024 – Peter Morici, sight impaired dad, talks of life with an autistic child and another with ADHD.

Transcript:

Dad To Dad 24 – Peter Morici, sight impaired dad, talks of life with an autistic child and another with ADHD.

Tom Couch: This is the Special Fathers Network podcast. The Special Fathers Network is a dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children with special needs through our personalized matching process, new fathers with special needs children connect with mentor fathers in a similar situation. It’s a great way for fathers to support fathers.

Sometimes the mentor father is just there to answer a few questions. Sometimes they become good friends. It’s a proven support system for new fathers with special needs kids. If you’re a father looking for support, or if you’re a dad who’d like to offer support, go to 21stcenturydads.org. That’s 21stcenturydads.org.

David Hirsch: Hi, I’m David Hirsch. This is the Special Fathers Network podcast stories of fathers helping father.

Tom Couch: And I’m Tom Couch. Today, David talks to special father Peter Morici. He’s got two children and he’s been visually disabled for the past several years.

Peter Morici: You can’t depend on other people to tell you what’s best for your child.

Tom Couch: Peter and his wife, Elena had been married for 13 years and their two kids are Alex. Who’s 11 and autistic. And Jenny who’s eight, who has a form of ADHD. Peter has spent a lot of time over the year, searching for alternative forms of treatment for his children to kind of take control.

Peter Morici: You have to do your own research as a you’re their best advocate for your child.

Tom Couch: And after a lot of hard work, he took matters into his own hands and with great success.

Peter Morici: Within the first day, we could see improvement within the first day. Amazing and with my daughter as well.

Tom Couch: Also recently, Peter Morici was selected as one of three fathers of the year by the Illinois fatherhood initiative.

After his son, Alex delivered an incredible speech at a recent dinner.

It’s a great story and a great listen. And it’s all in this Special Fathers Network podcast. Here’s David Hirsch.

David Hirsch: Being a father is very important to me. Being a good father means being a successful role model for your child, helping them be happier, more fulfilled and productive members of society. I’ve started a number of charitable organizations designed to increase the role of fathers.

One of them, the Special Fathers Network is a dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children. With special needs. We’ve been interviewing some exceptional fathers of special needs kids, and we want to share their stories with them.

Tom Couch: So let’s get to David’s conversation with special father Peter Morici.

David Hirsch: I’m thrilled to be talking today with my friend, Peter Morici at Barrington, Illinois, a father of two, who has been visually disabled for seven years. Peter, thank you for taking the time to do a podcast interview for the Special Fathers Network.

Peter Morici: Thank you David, for having me.

David Hirsch: You and your wife, Elena had been married for 13 years.

Some of the proud parents of two children and Jenny and Alex Levin, who was diagnosed with autism. Let’s start with some background. Where did you grow up and tell me something about your family and quitting your siblings.

Peter Morici: Uh, I was born and raised in Illinois initially, then moved to Cleveland and Columbus and Pennsylvania.

So I grew up in a different, many different places. Getting to know new kids and making new friends.

David Hirsch: Was that because of your job career?

Peter Morici: Yes.

David Hirsch: Okay. And do you have siblings?

Peter Morici: I have a older sister who lives in downers Grove and has two kids. And she’s about to be a grandmother. And my older brother is retired after 35 years and he runs the Kate Rose program, which is, um, Bringing God into prisons, state, prisons, counseling, and giving seminars and talks.

I have a younger brother. Who’s a aerospace engineer for. Northrup Grumman and Baltimore. And, uh, he has two kids. One of them is an Eagle scout, so you’re a number three of four. I am a middle, middle child, one of the middle children.

David Hirsch: Okay. And how would you describe your relationship with your dad?

Peter Morici: Uh, my father was a president of the literally and in Richmond Heights.

He was a baseball player himself. He played softball for over 50 years until the seventies. He’s a very well educated and very education was most important to him. All of my siblings all have degrees and some advanced degrees.

David Hirsch: So what does your dad do as a career?

Peter Morici: Uh, he was a chief financial officer and was also a teacher at, uh, university of Illinois, Chicago and university of Pittsburgh.

