My wife and I were witnessing my son's condition going downhill and rapidly. He was seemingly turning into a wraith right before our eyes. Our parents and family were getting concerned as well. My parents live on the east coast and are always supportive of our situation and decisions in life but they being geographically far from us felt challenged to offer concrete help for my son. Not to say that they are not supportive, they are extremely supportive and we know they love us very much.
My wife's parents are very driven to support their family in every endeavor that they focus upon. They are originally from Bogota, Colombia, speak fluent spanish and are very well respected and connected with many influential and important people living in Bogota.
My wife's father is a cardiovascular-thoracic surgeon, he was extremely concerned about his grandson's condition. His professional experience in the medical industry really opened doors for us to be able to allow our son to be observed by the best neurologists in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Additionally, my mother-in-law has been through many experiences raising her three children, two of whom suffered many medical situations (other stories for other times). Her experiences with medical professionals in concert with difficult to manage disorders among family members drove her to apply some familial muscle (so to speak). Through some people that she knew from Bogota she heard of a doctor in Ecuador who was doing amazing things for patients suffering from an array of neurological disorders. Additionally, this doctor apparently specialized in patients that suffer from epilepsy and seizure disorders.
When my mother-in-law initially proposed the idea of taking my son to be treated by this doctor in Ecuador I was initially averse and skeptical of the information. I tried to listened with an open mind. Her proposal of taking my son, a four year old, half-way around the world to a third world nation seemed to be from left field. The proposal consisted mostly of testimonials and personal interest stories from the parents of children who have benefitted from this doctor's treatments. Now, parental testimonials make for nice stories but personal interest stories usually have a habit of interrupting the race while I'm in the middle of watching the olympics. Let's get back to the race already.
The problem with the initial proposal was not what the doctor was doing, nor the fact that it was half-way 'round the world in a third world nation. The problem was simply that for me there just was not enough empirical evidence. Without the empirical evidence I could not envision that this set of treatments would have any benefit. I mean just because it works on someone else does not necessarily mean that it would benefit my child and hey, you know what? Ecuador is not just around the next corner. If they wanted me to sign on to this thing from the "get go" they should have given me some kind of scientific empirical evidence, something, anything that I could work with. I want to see numbers, "show me the money" give me something. The one bit of information that allowed for me to continue to consider signing on to this trip was that the treatments are non-invasive to the patient and display virtually no side effects. So, my interest was piqued.
The proposal was initially made in late February - early March. For the next three months all I heard about was this miracle cure in Ecuador. Something akin to the fountain of youth or a magic wand. That I'm being foolish for not signing on. I even felt like I was forcing myself into the antagonist's role and I was becoming an adversary to the people that I loved the most in this world.
Well my son's condition was not getting any better and my wife was stressed out of her mind and I wasn't too much better either. Call it tenacity, call it being stubborn, call it an innate sense of impending doom, or spidey-sense, but my mother in-law eventually convinced (more like broke down) my wife that this trip would be vital to my son's existence.
It was just about the time that the fiasco with status epilepticus at the ER of UCLA Med. Ctr. was going on that my wife became determined to go with my son to receive treatment from this doctor in Ecuador. With or without me, she was going. It must have been her motherly instinct that kicked-in because she was driven like I've never seen her driven before.
The bottom line again was the treatments are non-invasive and there are virtually no side effects. So, when it's all said and done; even if my son shows no response to these treatments what-so-ever, bottom line is four easy words: at least we tried. The only thing we'd be out at that point would be the money it costs. And besides, my wife's parents were willing to fund the entire endeavor.
I am by nature a genuinely positive person and I can only take being a negative influence and a skeptic about a topic for so long. Besides, I love my wife very much and I love my son even more. So in late May I begrudgingly signed on to this trip. I still had no idea what this guy was about, nor what his treatments and procedures are about.
For all I knew he could have been a medicine man with some ancient spiritual cure. Was he going to boil up some toads tongues and iguana eyeballs, put it into a broth and make my son drink it down while reciting some ancient, cryptic incantations with several wise-ones dancing around a bonfire? I had no idea and neither did my wife and in-laws.
So, I signed up for a trip virtually blind to the nature of the treatments. All I knew at this point was I was going to be putting my son up for experimentation from a doctor half-way round the world with just about no empirical evidence that his treatments were going to do anything at all.
In all fairness they told me that this doctor is a neurophysiologist and he conducts brain mappings on his patients. They further explained that they do Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment (HBOT) and they have several tools designed by the Russians that are very effective, but not understood by anybody but the doctor.
So down to Guayaquil, Ecuador we went...
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