Where to begin... there's been a lot going on since my last blog post. First off I have hit my one year mark. I am just shy of losing 200 lbs. I am now considered healthy weight for my height and my BMI is on the upper side of the normal range. This is amazing to me. I am so proud of myself. My Dr. was pleased with my progress and my labs look fantastic. My vitamin D has came up from a 18 to now a 26 and I am going to be on another 3 months of mega vitamin D 50,000 IU twice a week. I was on it 3 time a week but now that my numbers are climbing he seems to think that the twice a week
will be okay. My copper level is a tad off so I have to start taking Zinc because I guess the zinc and copper go hand in hand and whatever he wants my copper to do, the zinc will help it out the best. I also have to start taking a B-12. It's not low yet, just borderline and they did notice a change from my levels last time, so they are just keeping a close eye on it to make sure I don't become deficient in it. The B vitamins are essential for heart health, and with my family history we don't need any trouble in that area. Whatever I can do to help my heart out is great by me!
I am right on track with everything else, so the Dr said to get my labs done every 3 months, and he would see me back in the office in a YEAR!!! I love the sound of that! I can do the happy dance.
Now on to the important stuff. Brody...our little pistol. Since age one we've had some major issues with him. Not things that other people could really point out and say there was a problem, but things that I, as his mom was noticing. Bill even had trouble believing there was something truly wrong with him. Other than him seeing him scream and throw these awful fits for hours at a time, Bill didn't think that anything was "wrong" with our child. He didn't want anything to be wrong with him and didn't want him to be labeled. Neither did I actually, but I kept having this nagging feeling in my gut that there was SOMETHING terribly wrong with him. The older he got the worse things stood out to me. First off there was MAJOR speech delay with him. He was over 2 before he spoke. He then only said a few choice words. By 2 years 4 months he had a brief word explosion and was finally seeming to catch up with some speech. He was still about 100 words behind the charts of where he should have been, but what little things he was spouting off seemed to make life a LOT simpler with us around here. He was communicating and this seemed to help ease the strain of some of the fits he was throwing.
It was so frustrating though when we noticed through the holidays a few choice things that really started to bother me about him, and when Bill actually picked up on it and gave me the go ahead to get him re tested for a few things. Here's what we noticed. In a crowded place like a store or mall he would freak out. He didn't like going to Cole's school program. We thought it was the people? He just seemed to freak out bad. He didn't like it there. On vacation this summer I noticed as long as he was in his stroller in his own little space he was fine, but as soon as you took him out, he freaked out and was throwing fits. Thank goodness we took that stroller with us.
We also noticed at Christmas family functions that he seemed to want to go off into his own little world all the time. He didn't want to be out with us around everyone. He likes to stay in his own room, or he would want put in his crib to lay and watch tv or he would live in the bath tub. The bath tub... dum dum dum... it's like the key element to this whole thing. I started noticing that when he would get extremely upset, he would want to take a bath. Baths seemed to be the ONLY thing to settle him down at times. He would hound and hound until you put him in the tub. He would get really agitated and upset it you wouldn't get him in the tub. As soon as his little body hit that water and as soon as you shut the shower doors he was a happy camper. He would calm himself down in the tub. He would play in there until he wanted out and then he would get out and come running and be a totally happy kid. He is taking about 5 or more baths a day on average.
New years eve my aunt Susan was out here. I didn't say anything to anyone about him or these habits of his, but with a house full of people and kids, he didn't want nothing to do with anyone. He settled into his room, wanted in his crib or lived in the tub. Susan picked up on this too and said something about Autistic kids doing these things. Bill had been kinda in denial about this all for so long, but that night with Susan here he started to listen to what she had to say. After that night he finally realized that things just weren't quite right with Brody. He finally agreed that I needed to do whatever I needed to do to help figure this out and make life a bit easier on us all. He also didn't like feeling so rejected by him all the time. He's just not the loving kid that Cole was.
Brody has been in the early intervention program for over a year now. He gets evaluated by a speech therapist, developmental therapist and has supposed to been getting evaluated by an occupational therapist, but there isn't one in our area right now. Luckily Chuck the guy through early intervention was able to pull some strings with Megan a therapist from the Quad Cities and he had 4 families who needed evaluated, so she agreed to come down here a day and see these kids.
