Lorenzo's Oil Page #10

please? What are the side effects of this?

- How would we pay for it?

- There must be a formal protocol...

...before we can raise funds. I understand

it will cost over $1,000 a litre.

And no insurance company or government

will support you without the approval.

And the only way to get it

is through thorough testing.

That's what they told AIDS people

about AZT, but they fought and got it.

Because they were dying.

They didn't have time to wait...

We padded our walls yesterday!

I want that oil!

There, my darling. That's a sweet boy.

What a big, strong boy.

Yes, my darling. Yes.

You see, Michaela...

...it's as though he is trapped

down in some dark cave.

Because he's lost so much myelin,

he can't find his way out.

Now, we know

his simple functions are intact.

He breathes, he swallows,

his heart beats.

And from the outside world,

he receives sensation.

A touch...

...pain, cold.

And here are the primal feelings.

Fear, hunger, desire.

While up here in the neocortex,

the higher brain, locked here...

...are his reasoning,

imagination, memory.

The things that make us each ourselves.

So how does he reach us?

When a simple swallow

is such a huge task?

To find...

To find the way,

the path from his mind...

...to the outside world...

...is like willing himself

through a brick wall.

So he waits, huh?

He waits.

Michaela...

Do you ever think...

...that...

...maybe all this struggle...

...it may have been for

somebody else's kid?

Yes.

But I promised... I promised him...

...his world would never be silent.

He would never be alone.

Yes.

"One morning,

a little rabbit sat on a bank."

"He pricked his ears and listened

to the trit-trot, trit-trot of a pony."

"A gig was coming along the road.

It was driven by Mr McGregor."

"And beside him sat Mrs McGregor

in her best bonnet."

"As soon as they had passed, little

Benjamin Bunny slid down into the road...

...and set off with a hop, skip and a jump

to call upon his relations...

...who lived in the woods

at the back of Mr McGregor's garden."

"That wood was full of rabbit holes,

and in the neatest, sandiest hole of all...

...lived Benjamin's aunt and his cousins,

Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter."

"Old Mrs Rabbit was a widow. She..."

"..earned her living by knitting

rabbit-wool mittens and muffeties."

"I once bought a pair..."

What's the matter, darling?

You don't like the story?

Lorenzo...

You don't like the story?

He does that a lot lately.

- When?

- Mainly at story time.

Sweetheart...

Listen carefully to Mama.

Is your middle name Patrick?

No... Is it Peter?

No, Mommy.

Is it Michael? Michael Murphy?

Yes! Yes!

Only you don't know how to say that.

Will you teach Mommy how to say no?

When you close your eyes,

does that mean no?

Oh, what an idiot!

That was a yes question.

All right. You don't want to hear

any more Benjamin Bunny, do you?

That's an emphatic reply!

Very well, young man.

No more Benjamin Bunny. How could

Mommy have been so thoughtless?

We're going to take all of these

baby books to the children's hospital.

It's time for the big stuff.

Something heroic.

There you go.

You gotta tell us what you want.

The Once and Future King by TH White.

"The boy slept well in the woodland nest,

where he had laid himself down."

"At first, he only dipped

below the surface of sleep...

...and skimmed along

like a salmon in shallow water...

...so close to the surface

that he fancied himself in air."

"He thought himself awake,

when he was already asleep."

"He saw the stars above his face...

...whirling on their silent

and sleepless axis...

...and the leaves of the trees

rustling against them."

"And he heard small changes

in the grass."

"These little noises of footsteps

and soft-fringed wing beats...

...and stealthy bellies

drawn over the grass blades."

"A rattling against the bracken at first

frightened him, but interested him."

OK. Is it your thumb?

Is it your index finger?

Your middle finger?

Your little finger?

It's your little finger. You think

you can move your little finger.

OK. Tell your brain to tell your arm...

...to tell your hand

to move your little finger.

Come on, sweetheart.

Tell your brain to tell your arm...

...to tell your hand

to move your little finger.

Come on, my friend.

What a wonderful thing. A "yes".

And then there'll be

a "could be" and a "perhaps"...

...and maybe even a "shut up, Mommy",

but now we just have to get to "yes".

So tell your brain to tell your arm...

...to tell your hand

to move your little finger.

Come on, my love.

Tell your brain to tell your hand...

...to move your little finger.

- Come on, Lorenzo.

- You can do it, my friend.

You can do it.

Come on, Lorenzo.

And they are born

without myelin, correct?

The only naturally dismyelinated

higher mammals in existence.

And this is passed

from mother to son?

Yes.

Their mother is from Edinburgh.

That's Jasmine.

She doesn't shake, but her male pups do.

- You think you can stop them shaking?

- Well, we hope so.

By implanting nerve cells, we expect

to see the growth of new myelin.

We've been partially remyelinating

rats and mice for ten years...

...and it's repeatable.

But if we could fund this work,

it could be the first in higher animals.

And then in human beings, huh?

Well, in time, yes.

Dr Duncan,

if I help you raise these funds...

...and if we can get the researchers

together to collaborate...

...I think we can achieve

very much in a very short time.

Augusto, we scientists

are a very competitive lot.

Such a collaboration is a lovely idea,

but sadly that is not how science works.

That's not necessarily so, because

remember the Manhattan Project?

28 months. It took them 28 months.

Now, if scientists can come together

to build the atomic bomb...

...surely they come together

to remyelinate some puppy dogs?

Papa called from Italy, darling.

He's missing his Lorenzacchio

very, very much.

But he wants me to tell you

he's making a big dinner tonight...

...a banquet of brain food for

the cleverest doctors in the world...

...who've gathered together to put the

myelin back in the shaking puppy dogs.

And if they can achieve that...

...someday there might be a way to help

all the people who've lost their myelin.

Not only the boys with ALD,

but the people with multiple sclerosis...

...and many other diseases, Lorenzo.

And then think, my brave boy, if they

can ever give you back your myelin...

...you'll be able to tell your brain to tell

your toes, your fingers, your anything...

- ...to do what you want them to do.

- ..what I want them to do.

And then, one day...

...I'll hear my voice...

...and all these words I'm thinking

will get outside my head.

Oh! Now it broke!

This is Charles and this is Harry...

...and they've both been on

Lorenzo's Oil for two years.

My name is Michael Benton

and I'm twelve and a half years old.

I've been taking Lorenzo's Oil

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