G'day, Bon Jour, Guten Morning, namaste, good morning, Good evening to
all members here as I know we seem to all hail from all over the globe!


My name is Alexandra Larson. I feel okay to post my name as I am a
Lead Poisoning/Plumbism Activist in the Cleveland Ohio Metropolitan
Area. I due as much media work as I can getting the message out about
how truly dangerous Lead still is!

I have an 8 year old daughter of the same name(long story!) who was
SEVERELY poisoned. Her story is long one and detailed. The short story
is that in 2002 at age 2 we found out before she entered an Asthma and
Allergy study through a local research hospital during routine testing
that she had a Blood Lead Level of 85 ug/dL. At the time it was nearly
9 times the level considered "safe" by the US EPA. Now the levels
would be nearly 18 times since the EPA has changed the level to below 5.

We have been through rounds of chelation therapy to remove the Lead,
but by the time we found out the damage had already been done. We live
with rounds of trips to the MD's, sleep specialists,Occupational
therapists, IEP's, Psychiatrists and all sorts of social and eating
issues. It is NO fun. I really cannot work due to the high demands as
I also have 3 other children. I love my daughter(s) dearly and so I am
always looking for new people to talk with. It is really hard. My
regular girlfriends do not really comprehend and they also have less
children.
Little Alex is legally disabled and now her Neurologist has classified
her as Brain injured, but there's no way to really fix it. I prefer
"alternative" and natural medicine to help her, but through much
experimentation and testing had had to reluctantly realise she needs
some medications to help her. We have hard time finding friends for
her. She has SPD(in the US this mean Sensory Processing Disorder aka
Sensory Integration Disorder) so it is hard for her comprehend many
normal social cues from other children.
Being that her life is not JUST being ADD and a bunch of other
acronyms and labels, being Lead poisoned makes her too unique and
thus it is hard to find other parents to speak too.

Hoping to find some friends here even if they are half a world away or
in the future....

Thanks for listening. I hope to get to know people here.


Alexandra in Lakewood