David Hirsch: What is it that he taught?

Peter Morici: Uh, finance taxes. Okay. So as a financial person? Yes.

David Hirsch: Okay. Yeah, I do. I think about one thing that your dad said or did, what is it that your main takeaway is

Peter Morici: a work hard? Don’t get into any trouble and also, uh, just behave. I have

David Hirsch: some high expectations for you

Peter Morici: that always.

David Hirsch: I’m thinking about other role models.

What role did your grandpas play on your mom’s side and then on your dad’s side?

Peter Morici:  Uh, my mother’s, uh, father was a, um, uh, world war II veteran. Uh, he then, uh, but, uh, from, out in Roselle, um, and, uh, 10 acres of land, which was on an unincorporated at the time. Now it’s a huge population center. And, uh, he was a farmer.

He had 20 grandchildren and we used to all meet at the farm and play in the tractors and not around the property. And now it’s a four lane highway, eight lanes across resolve road on my father, his father. He was a Italian from Sicily, came over here in 1913 and raise three kids. And, um, My dad grew up in little LA and Chicago and what be considered a slum now, very close knit family.

David Hirsch: So did you have a chance to know your grandparents grandfathers?

Peter Morici: Very well. They lived into their eighties.

David Hirsch: That’s fabulous. Not everybody has a chance to meet their grandparents.

You went to school at Penn state where you got a bachelor’s degree and you went to George Washington university to get an MBA.

When you graduated, what were you thinking about from a career standpoint?

Peter Morici: Uh, initially I graduated in accounting and thought that’s what I was going to be. Cause my father was that. Then I ended up getting into the computer field. I thought that sort of the growth was going to be, and that was a good move at the time.

20, 30 years later, that’s been the case. I went and got my MBA after working with EDS and Ross Perot’s company for a few years. And then doing a lot of consulting work and you’re in Chicago and Washington, D C who backed shadow that my PMP and agile certifications. And then involved in doing that work as a consultant management professional, that’s the oldest certification that they have.

David Hirsch: It wasn’t really a particular type of work that you do in that area that no is something you’re proud of

Peter Morici: or something. I worked for the federal bank of Chicago as a project manager. That was one of the more exciting working in the ad building, uh, right. Downtown Chicago.

David Hirsch: So let’s talk about special needs.

Um, your connection to the special needs community before Alex was born. Did you and Alana have any connection to the special needs community?

Peter Morici: Absolutely not. Zero.

David Hirsch: Zero. Wow. So what was your first reaction Palomar name got Alex’s diagnosis then?

Peter Morici: Well, initially we were told he had pod nos, which is a

David Hirsch: DOD,

Peter Morici: which is a pervasive developmental delay.

Uh, not otherwise specific. No, we found out years later after we got the records that the doctor wrote down, uh, autism, but he didn’t, he didn’t tell us that.

David Hirsch: And what age would Alex have been at that point in time?

Peter Morici: Two years and four months.

David Hirsch: Okay. And you didn’t learn about the actual diagnosis until one night?

Peter Morici: Well, we, I knew that’s what it basically was it just, unless you go through a formal process and pay somebody thousands of dollars, you won’t get that label. So there were, but there’s no benefit to that label really when you’re two, three years old. So I was more interested in finding out the cause and the solution rather than a label.

David Hirsch: So what type of advice did you get early on?

Peter Morici: Uh, not much other than, you know, early intervention at 18 months, special ed starting at three years old, he was then moved to a different classroom. It’s just in the best school district in United States, Fairfax County, Virginia. And he was moved to probably one of the, you know, lowest functioning classes that they have.

Most of the kids in the picture that I have from that year, most of the kids didn’t even realize that picture was being taken. We’re not we at the camera. So. He started at the bottom of the Bible.

David Hirsch: I think he would share some statistics with me in a prior conversation. What was that? As far as what it is,

Peter Morici: the score was low one percentile.

David Hirsch: So he was,

Peter Morici: he was not, you know, not, no, no communication, no eye contact headbanging, running into walls, spinning, you know, just not eating either. He would only eat soft foods. He wouldn’t need anything hard. So he had a lot of feeding issues. He would drink like a gallon of milk a day almost because that’s what he liked to drink.

