, he could run and play, he could talk and sing. He was a lively and charming little boy. Now he doesn’t talk. He hardly walks. His singing is replaced by unintelligible babble. We watched as our little boy slowly and quietly faded away, and was slowly replaced by a shadow of his former self! I ask you this, “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a serpent instead?” Matthew 7:10. My son can no longer ask me for a drink, or tell me he is hungry! The poison that he has had to ingest for the past 5 years has seen to that.

What parent would do whatever it takes to give their child a better quality of life? I know that me personally, I would tread through the flames of hell itself, if I thought I could find a cure for Dylan. There would be no mountain too high, nor a sea, or dessert to wide to cross. There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do for Dylan. This is just too important.

I am asking my friends, family, and acquaintances to please, please write, share and tell others about this important issue! I implore you! Thank you!

If you are in Maryland and can write the Governor on Dylan’s behalf, Terri and I would sure appreciate it. His email is http://governor.maryland.gov/mail/default.asp

If you’re a resident of Anne Arundel county, I am asking you to send Steve Schuh an email on Dylan’s behalf that email is Steven Schuh at exscu00@aacounty.org . We appreciate it.

These pics are before the Seizures and after the seizures

The Real Superman Part XIV

By Jeff King

About four months went by and Dylan was doing so well with the VNS. He had become very vocal, but still didn’t talk. We had to go up to his neurologist every two weeks to have his VNS adjusted. Right after his 4th adjustment Dylan began to have some real bad acid reflux. This became a big concern when the majority of the time he was spitting up bile. It began to take a toll on his teeth and the acid from his stomach began to eat away at the enamel. We voiced our concern to both his neurologist and his pediatrician. We also became quite concerned that this reflux would damage his esophagus.

We made an appointment with his neurologist and talked to him about our concerns. He set us up an appointment with a gastroenterologist from John Hopkins. She did several test on him and prescribed a medication that we would end up using for about 9 months. It was erythromycin. This was a small dosage that they used and in theory it was supposed to help empty the intestines and protect the esophagus from any damage that could be caused by the acid reflux. This really didn’t seem to work that well with Dylan and we had to now by bibs for him to wear, because his clothes were getting ruined because he would reflux all day. The teachers at his school brought in oversized buttoned up shirts that they would put on him to keep him from staining his clothing. This was a terrible time in Dylan’s life, because he couldn’t really eat much and we started giving him ensures and baby food to try to get him to eat without spitting everything up. Terri and I were sure that this was a side effect of the VNS, but Dr. Rubenstein continued to disagree with us, even after we had found some literature stating that fact. Dylan’s teeth had gotten so bad and although Terri would brush them daily, it didn’t really matter. They were all rotting out, because the acid from his stomach had just eaten through them.

We made an appointment at the University Of Maryland Dental Department. They would have to put Dylan asleep so that they could pull out his rotten teeth, which at least were still all of his baby teeth and they would try to treat him with some things that would prevent further damage to them, but they informed us that it wasn’t guaranteed and that we would definitely have to try to brush his teeth at least twice a day, but they recommended three times a day for him. This was almost physically impossible to do, because Dylan absolutely hated having his teeth brushed, or his mouth messed with at all. Dylan was very strong and he would fight hard to stop you from carrying out any plans to brush his teeth. It sometimes took the two of us just to hold him down to brush his teeth one a day and now they really wanted us to try to brush them three times a day.

The anesthesiologist put Dylan out and a team of Dental surgeons began to work on Dylan’s mouth. It took them about an hour and a half before they were done. They took him into recovery and sent for us. We went into his room and tried to wake him up. He wouldn’t budge. We waited about a half an hour and began to try to wake him again, but for the second time we were unsuccessful. He was out cold. We tried this several times for the next hour and a half. The nurse was in several times and tried to wake him too, but she too was unsuccessful. She checked his vitals and everything was fine, he just wasn’t ready to wake up yet. Terri and I did become concerned that maybe the anesthesiologist gave him too much anesthesia? We thought.

After several more unsuccessful attempts the nurse contacted the anesthesiologist who then decided that it was in Dylan’s best interest to stay at least overnight for observation. Terri stayed with him while I went home to attend my other children.

