Life Happens

Life has been happening. It's been pretty stressful too. Finances have been especially tight thanks to the meds that little man takes (because of price increases we are up to $75 in copays for 3 scripts), therapy and psych visits. Let's not forget the hospital bills. He was hospitalized again for threatening to hurt himself back in September. This trip was the longest 5 days. He's now on Tenex to help with the aggression. It does help. I'm thinking though the Concerta needs to be changed because he's getting so skinny you can see every rib. Every time you think you have it all figured out ... something else comes along and then you have to tweak it again. When he got out of the hospital this last time I went and applied to SSI and Medicaid. Praise the lord they approved him for both. This should really help us keep our heads above water.

9 Aspergers Temperaments

http://www.myaspergerschild.com/2008/04/aspergers-meltdowns-how-to-cope.html

Another great article that I found. After reviewing all the temperaments I think my son most fits this one:

High intensity level temperament moves the child to yell, scream, or hit hard when feeling threatened.

As you can imagine it makes for a rather volatile environment. He yells a lot (thankfully more than he hits, but that does happen some times too). I'm constantly having to remind him not to holler at me or at his sister and others.

Preperation for Hurricane Irene

http://blog.autismspeaks.org/2011/08/26/hurricane-irene-how-to-prepare/

This is a great link for those on the East Coast preparing for Hurricane Irene who are also dealing with a child on the autism spectrum.

Praying for everyone one the East Coast. We may live in GA now but I lived in NC for 28 years and my heart goes out to everyone who is being affected by Hurricane Irene.

My son made a new friend today.

To parents of children who don't have Aspergers this probably will make no sense whatsoever. However, parents with Aspie (I learned this new abbreviation online this week I dig it) kids know that the friend making process is fraught with pitfalls. We went to Group today. Monkey Boy has been to Group 4 times, I've been to Group twice. It was a smaller Group today (people come when they can so it's an ever changing number). My son didn't want to go in (as usual) and informed me that Group is "boring and stupid", but he did make it out of the car with out a fight. PROGRESS! Turns out there was a new boy there that we hadn't seen the few times we have been so far. This new boy is a couple years older than Monkey Boy and the both of them were fast friends by the end of Group. He complains about Group but I think it has been so good for him. He's never in his life been able to really make friends (now that we have the diagnosis of Aspergers it all totally makes sense) and so it's an amazing thing to me to see him slowly starting to make social connections. Between the ADHD, the Aspergers and Depression he battles you can imagine that he's not high on the list of popular kids at school. Especially since he's only been at this particular school for 4 months. I am praying that with our continued attendence with Group that he will continue to open up to people and get even more positive reactions.

What's with the name?

What's with the name of this blog you may be asking yourself. Well I will tell you. As I sat there today in my first parents support group meeting (while my oldest child .. my 9 year old son was attending group therapy), I listened as we all went around the room each of us saying our names and then discussed who we came with and what issues they each bring to the table. There were alphas flying all over the place. ADD, ADHD, ODD, OCD, Aspergers, Anxiety, Depression, the list goes on. It was like an AA meeting for the parents of kids with pervasive mental disorders (see how I throw out my new lingo that I am quickly picking up?). I realized in that moment of clarity that all of our precious children belonged to this alphabet soup of disorders/syndromes. For the first time since we started having issues with my son, I didn't feel so alone. I realized that each of us there is struggling to fight the good fight, to do the best we can to assist our children through this neverending maze of mental health. I realized that we were a ragtag club of sorts. The Alphabet Soup Club. Today's lesson was on ways to dealing with stress. We had a long list of things that were meant that either we as parents could do, or that we could encourage our children to do. The one that stood out to me the most was to write in a journal or diary. I've never been much for writing (I have my own written learning expression disorder that I've dealt with since I was a kid that makes it less than appetizing for me), but I thought about Blogging. I figured what if there are other parents out there in the Alphabet Soup Club either just starting out like us .. or else seasoned pros that might could share beneficial information with me. That or just commiserate on the struggle that we each go through daily just to make it by. It was so nice today to spend time with parents who are in the same place, dealing with the same day in and day out struggle. For the first time I felt like maybe we are going to make it through this, that we aren't alone on this bumpy road of twists and turns.