It’s taken me awhile to write this story. What happens next was so miraculous, yet so usual; I needed a little distance to gain perspective.

Addison, as you know, was born with Down Syndrome. As we left the hospital, a year and ½ ago, the surgeon informed us he’d need a second surgery. During an ultrasound, the doctor found two cysts on his bile ducts. Left untreated, according to the doctors, Addison would develop cancer. (whenever the “C” word is mentioned in the same sentence as children, fear comes-a-callin’). Imagine my horror. They wanted to do the surgery in four months. Not exactly the news I wanted to hear as we were checking out from almost of month of neonatal hospital hell.

What are bile ducts? That’s exactly what I said. The surgeon drew me a diagram. Coming down from the liver is a “Y” – two tubes that drain fluids from the liver right into the colon. Those cysts sat right on the tiny, tiny little tubes draining from my less-than-a-month-old son. Look up bile ducts and there they are – thanks to the Internet, I could see exactly, and I mean exactly, what these cysts looked like.

Check-ups followed each month. And over and over again the pediatrician told me the same thing: Addison will need surgery, but we can put it off a few months. Maybe even a few years she said.

Are you sure we can’t get the cysts to go away? I said. Can’t we get them to just disappear?

No. Nope. No. No. No. No. Never Happens.

Is the reply I heard for months to come.

Meanwhile, back in my own bat cave on my own bat channel, I did some snooping. Down over yonder in another paradigm, there are folks who believe things like cancer- causing-cysts can just go away. I contacted a homeopathic doctor over the phone, and he said: If we can balance his interior bacteria – the good and the bad – the cysts can’t survive and will dissolve. He prescribed all sorts of foods and some supplements. I’m not big on vitamins, so I stuck with just balancing the good bacteria with “pro-biotics.”

See, during the hospital visit, Addison received several rounds of antibiotics, which probably killed off most of his ability to generate the billions of good bacteria we all need to live with health and vitality. We might survive without them, but it’s like living a life as a limp handshake rather than a firm grip. And, when you’re baby, you’ve been knocked down-and-out before the chance has even begun.

Ninth months went by and it was time to take a peak at those little tubes. We scheduled an ultrasound. (See Miracle, Part II for the rest of the story.)