Genetic Testing and the Role It Plays in Treatment Strategies

We did Genesight testing on our trickiest kid and today I discuss the results and how they are informing our treatment plans. I also share how hard things have been and how we are trying to put one foot in front of the other.

A Podcast for People Raising Tricky Kids

Transcript

  📍  📍  📍  📍   Hi, everyone. Welcome back to where the F is my village. Um, today you're just going to get me. I really wanted to kind of talk about how things are going in my household and how I'm doing. So, um, right this second, I feel like I'm doing great. A couple of days ago, I was having a really hard time. I would say the last couple of weeks I've been having a hard time.

Um, I feel like there's a saying that, like, a mom is only as happy as their least unhappy kid or something like that. I'm probably doing a poor translation of that. Um, so, you know, one of my kids is having a really hard time. And so as a result, I am having a really hard time. And I think. Part of the overwhelm is I just have been like, I have done all of the things that I know how to do, I don't know what to do next.

So, um, and then there's also the overwhelm of, you know, we don't just have one kid, we have three kids. And so other kids are struggling in other ways. Um, it's kind of like which fire is burning the hottest. So... As you guys know, I, my trickiest kid, we've just been on a journey ever since we discovered that he has ADHD, uh, when he was like four.

And then, it took us, uh, a few years, frankly, to figure out that he had anxiety. And so the typical treatment for ADHD is going to be a stimulant. And there's kind of two main character, uh, or columns of stimulants. There's the kind of that increases, um, those dopamine, uh, production. And then there's the kind that kind of blocks the sucking away or clearing away of dopamine.

Um, and there's probably more to it. Okay, this is just my layman's term, uh, layman's way of explaining it. So anyway, so my son has been on a medication that basically reduces the uptake or the clearing out of dopamine. And as a result, it is supposed to Help with all of the ADHD symptoms like lack of impulse control and um, memory and you know, executive function and focus and you know, control of their body and all of these things.

So that's what the medication is for. Um, it usually is associated with hyperactivity. Um, I have one ADHD kid that has hyperactivity and I have one that it's more the impulse control and it's a lot of internal stuff, almost more like, um, what is typically a female presentation, honestly, where a lot of the ADHD is happening inside and not pouring out.

I think all of the external stuff that we see walking around is anxiety anyway. We did some genetic testing. We did the genetic testing because I have been out of ideas. We kind of keep having situations where, you know, the anxiety is the biggest deal. Like, the fact that he can't multiply at this point, I just don't freaking care.

Like, he's gonna have an eye fill in the rest of his life. We're gonna have to figure that out, right? And he will eventually learn how to multiply. But the thing that is the chief complaint in medical terms is the anxiety. It's just the hardest part of what we're dealing with right now. It is becoming a minute to minute issue.

It's very apparent every night as the day winds down, you know, and everything gets quieter. The anxiety is kind of, and all that buzzing that is happening in his body is just sky rockets. So we're trying to figure all that out. So I'm Anyway, so we had some genetic testing done. The site, the test that we use is called gene site and guys, the genetic testing and the science behind it is just, it's very new.

So as I talk about this information, I want you to keep in mind that There is some division in the medical community as to, you know, how informative these tests really are. They, I think, you know, it's probably important to have, uh, some caution when looking at the results and not just like liver dying by them.

Um, you know, I think also though they provide. You know, some information, um, another layer of stuff, you know, because when you're dealing with a kid or really anybody, I guess, with ADHD, anxiety, depression, anything like that, you're just dealing with symptoms, right? So you're saying he is displaying this behavior and I'm trying to figure out what am I attributing that behavior to?

Am I attributing it to ADHD? Am I attributing it to anxiety? Is there something we haven't, hasn't even occurred to us yet that can be happening? And for the longest time, we were really focused on ADHD and not anxiety, and then we pivoted and realized anxiety was kind of the, the hardest part of his life, dealing with the anxiety.

So, okay, so we get the test results back. First of all, it's really interesting. It goes through. Um, just the various medications, types that treat behavioral health. So, you know, you've got your typical, um, antidepressants, it's got your antipsychotics, it's got your stimulants, um, mood balancers. That's not the right word, but you know what I mean, but the medications that are for mood disorder, so those are all on there.

And it's just mostly looking at your DNA, your genes, and how well they'll metabolize medications. This is why people are a little skeptical, because it's like, well, maybe you metabolize something really slowly, but that doesn't mean that that drug might not be a good fit for you. So, that's where some of the medical community is a little iffy on the, like, it associates them into a green or yellow and a red column.