And it turned out that was the wrong thing to do because milk is actually for baby cows. And that’s where it was marketed for kids through Kellogg and another. Company’s a cereal, but it’s really not for kids. A lot of people have milk allergies and that’s one of the first things they recommend you do is remove milk.

From the diet and then improves people. Formatically because a lot of people have allergies, just like peanuts and other common type allergies.

David Hirsch: So how old would Alex have been at this point in

Peter Morici: time? Four years old.

David Hirsch: So he was nonverbal, no eye contact and a lot of, um, sort of issues,

Peter Morici: behavior issues. Yeah.

Banging, hitting. Okay. Running into walls,

David Hirsch: you know, sounds like a very, very challenging situation.

Peter Morici: It certainly was, especially with my wife and I was working and she was a new mother and a new country and, uh, was difficult situation for her to accept. I spent a lot of research, uh, using just Facebook and other online of how kids kind of help their kid recover from autism.

And I then determined that, uh, essentially it was heavy metal toxicity. She had had dental work done. Most people don’t realize that a mercury mercury is half the filling in your silver teeth. When you have work done, you get papers, you inhale those, they get into your system, they get in your brain. And it’s a huge factor that people don’t realize.

And

David Hirsch: so Elena must have had a lot of dental work done as a

Peter Morici: young person, as a child in Russia. And all they would do is they, of course, they had socialized medicine and they’d go in there and just put in more feelings and more feelings and more feelings, almost a mom, multiple times a year.

David Hirsch: And that happened not only in Russia, but that happened here in the U S because just as a point of reference, I thought I brushed my teeth, but every time I went to the dentist, as young person was, Oh, he’s got another cavity or two.

And this is, I mean, they’re just like, you know, filling all these cavities. And I must’ve had these 2000, if not more amalgam, fillings. And, uh, it’s happened that that was not a positive effect.

Peter Morici: No, just over the over time, what happens is that wears down, people have root canals and those, those metals eventually leak.

You’re brushing your teeth, you’re eat drinking, hot water, you’re eating half food, cold food, cold waters to rub

David Hirsch: any of your teeth together.

Peter Morici: And it’s over a years, these were not meant to be in for 50, 60 years. I think that’s one of the causes of. The high rise and the Alzheimer’s is because most of the people that are in their seventies and eighties, they’ve had these fillings in there since the 1950s.

Right. So

David Hirsch: what was it that drew your attention to heavy metals? Was it just research. And then

Peter Morici: I went to a seminar that some, a lady gave who was recovering her son and was there with, uh, 15 people. And her son was actually working the mouse and he had recovered and it was very fascinating. And then I did my research, got a hair test.

You do a hair test analysis, which costs under a hundred dollars. You ordered off a kid. No doctor necessary. And it gives you 20 different levels of metals and the minerals in your hair. I, Andrew Cutler is a PhD from Princeton who actually himself was suffering from this and that he worked out a protocol to remove the

David Hirsch: metals.

So Andrew colors that PhD, his name what’s the protocol

Peter Morici: referred to as Andrew Cutler culation protocol. The protocol is essentially, you’re getting a dose every four hours for 64 hours minimum. So you you’re getting out in the middle of the night, giving this dose, you know, through a dropper or whatever, but you only want to do it for about three days because you need the body needs to recover.

David Hirsch: So is that the process that he went through with

Peter Morici: Alison the, exactly.

David Hirsch: And over what period of time, how many of those protocols? Three days at a time? Did you have to go through with Alex

Peter Morici: that’s one round about 25 doses, which every three, four hours per out about 70 hours. And usually you do it over the weekend.

That’s one round. You continually do one around every month, one round every month. So maybe 25 30 rounds you can get in in a year. Uh, I did over 150 with my son over the course of five years. You basically had a plan in your life, right? You wanted to go someplace. You had to take some of it with you because you, after that set that alarm after three hours, you’ve got to give them that dose.