The next day he was released and was just fine. This was the first time that he had a hard time coming out of the anesthesia even though he had been put to sleep several times in the past.

Dylan continued to have the reflux and now the gastroenterologist advised us to consider letting her put in a feeding tube. She said that this would most likely stop the reflux. We left her office upset, because we didn’t want to put Dylan through anymore surgical procedures. We decided that we would have this procedure done, because Dylan had lost so much weight, he began to look like a skeleton with skin. He looked very sickly. Thank God our insurance dragged their asses to approve this procedure. We took Dylan to Dr. Rubinstein who wanted to make another adjustment to the VNS, but we told him NO! He was still having seizures, but we knew that the VNS was definitely the cause of his reflux, because he didn’t have it before the VNS. We finally got approved for the feeding tube and were making preparations to have the gastroenterologist do the surgery, but she happened to be on vacation, so it would be at least another 2 months before we could schedule the surgery. Within that two months something miraculous happened; the reflux, which had come on so suddenly after all the adjustments with the VNS seem to vanish after we stopped his neurologist from adjusting the damned thing. We decided to postpone the feeding tube indefinitely!

For the next several months Dylan continued to gain weight. He started looking healthy again. He no longer looked sickly. He was having seizures, but not like he had before the VNS. He was having more absence seizures where he would just fall out and hit his head and face. We decided to contact Dr. Rubinstein about ordering a helmet for Dylan. (To be continued.)

A Journey of Next

When you’re on the journey of God’s next. The road is not always easy. You see God will take you through the wilderness where you’ll encounter all types of hardships. We quite often want to stay in the bondage of the old, because it is hard, but at least we know what we have. Many stay where they’re content, because it’s just easier that way. Most people are afraid to start a new journey, because they are afraid of the unknown, they’re afraid of the struggle before them. Many who do partake on a new journey is often met with what they believe to be unsurmountable odds. They cry out for food and water and safety, because at least where they were offered that to them. Where they’re headed is an unseen land and often the road is narrow and dark. We quite often travel through barren wastelands where there seems to be no promise of a new and brighter day. Quite often we climb hazardous mountains on our journey to the next; forging our way through the roughest terrain that we could ever imagine. We want it easy, but no greatness comes so cheaply. Greatness cost us everything. We want to learn our lessons without sacrifice without hardship, without going through the darkness. We want to sit atop of the apex and look out over the valley to see what awaits us on God’s journey of next. God knows that we can never learn what He is trying to teach us if we stay atop the mountain. He knows that the valleys and the deepest shadows are where we learn the most. We learn to trust, to wait, to hope to endure, through our deepest and darkest moments in our lives. A wise man knows that the journey through life is just that a journey. We were never meant to become content with where we are at, but look forward with hope to the next part of our journey. When life for me here has ended, I do not believe that my journey will end at death, but it will be the next leg of this journey that we are all on. We cannot see that side of eternity, but we look on with expectant hope that our journey to God’s next awaits us there. Sometimes the journey is thrust upon us. We are taken out of our comfort zone and are forced to begin a new journey; not a journey we would have chosen for ourselves. 12 years ago Terri and I were forced upon a journey that I am sure that we would have never chosen for ourselves. We were young and inexperienced when Dylan was born. We were parents, but could have never imagined the journey that awaited us with Dylan. He has been our guide through this journey. We have learned so much along the way. I decided to go into special education, because of Dylan. I am no longer content with just teaching children with special needs. I now want to be able to do more for my son, other children and adults that have special needs. I want to be their voice, their advocate. I want to be a defender of the defenseless! I want to be able to fight for their rights. See the thing is when you’re on a journey, you get hungry. You need sustenance. You look forward to crawling and scraping through the wilderness, you know that shadows and darkness awaits you, but you also know that shadows cannot exist without light. That light is what keeps you going. You know when you reach the top of that mountain you have a meeting with the Almighty and he is giving you another set of marching orders to carry out! Then it’ll be onto the next journey! A wise man once said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I say enjoy the journey.