And green, The genes in your body seem to metabolize it well, yellow, um, it kind of has like little asterisks where it says like maybe this one you, um, it'll interact with other thing, or maybe if you're a smoker you won't be able to uptake this well, and then red is like your metabolism's not great for this one, you know, might want to avoid it.

So, you know, two medications that we have tried in the last 18 months were in the red. And it's so fascinating to me. It's just so fascinating. One of them we tried a year and a half ago, and he only took two doses, and it was one of the hardest weekends we've ever had. And then, a couple weeks ago, They took another one that's in the red column, tried it for a week, and it was, his anxiety was just off the charts.

So we didn't, we stopped taking that. So both of those were in the red column. There's like 20 options in the green column. So I just look at this and I'm like, God, I wish we had this information two years ago. We never would have tried worst weekend of our life pill. We could have skipped that. That trauma, the trauma on him.

How he felt, how we all had to handle it, you know, because like there's medications that I've taken before for, uh, migraines and honestly for depression and anxiety. And, um, I remember one medication I took for migraines. I think I took two doses and I think Casey was ready to ask me to move out because of just, and I knew.

Enough to know, like, I am really not being nice, but I also, it was just, I was, it was like, I was, I was sunburned, like I was just speaking off the cuff, no filter, not nice. So this can, these medications can do this to anybody. So, God, it would have been really nice if we had known this information before we kind of started our medication journey.

And like I said, it's not like, in concrete. What this medication, you know, what these tests say, and I am just beginning my journey of understanding them, but I thought that information was helpful. A couple of the medications we have tried before that worked for a really long time and then stopped working.

That was interesting. They were in the yellow column. Um, for like how he metabolizes medication and how it might build up in his system. I thought that was interesting because if it's building up in his system, then eventually we're going to have some bigger side effects, right? Um, the medication that I take, the way it's dosed, you can take three pills a day.

They don't have like one pill for anyway, I've take three pills instead of one. And there are days where I can tell it's built up in my system and I'm feeling jittery or maybe I'm not sleeping well. So the next day I might just take two. This is not medical advice, everybody. I'm not saying this is what you should do, but I just know that the medication is building up in me, and I haven't really gotten it all out of my system, and so I'm feeling jittery, so I usually back it off for a day, and then I'm usually fine by the next day.

Anyway, it's all about your metabolism, and I have talked to my doctor about doing this, so like, you really shouldn't just decide you're going to mess with your antidepressants. But anyway, another thing that it tested for was the COMT gene and the MTHFR gene. Um, The MTHFR one, I just feel like it looks like it says mother, effer, like that's just what it looks like to me, and it's basically, I'm gonna, okay, just in the interest of being scientifically accurate, I'm going to read the scientific definition from the report on what it says it is.

So, bear with me, I gotta find the page. This document is 13 pages long. So, it is very, very detailed. So, for the, uh, where is the piece of paper? Um, for the MTHFR, if I'm even saying that right, gene, he's in the yellow column, which means he is heterogeneous. He has one copy. Of this particular abnormality and it affects how he, oh my God, it's on the top.

It is this top page because I took them out of order. I'm losing my mind. Okay. Okay. It is the MTHFR gene. And he has reduced folic acid conversion. And that folic acid, from what I have read, it sounds like it's really important to just metabolize anything. And that if you're not metabolizing folic acid, um, folic acid correctly, it can affect your mental health.

So, I thought that was interesting. There is a very specific supplement that we can take for that. The other gene that people are not really talking about, that I had never heard of, like never, never heard of, is the COMT gene. It's referring to the catch all O methyltransferase gene. Basically, how your body clears medications or all of the different chemicals that are running around in your brain.

How does your body clear it? This particular kid, according to the genetics, he makes a lot of dopamine. Surprise! He makes a lot of dopamine, and his body doesn't clear the dopamine well. Okay, if you can imagine my shock at the fact that I have been giving this particular child a stimulant to increase dopamine production and reduce It wearing off.

So the uptake is where it like is cleaning it out. All right, so we've been slowing that down five years he has Apparently a ton of dopamine I'm just sitting here going but everything we were going off of was symptoms not scientific data so What's interesting is he has the, what they call the worrier version of this gene.

You can also have the warrior, like fighter, version of this gene. Duh, he has the worrier gene. His anxiety is off the charts. They did a study on people and people with this particular worry gene were startled more easily, um, became stressed. Way more easily. Also, after they encountered stress, it took them a lot longer to kind of get back to normal because it's taking their body a long time to process those chemicals and get rid of them.

