Thursday, April 28, 2011

And Off We Go...



Big Daddy and I are heading out for a long weekend away.  Without the J-man.

Our first long weekend away since the J-man was born. 

Allow me to do the math:  4 years, 2 months, and 26 days.

And I am so excited and so incredibly anxious!  Excited because... you know.... I am going AWAY.  Anxious because.... you know... I am going WITHOUT THE J-MAN.  And for anyone who has a kiddo like Mr J, you understand the completely messed-up conflicting feelings about leaving.

(even for just a long weekend)

He is staying with Grandma Mumu. 

They get along great.  They will have fun!

He will be fine.  Fine fine fine fine fine fine fine fine FINE.....

He will behave.  Behave behave behave behave behave....

He will hardly miss me.... oh, who am I kidding?  He freaks out when I do a 12 hour shift at work.  He WILL miss me. 

He will survive.  And so will Grandma Mumu. 

(I hope)

********************
This post was submitted for the S-O-S Best of the Best series on Anxiety published on May 15th, 2011.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Looking for Help with Research!

Hi all!

Just thought I would pass on an opportunity for you to help further research!  A doctoral student contacted me looking for parents to fill out his survey from parents with children on the spectrum.  From his survey:

The aim of this study was to develop improved diagnostic measures for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). In particular, I am focusing on developing appropriate measures to assess for problems/challenges that may exist along with ASD.


If you have a child who has been diagnosed with ASD, please consider participating. 

The Link:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ASDStudy

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Gravity Pulls You In


I have been asked to participate in the Best of the Best Blogger Book Review and Giveaway!  Numerous bloggers are getting together and reviewing books that they have have particularly helpful and moving.  Please check out all of the wonderful reviews, and hopefully get yourself a free book!!

As you know, I do have a policy of reviewing materials.  So in the spirit of full disclosure, my choice for the Book Review is one in which I already have some personal connection with:  Gravity Pulls You In: Perspectives on Parenting Children on the Autism Spectrum (Eds: Kyra Anderson and Vicki Forman).  One of the editors, Vicki Forman, is a friend of mine and has written one of the best memoirs I have ever read, This Lovely Life.  I have previously reviewed it here.  So when this book came out I was fairly sure it would be brilliant. 

And it is.

Gravity Pulls You In is a series of hauntingly honest and poignant essays and poems reflecting the experiences of parents raising their children on the spectrum.  This is not an advice or treatment book.  This book will not necessarily be the "chicken soup for your soul". Nor is it a book of rants by disgruntled parents. Instead, these are carefully crafted and honest reflections that will touch you deeply.  Every time I read one of these pieces I grow a stone in my throat, my eyes mist, and my heart is squeezed rather painfully. Prepare to be moved.

I recommend a bottle of wine with this book.  Yes, the whole bottle. 

And in the spirit of the Best of the Best Blogger Book Review and Giveaway, I will draw a name from those who comment here (or drop me an email if you are shy) and that lucky person will get their very own copy of Gravity Pulls You In.  But you only have until April 30th to respond!!!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Cavities, Seizures, and Mommy Regret

J-man's latest (brief) visit to the dentist has revealed three cavities.  At least.  The dentist could only take a quick peek because J-man was in full freak-out mode when she tried to examine him.  But, in that quick look she saw three and is afraid there may be more. 

Sigh...

It kinda pisses me off because I made a point of asking her if we could get sealants for his teeth at our previous visit. Given his significant oral aversion and refusal to allow me to brush his teeth, I just knew we were setting ourselves up for cavity city.  He will brush his own teeth... sorta....  you know, as good as any orally-averted-four-year-old can.  But she said then that they don't typically do it on baby teeth...  which is both stupid and bogus.

Anyway, the best way to address this problem is to have J-man put under sedation and do a full exam with x-rays, fix the cavities, put on sealant (grrrrr!) and possibly put on caps to the back teeth (not sure we want to do that).  Clearly, sedation comes with some risks...  risks that are probably necessary if we are going to fix his teeth... and since we are doing it, we might as well think about what else might need to be done at the same time. You know, the biggest bang for our sedation buck. 

His tonsils are fine so no biggie there.  He has never had an ear infection so no tubes needed.  He is due for some immunizations so we will get that done while he is knocked out.  And I am looking into whether we could have an ABR (auditory brainstem response) hearing test done at the same time (also best under sedation).

But there is this little voice in the back of my head that is saying "have them place electrodes for an EEG....  have them do a 24 hour EEG...."

