Posts
Our Health Insurance "does not cover" issues related to Autism. It's United Healthcare. Employers can also stop Autism Discrimination by letting United Healthcare know you will cover these items.
This week has been an incredibly difficult week for me as a mom. Last Monday, Sean climbed into an empty cardboard box on top of our king bed, and decided to launch himself off. As he was falling his stuck his little arm out and took the weight of his body on his arm backwards and broke it in two places and dislocated his elbow. When he walked down the stairs his poor little arm was swollen and just hanging there funny, I could see the bone getting close to the surface of his skin so I knew it was bad. Ian, was 5 feet from him when it happened and he rushed Sean off to the ER who confirmed what we thought. We got lucky, the on call Orthopedic Surgeon, was the former Orthopedic Surgeon to the San Fransisco 49rs. On of the concerns about Sean's injury was possible nerve damage to his radial nerve. Since the bone broke in half, it was pushing on his radial nerve. His has limited mobility in his thumb and fingers right now, however at least he has mobility.
Sorry, Aidan didn't manage to get any photos taken today , we tried with Santa but it was a no go! Aidan had his ECI / First Steps Christmas party today. He was so excited by all of the helium balloons hanging from the ceiling he kept running back and forth asking for "Green one" or "Red one" and swiping all of the Christmas cookies. I went hoping Aidan's support team would be there (however they didn't show up), so I thought I would spend some time talking to the other moms.
One of the moms particularly hit home with me. She was in her young 30's, first time mom to a very active 2+ year old little boy. She was all dressed up in her local North Texan garb of black tall boots over jeans with a studded jacket, and she was completely out of breath. He son was keeping her busy, picking up toys, throwing them, grabbing other kids toys looking for a reaction from them, and playing with things that were not toys. Making high pitch noises. Well, this boy came over to Aidan and took one of his toys, and Aidan... well it didn't phase him. No reaction. This stumped the little boy and the mom came running over, I'm sooo sorry and she proceeded to sternly lay into her son. I told her, in all honesty, it's ok, it won't phase him, he has an older brother that does that to him all the time. She proceeded to lay into her son and told me, it doesn't make it right and I am so exhausted at the end of the day. I'm trying to teach him to share. What this mother didn't know and hadn't been told was something I had seen before. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see it, he was clearly on the spectrum. It was going to take a lot more than her "telling" him how to share and to pay attention. I took a moment to reflect on all of the progress we made with Sean since he was at that difficult stage and couldn't be more thankful we were past it. Being a mom to an active 2 year old can be challenging, but add autism on top of it, and it will make any mother lose her mind.
Before I got a chance to talk to the mom, she left the holiday party early, entirely frustrated. I said a little prayer for her on the way home, that she would soon understand why she was going through these difficult behaviors and hopefully be given the help she needs to get him on the right path.
Ian came to my rescue at the Christmas party after he finished watching Sean's flag football game. Aidan starts to "run" when he gets into lowd busy scenarios. I was physically tired from bending over and picking him up with my big belly in the way. I still try and push myself for Aidan, because I want him to have all of the social options Sean had at this age. We are hoping to get him into a mom's day out program in January. This will give me a well needed break during my last trimester (which is just around the corner.
Ok, have to run, Aidan is throwing things...
I had an unusually unmotivated week last week. In fact, the first time I left the house was Friday for an hour and a half to go grocery shopping. I made homemade chicken soup yesterday and was able to deliver it to my friend who is a full time working mom at home yesterday. The soup turned out really good. Ian & I enjoyed a couple bowls , and we still had some stored away.
Sean continues to impress me with how quickly he picks things up. He's now advocating for himself at school. He tells his pre-k teacher he wants to learn about XYZ planet, the human body, or whatever his learning itch is for the day. Friday he was telling me about smooth muscles in the stomach. I think Sean may need a gifted program soon to help him discover new things. I try to supplement him as much at home as possible. His current school district does not acknowledge giftedness until Kindergarten.
On the exciting side of things, pending paperwork from Sean's pediatrician, we have been approved to start fund raising for Sean's Autism Service Dog. We will eventually have his own website and you will all know about when we are up and fund raising for it. To learn a little more about Autism Service Dogs, please watch this youtube clip by another family. You can also visit 4 Paws for Ability. We are actually hoping the dog will sleep with Sean. He is 5 and still does not sleep in his own bed or through the night. He will help Sean socially. They will also train the dog to search and rescue for both Sean and Aidan. As many of you know, Sean is an escape artist. This is very common of children with Autism. More details coming in a few months on this.
Aidan, is doing remarkably well. He had all 5 Early Childhood Teachers out last week, and outside of an expressive language issue and a few sensory issues, he's doing great! He's making eye contact, interacting, and climbing on top of EVERYTHING, like a typical two year old does. He can even name all the planets in the solar system (thanks to Sean of course!). I honestly think he may be done with ECI soon. His ECI coordinator asks me what I attribute all of the recent progress to and the only thing I can think of, is the fact that we stopped giving Aidan immunizations after he failed his 12 month Autism Assessment at the Pediatrician's office. The manufacturers of many of the immunizations do not recommend children with immune system deficiencies to receive certain immunizations. Sean suffered a reaction to a series of immunizations he has when he was a newborn. In fact he ran a high temperature for a week after receiving the shots and my mother instinct is saying he got too many shots in one appointment and he suffered a significant reaction. I do want to be clear, I'm not against Vaccines. In fact, I think the majority of the population should get them. I think if you have a family history of immune deficiency issues or autism in the family, I would caution to do your research first. Here is a link that talks about a delayed vaccine schedule. I actually get emails about this all of the time. You have to do you own research and come to your own personal decision. I thought is was interesting to read that when I was a child, I received 11 immunizations by the time I was 6 and I believe today children are scheduled to get 36 immunizations by the time they are 6. If you ever are told there is no link between vaccines and autism, please read the following article. Anyways, I promise to not speak on this subject again, it falls within those controversial subjects I never want to write about (religion, politics, etc), and this is just my personal situation.
As we approach April you will start to see a lot of press about autism and awareness. April is Autism Awareness month. As you know our oldest son has Aspergers, which is a high functioning form of autism. I have been touched by my family, friends, and friends of family who have been learning more about autism. It is a huge support to us as a family. 1 in 150 children have autism. 1 in 96 are boys. Ian & I recently watched the HBO Special, Autism the Musical.. it's actually a documentary. If you want to know more without getting too much into someone's personal life, this is a great place to start.
http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/autism/video/
