Praise Report & Prayer Request for Julia Headley
Watching God Perform a Miracle
To our wonderful family, friends and church family, praise God Almighty and our Lord Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit who can do all things!!
As you all know we have struggled for many years watching and helping sweet Julia struggle against this curse of “autism” (she’s 10 now). My favorite Bible verse is Romans 8:28 “For God uses all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose”. This has brought us a continuing measure of comfort through this trial as we knew that God was maturing the three of us (Peggy, Hannah & I) in Christ and doing much in others lives through Julia’s life.
We and many of you have prayed persistently for Julia for many years much like the persistent widow in Luke 18. We are now in the process of watching God do a miracle in our lives and we thank God and you all each one for each prayer that you have petitioned on behalf of Julia and our family. God bless you!!
On Thursday 05-29-08 Julia and Peggy met with Dr. Kendal Stewart and his team in Austin, TX. Julia took a battery of high-tech tests. Dr. Stewart met with us (I participated via conference call) and he explained Julia’s condition. His assessment and explanation were very logical and made total sense although we may not articulate them as well as Dr. Stewart. We will briefly explain this as best we recall and understand.
Julia has a group of symptoms categorized by many as “autism” but is more accurately described as a sensory integration disorder. However, these symptoms are caused by an underlying problem. The doctor believes that her condition may be caused by viruses attaching to and inflaming the nerves in the vestibular region of her inner ears/brain (potentially from childhood vaccines like chicken pox, rubella, etc.). It could also be fungal/bacterial, heavy metals or related to hormone imbalances.
The analogy that he used was that Julia’s brain was like a good working computer with faulty software. He said that he thinks the ears don’t communicate with each other and the brain properly causing people with her symptoms not to process information properly. He said that he thinks the broad spectrum of autistic symptom presentations in people including profoundly autistic, high functioning autistic, Aspergers, ADD, ADHD, and dyslexia and others may be an interruption of the vestibular system at various stages of development. He said he thinks Julia’s IQ is approx. 120 but due to this condition the input from the world around her is faulty. As examples he said that many people with these symptoms (including Julia) can’t smoothly track moving objects visually, have increased peripheral vision input causing distraction in school and increased levels of audio perception (this and the fact that I’m a horrible singer may be why Julia tells me to stop singing….she also points and says, “You’re bad and you’ll always be bad!”.…a line from the Lilo & Stitch movie…LOL). Dr. Stewart told Peggy, to Julia it’s like the worst case of PMS that you could ever imagine where you can’t focus well and are irritable, but it happens every day! What’s worse is that these sensory perceptions vary dramatically day to day. Thus, your “normal” baseline of sensory inputs (your “reality”) yesterday is not your “normal” today. Just imagine how extremely difficult and frustrating it must be for Julia to try to learn. Additionally, her balance is not over her centerline of her body (it’s skewed right). There were many other aspects of Julia’s behavior/life and the tests that confirm this diagnosis, but to keep this semi-brief we won’t go there now.
He said that this condition is very treatable with anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory oral medications. He said that the next challenge is to determine why Julia is susceptible to these viruses etc. and correct that problem for long term recovery and development. Julia will soon have a battery of blood tests checking for numerous possible issues (allergies, genetics, hormone levels, etc. and a test for heavy metals. When these tests are complete, then we’ll address any other issues as they arise with other meds, hormones, diet, supplements, etc.
The bottom line is that Dr. Stewart told us with a great deal of confidence that “Julia has a 90% probability of growing up to be completely normal”. As he said, “I see her growing up to get married, having children and all of the things that everyone else does!” (I truly can’t tell you how wonderful and blessed those words are to us all).
Dr. Stewart advises that once we get her vestibular system squared away (this should take several months), then Julia’s development can catch up with other kids. He says that she could catch up a years’ worth of development delay in approx. four months. He said we should see improvements in her coordination first, then speech and other skills will improve later.
We are grateful beyond measure to God for giving the doctor the wisdom and capability to understand and treat this condition and leading us to him.
However, we still need your help!! Please continue to pray specifically for the following:
- That God would complete the great miracle of healing and development that He has started in Julia (healing the nerves in her ears/brain).
- For Godly wisdom, discernment and direction for Dr. Kendal Stewart and his staff (and us) and Godly favor by them all for Julia and our family.
- For grace, peace, blessing and annointing for Julia and us as we walk through this journey.
- That God would receive all praise, honor and glory for what is accomplished.
Thank you all for your prayers and love for us. May God bless you all!
Brad, Peggy, Hannah & Julia
P.S. I also want to take this opportunity to extol the wonderful example of “Christ like” love and service that my wonderful wife Peggy displays every single day to Julia and all of us. It’s been amazing to watch how she handles Julia and her “autism”. She has great treasure stored up in heaven. We all love her very much for who she is!
Brad Headley
GIWTE #5 Table of Mark