P.A.N.D.A.S. hope for healing: Our True Story of RECOVERY, RENEWAL, & RESTORATION : How Essential Oil Wellness Brought Our Son Back

By William Cook

What if we haven't been told everything about PANDAS/PANS? What if there is more? What if there was an alternative method to support complete and lasting recovery?

PANDAS Hope for Healing is a practical tool to help you rescue your child from the diagnosis of PANDAS/PANS. Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Strep is a debilitating disorder that currently affects one out of two hundred children. It's a frightening diagnosis and condition that can literally change the life of a child and their parents overnight. We know because we lived this nightmare. The fear and uncertainty of searching for recovery is something we know well. We also know what it is like to suffer in silence. We are neither doctors nor healthcare providers. We are parents of a child diagnosed with PANDAS who fought for his recovery and, thankfully, won the battle. Our son completely recovered from PANDAS, and has lived PANDAS free for close to 10 years. This book is his true story of healing and the story of how we got here.

It is a product of ten years of personal research, reading everything I could find, and asking more questions than I can count. It is part personal journal and part reference guide. I wrote it to help bring awareness and practical solutions to this condition that is affecting way too many children and to bring you hope. This book is meant to tell you our true story of real recovery, to help open your mind to alternative wellness, and to provide you with hope that PANDAS/PANS does not have to be permanent for you either if you give the body the tools to put this disorder, back in order. If you are like so many others and your child is still languishing and has not received recovery through the conventional medical route, I encourage you to read this book.

This book is for you if you or someone you know is living with a child with PANDAS/PANS, you are ready to fight for your child's recovery, or you just need some encouragement and an infusion of hope. This is our true story of real recovery, renewal, and restoration. This is our story of PANDAS HOPE for HEALING.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885055727

William Cook

William Cook is the author of Ha Bloody Ha, The Comedy Store and 25 Years of Viz. He edited Tragically I Was An Only Twin – The Complete Peter Cook and Goodbye Again – The Definitive Peter Cook & Dudley Moore. He has worked for the BBC and has written for the Guardian, the Mail on Sunday, the New Statesman and Condé Nast Traveller.

Book preview

Contents

A Word from the Author

Foreword

Dr. Michael Sredniawski, DC

Introduction

Preface

Chapter 1: Our Story of Hope, Healing, and Restoration

Chapter 2: Then We Met a Woman Named Chelsa: Recovery Begins

Chapter 3: Understanding PANDAS/PANS Is the First Step to Recovery

Chapter 4: PANDAS/PANS Is Real: Overcoming Naysayers, Negativity, Nonsense, and Nitwits

Chapter 5: Diagnosing PANDAS/PANS and Overcoming the Obstacles That Get in Your Way

Chapter 6: Tourette’s or Not Tourette’s? That Is the Question

Chapter 7: It’s a Diagnosis, Not a Destination: PANDAS/PANS Does Not Have to Be Permanent

Chapter 8: Navigating Through School: Educating the Educators

Chapter 9: Can Probiotics Make PANDAS/PANS Symptoms Worse?

Chapter 10: Can We Talk About Vaccines?

Chapter 11: So, What About the Vitamin K Shot at Birth?

Chapter 12: Dealing with the Dentist: A Loose Tooth and Mouth Bacteria

Chapter 13: Essential Oils Are Not like Pharmaceuticals

Chapter 14: Got Camel’s Milk? The Poor Man’s IVIG

Chapter 15: Avoid Toxins

Chapter 16: Don’t Forget to Detox

Chapter 17: Focus on the Cause, Not the Symptoms

Chapter 18: Don’t Give Up

Epilogue

PANDAS/PANS Wellness Checklist Recap

Paying It Forward: The Story of Recovery Continues… Real Parents, Real Testimonials, and Real Miracles

Notes

Essential Oil Research Data

PANDAS/PANS Resources

Acknowledgments

About the Author

The Cook Family

Contact the Author

A Word from the Author

I wrote this book as a tool to help you rescue your child from the diagnosis of PANDAS/PANS, a debilitating disorder that currently affects one out of two hundred children. The average age of onset is between four and ten years old. It’s a frightening diagnosis and condition that can change the life of a child and their parents overnight. We know because we lived this nightmare. The fear and uncertainty of searching for recovery is something we know well. We also know what it is like to suffer in silence. We are neither doctors nor healthcare providers. We are parents of a child diagnosed with PANDAS who fought for his recovery and thankfully won the battle. This book is a product of ten years of personal research, reading everything I could find, and asking more questions than I can count. It is part personal journal and part reference guide. I wrote it to help bring awareness and practical solutions to this condition that is affecting way too many children and to bring you hope.

