a GOOD pediatrician appointment

I was incredibly nervous for Brian's well-child check-up today. The boys' pediatrician and I had been kind of on the fritz since Brian was diagnosed with autism. The first appointment I had with him after the original diagnosis I looked him in the face and said "Talk to me about the link between autism and vaccines". The answer I got was typical from a pediatrician and I think most autism Moms know exactly what I'm talking about. I got the same answer from him when I asked about changing Brian's diet. Well obviously I didn't take his advice to heart because Brian was on the diet soon after that. I was lucky in the fact that Brian didn't need any more vaccinations at that time.
Today was the first appointment since when he needed to have immunizations. I brought along Josh and told him he needed to come to be on my team and no matter what he had to agree with me and not agree with the doctor (as Josh is still on the fence- he never got to see the Brian before vaccinations which I think would've definitely sold him)- Josh agreed he'd come be my support.
As we're waiting in the waiting room I decided to see what was new on the bulletin board. Of course there was a huge print-out about how the MMR vaccine does not cause autism. How Wakefield's study was full of holes & mistakes. I thought I was definitely in for it when I told our doctor I was not vaccinating Brian.
First thing I brought up was doing the sedated hearing screening for Brian- which was actually something I brought up at the last appointment. Brian has been to so many hearing screenings with always the same result- not being able to finish. The doctor said he'd get right on making the referral for us on that as well as a vision screening while we're there. I then brought up allergy testing, which I have been shot down on before, as well, from him. Guess what? He said he would set us right up with an allergist. Of course I also made sure to make lots of little comments about things he's doing and how he wasn't doing them before the diet changes- I love to do that everytime we go there.
After all of that the doctor said, "I guess the only thing left is some immunizations." I took a deep breath, readied myself for an all-out battle spewing out all my facts and views and feelings (seriously I had a huge speech prepared in my head" and just said "I'm not continuuing vaccinating Brian at this point in time." I waited....prepared myself.... and heard, "I'm not surprised at all. You're not my first autism mom I've heard this from, believe me." And that was it. No pressure. No nothing.
I'm hoping that perhaps he does have more & more patients with autism and maybe he's starting to hear more & more personal stories of how vaccinations, food, viruses, toxins, etc. has made our beautiful children regress into autism.