You could be late about an hour, but you don’t want to be, if you relate to hours that you have to kind of stop, stop around. Okay. So it’s something that’s, it’s a constant takes past that attention. Um, you start on a various low dose, high frequency, so it’s safe because it’s a very low dose. But we get the proof when you do a urinalysis test.

My first son’s urinalysis tests had 11 different metals coming out of it and he was three years old.

David Hirsch: So he started out at a very high level of metal contents. These metal contents. And industry now is age 13. So we’re 10 years into this and already, still doing these protocols.

Peter Morici: Now I’ve stopped going them a couple of years ago.

You know, we noticed within the first day we could see improvement. Within the first day. Amazing. And with my daughter as well. Also, one of the big factors was B12. B12 is a spur speech. A lot of kids, the problem is, uh, B12 is not orally ingested or, um, processed correctly. So people get B12 shots. So we did this with dr.

Huseman. Who’s a worldwide known, uh, autism expert. Uh, when I first met her, in fact, and I told her I did a hundred rounds, my son, she sat there and told me you saved your son’s life. And this happened when he was, maybe we moved to Chicago. So it was maybe he was seven years old. So that was a huge conviction of my

David Hirsch: work.

So dr. Who’s Bozeman is here in the Chicago area.

Peter Morici: Yeah, she’s in Neighborville and, uh, she is, uh, has a lot of, I’ve seen her speak several times. Um, she has a lot of YouTube broadcasts, um, and she is considered going to the countries are world’s experts on autism and other children’s behaviors. What do you want out of five kids?

These days is diagnosed with something which is just. It’s amazing because when I was young, there is not any of the special needs classes and all this, these diagnosises, but you would think it would be less, not more. And it’s an epidemic. So I just have now is one out of 60 kids and one out of 25 points.

And it used to be, we had an old book that I picked up when my son was young and I looked at it from 1990s and it said the autism rate was one off 2,500. Wow. And that’s how infrequent it was diagnosed. Just about 25 years ago.

David Hirsch: That’s remarkable. It’s referred to as an epidemic.

Peter Morici: I did it and it is, and there’s a lot of people making a good living off that because essentially what the mainstream doctors will do was, well, we’ll refer you to occupational therapy, motor room speech therapy.

My son went through speech therapy. When he couldn’t speak and they would basically kind of almost torture him, but toys under a blanket and tried to get him to, he was curious to see the toys and he would have to try and say something. And it was just a, you know, kind of a disaster almost torture essentially after about a year where the culation we knew dr.

Neubrander from New Jersey discovered by accident that methyl B12. Was spring language in allow the kids that were formerly mute factor a new brand, or had a protocol of methyl B12 shots. We went through dr. Uzman got a prescription for that and did the shots twice a week for three years. Uh, and you think it’s easy to give a child a shot?

It’s not, it’s not easy to give him one cause you have needles are preloaded, but uh, you have to give it to him while he’s sleeping. My wife did, did that for the next couple of years after I had vision problems and cataract and I couldn’t see and no depth perception. So I may not finding out about a doctor, a PhD in Australia who invented the B12 oils, B12 whales.com.

It’s a spray on oil that replaces the shots. And this was a game changer for us because. I didn’t have to go see the doctor once a year to get a prescription. I have to put the needles in the refrigerator and dispose of the needles. And you couldn’t travel with these needles. So the oil spray, when you were super sprayed on your skin, Robin, you can use it every day or every other day, and it works great.

And

David Hirsch: you can it online.

Peter Morici: And you can get it online, send it it’s from Australia, but you can get it anywhere in the world.

David Hirsch: Wow. And, uh, what what’s that referred to? You said it was  oils.com.

Peter Morici: Yeah.

David Hirsch: Okay. So what are some of the biggest challenges that you’ve encountered? I mean, not that you haven’t mentioned some of them, but, uh,

Peter Morici: well, uh, some of the challenges are that you go to the mainstream doctors and they don’t really have many answers.

They want to run their CBC test, uh, blood count and other standardized tests. They don’t really tell you much. They don’t believe in hair metal testing because never studied in medical school. So it was completely foreign to them. And then it’s not, Hey, if I didn’t learn in medical school, I’m not, uh, it doesn’t, it’s not important.