While this book is written from a perspective of alternative wellness, it is not meant to disparage the medical community or medical treatments. It is written to open minds to the possibility of natural options. We celebrate healing wherever it comes from. If your child has found recovery from PANDAS/PANS through medical providers and pharmaceutical treatment, that’s wonderful. At the end of the day, recovery is what is most important, no matter what path you choose to get there.

However, if you are like so many others and your child is still languishing and has not received recovery through the conventional medical route, then this book is for you.

Hippocrates, who is called the father of modern medicine, once said, Everyone has a doctor in them; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well.

We’re born with the ability to heal ourselves, repair injuries, and fight off infection, but there are things that impact and interfere with that ability and cause disorder in the body systems. Sometimes the body just needs a helping hand. Thankfully, there are alternative steps you can take to support your natural self-healing ability.

My prayer is that this book will start a discussion that will help others find their way to alternative wellness and healing.

This book is for you if you or someone you know is living with a child with PANDAS/PANS, you’re ready to fight for your child’s recovery, or you just need some encouragement and an infusion of hope.

So pull up a comfy chair and grab a cup of coffee. This is our true story of real recovery, renewal, and restoration. This is our story of HOPE.

—Pastor William Cook

Foreword

Dr. Caroline Hartridge, DO

I first met the Cook family several years ago after they had already done the hard work of helping their son heal from PANDAS and after they had already gone on their plant-based and essential oil journey. They had already learned about detoxification methods and tackled toxic household products. My job would be to help them maintain this precious wellness.

As an osteopathic physician, my time in school was guided by four tenets: (1) the human is comprised of mind, body, and spirit (spirit meaning energy), 2) structure and function are interrelated, 3) the body is constantly seeking self-healing, down to the cellular level, and we know this as homeostasis, and 4) rational treatment will take the previous three statements into consideration. Perhaps discussing energy in a medical context feels a little too alternative for you. I recall sitting in orientation thinking to myself, What have I gotten into? However, when I was able to engage in the content from a perspective of physics (spirit meaning energy), I found it all more palatable. Humans abide by the rule of physics. The amount of energy that goes into a system is held by the system until it is met with an equal amount of energy (heat, pressure, light, etc.).

What does this have to do with the Cook family? Energy. Physics. Like attracts like.

In 2016, I opened my private practice, Dr. Hartridge General Practitioner, PLLC. I built and published my website and waited. I had deep faith my vision would manifest. I could see my practice in action: the type of patients I would attract, the vibe of the encounter room, the modalities I would offer. Patients from the previous clinic found me and joined my practice. Patients from the hospital would reach out weeks, months, even years later and join my practice. (I had given a private business card with my cell phone number on it to these people because getting ahold of a resident or attending doctor can be challenging; therefore, knowing you have access to your loved one’s doctor can be incredibly therapeutic.) Friends, family members, and coworkers of patients slowly built my practice. Like-minded individuals allowed me the privilege of being their doctor.

The Cooks were some of my first patients, and like certainly attracted like. I often tell patients my job is to help them consume healthcare in a way that aligns with their core values and desired quality of life. This can start with a do nothing approach and go all the way into helping them seek surgery or chemotherapy. I offer evidence-based interventions, both alternative and conventional.

Conventional medicine resistance to alternative (evidence-based) modalities may be rooted in how the medical school curriculum is crafted. In medical school, we are taught pharmacology where we learn all about how prescription drugs work in the body. However, learning additional information about plant-derived compounds takes interest and time. People tend to focus on things they enjoy or with which they resonate. So it may not be every doctor who takes time outside of the medical school curriculum to study the efficacy of essential oils, or food as medicine. It is a reflection of interests and core values that drives us toward new information.

Decreasing inflammation on a cellular level through a plant-based diet and essential-oil application combines two powerful evidence-based modalities. Because of this I became known as a doctor who has one foot in the conventional world (I write traditional prescriptions, order labs and imaging, fill out paperwork for school and work, and offer prolotherapy) and the other in a more alternative paradigm (hands-on diagnosis and treatment; plant-based medicine, dietary, and otherwise; and essential oil application). I find essential oils to be a great tool that is low cost, low risk, and accessible to my patients of all ages.

As an osteopathic physician, we are trained to go beyond treating the symptoms to understanding the root of the symptom or the disease. We want to understand why there has been a change in the system. With autoimmune disease, there is often a trigger that starts the cycle of inflammation and symptoms. The Cooks’ recovery story proves that when we dig deep, get to the root of the problem, and address it, the body wants to heal and can heal.

