Her Son Slept All Day – Mom Believes Digging In Early Spared Him Losing His Sight

The Deeper Healing Podcast
“I knew something was off… He went from so much energy and life in him to just really a lot more sleeping… Dr. B didn’t just brush me off. He dug deep to find it, found the source, and we changed the trajectory of his life.”
When a 12-year-old boy suddenly becomes overwhelmingly lethargic, it is easy to write it off as just normal teenage hormonal changes or growing pains. However, mother’s intuition often knows when a symptom points to something much deeper.
In this episode of The Deeper Healing Podcast, host Danielle Howley sits down with Jennifer, a mother who trusted her intuition when her son, Ham, experienced a dramatic drop in his energy. Jennifer shares how a comprehensive functional blood panel at Deeper Healing—which tested far beyond standard pediatric markers—revealed that Ham’s prolactin levels were completely off the charts. This led to the unexpected discovery of a macro prolactinoma, a large tumor pressing against his pituitary gland and optic nerve.
Jennifer details their stressful journey navigating conventional medicine, including a two-year stall with standard medications and the terrifying prospect of high-risk brain surgery. She then shares the turning point in Ham’s recovery experience: returning to Dr. Michael Bauerschmidt for a tailored functional approach using IV Curcumin, high-dose Vitamin C, and intranasal laser activation. Today, Ham is a thriving 18-year-old college golfer. This episode explores the life-saving potential of thorough diagnostic testing, the power of patient advocacy, and why no parent should ignore their intuition.
This episode is shared to offer personal perspectives and information—not as medical advice.
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Full Transcript
Hamu2019s Symptoms and Initial Testing 0:00
His older brother and I, both patients of Dr. B's, we thought are being treated for thyroid. And I thought, OK, it's thyroid, Dr B, will you just test him? He's 12. He was like, I can treat him. Let's get him in. Everything came back 100% perfect, except his prolactin levels off the chart. Did not even register. Dr, B was, like. I think this wasn't enough. His prolactin level was over 425. That's as high as the test goes. It should be below 20 in a 12-year-old boy. Dr. B said, all right, now we need to do an MRI of his brain.
I broke down crying. Welcome to the Deeper Healing Podcast. This is for everyone who's been dismissed, misdiagnosed, or told to just live with it and refuse to accept that answer. You're going to hear amazing patient recovery stories, raw and real in their own words. People who found answers after everything had failed them. You are going hear from medical experts we trust that are pioneering new approaches to healing the body. Because we deeply know we're designed to heal. Let's dig in. Hello, everybody.
I am here with someone who I just love. This is Jennifer. She actually lives about two hours away from deeper healing. she's in Paulies Island, which if you have not been to Paulie's Island. Beautiful. And she has been a long-term patient here. We were talking about, hey, you want to do a podcast? She's like, I want share Ham's story. Ham is her son. Why don't you just start at the beginning? Tell us what happened with him. Well, it was the summer he had turned 12. I noticed he had low energy, like no energy.
And I was mother's intuition. Is this a tween thing? What's going on? Something's not right. Because he has gone from so much energy and life in him to just really a lot more sleeping. His older brother and I, both patients at Dr. B's, we are being treated for thyroid. It's thyroid. Dr. B, will you just test him? You know, he's 12. He's like, I can treat him. Let's get him in. Doctor B in his typical doesn't just take a little blood. Like he is going to do the whole gamut. Everything came back 100% perfect except his prolactin levels off the chart did not even register.
And Dr B was like I think this is an anomaly. Thyroid's good. That's But this is just off. We're going to just draw a little bit more blood. we're gonna run it again. I think there was something wrong with the lab. And so we did that and I came back in. It was still off the charts. Not even registering his prolactin level was over 425. Like that's as high as the test goes. it should be below 20 in a 12 year old boy. Prolactine is the hormone that makes moms be able to breastfeed. So a 12-year-old boy should not have this high level.
And Dr. B said, all right, now we need to do an MRI of his brain. I broke down crying, and I will say that was one of the most tender moments.
MRI Reveals a Macro Prolactinoma 3:00
Dr B just came across his desk, gave me a hug. He's like, it's OK. We're going to find out. So we did the MRI and sure enough, he had a macro prolactinoma, which means he has a huge tumor, macro because it was over 10 millimeters, 14 millimeter tumor growing on his, on the pituitary gland and pushing so hard. It was just dumping prolacin into his system. which made him very exhausted and tired. So, Dr. B said, at this point, you need to go to an endocrinologist. Originally, he sent me out to a brain surgeon.
He said we need see if it's operable because it is at the size. I didn't like that at all that I was having to leave and go into the standard medical world. But we went, after doing a lot of research, we got in with our local hospital here in the Charleston area and met with a surgeon. I took all the test results and it was quite a packet of test result plus the MRI results. to the brain surgeon. And he looked at it and he said, how did you find out he had this tumor? And I said they did a blood test.