And this school, this well, they, they do have the special ed classes, but when my biggest frustration is that a lot of the doctors, they just want to send you to another therapist and just refer you out to somebody else. And, and those people just treat the symptoms as the child is not paying attention.

Well, let’s put them on a medication. Okay. And those medications are. Sometimes in fact, I’m in a lot of times, it’s just like, Oh, that medication will work. Let’s try another medication. Let’s try another medication. It’s just trial and error. And meanwhile, these medications have a lot of side effects, the loss of appetite.

And

David Hirsch: a lot of times when. Prescriptions are a given that’s multiple prescriptions and they don’t know what the interactions between certain drugs. So there’s the unintended consequences which are on down in a lot of

Peter Morici: situations. Correct.

David Hirsch: So what impact has Alex’s situation had on Jenny and the rest of your family?

For that matter?

Peter Morici: My daughter also had major delays. We didn’t find out until later that she’s diagnosed, uh, moderate ADHD. I have some mild intellectual disability, but she’s very verbal. So my daughter speech initially was just babbling at four years old, she’d be on the bus and the bus driver would come back and say, Oh, your daughter talked the whole way back in the bus, but I couldn’t understand a word she’s saying, well, after many rounds of culation.

Her speech is as clear as a bell. She can saying she remembers songs and all that. But right now she’s unable to read at eight and a half years old, after six years of special education. And we’re going to have her tested for vision therapy and we’ve, she’s running, we’ve had MRIs, we’ve had, uh, EGS, uh, other things to rule out.

But, uh, if you saw her, you wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with her. She’s very social and very active, but, uh, She has a lot of, uh, educational issues

David Hirsch: sometimes she’s way behind from a reading standpoint.

Peter Morici: Yeah. She’s at a kindergarten level and third grade and, uh, it’s, it’s hopefully, well, you know, the basically is you have to kind of take control.

You, you, you know, you just can’t go to a doctor and have them try it. You have to do your own research is the most important thing. Cause you’re only going to be here that are best advocate for your child. No, one’s going to know your child better than you. Uh, these doctors see 50 patients a day, you’re a number to them and the most, most part.

And you have to do your own research. Unfortunately now with the internet, there’s tons of research out there. There’s a lot of Facebook groups specializing in all these different categories and they’re extremely helpful. Their worldwide reach a great audience.

David Hirsch: So I’m just reflecting on what you were saying.

Originally, I had asked what impact has Alex’s situation had on Jenny and the rest of your family. And as it turns out, Jenny has a number of issues of her

Peter Morici: own. Yes.

David Hirsch: Right.

Peter Morici: And she’s actually held Alice because she got him talking more and getting head more engaged and, and playing with them. She’s about the less than three years younger than hate.

And her. Her social skills have helped his social skills. It’s, it’s been an interesting scenario to see play out, um, over the years. And, uh, but it’s, uh, it’s great to have them, uh, interact and play together. Um, you know, where years ago I thought this is never going to happen.

David Hirsch: So it’s gotten better.

Peter Morici: It’s got much, much better.

David Hirsch: I was also thinking about your situation being visually impaired. Like you have been unable to work and what would be considered a traditional job, you know, nine to five, five days a week. You’ve had this time that you could allocate to be that advocate. Um, so that both you and Alina could be more involved in the

Peter Morici: children’s life.

Yeah. That’s actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I ended up having a corneal transplant and, uh, had some complications with that. I’ve had eye problems in the past. I’ve had over 10 eye surgeries. I got disability. So I was able to, uh, dedicate a lot of my time that would have been spent at work and away from the kids and the family.

To be there to, uh, you know, you have to order the supplements. So you have to find out what supplements they need. You have to give this out mints, you know, sometimes morning and night essentially make appointments and then educate yourself. Really. That’s the biggest factors that, you know, you can’t depend on other people to tell you what’s best for your child.

Really. Uh, that they’re not going to, then I kind of do what, what needs to be done. And, and, and they just, a lot of times they don’t know they’re they know a lot of people are doing their own biomedical treatments because the doctors are not really helping treat the symptoms, treat the sentence. Oh, well, let’s find out the problem.

