Category: autism

autism, deafness, health, residency

From the hospital….

criscollrj

Ugh… a very nice hospital with awesome people but I’m tired of being here! But tomorrow I get to go home…

Chris damaged his ear with self-injurious behavior and had surgery on it 3/10. By 3/17 he had damaged it further as we could not control him to keep him from hitting/poking/punching his ear. 3/18 we spend 5 hours in the ER and 3/19 about midnight in the morning we were admitted to the area’s specialty children’s hospital. We have been here ever since (did go home for 20 hours from Sunday night to Monday afternoon).

Chris has adjusted fairly well now to the routine and the sitters and nurses and doctors. We urgently requested med regulation in addition to his ear attention as he was out of control at home, in the ER, and here at the children’s hospital. A large team is in place to help him and I believe they are helping as he is much calmer. He had ear surgery again Friday night. He shall probably be here about 2 weeks or so.

He was hitting everyone in our family on Thursday and it was completely out of control – he had even hit Colleen (9) and Ryan (2). So we had to get him immediately emergency help.

Prayers and thoughts requested as we continue on this path – he is also going to have a tonsillectomy soon and that will be a tough recovery. There is nowhere for him to go, either, to like a “nursing home/recovery” kind of stage so they’ll keep him here as long as possible and then try and have an aide set up for our house.

The Lord is in control… I just have to trust.

Blessings, dori

 

adhd, autism, deafness, God, health, music

Finally a chance to breathe

criscollrj

Chris had to have surgery on his ear on Wednesday because he hit it so hard he got cauliflower ear. We have been watching over him at home – he seems better today so he’s relaxing a bit in the shower and I thought I’d take a minute here. Those of you who are inclined, I would appreciate prayers/thoughts for him as his ear heals. He is on some new meds that we believe are helping him now sleep at night – it’s been 5 days now that he has slept well. I hope it also calms him too so that he doesn’t bang his ears or head.

When Chris was in the hospital last summer I found this Bible verse. I have claimed it again as my promise that Chris will be guarded over by the angels. Psalm 34
17 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.
20 He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.

I pray that Chris will be delivered from this ear problem with no damage or further danger. I know the Lord is more than capable.

I know I need to go back to attending church. I want to get back into music ministry but the Lord will have to guide me back into that – I don’t see it being possible right now.

I was in the choir at churches off and on from 1987-1994, then 1999-2000. I greatly enjoyed it, and also did special music solos with guitar, and also sang for the kids in kids church that were preschool age. That was fun (that was in 2001). When Chris got too big to handle and had started all kinds of health problems, I had to quit everything. I miss it all and pray I will be privileged to be able to do it again.

BTW, I was definitely diagnosed with ADHD yesterday at the dr. All the IQ testing is done. I’m fairly high on the scoring with the attention part being lowest, no surprise there.

Housework calling….

dori

 

autism, Uncategorized

Asperger’s?

criscollrj

My daughter went to a new neurologist today – he thinks she may have Asperger’s as well as ADHD. This does not make me happy, but of course we want her treated for whatever she may have. Someday later when I have more time I’ll have to explain her history. But she is a beautiful, sweet, intelligent girl, 4th grade, and she has had attention/focusing problems. She has some very high interests like in animals, etc., but the teacher in her letter to the neuro described how she thought it may be a fixation for Colleen, so thus the looking at Asperger’s. I know, having an autistic child, a bit about Asperger’s, so I can see some of the areas where it may fit her. But I need to learn a whole lot about it. I am also very curious to know what to do about it, if she does have it. She will be still the same sweet Colleen, of course, whether she has it or not.

I wonder if my third baby will be diagnosis free……

Colleen got a beautiful hair cut today – it was down to mid-back and now it’s shoulder length and very bouncy with layers to the front 🙂

dori

note from 2024, The sentence “I wonder if my third baby will be diagnosis free….” that is absolutely chilling.

autism, children, health, sleep

I do exist still —

criscollrj

I think. We are so tired — all of us — our oldest has been ill and we are not sure what is wrong. He has autism as I mentioned before and he has been crying most of the time the last week. Drs. don’t know what to do. It’s sad and difficult. We love him so much but don’t know what to do. We are loving on Vanilla Coca Cola (me) and coffee (hubby) and just trying to get through it — it happens like this every few months and then it gets better.

Owen also is going to be evaluated to see if he has bi-polar disorder. We visited a psychologist today and she believes he may have that from our initial descriptions of him to her. So perhaps another piece of the puzzle of our beautiful but very mysterious son…

In my absence our baby son “RJ” also had ear tubes put in. He had 5 bad ear infections in 5 months. He is doing very well now!

Sometime soon I will finish the history I had started before, about meeting my wonderful hubby, etc.!

dori

edit – reading this over again for a 2nd time – read the entire blog during COVID in Dec. 2020 and now am starting to read again, July of 2024.  RJ now known as Ryan is back to having ear infections again and we are going to try and get him to an ENT to find out why.  2003 to 2024, 21 years later, crazy.