You see, when J-man was 2 1/2 yrs old, he had a sleep deprived EEG.  Basically, a sleep deprived EEG involved waking J-man up at 2am and keeping him awake until about 8am. Yeah, that was fun.... try it sometime. Then, at the hospital, they placed the electrodes on J-man for the EEG (yeah, that was a barrel of monkeys too), and he was allowed to sleep for about 45 minutes while they measured his brain activity.  The reason he had the EEG was to rule out seizure activity as a potential cause for his developmental delays.  And all signs from that EEG were normal.

But... there are three factors that nag on my brain....

First was the sleep-deprived EEG.  Typically, those types of EEGs are less reliable in detecting seizure activity purely because the window of time to measure brain activity is so short.  Being sleep-deprived is suppose to induce enough stress to spur on "seizure like" activity during the first round of the sleep cycle.  My problem is that it is such a small snapshot that the likelihood of missing some seizure activity is very broad.  And, given the trauma of actually going through the electrode application, I am not thrilled with the idea of re-doing it all for a 24 hr EEG.

The second issue is my recent reading about the increased incidence of seizures (particularly absence seizures) in children on "the spectrum".  It is highly correlated, and that has me concerned. If J-man was having absence seizures, it could greatly impact his ability to learn.  And absence seizures are highly treatable.  AND the typical onset of absence seizures is between the ages of 4-12 yrs old.

The third issue?   J-man has displayed a few of the very subtle signs of absence seizures. He has times of just staring off into space, usually for only 10-15 seconds.  He has these moments where he shakes his head like "no no no" out of context.  I thought he was thinking of something, but could it be a tic?  And he has these times where he is remarkably crabby... not tantruming, just out of sorts. Of course, those symptoms could also be related to his developmental delay, or his auditory processing, or his lack of social orientation, or....   just being J-man. 

But there is this little mommy-voice that is just freaking out a smidge.

Now, Big Daddy will not approve of doing another EEG based on such flimsy evidence.  It was very traumatic for J-man to get those electrodes on, and he is almost two years older and much stronger.  And it is quite likely that the doctors wouldn't want to do it after sedation anyway, so even thinking about it for the whole bang-for-your-buck sedation event is maybe just wishful thinking on my part.

But I can't suppress this feeling that this would be our best chance to ease my mind.  Or not.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Classic J-man: Part Two

(Wanna read part one?  Click here)

In my latest attempt at winning the Meanest-Mom-of-the Year award, we left the evaluation and went straight to speech therapy.  And then... the icing on the cake.... J-man had a dentist appointment (oh and he has at least 3 cavities, which means a lot of future joy for us).  Yes, I think the Meanest Mom award is in the bag!!!

To make it up to him, I took him to Pump It Up for an Autism Speaks fundraiser benefit. 



If you have never heard of Pump It Up, it is pretty darn cool.  "Bouncey" houses on a grand scale, big enough for mommy and daddy.  Our local Pump It up offers a monthly "Sensory Night" for special needs kids and their families and it is wonderful.  There is nothing like being able to take your child somewhere and know... on some level... everyone there 'gets it'.  And J-man loves... LOVES... it there.  The Great Open Jump had a special early time set aside just for special needs kiddos, and so I figured we would go for about an hour early on in the evening and bounce with the boy.

When we arrived, I was quite surprised to find that there was only one other child there with his mom,  a little four year old boy whom I'll call P.  Other than them, we had run of the house.  P was absolutely thrilled we were there.  He has high functioning autism and was very verbal and happy that a 'friend' had arrived to play with him.  I cringed a little.  Given the events of the day, I wasn't sure if J-man would give him the time of day.  Or even glance his way. 

I couldn't have been more wrong.

After a little warm up time, the boys were chasing each other.  Each boy was pulling the other in one direction or another.  At one point, J-man gestured to P and said (in a demanding voice) "down!".  Initially I thought he was trying to get the boy off a perch that J-man had claimed as his own, but then I realized he wanted P down so they could keep playing their chase game.  Amazing!

Up and down the inflatable slide.

Cruising around in kiddy cars.

Wrestling around with big laughter.

It was interactive and joyful for a whole hour.

I rarely get to see J-man with his peers.  While he goes to J&J, I don't get to observe him.  And I figure that he probably doesn't engage much with them, especially with little assistance to foster relationships.  The demands of the classroom and on his ability to engage are probably too great.  But with this boy, in a physical activity where there were no expectations or high demands on his language skills, he glowed. 

Consistently inconsistent.