And If you have too much dopamine, it can lead to a lot of conditions, including surprise anxiety. So, you guys, I don't have all the answers yet. I have spent probably 20 hours, and I'm not exaggerating, trying to understand what these genetic tests mean. Because the test result just says the patient is homogeneous for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

It doesn't say what this could mean is, and as this stuff is explained in various places, they're not making it like, um, you know, do you have a degree in acting? This is written for you. So I've had to like put my scientist hat on and I've had a zillion tabs open and I have been researching. Sometimes I just like, okay, I don't even know what that word means.

I'm gonna have to look the word up to understand what this is doing. And God bless our psychiatrist because I have been emailing her and saying, I'm sorry, I'm freaking out. This is saying that his body produces a lot of dopamine and does a terrible job of cleaning it out. And we have been giving him medications to stimulate dopamine production and reduce its uptake, reduce its leaving the body.

And he's already terrible at clearing dopamine out of his body. He still has ADHD. Like, I wish it was like, Oh my God, he doesn't even have ADHD. I think he still does. But, we've been like, our approach has been a disaster. And, this poor kid has been taking a medication that maybe it's been helping his focus at school.

But honestly, he's the most focused at school when his anxiety is under control. So, okay. All that to say, guys, like... I'm not going to get into the other 13 pages of this test. It's really specific to my kid, right? But what's fascinating to me was that this test has been around for a few years. It has some competition.

I think Genesight has probably just done a ton of marketing. So it's Uh, you know, like our psychiatrist had heard about it. And it's funny, because we had talked about it a couple months ago, and she's like, There is this test we can run. Because I said, I wish there were just a test. I wish you could, like, draw blood, or stick them in an MRI machine, or something.

So we know what we're doing. And she said, Well, there is this one test, but honestly, like, You kind of have to take the results with a grain of salt. And she said, It's really expensive. And I was like, Oh, okay. Uh, Anyway, and then one of my friends a couple weeks ago saw one of my posts or maybe listen to the podcast and she said, you know, Um, you know, my child had such bad anxiety.

They weren't attending school and we did this test and it really helped isolate what kind of medication was necessary. So I went back and researched it and then went back to our psychiatrist and was like, please just run it. Supposedly, according to their marketing data. The most out of pocket anyone should pay is like three hundred and thirty dollars.

I think they bill like 5, 000 I Haven't gotten a bill yet. So TBD on whether I were paying as quote unquote low as 330 but I just feel like more data is more data. And rather than just looking at symptoms and taking guesses, if we can look at an individual's genes and have some, like, less anecdotal solutions.

It's, it's, my brain is blown. Like, I honestly, on Tuesday, I was so discouraged because I didn't, we had done, like we'd sent the test off or whatever. It's just a cheek swab. Um, we didn't have the data back yet and I had already been warned, like, if you're not, I'll be all that helpful. And I was just sitting like I couldn't even motivate myself to look up one more thing to turn the TV on to read.

I wasn't even like scrolling through social media. I just sat and kind of. Stared blankly at the space in front of me. Cause I was just thinking like, I don't know what to do next. And my kid is to the point where he can articulate and say, I hate feeling this way. I don't want to feel this way. I want to feel better.

Is there anything else we can be doing? And I'm sitting there like, Oh my God, I don't know. So it's been a little bit of a rollercoaster ride. We went to go see an integrated medicine doctor this week. It's kind of a, like, more holistic approach. We didn't have the testing back yet, and we were talking with her.

And she said, it just sounds like his body isn't, like, clearing all of these chemicals very well. And he needs help with the metabolism. You guys, she hadn't even seen that stuff yet, and he wasn't with us. This is just me and Casey describing our situation. So I emailed earlier that day, and I was like,  we got our testing back, and guess what? It, all signs point to the fact that he isn't metabolizing this stuff well. He's not clearing it well. The issue is he's making dopamine, but it's just hanging out forever, piling on top of each other, and making him anxious, and making his stress response It's way too big for, you know, reality.

So that was interesting. So we started, um, like a supplement that's supposed to help, uh, liver and kidney function and you know, clear stuff out. Honestly, I haven't even taken the time to research it. Several integrated medicine doctors have the same little dropper that you put a drop of under your tongue on their website.

Okay, seems safe ish enough. Um, and we are going to be doing brain mapping in a week. It's just an EEG that kind of tells you what parts of his brain is lighting up and what isn't and how all the different wavelengths are going in his brain. Apparently there's alpha and delta and five other ones that I can't remember off the top of my head.

