update

My middle guy was out sick all last week from school, he had a flu which I am sure was H1N1 just because there are several confirmed cases in his school. There were over 94 kids out of the school last week alone, thinking that the numbers have increased because there were only 5 kids on the school bus today. He is now well, back at school but I am leary about sending him back to perhaps only get sick again!

Last night, my oldest who's picture is above has come down with : a fever, a sore throat (you should see his tonsils they are HUGE) and also a cough. He is now home for the week, getting him checked out at our doctor's this afternoon...making sure it isn't strep throat!

My dd and I are heading to get her vaccinated, my mom is staying home with the boys so I can get in the LONG line at the local clinic this afternoon...am hoping my crutches and I will get through the line faster :p. One good thing about my knee surgery!

My knee is doing better, still using one crutch (will be using two this afternoon when I take my dd in) and am doing my exercises they gave me and I have my follow up appointment on Thursday to get my stitches out. Still can't straighten my knee yet, and my leg is very swollen :(!

I also have cancelled my meeting with the teachers for parent teacher night at school, if they want me I told them they can call me where I don't have to be on my leg too much...don't want to be in the school for long where there are confirmed cases of H1N1. Lol

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

Update

Okay, so I thought it would be a great time to update you all on what has occurred since school started :)! My oldest is doing really well with school, loves to write and loves to build things too :)! My middle guy is having lots of trouble with school, has shown signs of regression and we are trying to get him the BEST services we can. On that same note a friend of mine and myself have taken it upon ourselves to fight for more support services and speech therapy all across our city, we are going to do a presentation at the end of November to our school board. Someone has to fight for our children's education, especially those children that have special needs :)! At our school we have 1 speech therapist to 49 children, she is at our school 1 day a week for an hour or two...how are these kids benefiting from that??? If the school board won't help us we are starting a petition and are taking our concerns to the media!! My dd is doing well, we started going to a weekly playgroup in our area and we try to goto the library almost every week...so she can play with other children :)!

I had my knee appointment today with my #4 Orthopedic surgeon, he was gentle with me but now I am still in excruciating pain :(! The good news is that he is referring me to a pain clinic since my knee problem is a life long disorder or condition and I have to learn to live with it without a lot of meds. He also is going to do a scope to see just what is going on from the inside, and I was floored when they told me it will be Oct.28th as in 2 weeks, as in Oct.28th 2009...lol. Usually, it is a 2-3 or more wait for knee surgery...I have to goto the valley for it early in the morning...my surgery is at 11, but I have to be there for 9. I am happy and kind of dreading being in more pain for a few days after my surgery...will keep you posted :)!

Inky Hugs,

Catherine

update

Just thought I would give you all an update as to what has been going on around our house, since I haven't done that in a little bit. My middle guy shown above, has finished his first short week of school and what a week it has been! You know something is wrong on when the second day of school you get a call from his teacher, expressing her concerns about your little guy but at the same time are relieved that your sons teacher is so on the ball. She told me that she is quite concerned about him, that they are keeping a close eye on him and here are some of her concerns:

~He just takes off without any reason, and he is fast

~He is quite anxious, finds it hard to sit still

~He keeps repeating questions, answers, statements over and over again

~He has started to rock

~He needs a lot of prompting

~He doesn't do well with transitions or change

~He fell down the stairs on Friday morning, his poor Learning Center teacher was horrified, but he looked up and said "WOW, that was fun". They think that his responses aren't fitting the situations!!

This isn't news to me, although the rocking thing is new!! I do get daily notes from his teacher and Learning Center teacher in our "Communication Journal", and phone calls at the end of every week to update me with what is going on. His teacher told me "Catherine, in all my years of teaching...he fits the criteria for a child who has Asperger's but he also has other problems too which don't know what they are yet."

On Wednesday morning, I called the school to find out where on earth my son's E.P.A. was and to find out they do have 2 but are still figuring out scheduling. I got a call later on in the morning saying that they have upped E*'s E.P.A. time from 50% to 80%, he will be watched 100% of the time he is in their care. This is good news :)! He is also being observed by the Autism team that works with or in our school board, another good thing too...

Yesterday morning was my dd's assessment, they thought they should do her just to be safe...well she didn't get a diagnosis (no surprise there) but they felt she was anxious and might have a small processing disorder. They want to see her in a year, they want her to see an OT for a few sensory Issues that they hope to nab before she get's to be E*'s age. She is also going to be followed by the Developmental Center, but not as frequently as E* ! But I did step up and say to the Dr. who feels there is nothing wrong with E* that I believe strongly that he IS on the spectrum somewhere with other underlying issues, that I am going to fight and fight hard for him. That everyone else that works with Ethan all feel that he has Asperger's, except for you...well, I am here and I am fighting with everything I have. She looked so shocked, she didn't say anything except she looked at her co-worker for help...her co-worker didn't even look at her. She was too busy smiling and nodding at me!! Wow, did it ever fell good to do that, I had to say something to her as I didn't stand up or speak up when Ethan was assessed and I kicked myself for weeks for not saying anything. So I did yesterday :D!