Classic J-man.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Classic J-man: Part One



J-man can show many faces in a single day and is heavily influenced by the approach that people take with him.  Explaining that to people who don't know him well can be difficult.  When I try and explain who he is and how he functions, well.... (it just doesn't matter if they are a 'expert')...  there is this sense that they don't believe me.  Or trust my instincts... my understanding... of what makes him tick.

So when my very words were verified by the J-man during his evaluation yesterday,  it was a little bittersweet.

Yesterday J-man had a "full psychological evaluation", including an IQ test.  You may be asking yourself:  Err, why?? 

Well.... we are considering enrolling J-man in a new specialized preschool program that has special needs children included.  If we decide to do it, it will be a trial... we love J&J, but we would like more support for J-man's language development.  One of the requirements is a full evaluation including an IQ test (remind me someday to give you my rant on IQ testing in language impaired/socially delayed/autism spectrum kiddos).

And, of course, I knew J-man would not comply with an IQ test.  Oh no, not my boy...  but you know, they aren't gonna listen to me.  So we went ahead with the full knowledge that this testing would have nothing to do with his abilities.  And ...hmmm, about 5 minutes in the Dr O knew it too.  Dr O was a very mild mannered, gentle man, and I don't think J-man hated him.  But (for those of you who follow J-man's story) J-man does not respond well to new adults.  I knew after the first time Dr O addressed J-man that he was not going to get J-man at his best.  It probably didn't help that the first sentance he uttered to J-man had 9 words in it (I counted).

The next phase of the evaluation was the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) .  I have really kinda avoided having the ADOS done up until this point.  You might find that strange, but really... I have had good reasons!  You see, in my former life (before J-man and Big Daddy), I used to work as a child fellow in an autism clinic and helped administer the ADOS on a regular basis.  Ironic, I know.  Anyway, one of the downsides to the ADOS is its heavy use of language, especially receptive language skills.  So a child with significant challenges in language are already at a disadvantage in the ADOS.

Anywoo...

Since I was very familiar with the test, it was hard to me to not... well, put my oar in.  I held back as much as possible.  Really, I did.  It became clear fairly early on that J-man was not remotely interested in doing anything Dr O wanted him to.  He wanted to get J-man to play with cars.... J-man wanted the Legos on the shelf.  He blew bubbles and a balloon up.... usual big fun for the J-man... he was only mildly interested. 

J-man was in "I don't want to do what you want me to do because you want me to do it" mode. 

One element of the ADOS is having a "birthday party for the doll".  There is a playdough birthday cake, a plate, a fork, a cup, birthday candles, and (of course) a doll.  The administrator has the child help make the cake, put the candles in, pretend to light them, blow them out, sing happy birthday, and then feed the baby.  Or at least some participation in the play activity.  The purpose of this exercise is to examine the child's social engagement, social play, and pretend or imaginative play.

Dr O announced the birthday party.  J-man barely glanced up.  Dr O got out the playdough which peaked J-man's interest.  He joined Dr O at the table.  Dr O suggested J-man put in the candles in the playdough cake, which he did.  He encouraged J-man to blow out the candles.  J-man sorta, kinda did it.  Dr O started to sing Happy Birthday.  J-man said "No no no no no no!!".  He isn't a big fan of singing. 

And I thought it was just me...

Dr O then tried to get J-man to feed the baby.  J-man headed for the other side of the room and started to play with legos. Sigh....

Dr O asked me if J-man ever shows imaginative or pretend play.  I said yes, but it was still emerging.  But, I said, this whole "event" is more about J-man not doing what we want him to do, not because he doesn't know how to pretend or exhibit pretend play.  I told him that J-man does readily engage in social learning, but not social engagement. I could see on Dr O's face that he wasn't sure about my assessment of the situation....  mommy in denial, perhaps?

And then... get this.... it is fricken classic!!

As we are discussing this, J-man ventures over to the birthday party table.  He picks up the folk, puts cake on it, and feeds the baby.  Starts to make smacking noises... yum yum yum.  Gives the baby a drink from the cup and makes gulping noises.  By this time, Dr O's jaw is on the floor.  He hands J-man a blanket and J-man puts it on the baby and says "nigh nigh".  And then he was off... across the room... back to the legos.

Classic J-man.

Which is what I said to Dr O, and I could tell that my words were now carrying much more weight. 

We should get the evaluation back in a couple of weeks, but I am pretty sure he will be diagnosed with autism or PDD-NOS.  I know from his performance on the ADOS, he was at his worst.  So, we shall see...

But do you think the story is over???  Oh no... stay tuned for part 2... coming soon!

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