PLEASE READ! Invitation for 2/22

February 21, 2007

I want to share an invitation I just received to meet with Matthew

Newell, the director of the Family Hope Center in Blue Bell.

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Greetings!

Many of you know my wife Tina & I have a one-year old daughter who

has had many medical challenges since the day she was born.

Seizures, enlarged adenoids/spleen/liver, low muscle tone, struggle

to gain weight, feeding tubes, incurable but containable thyroid

issues, basic blindness & deafness, and more.

We've had dozens and dozens of caring people involved, from doctors

and nurses to friends and family to total strangers—dispensing

medical help, giving of their time for Tori's therapy, bringing a

meal over and most definitely praying. We could not have gotten to

this point without all of those people (some of whom are reading this

email).

One particularly special group of people to Tina & I is the people at

the Family Hope Center (Blue Bell, PA; [

http://www.familyhopecenter.org/ ]www.familyhopecenter.org). They

specialize in brain-injured kids (although they help adults too) like

our Tori. The basic idea is instead of medicating or doing therapy

on the back end to help cope with a problem, go to the root (i.e.,

the brain) instead and see if you can get that fixed so that the

problem will lessen or in some cases even heal completely. I could

write a very long email about her first year of life and the

difference between the " standard " medical approach and what FHC does,

but let me give you one example:

Tori was diagnosed with a mild case of polymicrogyria when she was 2

months old. This meant she had " many little folds " on the surface of

her brain. The only clear " result " of this was seizures, and a fair

amount of them. She was given an initial prescription of

Phenobarbital to deal with the seizures, and for the most part it

worked. We had to up the dose a couple of times along the way to get

to the right place of controlling the seizures. We came across FHC

in late June 2006, several months after Tori had been taking the

Phenobarbital. As we got to know FHC, one thing they said was, " We

understand your desire to keep giving the Phenobarbital, because

seeing your daughter have a seizure is not pleasant…but do realize

that the Phenobarbital basically `drugs' her brain and slows it

down. The drug does not heal the reason behind the seizures (i.e.,

the polymicrogyria); it merely prevents her from having the

seizures. If you want the seizures to go away, the brain itself will

have to heal. But if you are `drugging' it, your brain will struggle

to ever heal. " FHC recommended we gradually wean Tori off the

Phenobarbital and closely monitor how she did. After 2.5 months,

Tori was totally off her Phenobarbital and having almost no seizures

at all. To this day, Tori rarely has a seizure. This was not

because our doctors at CHOP were mistaken about the seizures; they

were totally correct. But FHC's holistic treatment of Tori—including

nutrition, hyperbaric chamber sessions, and a specific program for

her all played a big role in her brain healing enough to Tori not

only not having seizures anymore, but her polymicrogyria is gone as

well!

The reason I'm writing is because we have the privilege of Matthew

Newell, the director of FHC, coming to our home tomorrow night

(Thursday 02/22 @ 8pm). If you have a child dealing with autism,

cerebral palsy, Down's Syndrome, epilepsy, or things like ADD & ADHD,

or in general have social & emotional problems, we want to invite you

to our home to hear Matthew speak (if you happen to be a medical

professional and would like to come simply to learn about what

they're doing at FHC, that's fine too) and see if you think FHC could

help your child. Some of you (or friends you know) have battled your

child's problems a long time. I know Tina & I feel like we've aged 4

years since just last summer, so if you are someone who's feeling

beaten down and tired by the struggles you've had, you're especially

encouraged to come.

Matthew is scheduled to be here 8pm-9pm, but if I know him, he will

stay as long as needed if you wanted to talk more about your child.

It is free of course, and we'll have some snacks. The main thing is,

if you—or someone you know could benefit—want to come, please just

email me to RSVP. I'll email you back to confirm and get you

directions (we live near the Willow Grove Mall in Montgomery

County). Please include a phone # I can reach you at and perhaps

both home & work emails so I can contact you after or during business

hours either tonight or tomorrow AM.

We have just been very blessed so far and want to open our home to

anyone—even a total stranger that you know (but we don't)—who might

be worn out by the struggles that autism et al mentioned above can

bring. I'm out the rest of the afternoon but will email you back

later tonight or whenever you happen to read this & contact me).

God bless you,

Timmy D

timmyd

P.S. The site for FHC is [ http://www.familyhopecenter.org/ ]

www.familyhopecenter.org; the site for our daughter—which I am behind

on updating—is [ http://www.toriisamazing.com/ ]www.toriisamazing.com.

P.P.S. The former chairman of the board for Chestnut Hill Hospital—

Dr. Linda Baker—quit at CHH to go to Family Hope Center because she

believed so much in what FHC is about…and she too may be on hand

tomorrow night for awhile.

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Jamie

mom of Devon, 3 y 10 m, 24 lbs, 35 1/4 in tall

seen by Dr. Ryan (GI), Drs. Spergel and Brown (Allergy) and

Michele Shuker (nutritionist) @ Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

(CHOP)

Eosinophilic Esophogitis, tested + March 2005 to wheat, eggs, dairy,

beef, peas, peaches

placed on elimination diet, no eos July 2005 or Sept 2005

March 2006 – 40 eos

G-tube placed 4/5/06, elemental diet - Neocate Jr

endoscopy 6/14/06 - no eos

trialed bananas, rice, chicken, carrots

endoscopy 8/2/06 - 1 eo

trialed apples, tomatoes, strawberries, white potatoes

endoscopy 10/6/06 - no eos

trialed pork, green beans, oats, pears

endoscopy 12/1/06 - 15 eos - lost pork, green beans, oats

GI appt 1/12/07: all blood levels normal, growth hormone normal,

diet assessment good, bone age = 2 yo

next step is rechecking endocrine

1/15/07 trialed white fish

1/24/07 trialed oranges

scoping 3/14/07

Erinbean · March 15, 2012

Hi! So I see that this post was sent years ago, and this reply may never be read, but I have a 2 year old with polymicrogyria and am considering hyperbaric therapy. It is not covered by insurance and very expensive, so I was just wondering if you feel your child experienced a lot of positive changes with the hyperbarics. Any input you have would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Erin