I* is doing so well at school, he hasn't had any problems yet and LOVES his new teacher :)! However, he did have an unscheduled growth spurt on me without telling me...so he woke up this morning and put on track pants for gym he looked like he was wearing Capris. Lol, at least he had one pair of jogging pants that fit!!! Hoping he doesn't have a HUGE growth spurt in the next couple of days or I am in trouble :p!

Inky Hugs,

Update

Just wanted to pop on by to give you an update on my middle guy, this is now week 2 on new dose of meds and it is AMAZING the changes we have seen in him over the past two weeks. I am so happ

y, and very exciting too :)!

To give you an idea of the kinds of changes I am talking about:

~He can tell us now without too much trouble what is bothering him

~He can ask for help if he needs help

~He is talking a whole lot more

~He is hasn't had as many meltdowns, and when he does have them he can calm himself down within minutes NOT hours

~He doesn't stim as much anymore either, only if his senses are overloaded or he is very upset

~He is more helpful (telling his sister who is 2 to use her big girl words or to listen to his words)

~He is telling us he loves us, without any prompting

The list just goes on and on of the good things that have been happening with him :)! There is something we didn't think was such a HUGE problem which has become more evident that he is on the meds. He is seriously lacking in the area of socialization, he is at about a 2-3 year old level we think! He has no idea how to act in public, what is appropriate to say, how to start/finish conversations, he doesn't really know how to ask other kids to play with him ( he will introduce himself, then tell them all about who is in his family and then by that point the kids have given him a weird look and run away). He doesn't understand why sometimes people don't want to talk to him or why they don't want to play...we are at the "why?" stage with him when it comes to socialization. He also doesn't know emotions, by that I mean he doesn't know how to read people's faces and tell you how they are feeling...or why they are feeling that way.

This just breaks my heart to see, but it means I have to create a program for him over the next week or two to help him learn all of these things and more. We also have to first figure out how he learns, he is a very visual learner and have used social stories for him but they don't work. The pictures have to be so simple with one to two words on it, then for some reason things click...but now here is the tricky part. How do you teach someone all the socialization skills they need when they are 5 years old by inch by inch pictures??

Inky Hugs,

Update

Several weeks ago we had an appointment with a doctor I like to call "flip flop" (as she can't seem to stop contradicting herself), she told us that she would like to put our middle child on Prozac to help with his OCD (thoughts) and ADHD issues he has. I was not comfortable with doing so, just because I thought she was too perscription happy and I didn't know too much about OCD or ADHD or the drug she wanted him on.  She just told me I was just being anxious, lol...ummm, nope...try cautious!  

We then had an appointment with the ped's neurologist a week after our appointment with "flip flop".  He agreed we should try the drug with him, since he was seeing evidence of some issues going on there at our appointment. He also thought that if we did try it as a trial, it worked so well we might not have to have him on the gluten free diet. Anyways, we decided after much research that we would try it out as a trial basis!!  So on Friday (day4) of being on the meds, I had scheduled two playdates...one in the morning and one for the afternoon since my oldest child had no school that day.  My friends and I were so amazed with a HUGE difference we saw in him....here are some things that we noticed:

~He didn't wine

~he didn't have a meltdown

~he was calmer

~he seemed happier

~he said "Mommy, isn't it nice that I didn't scream at all today?" He seemed quite happy he hadn't screamed all day too....it felt good to him.

~we had NO, problems/complaints about anything with him on Friday

So yesterday, we had an appointment with "flip flop" to make sure that the meds were okay or if he was having any reactions to the meds.  But when I told the dr. that we had an awesome day on Friday, she started to cry...never made a doctor cry before :p!  She told me his blood test results came back fine, no issues there which is good...because that test ruled out him having Ceiliac disease. Then she told me she has to meet with one of her co-workers (who was also the other dr. who assessed Ethan with the Autism Assessment team), to discuss the video footage taken of our son at school in a social setting.  She told me that this other doctor didn't say anything about the video she saw, but that they were going to meet in the next couple of days...hoping it will be sooner than that.  This "flip flop" doctor also said that there IS something going on with our son, and we have to now move forward to figure out what it is (I was sitting there thinking, do I believe her or is she going to change her mind...plus, I was thinking it is about bloody well time you started to move forward!) 

Tonight, is the night we have to keep my son up as I told you before in a previous post...it is for an EEG....to rule out seizures (Petite mal) one's to be exact.  It will be an adventure I am sure tomorrow afternoon...but will keep you all posted as to how things go.  

Hugs,

catherine

update

So, yesterday afternoon I went and had the x-ray taken of my foot and the lady said that I would hear back that afternoon or today from my dr about my x-ray results. I hope I hear from them today, because something isn't right with my foot...it feels like the baby toe is crossed over onto another toe. It also feels like it is going tingly, and it hurts a lot....so if I don't hear today I might just goto Emerg. and have them check it out.
Will let you know what happens...

hugs,
Catherine