How do you know?

I thought I had covered this topic already, but after looking back through the old posts apparently I just skimmed over the details....thus, I'll take a moment to answer one of the many questions I've been asked over and over throughout the years. This topic has been a huge "debate" over the years and always seems to get brought up for discussion among the many autism groups I'm on....thus I will tackle it now. 

"How do you KNOW that vaccines caused your son's Autism?" 

I know this topic has been debated and discussed over and over.....I know there have been many conflicting studies & reports, however regardless of what the "experts" claim to have proven....I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that vaccines WERE the cause of Taz's Autism, and I have the "proof" to back that up.

As I've said before, Taz received the 2-year shots TWICE....a month apart. Prior to that, he was "normal" -- age level and above in all areas of development. Also, prior to that he had a full blood workup done....I forget why, but his first doctor had ordered a crap load of blood work and I have a copy of the lab results. After all of this happened (the development of Autism), the doctor we switched to (doctor "M") and I were discussing my suspicions, and he agreed with me and the theory that the vaccines could be the culprit or as he termed "the trigger" that started this whole snowball rollin'....thus he ordered a full blood work lab set or whatever you want to call it, to be done on Taz. I also have a copy of the results of that lab work.

One thing we discovered.....Taz's lead/mercury levels were very high in the second set of labs compared to what had been done the first time around. There was no logical reason as to why.....nothing to explain what may have caused this result. There were a few other things as well, but this was the one fact that really jumped out at doctor "M" and I.....and as we all know, big pharm used to put mercury in these immunizations....specifically a substance called "trimerithol" (or something like that, forgive my spelling)...yet that substance isn't used now, or at least not as high of a level of it. Aside from having a copy of all of Taz's medical records up to this point, I also have the batch #'s from every single immunization he's ever received.

Thus after lots of time spent studying Taz's records and what was right in front of us in black & white on his charts, doctor "M" and I came to the conclusion that yes the duplicate immunizations WERE the cause of this. Perhaps there were other factors that helped to influence it, but the duplicate immunizations were the reason, or the smoking gun as some term it....like the second gunman on the grassy knoll. As I said, I know about the studies, etc -- and perhaps this isn't the "smoking gun" or the case for other children with Autism, however in our situation it is. I've looked over the labs, his medical chart, everything that has happened from point "A" to point "Z"....and know in my heart beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was the cause, this was the factor, this was whatever you want to term it. I have a giant 3-drawer file cabinet that is FULL of stuff about Taz -- medical documents, everything from when he was first diagnosed, copies of school papers, IEP's, etc -- you name it, it's in the file somewhere.

And the frustrating part? I can't do a damn thing about it.....the damage has already been done. There is no way to go back and turn back the clock, reverse what happened. I've already discussed my feelings regarding the doctor who made this "oops" by giving Taz the duplicate immunizations, so I won't go into all of that again....suffice to say, even if I could take some type of legal action against that doctor, it wouldn't make a difference -- the damage has already been done. Big deal if he could have lost his license, big deal if I could have sued him for a buttload of money....none of that would help Taz.....none of that would change what happened. Thus when people start to debate what causes Autism, I'm always happy to share our story....while it may not be the case with every child, I definitely believe that vaccines and more specifically the stuff that they put into them, are one of the triggers for other kids....perhaps others are environmental, or genetic, or something like the crap they used to put in children's Tylenol (fever med) or in baby formula or plastic baby bottles....who knows, but the stuff in vaccines is definitely a trigger....and in our case, not only was it a trigger but it was the bullet that was fired from the smoking gun. And as a result, our son's life has been forever changed.....

Now with that said, others have asked: "so are you against vaccines?" and my response to that is a loud and clear "Hell NO!".....why you ask? Well I do agree that vaccines are important, however I feel that they should be broken up or split and not given so much at once....a little baby's body can not handle having that much "junk" put into it in such a short time, especially when things are still in the development stage. I think back to when I was a kid, we didn't get this many shots....our parents allowed us to build our immune systems more. There wasn't a "pill" for every little issue....we didn't run to the doctor's every time we had the slightest cough or sniffle. And, our food was more "natural" than what's on the market today.....there weren't a ton of chemicals, red dye # whatever, preservatives, etc. in our foods like there are today. My mother cooked with lard not EVOO....we ate red meat, we ate bacon, we ate a LOT of home grown garden vegetables that were grown from seeds that hadn't been "genetically modified". I know another subject on the debate has been all of the pesticides and stuff like DDT.....people can point the finger and debate this topic until they are blue in the face. The bottom line though -- we need to look at EVERYTHING, big pharm needs to stop trying to blame everything else and actually look at all of these drugs and vaccines honestly, and both sides need to work together to figure out what is the cause (or if there are several factors).

When we first began this journey, the statistics were something like 1 out of 1,000 or some huge number like that....now it is 1 out of 10 children, specifically 1 out of 4 boys. IMHO that is a HUGE change over the past 10 years....the number of kids developing this disorder is increasing. Is that due to better detection and testing, or due to the actual factors/smoking gun things? Who knows, I'm not a scientist....but something has to be done, and soon. The one thing I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt is, in our situation....the vaccines were the "trigger" and nothing will ever change that fact.