He, what blood? Test and I say, well, they found it because the prolactin levels were so high. Why were they testing prolactic levels on a 12 year old boy? And I was like, because they're very thorough. So we, this wound rounded around. They were like mind blown. He could not believe it. And he said, he did a prolactin level. Yeah. I said his doctor is very through. Oh, and I remember I gave him Dr. Bowers Schmidt's name. Yes. His doctor's very though. You don't understand. This is never caught on a blood test.
this is caught when your child has vision problems. when they has chronic headaches, when he's lost his vision, and when it ruptures. I was horrified. All these horrible stories he is telling you. This is when its caught not. So there's no parents checking that because they don't do anything until it's a severe physical symptom. Right. He said, just because he was tired, I said I knew something was off. And he was like, that is amazing you found this. There could have been dire consequences if it had not.
And I was, like well, okay, he said, but because of where it was in the brain, the pituitary is right here in this center and it's really close to your optic nerve and thus it ruptures and people lose their sight. He said we also don't want to go straight into surgery. That's a little risky. So let's see if we can treat it with medicine. I was like, I don't like this idea of treating it with regular medicine, but we did. So he said, it's so large. I'm going to walk you over to endocrinology and I am going have them see you immediately.
They did, which was wonderful, wonderful customer service. And again, we have to go through the whole intake with the endoconologist. He said wait, you found this from a blood test? Yes. And he once said, he ran prolactin levels on a 12 year old. Where's this deeper alien? What are they doing? I said yes. I mean, again, I had the whole, this is a miracle. They never find this. Yes, yes, so we started with a pill twice a week and he was going to take this pill and it could cause him to be a little queasy tummy.
So I'm like, okay. So we started on that. After a few weeks, they came in and housed his stomach. Well, it was fine because we were doing it with ginger and anything holistic to help him get that pill down and keep it down. But before that, he said, because it is so close to the optic nerve, we need you to go see ophthalmology to be sure his vision hasn't been impaired. Okay. And so we walk over. He's like we're going to get you right in there. Walks us straight over to opthalmologist. The ophtalmalgist takes the result.
You found this. But the whole story again, I mean, all I'm doing, and they would meet with us.
Specialist Visits and Medication Trial 7:00
Danielle, it was the craziest thing. And then they'd just stop and go, from a blood test, you found us? And the ophthalmologist really was one that had... I was terrified because he's like, You don't understand. I have patients up here that have lost their vision. because it got so large. That was when the parents noticed something was wrong and there was no going back from that. As my dad hadn't lost his sight to glaucoma, I know what it's like to have a impaired vision. I was like, it was just, again, I just am so thankful for Dr.
B because we didn't have to go that route. We found it on a blood test because the, we are so thorough. So he did all the testing. His eyesight was perfect. Everything was fine. Three weeks after we'd taken the pill, everything was fine. We continued this, and every three months we did another MRI to see if it was shrinking. It was not. And we continued on the same pill twice a week. The tumor's not shrinking, we've did this for over two years. Wow. Is it not growing? It's, it's- It not- growing, they said that I should be thankful.
Okay. Okay, so it's not growing, but it is definitely not going backwards and you're like, okay, it has been two years, what the heck? Yes. Yes, and I understood Dr. B wanted me to go this route because this should have been what it did. After almost two and a half years I came into Dr B and said, Dr, B, look, This is working. I've done what you asked me to do, standard medicine, and we did it. It's not working, at this point now they're saying we're going to have to surgery because it still hasn't moved, it's in the same spot.
We're still at risk of the optic nerve and vision loss. Look, is there anything else? I heard about tumors being shrunk with Q. curment and he said, let me do some research. Dr. V is a genius. He researches this and he's like, there is something we can try. We can do an IV Q-curement with an iv of high dose vitamin C. And when he does it, because again, it's right there, that pituitary gland, we're going to stick these little laser nods up his nose. Remember this. Why? And they're gonna pull while he is getting the IV in, so it activates the Q curement at the tumor.
the site. I remember this.I remember watching him with the little lights. And he's so young and you just see the laser in his nose. Everyone was like, what is going on over there? He was such a trooper too. He really was. So we came down twice a week for a whole summer and did the treatment. Now we did not share this with his endocrinologist or the team at the local medical facility here. Only Dr. B, this was it. We tried it, so we go back for our next MRI. we meet with the endocrenologist and he's like, it's working.
The treatment is finally working and I'm like it was so hard not to tell him. Yes, yes, your little medicine is not at all, but they would not understand that high doses of vitamin C and curcumin, intravenously with a laser. They would never believe this. And I wasn't going to argue it with them. So we did that and we didn't have to do surgery. The biggest thing was we went back to the first surgeon and he's like, now that it's shrinking, I'm not, cutting on it. That was always the last resort. They knew that was high risk and they don't really want to do it.
We didn't have to cut. It is shrinking. He doesn't continue with the treatments all the time. it is shrunk enough that we're no longer a macro. we are now just a regular prolactinoma. he has no other side effects. It would have never been found. He's back playing golf seven days a week, he made the golf team for college.
