Research

I’m feeling stunned. Early this morning, Ariane and I spoke at length with two of the pre-eminent doctors in the field of stem cell research out of Boston Children’s Hospital. They not only called into question the theoretical basis of what we had been told about the scientific rationale for the stem cell treatments we gave Emma, but warned us that they had the potential to be “extremely dangerous.”

It is possible that this could be another case of “he said, she said,” and that the doctors who recommended the treatment we have been following are every bit as knowledgeable and experienced as the doctors who were warning us not to undergo another such treatment, but frankly, these particular doctors are so highly credentialed that I have to give their opinions more weight – at least until we have gathered more information from others who are universally regarded as experts in both autism and stem cell research.

They gave us the names of two doctors in the Boston area who are considered to be experts in autism research and (perhaps?) stem cell research as well. It wasn’t clear to me from our phone call that the doctors being recommended were definitely doing research with stem cells, but they are involved with autism research as well as a variety of other neurologically based disorders. I made a promise to myself after the phone call today to stop making assumptions, so until we speak, I’ll just say that I’m looking forward to learning more. I visited both their websites and they have impressive credentials. They are both involved in genetic research so even if stem cells aren’t part of their programs perhaps they have other promising treatments under development.

Perhaps. Maybe. Possibly. I’m filled with doubt and uncertainty as to where we go from here. I do know that we have to keep doing more research, and since the entire field of autism is rife with contradictory theories from highly regarded researchers, we have our work cut out for us. More to come.