That’s that’s the key is to find out what’s really causing the problem, not treating symptoms, but you’ll be treating symptoms for the rest of your life.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, it’s remarkable that you’ve had the tenacity and the focus on doing that as opposed to being more passive. I think like most parents, um, and just, you know, following the doctor’s orders, if you will.

And I think the proof in the pudding, at least partially from what little I know of your family, and we’ve gotten to know each other the last couple of years is that Alex has essay about you. Through the old way. I thought of initiatives, what my father means to me program. Do you want to talk about that?

Peter Morici: Yeah, that was a, you were so grateful to, uh, invite myself last year to the event. And I end up sitting next to Mike Singletary just by circumstance. Cause I need to sit down on one side of the table to see the. Stage because I only saw one on my right eye and it turned out my seal. Terry sat next to me.

I was extremely impressed by the year orientation. It was the 20th anniversary of your organization. And, uh, I thought, well, you know, next year we’ll enter this contest. And uh, I thought, uh, That’ll be interesting. And my son can write very well. He types his Spanish as anybody I’ve ever seen.

David Hirsch: And he was just one of many students at Roslyn road that participated.

Peter Morici: Yeah. So we got, we got several local children, mostly in the past suspended kids from Catholic schools in the city entering your contest. But, uh, there was 5,000 plus centuries. And, uh, after we made the semifinals and went to the. White Sox game at the suite was awesome. My son loved it because they had three stories of games and things you could do with, uh, running the bases and springing the bat and whatnot.

Then I had answer eight in depth questions, and then though the answers to those questions then were narrowed down to the final 12 and then. Uh, those panels while we were, I was so good selected father of the year. So my son then was asked if he could give a speech read part of his essay. He originally wrote a thousand words before I realized that the maximum was about two 50.

So I had to then cut it down way, kind of down to 400 words, but I said, let’s just make it one page. So he read part of that essay in front of 250 people. And I would have been very nervous. And the other three kids that read their speeches were more nervous than he was.

David Hirsch: So he did a remarkable job. I was like, Oh my gosh,

Peter Morici: my dad got me into postcards because my cousin Mitchell made me go scout. One of the lines was, my son went from. They start taking standardized tests in third grade and he had a 38 percentile the first time he took it and then went to 51 and the spring of that third grade year and in fourth grade went to 50, no 74.

And then the finally 93 percentile.

my dad’s

David Hirsch: dead.

Peter Morici: Oh,

David Hirsch: system up there in front of 250 people is reading his essay and you’re standing there. I can only imagine what it must’ve felt like for you.

Peter Morici: It was surreal events, essentially. Uh, something I would never have imagined. So it was quite a, quite a shock and I was more nervous than he was. Sure.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, I’m just glad that I could be there and witness that.

And, uh, I was very proud of him and very proud of you as

Peter Morici: well. It’s is Testament to your organization. And that, that gives him the opportunity to yeah, because see, you don’t normally get that opportunity. I never spoken in front of a large group.

David Hirsch: So let’s talk about supporting organizations that, uh, You relied on for Alex.

So I know that special Olympics and CommScope to play a role.

Peter Morici: Yeah. I enrolled my son in a Cub Scouts and I recognize to everybody how Scouts accepts everyone. In fact, I was at a Michigan philosophy, which is the largest boy scout camp in the United States, the oldest. And, uh, there was a child there when we all share and I think quadriplegic and he was a Cub scout camping.

There’s a lot of kids, my parents enroll their kids in Cub Scouts for socialization. That’s what I did. I was wanting to see him interact with other kids and learning stuff and a very controlled environment. They teach them how to be quiet. They teach them, you know, how to do things. And, and, and you’re, you’re actively participating with your child several times a month.

Um, my, my brother, his, uh, son is his mother passed from, uh, breast cancer. My brother got him into Cub Scouts and boy Scouts. So he became an Eagle scout. And then on top of that, he threw the skills. He gained through that. And when he went to Cal and he started his own fraternity, so you can see the benefits and Cub Scouts is inexpensive.