Storytelling is the most ancient form of information sharing. If you are seeking information about PANDAS/PANS, this intimate look by the Cooks into their son’s recovery will help shed light on your own path. This book is an incredible fact-filled resource for those dealing with PANDAS/PANS, including those interested in an alternative approach to wellness.

As a healthcare provider, it has been an absolute honor and joy to watch their son blossom and witness the power of hope, healing, love, and faith through the Cook family. I know I am blessed as an individual and practitioner to be part of their story.

~

Dr. Caroline Hartridge is a doctor of Osteopathic Medicine who is licensed as a general practitioner in New York and Georgia. She completed her internship in a family medicine residency program at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital in Patchogue, New York, studied Osteopathic Medicine and Public Health at Touro University in California, and Environmental Education at Davidson College in North Carolina.

Additionally, Dr. Hartridge is trained as a Starch Certified Health Care Provider by Dr. John McDougall. Low-fat, plant-based food choices can help heal everything from diabetes to hypertension to autoimmune disorders and chronic pain.

Dr. Michael Sredniawski, DC

I met William Cook in 2014 when I was on my search to help my daughter heal from PANDAS. I was told by our medical practitioner that a woman who was a patient of hers had a son with a similar condition as my daughter and that I should speak to her about essential oils and how they helped her child with his motor tics. I reached out to that woman, and she thought it best for me to consult with Will Cook because his son actually had PANDAS and recovered from it through the use of essential oils. I contacted him for help and immediately got the feeling on the phone that he was the right person to talk to.

I knew nothing about essential oils at this time, and as a doctor of chiropractic, I’ve met a lot of salespeople. I can tell when I’m being sold or when someone seems disingenuous. William Cook was nothing but gracious and completely, unconditionally willing to help me. He explained the mechanism of the condition and shared with me the essential-oil wellness plan he used to help his son recover.

As part of our Western culture, we are taught to trust pharmaceuticals as the only answer to all our healthcare needs. But as a holistic healthcare professional, I have learned that if we work with the inherent recuperative healing powers of the body, then we can observe how the human body is innately designed to heal itself.

Essential oils can and will elicit natural responses in the body, thus stimulating its innate ability to heal. The truth everyone should know is that our bodies were designed to heal themselves, and stress—whether chemical, physical, or emotional—can interfere with that process. Essential oils help to reduce stress in all areas, especially pure, therapeutic essential oils and blends.

Since first speaking with Will, I have continued to use essential oils throughout every aspect of my life and my children’s lives. I have even seen great results within my chiropractic practice. I absolutely love essential oils for their amazing therapeutic benefits. What’s also amazing is what I have seen Will do for so many families who suffer from this condition. With PANDAS, it’s not only the child who suffers but the whole family. Giving these families hope that their child can recover naturally is more valuable than anything in the world!

I strongly urge you to read this book. It will inspire you to open your mind to new possibilities in healing, and as the saying goes, A mind is like a parachute; it functions best when fully open!

~

Dr. Sredniawski is a principled chiropractor establishing Kings Park Chiropractic in Kings Park, NY. He has over twenty-three years’ experience and is committed to promoting health and wellness while living a life drug-free.

Introduction

Our only child was four and a half years old when something drastically changed in his body. There was a shift from a perfectly healthy and vibrant child to something that we could not initially put our finger on. This began our journey.

At five years old, he was diagnosed with a debilitating auto-immune condition called PANDAS, an acronym for (pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcus bacteria.) Yes, a condition most commonly associated with and triggered by strep throat was attacking the basal ganglia of his brain, causing significant brain inflammation. The number of kids struggling with PANDAS is staggering and is increasing at an alarming rate. PANDAS is not rare, but it’s rarely diagnosed correctly, at least initially.

His diagnosis changed everything for us. Suddenly, our son began to exhibit odd, almost bizarre symptoms literally overnight, and our little family was challenged to its core. He went from a perfectly happy and healthy child to a child battling significant motor and vocal tics, severe separation anxiety, and a host of other debilitating symptoms we struggled to understand. Months went by as we searched for answers from our doctors and healthcare providers with little to no direction. We were helpless, and our son battled this on his own for close to a year until we could finally find out what was happening to him. To say this was frightening does not even come close to describing our feelings. Finally, after being diagnosed, we thought that was it. We thought we had it, and that would be the end of what was attacking our son. Little did we know this journey had just begun. The journey would be long, the battle would be intense, and it would even try to steal our hope and our faith.

As a licensed minister and pastor for twenty-six years, I have always walked within a deep and securing faith that God