And so it's gonna look at that. And then depending on what it says, we're going to try neurofeedback. Neurofeedback is probably more divisive in the medical community than the genetic testing that we did. So, um, my opinion, honestly, is mixed. What I can say is that we're sitting here. Realizing that we don't have a pharmacological, medicational, I don't think that's the word, solution right now.

And he's not metabolizing them well. They seem to be making everything more disruptive. And I mean, I'm out of ideas. And this particular one, neurofeedback, It's either going to work or it's not going to work and it's just going to be waste of a very big pile of money. So basically the theory behind it is that your, your brain basically, if you, you know, have anxiety or ADHD or PTSD or insomnia or 20 other different things that your brain, you know, just, Isn't communicating well, the right wavelengths that are supposed to send back and forth or whatever.

And I'm sorry, I'm totally screwing up explaining this, but basically your brain isn't working that great. And it may, it could, things could be, could be working more smoothly. And what he's going to be doing is he's going to have like a cute little cap with a bunch of wires on it. And they're going to be, they're going to know based on the evaluation from the, I'm sure very expensive software of the map of his brain.

they're gonna know what wavelengths need to be improved. And he's supposedly gonna just be watching a movie with a little cap on and if he isn't working, I don't know, if his brain's not working optimally, the movie will actually start to get darker and his brain will have to change the way it's working in order for the Images on the screen to be bright enough that he can watch and they will be adjusting this live in person.

Like it's not automated or anything. We picked this particular place cause this person has a PhD in this type of thing. Um, and it was important to me that we go to, I don't know, the best expert we can find in this. So the tricky thing about this is it's really crazy, super expensive. No summer vacation expensive, but, and you need to do it like probably 20 to 30 sessions or more to even know if it's working.

So it's not like you can like do 10 sessions and go, it's not working, and quit. Um, so we're

trying that now. We're stopping the stimulant. that increases the dopamine. And, okay, I'm sorry. I have no idea how interesting this is to literally anyone listening. It may be too like very focused on one particular person in my family. I think what villagers will relate to is the feelings of just Helplessness and that I feel like everybody that we have worked with in the past six or seven years has given the best medical or scientific opinion that they could.

I think everyone has had great intentions. I haven't. really associating mental health and behavioral health. I haven't really dealt with anybody that I wanted to be like, you know what? Screw you. Like, you don't know what you're doing. We've had a great team and it has continually changed when I felt like, okay, this person's out of ideas.

I need to move on to the next thing. And this far in, we're still just like, We're still trying to figure it out and it's, it's just really overwhelming. I feel like I could read genetic studies and medication explanations and Like, my brain would melt and I'm just trying so hard to understand stuff that isn't anything that I was trained to read.

Um, thank goodness I'm related to a former pharmacist. I called her today and was like, Can I just say how I think this medication is working and you tell me if I'm right? Like, I just want to make sure that it makes sense what I'm saying because he's, we're stimulating dopamine, dopamine production. And it clearly, according to his genetics, he already makes enough.

She cautioned me that the genetics and the identification of genes and gene mutations is further ahead of the science of what to do with the information. So, you know, they can identify a gene and they can sort of say, like, take these supplements or whatever. But, um, we're not quite to the part where we know for sure what.

To do with the information. So, I have a healthy skepticism, but I just needed a next step. And, you know, I,

it's really hard to accept

this. Um, lately I've been stuck on this isn't fair. This isn't fair for me. It isn't fair for him. It's not fair for the rest of the family. And that's not like the most healthy way to think. But if I'm completely honest, I have just been stuck in the like... Other families can just like... Pick their kids up from school or sports and say, Hey, you guys want to grab dinner on the way home?

And, like, that goes well.

Um, I, and I know like behind, just like behind our facade of whatever, you know, we don't know what's going on at everyone else's house. You know, my friend who reached out to me and told me about this genetic test, I had no idea that this was something they were going through a year ago. So, it just kind of looks like everybody's doing well.

But, you know, it's, you just sit here and just, there's a jealousy, frankly, of what it seems like it's like in other households. And there's a jealousy. Of like, gosh, if I weren't incredibly consumed with research and advocating for my kid, like what could I do with myself? Like, if I had all this emotional and mental bandwidth, what could I be doing?

Um, I've been trying really hard. My therapist, the other, like two weeks ago when I was like his medication didn't work, then we tried another one for a week. It was a disaster. I think that's what the last time I was there and I was just like, I don't know what to do next. This is the symptoms he's exhibiting.