It’s very inexpensive. It doesn’t require that much time, but it’s quality time. And the Cub Scouts. They accept everybody. They don’t say, Oh, well, your son can’t talk or your son has a, uh, some sort of condition I can’t get in it. No, no. That thinks that everybody.

David Hirsch: So it was, I was still involved in Scott.

Peter Morici: Yeah. He crossed over you cross over to boy Scouts. So he’s just starting boy Scouts this year. Okay. That will be interesting. That in special Olympics is another thing where obviously, you know, most kids can do something. My son couldn’t throw much, but he could run and he loved running. Um, fortunately Barrington has, uh, one of the few special Olympics soccer, uh, teams, and it’s called unified soccer where they match up, uh, uh, neuro-typical kids, usually brothers or cousins of some of the kids that have.

Bowel syndrome that are playing or other, uh, autism, what other modalities? And so they, the, the kids that are neuro-typical can’t score only, they can set up the other kids to play. And it’s fascinating to watch these games because they’re playing, I think it’s eight to 14 years old as the age group. And then they’re say 16 to 21 or something, but one Monday they were in a scrimmage against the local, another team.

How much larger kid just pushed my son over. And he hit the ground pretty hard. And I had never seen my son or I don’t think he’s ever been pushed over like that. Oh my God, what’s going to happen. Is he going to get out and hit him? Or, you know, and the referee blew the whistle, which got my son’s alert because he had, at one time it was very hearing sensitive.

He had happened the time. Uh, he hold his hands over his ears and no loud noises, loud noises. A lot of that’s a very typical, especially kids with metals, cause it’s not a 10 year type of a thing. And so I, uh, son. But the wisdom whistle blew and my son got up and, you know, it was kind of shocked, but I whistled the coach, took the other kid out.

And the other kid, I was worried about my son, the other kid chemo, or laying next to me and pound his fist on the ground because he was upset that he got taken out of me. So I ended up handling it perfectly. The other kid

David Hirsch: has

Peter Morici: an auto had had a meltdown

David Hirsch: that’s a while,

Peter Morici: but this is a, you know, the season starts next month and it will be his third or fourth season.

And that’s just a great, great opportunity for. You know, the interaction, they, they, their practice a lot. They have, they don’t have that many teams that are playing it, but, uh, it’s, it’s great for the kids. And, uh, and that’s a lot like a special Olympics. If you haven’t been with special Olympics, a track meet, I would encourage people to go.

You would see things you’d never see me before. I, you know, I would, I’d see my summit around the 50 yard dash or. A hundred yards, no, a hundred yard dash. She ran, but the case would fall at the beginning of the race. You get up and ended up winning that race. And you would never see that in any other sports, but you see these other kids that sometimes are blind and they have a Guidewire and they have a Guidewire and they run down.

It’s really. It’s a fantastic organization.

David Hirsch: Well, thank you for making reference to special Olympics, which coincidentally here and July of 2018 is celebrating their 50 year anniversary and it is an amazing organization. And that has had an impact, not only to people in the local community and around the country, but now around the world.

So what advice can you provide for dads who are raising a child with a physical or intellectual disability?

Peter Morici: You know, getting advice from other parents who’ve been in that same situation, I think is the biggest key that your special father’s network is a sign up over a hundred people. Now there’s a lot of Facebook groups out there and it’s like new, you know, you’re never alone.

Somebody else has been in your situation before. And I would rather listen to somebody who succeeded in that same situation. They go to a doctor who is not living that life.

David Hirsch: That’s a great

Peter Morici: point,

David Hirsch: you know, surround yourself with people that have been there and done that

Peter Morici: and take their advice and see what’s worked.

And there’s no, there’s no one set answer for everything. Listening to people who’ve gone through it before is there’s no better unbiased that person not making money off of your situation. Other factors are some doctors and running up bills on people. I know people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on treatments.

Uh, STEM cell replacements, all kinds of stuff

David Hirsch: that if you’re a parent you’re concerned, you’ll you’ll do anything,

Peter Morici: you’ll do anything. And that’s what these people do. They’ll go into debt. They’ll, they’ll take their kids to, you know, flying to this specialist or that specialist. And, um, uh, but, uh, you know, a lot of times these things can backfire because they, you know, if sometimes they try too many things, Hey, In order to introduce some slightly to say, zinc or vitamin B or whatever, you need to be on it for three days, see how it works.