Curcumin and Vitamin C Treatment 11:00
I mean, so we're talking about this years later. Years later? So they understand. This is 12, 13, 14. Now we are 18 years old. So he is alive and well and thriving from a very dire serious situation. Yes. Because Dr. B just doesn't do a little blood, just a surface. He dives deep. There's a whole reason it's deeper healing. Dive deep, he changed my child's life. That's the other thing. Maturitary gland is a major gland. It is running the systems. All the hormones. Yeah. We're not even touching on what could have happened.
Right. There could've been no grandchildren. Not that we want them at 18, but he changed his life. And that's difference between when you know, God gives moms that mother's instinct, there was something not right. Dr. B heard me and he didn't just brush me off. He dug deep to find it, found the source, and we changed his life, changed the projection of his live. Unbelievable. It's an unbelievable story. Wow. So what now? At 18, does he just randomly do that or is he kind of at a very stable place and is good?
He's at a very stable place. Now we only have to do MRIs once every year because it has gotten so stable. I think it's slightly shrinking now. That was what it needed to get out of the macro into the regular size so that the medicine could help it slightly. The body is just handling it and it is not replicating. I mean, I always say this, my grandmother said this. She said, you poke around too much, they're going to find stuff. And sometimes I really think that that's true. I think everybody has things, little weird things going on that the body's just handling.
Most people only find them when they are symptomatic. they're symptomatic or they feel it or something weird happens or are they, you know. So this is highly unusual. I think most people with a tired 12 year old will just kind of yell at them and not, dig out a big, deep blood test to do for healing. But since you had already kind understood what deeper healing did, your son had gone through it. you had a lot of success and knew what was going on in here. You're like, oh, you know what, let's get them in.
So it is kind of divine. It's divine that you are already tuned in enough to do it. I say it all the time, I'll say a thousand times, that blood panel that we do should be standard of care for everybody. Once a year, everybody should just be able to look at the whole deal, what's going and their exposures one time. But I think the metal stuff should done one-time.
Recovery, Follow-Up, and Takeaways 14:00
definitely for adults, because you may or may not have that problem, but knowing whether or not you do is absolutely game-changing for your longevity and your mind. Absolutely. I think when you see so many moms just see I probably would have done that, I've got to be honest. If I had a tired 12 year old, he'd be like, oh boy, hormones are kicking in. Yeah. And that's starting. But because his brother and I have the thyroid, i just thought, Oh, we're going to have another thyroid case. It wasn't.
I think about how any other doctor would just brushed me off. A hundred percent. This way we didn't have to wait until it became crisis. He didn' t lose his vision. Why did he get it? I don't know, we don' know. What's important is we know how to handle it. It is so small now and every time, it's like we just know when we get done next December it'll just be shrunk even more. You're amazing. I'm so glad you shared that. So for anybody out there, is there anything you would say? There's a lot of people who've circled Deeper Healing.
We had an event here Saturday. It was all moms of young kids. And two of the moms were like, I have a very sick kid. Well, they're like teens. They were, like I've had like over four people tell me like you need to go to Deepers Healing and it's getting worse and worse. and I was like what's holding you back? Like I just curious. And it's always money. When I actually gave them, I was like, well, we're fully transparent about all the pricing. Here's all of the price. And they were like wait, i thought it was going to be a lot more expensive than that.
Like, why did you think that? But like I don't even know. She's like i don' know, where I got that from. Our children's health is priceless. And if you're lucky, and I say that, I'm sure every mom out there is like, absolutely. The hard thing to know is so many of the kids are having severe anxiety or they're having just a lot. It's hard to gauge sometimes. Is this normal teenage stuff? Or is there something bigger going on? We're seeing a ton of neuroinflammation and a lot of brain stuff in kids.
I mean, not even like, tumorous things like that. But I think that we have to recognize the pediatrician training is not this. That's where you normally go. You take your kid to the pediatrician. They have no real training in chronic illness or, you know, weird hormonal things and things like that. And that's what a lot of the teens are dealing with. It's sort of hard to find that middle ground. So that what's great about Deeper Healing. We treat infants to 100, wide-ranging stuff. and you don't have to be broken to come to Deepers Healing We are here to support you to stay well your whole life long.
we want people to live quality lives and then go play golf. You know, that's what we want. That's a success. Success is we don't need to see you anymore. I always think about doing a campaign called Never Be Our Patient. And what does that mean? That means making amazing decisions at home, which I know you're doing. You're always doing the food, the water, and the house being clean. you know? You are doing things and teaching your kids. and that is what all of us can do on the regular. And all those resources are in the show notes.
And we love you, stay well, and I hope this story reaches somebody out there who's dealing with something similar. Thanks, guys. We hope that this episode inspired you. Here's how to go deeper. Visit deeperhealing.com to become a patient. Online, we have loads of courses and a free toxin quiz. Subscribe and please, please share this with someone who needs it. It's always that one-on-one support that really gets people to find deeper healing. Remember, this is educational content, not medical advice.
The information shared here should be discussed with your own personal healthcare provider. If you're excited by listening to the medical experts or the personal recovery stories on here and you want to start your deeper healing journey, go to deeperhealing.com and start the process.
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