Megan came and spent over 3 hours evaluating Brody. He showed her all his true colors that day. He was an angel, a terror and threw a few fits now and again. She was able to see it all. She asked about 1,000 or more questions and graded him on my responses and what she could see for herself. It was so overwhelming, but by the time she left that day, we had a diagnosis.
Brody has Sensory Processing Disorder. This is a highly complex and complicated diagnosis. I am still learning so much about it, but all the things I see and hear about it, nails Brody on the head to a T. I am finding more and more that this is so highly associated with Autism and the spectrum that it's no wonder that was the gut feeling that I'd been having for so long. Turns out that he could eventually get diagnosed with something on the spectrum when he's a bit older and they see more things stand out with his traits and personality. For now, I don't really want to label him, I just want to get him all the help I can possibly get him and know how to best help him fit in at school and learn all he can and be all he can be.
I have some therapy things I am doing with him daily. Brushing, and joint compressions and those things really seem to help calm him down and put him in a better place. With just a weeks time of doing these things, and doing a few of the tips and tricks that Megan the Occupational therapist suggested, he's really taken to it all. He's calmed down a lot and seems to want to associate with Bill more. It was a jam packed day with her and she told me soooo many things, so I have had to read up on more and study this disorder.
One of the main things about this disorder is the crowds and noise really bother him because he just can't process it all. We normal people, tend to tune out the background noises, with Brody it's amplified and he can't tune it out. His little brain just can't quite process it all just yet and this is where he throws fits, screams and acts out. He just flips out and melts down because he doesn't know any other way to calm himself down and tune it out. It's like nails on a chalkboard to him.
He takes comfort in his "space" that is why his room, his crib and his bath tub are his safe zones. We are working on putting up a pop up tent to the dining room to give him another place to go calm down, in hopes that when school starts he can go to the tent if he has an issue and needs a place to go isolate himself and chill out. These kids get overloaded really easy and need time outs for themselves to calm their brains down a lot.
Brody also tends to get pretty upset with different voices. If Bill talks to him with a baby voice and trying to baby talk him, that pitch really must bother him because we have noticed that it sets him off. So Bill's working on talking normal to him now and Brody seems to really warm up to him more now. He's also been working on firmer touch. You'd think that gentleness is key with kids, but sensory processing disorder kids don't process light touch.. When you lightly touch them they immediately think that it is going to hurt and can sometimes have the sensations that they are being burned. So firmer touch, bear hugs, seem to be what works best. We've been doing this more with him and it seems to help a lot. He LOVES it. Loves the brushing therapy where you firmly take this plastic brush and stroke his skin. This therapy helps him become aware of his entire body and limbs. Sensory kids seem to not know what body parts actually belong to them. They don't realize their body is their own. This brushing helps them know they are all there. The joint compressions really calm him down and settle him down. The more I do them on him the more relaxed he is.
I am a momma bear true and true and I KNEW something was not right with my kid. When you know you just know. Never ignore your gut feelings. I am so happy to have a name for all this now. I am happy to know where to go from here and things I can finally do to help him out. Not just things that let him slip through the cracks and get lost in the shuffle. Our child is going to be something some day. I want him to have a chance to do just the same as every other kid out there and I will do whatever it takes to make that happen. This includes pushing and pushing until we figure him out!
Eventually when school starts in August we may have to take him to the Autism clinic and narrow down the diagnosis to better help him blend in at school and for his education, but for now this is what we got and I am doing all the research and all the things I've been taught to help him out.
It's just amazing to Bill and I how a few little things can totally change a kid in ONE week! Wow! I can't wait to see how these things help out in the long run! We are so blessed!
Mernie had her surgery on Monday. It was a long day, but she came out switched and she is out of the hospital and home now. She's on her journey to her weight loss success and I am so happy and proud of her. She is going to rock this stuff!!!
Cole spent last night with Jenny and she took him to the skating rink so he could skate! He's been looking forward to the rink opening up all winter long. He's so happy!
This week I plan on just getting things organized here at home. Catching up from a busy week of running to Peoria twice and not being home much. I am about caught up, but then I have more things I would like to get accomplished that don't really stand out, but to me I want to get done and cleaned out and up!
So much to do, so little time!
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