If you have a reaction to it, then, you know, that’s, what’s causing it. If you give him all of a sudden 15 supplements and they have a reaction, you don’t know which, which is causing that reaction. So there’s a lot of things that are common sense, but common sense is not that common

David Hirsch: symbols that is so. Why did you agree to be a mentor father as part of the special father’s

Peter Morici: network?

Well, I already really had been a mentor of mine and a part of a lot of groups because that’s where I learned what I learned and I then would pass it on other people. Uh, in fact, I just got a text message from a doctor or who’s nationally known last week, asking me question about, um, What did my son was doing headbanging.

What, what, what, what, what, what, what would solve that problem? Well, culation solve that problem. He was banging his head.

David Hirsch: So is there anything else you’d like to say before we wrap up,

Peter Morici: uh, just that you can’t give up? You know, a lot of people say, Oh, you know, this is the way my child’s going to be. There are a lot of people are, you know, Oh, you know, go into acceptance, acceptance, acceptance.

I am not one of the people that accept things. I want to really make a difference. A Zoe is a solution to a problem.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, you’re reminding me about somebody that we’ve met or spend some time with last month to equate this fellow who is also a special father’s network mentor father, and their motto of the team.

White motto is yes, you can. Right. Which is to say. Never give up. Right. Don’t settle.

Peter Morici: Which is,

David Hirsch: you were just saying that in another

Peter Morici: way. Yeah. I ended the pleasure of reading the white brothers and the father he’s, uh, been on HBO sports and 60 minutes. I mean, he is a phenomenal, it’s unbelievable. And this is child cerebral palsy, quadriplegic.

David Hirsch: Nonverbal

Peter Morici: nonverbal, but graduated from college. That’s extremely impressive. He taught us through a computer that’s kind of thing where they didn’t give up. They didn’t accept his situation. I thought we can make this better. And he’s a, he’s a college graduate

David Hirsch: living

Peter Morici: proof. That’s a great example.

David Hirsch: So if somebody wants to get information on the AC chelation protocol or contact you, how would they go about doing that?

Peter Morici: My email is my initials. P w M Paul William, Mary, uh, con Charlie, pastor Nancy, and the number two. So six letters, number two, and yahoo.com. Always willing to help. I have time on my hands these days. I get, I get a lot of text messages and sometimes from backers and, uh, pretty well known. I really, uh, enjoy helping people and people are very thankful, uh, all around the world.

Actually, that’s the key. It’s not just like the United States or locally here. It’s people emailing me from India or Australia or all over the world. One out of five children being diagnosed with something it’s an epidemic and it’s being caused by something and it’s not getting any better. Well,

David Hirsch: Peter, thank you for taking the time and many insights as a reminder, Peter’s just one of the dads who’s agreed to be a mentor father as part of the Special Fathers Network, a mentoring program for fathers raising a child with special needs.

If you’d like to be a mentor father or. Are seeking advice from a mentor father with a similar situation to your own. Please go to 21stcenturydads.org.

Thanks again, Peter.

Peter Morici: Thank you, David. Thank you. And thank you for your organization. A superior group of people and volunteers that make this happen. And the benefits, many people, all the Special Father’s Network is a dad to dad mentoring program for fathers, raising children with special needs through our personalized matching process, new fathers with special needs children connect with mentor fathers in a similar situation.

Tom Couch: It’s a great way for fathers to support fathers. Sometimes the mentor father is just there to answer a few questions. Sometimes they become good friends. It’s a proven support system for new fathers with special needs kids. If you’re a father looking for support, or if you’re a dad who’d like to offer support, go to 21stcenturydads.org. That’s 21stcenturydads.org.

David Hirsch: And thank you for listening to this Special Father’s Network podcast. Stories of fathers helping fathers.

Tom Couch: The Special Fathers Network podcast was produced for 21st Century Dads by Couch Audio. And again, to find out more about the Special Fathers Network, go to 21stcenturydads.org, 21stcenturydads.org.