I feel like I'm out of ideas for like what search terms to use when I'm researching and I was kind of asking her for ideas and she said, Okay. Your check engine light is on and I think you need to not be researching right now and you need to take yourself out to lunch or go read a book or take a nap, um, but you know, like stop for a second.

It just all seems, it just feels really, really super urgent. But I have been doing that. I have been trying really hard to... One of my favorite activities is to sit in the pool and read. I have a waterproof Kindle. The kids come to go. We play. Usually they get bored and they go inside after a while. And I just love it out there.

So, and I read, you know, just like, simple romances or John Grisham. Or, you know, like I'm not reading thrillers. That's for sure. And I just kind of try to find a way to check out a little. Um, but you can't take a vacation from this situation. And, you know, school's starting in a few weeks. And, I don't know if I can overstate that when This kid is doing well, how cool he is.

And I just want him to be able to be that version of himself. What I think is his real self, all the time. Um. The other day, let me see if I can find this. You guys, can you tell like I'm normally so organized and right now I'm like, I don't even know. I wanted to mention this and I need to find the notepad that I wrote this in.

But the other day after we had Amber Trueblood on, which if you guys didn't listen to that episode, I think it was really good. She just kind of talks about like mom anxiety is going to happen. You kind of need to figure out what your type is like. I'm a dynamo. So it's like, I never stop. I'm just going to keep hunting and solving and researching and figuring out.

And I get really activated by issues. Um, and it's really interesting. It was really interesting to me. But one of the things she talked about was journaling and the way she talked about journaling was draw a line like, you know, 20% of the way down the page and you're only allowed to vent and complain for that first 20% and the rest of the page, you need to be focusing on things you're grateful and thankful for.

And she, I think her main point and things that I've been reading lately are like your words and thoughts have a ton of power and if you're dedicating, A lot of time to ruminating and journaling about how frustrated you are. And, I don't know, I feel like it can take over. And it certainly has for me, off and on.

Um, And, not to say that you shouldn't be able to vent. Villagers, if you have someone you can vent to, you should be doing it. And, you know, it'd be awesome if you had a person that was like, Hey, I just need to vent. Do you have 20 minutes? And you just are able to vent and cry. A therapist is great for this, but if you don't have a therapist, a friend.

And then that way you can get it out. And if you have to journal about it, great. And if it helps you, great. But I just thought it was interesting the way she talked about gratitude. And I'm gonna cry while I read this. Wow. I have been so emotional this week. I decided to do a, like a gratitude list, um, about my tricky kid.

And I decided to do that because when a tricky kid is having a super duper hard time, and you know, like you know. He even says, I hate feeling this way, I hate treating him this way, I'm so sorry I'm behaving this way, right? But, stuff flies out of their mouth, and behaviors happen, and you just can have times where you just don't like them very much.

It doesn't change how much I love him, my love for him is unconditional. Um, but when... Someone, you know in the movie, um, inside out where it has like joy and the blue ladies like sadness and there's um, disgust and anger. Like it's really, I can't imagine like if you were trying to be friends with the guy whose head's on fire and he's screaming at everyone.

Like it's probably hard to be around that person, right? That person still has. Sweet little Joy bopping around in there. It's just the fire is louder in that moment. So anyway, I made this list of all of his, like, great characteristics. He, I can't even say the first word. Okay. He is kind, worries about others.

He's funny, creative, a problem solver, notices when someone is sad, is inquisitive, always wanting to learn, hard worker, empathetic, loves animals, he's inventive and always looking for a better way to do things, he's a good helper, he's a natural leader, he's strong, persistent, he is musical. And he gives good hugs.

Guys, I was really surprised that the list was that long.

Please don't judge me.

God, I don't know if I'm gonna put this up on Monday.

I needed a perspective shift.

For sure. I would encourage you, like, if you're in the tween, teenage attitude years, to sit down and make this list. If your spouse or partner is, um, really pissing you off on a regular basis, I would encourage you to make this list. And, if you are... Feeling like you're failing or, I don't know, maybe you got pulled aside at work because somebody wasn't happy with you.

Or maybe your kids just told you how much you suck. I would encourage you to write a list about yourself. I cried the whole time I wrote that. I cried the whole time. I just read it clearly, but when you have... A kid that is so tricky or who is a teenager trying to figure out how to adult or a two year old who has figured out, Hmm, I could have an opinion.

