Four-year-old Connor Dalby is a vision of love for his mother, Kelley.
"He's really shown me what love means," she said.
But Kelley says doctors never envisioned Connor making it to this point in his life.
She says they pretty much gave up on Connor. The toddler was in Hospice care and wasn't expected to live to see his 4th birthday.
Connor started having frequent and severe seizures when he was 3-months-old, which kept the Oceanside toddler in and out of the hospital.
"At the worst of it, he lost his eye sight. He was having seizures through his optical nerves and
lost every single developmental skill he gained," Kelley said. "Life consisted of staring off into space."
Not willing to give up, Connor's mom says when the best doctors in the country and their
medical cocktails couldn't stop her son's seizures, she turned to a different medicinal recipe.
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It included a diet of a diet of organic foods and fattier meats, reflexive physical therapy and Cannibidiol or CBD, also known as marijuana oil.
Since taking the alternative route, which includes three daily doses of the oil, Kelley says Connor has been seizure-free for one year.
But medical experts, including Dr. Caroline Hastings, are voicing concern because kids like Connor qualify for marijuana cards, and the cannabis use isn't always monitored by a doctor.
"I don't think it's correct to use cannabis in this way," Hastings said. "The most effective way
to use medication like this is in concert with a medical team to make sure that there's no
interference with any other medication to treat the underlying disease and to make sure it's safe."
Kelley says she'd be happy to talk with any doctor who disapproves, saying she'd like to show
video of what her son's life was like the last couple of years compared to what his life looks like now.
A fundraiser for Connor is scheduled for Feb. 1 at Poinsettia Park's Thorp Field in Carlsbad.