The Real Superman Part XII

By Jeff King

We began hearing a term called VNS. This procedure was supposed to be working miracles for people who suffered from intractable epilepsy. I didn’t even know what VNS was, let alone how it was done, so I began to research it. I went to the Epilepsy website and began to read about this new and innovative procedure that was helping tens of thousands of people who suffered from epilepsy. They termed this new procedure as, “the pacemaker for the brain” (Schachter, 2013). This device is placed under the skin on the left side of the chest. The wire runs to the Vagus nerve which is a part of the autonomic nervous system. This nerve controls functions of the body which are not under voluntary control. The neurologist sets the devices impulse to send a small jolt of electricity to the Vagus nerve. In theory this can stop a seizure from happening. You are also given a magnet that you can use for any onset signs of seizures, or when a seizure comes on. You placed the magnet over the stimulator outside the chest and in theory, it stops the seizure. You can learn more about it at http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/treating-seizures-and-epilepsy/devices/vagus-nerve-stimulation-vns. This sounded wonderful, a very promising weapon against seizures. The more I read about it as well as testimonies from patients and parents and family members of patients the more I liked it. My wife had also checked it out and we were determined to talk to Dr. Rubenstein about it.

On Dylan’s next appointment to see him he asked us how everything had been going for Dylan, we explained how Dylan just laid around very lethargic and was continuing to have up to 40 seizures a day even on the medicine. We asked him to help us order a special wheelchair for Dylan, because, I could no longer carry him around because, he was getting so heavy, plus he was dead weight. He agreed and put a request into Medicaid. He started talking about maybe introducing a new medication into the mix. Terri and I quickly cut him off and almost in unison said that we wanted to try the VNS on Dylan. He listened patiently and then said, “I couldn’t agree more.” I am glad that you both are very pro-active in Dylan’s health and you both are well informed. I definitely believe that he is an excellent candidate for this procedure.” We talked a little more about it and he gave us all the details about what to expect and what side effects could also occur with this procedure. We all came to the agreement that Dylan would be fitted with the VNS and we began to plan the date of his procedure. His surgery was set for December 22nd, 2011. Which was about three months away.

Medicaid had approved him for his wheelchair, which was great for us, because now we were able to go to the store and take Dylan in with us. Before that I would sit in the car with him while Terri went inside to do the grocery shopping, which was okay, but I believe it was better if Dylan was able to go into the stores too. I mean his life consisted entirely of laying around having seizures. He no longer watched any TV. He was just there. It sounds cold and harsh, but that’s the best way I can describe him. I can tell you as a father, I cried many tears as I watched him slowly disappear his whole personality was vanquished. It was a very sad and horrible existence that he was living. I thought about the Metallica song “One” “Darkness imprisoning me All that I see Absolute horror I cannot live I cannot die Trapped in myself Body my holding cell” (James Hetfield Lars Ulrich, 1993).

I thought how sad, his body was his holding cell! This made me weep hot tears of sorrow ran down my face! I was sure hoping that the VNS would deliver my son from that darkened abyss that he disappeared into.

When we got his wheelchair we decided to go shopping at our local grocery store. I got the chair out of the trunk and set it up. I got him out of the back seat and placed him in his chair. We went grocery shopping. He just sat there impassively, but at least he was out and about, so that was a good thing. We finished shopping and we go outside. I was pushing Dylan and Terri was pushing the shopping cart. There was a car blocking the handicap aisle that was in front of the store. Terri yelled out, “How rude!” The driver of the vehicle pulled up out of the way, but started cussing us out. I told the lady that she didn’t want to mess with my wife and that she was illegally parked there anyway. She got out of her car, but stood inside her car door and hurled insults at us. Then she says to me, “You’re not even a real man, because you couldn’t even create a whole child!” Man I was enraged, but Terri was twice as angry. She wanted to go after this vulgar extremely evil women, but she didn’t. She just walked away! What an offensive wicked thing she had said! I am not going to lie, I cursed her and said that one day, that she would reap what she had sown. She reaped hate she will definitely sow that same hate! This was just another of the many incidents we would have along this journey. The hate and the evil that spews from the mouth of people against people with special needs, children with special needs! I never hated anyone in my entire life, but as God is my witness, if that woman would have choked to death on her hateful words, I would have begun to cheer right then and there. Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t wish those type of things on anyone, but it was very hurtful. It just made me hurt for my son and I just couldn’t believe this woman would say such an ugly thing about a child. (To be continued.)