You know, used to they'd put sweet potatoes in front of me and I'd eat them. Now I'm going to let you know I hate them. I'm going to throw them across the room. I've always said the terrible twos are not. It's not a fair label. It's just a person realizing that they have some choice in the world and they are exerting it and it is annoying because you haven't had the, you haven't had anybody like, you haven't had this two year old have an opinion since the day they were born, or at least to be able to express it.

So anyway, if you're, if you're dealing with that, I would just encourage you to make a list.

Um, I think it really helped my perspective and it also just like continues to light a fire in me of, um, like super duper continually just, I want to continue fighting. Um, this is going to like really date me, but there was a movie out when I was a kid. I think it was like. mid eighties called Lorenzo's oil.

And everybody like take a trip back in time with me. The internet was not anything that people were using at home. Um, researching, even just like a medication you were prescribed. Like you would have had to go to the library or buy a book or anything. And, um, this couple had a child whose name I assume was Lorenzo and they were told he has blank diagnosis.

Um, it was a genetic physical condition. I think they gave him a really short life expectancy and basically we're like, this is what he has. Um, He's not gonna live very long and like sent them home and this particular couple just refused to accept that and I don't remember like a ton about the movie because I think I was like seven or eight watching it, but the entire message of the movie was like, these parents didn't stop and there's like so many scenes in it where they're at the library and they're digging through books and they're talking to doctors and they're taking notes and they eventually put together this oil, which was some kind of supplement for the issue their kid was having that, um, they felt like would help was the kind of the point of the story.

And I mean, I just, at that movie. And I'm like, yep, that's me. That's how I feel. I'm not going to just sit here and accept the situation and I'm going to fight like hell like them. And, um, I'm going to continue to teeter on the edge of what is appropriate to share. Um, because I know it's helping somebody.

You guys are telling me that it's helping. So, when I get discouraged, um, I just try to think of you. Because I, I know I'm not the only person that's sitting here trying so hard to help my kid. And it may not even be your kid. It could be your spouse. It could be you having a mental health crisis. Like, it's...

They're calling mental health behavioral health lately, which that sounds nicer, doesn't it? Um, but behavioral health, you guys, it's affecting like literally all of us. And we are all just walking around. Have you seen the ad for some medication where the person has like a face smiling on a stick in front of them?

That when they take the fake mask away, they're sad? I feel like that's like a lot of us. I am just really bad at faking it. I am the type of person that, um, like I was having a really hard day last week. I mean like, but I needed to do my job and you know, I go in and out of clients offices and help them and I had to like pull myself together in the car, take deep breaths, try to Basically, like, disassociate, go in, chat for a few minutes, solve problems, do my job.

And I was trying really hard to not linger, because the second anyone, and I'm friends with most of these people, so the second anyone's like, how are things, or I saw that cute video you posted on Facebook, I think I would have burst into tears, like, I know I would have. And then I would go back in my car and...

You know, put myself back together, drive to the next place, and I did that all day. And, uh, I'm not saying any of that was healthy, guys. I just, you know, it was a work day. I had to go to work. Um, but I just think there's so many of us that are running around, um, in the thick of it. And, you know, you, when you have a crisis, like, the world keeps spinning.

So frustrating. I'm having a hard time. Can the whole world just like pause for a second and let me take a break? It just doesn't happen and I think if someone cuts you off in traffic, if someone's short with you, if you're not greeted well by somebody that works in a store, like I just think the more I know about the human condition, the more I think we just need to give like literally everybody grace and assume good intent.

Something Shelly said all the time. Assume good intent and stop trying to put all of my assumptions on people. And also know you're just not the only person that's having a hard time. So, I feel like I'm babbling. In summary, Stephanie's having a hard time. I have a glimmer of hope. That we have some new ideas at least, and I'm going to keep you guys posted on how these things go.

Oh, by the way, having a friend over every weekend is still the golden, like, solution to everything. Had a friend over last weekend, they played all day, friends spent the night, played all morning. It was great. So, we're just gonna keep bringing our friends over. So, it's, every moment isn't terrible. It's just still, like, unsolved.

So, that's where we are. If anybody would like to ask me questions about the genetic testing we did, or neurofeedback, happy to get into that with you, kind of what we've learned. Um, I promise y'all, I am not here to endorse literally any of these things. They're unproven for us and honestly, if it works for us, that doesn't mean it's going to work for somebody else.

That is what makes it so effing frustrating. Um, but I just think it's important for you to know what we're trying. So that's where we  📍 are. I really appreciate everybody listening. and would love to hear from you. So keep those emails and direct messages and comments coming. Love you guys. Bye.