Autism, Aspergers, Rob Gorski,Special Needs Parenting, Reactive Attachment Disorder, Fibromyalgia,

Tag Archive: choice

Dec 04 2012

Operation Hope: Building a support team

On Friday, we have our very first, official wraparound meeting.  This meeting will take place at Gavin‘s school and involve teachers, family, doctors and therapists.

Basically, this will be about identifying our needs as well as ways that they can help support us.

I’m not sure what can really help accomplished here, since what is really needed is Gavin in residential care.

Having said that, it’s a process and one that is required in order to proceed. 

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I’m going to have to speak with the school about who we want at the meeting and who we don’t want involved.  Right now, I have my concerns about one person and I contemplating removing this person from the team

That may seem counter productive but in the end, it’s our team and our choice.

I fully intend to exercise that choice

I’m not sure that anyone aside from Gavin‘s teachers etc, will be able to make it.  Emmett will likely be at my parents house and with Lizze grandfather passing away, her side will likely be tied up with that. 

For the most part, our families are all on the same page so that won’t he a huge deal. 

Dr. Patti may be out of town as well.

Actually, the more I think about this, more it seems like we should postpone the meeting until a later date.  What’s the point if no one will be there?

Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/12/04/operation-hope-building-a-support-team/

Mar 21 2012

When you have more questions than answers

I’m feeling quite overwhelmed as of late.  We keep receiving more and more bad news.  I mean,  bad news is probably the wrong word choice but it’s pretty darn close.

The latest addition to the Lost and Tired family symptoms list is now seizures. I was positive that I was going to get the EEG results back for both Gavin and Elliott and everything would be normal.  I wasn’t prepared to hear that they are having seizures.

Honestly, I don’t even know what to do with that information.  The only experience I have with seizures is as a paramedic. 

I always say that I hate going to an appointment looking for answers and end up with more questions. That has been the status quo for as long as I can remember. Yesterday was one of those rare occasions where we actually got answers. 

However,  we got just enough information to worry.  We simply don’t know enough yet and so more tests are going to be needed.

I have to say,  the most frustrating part for me is that we still don’t know why any of this is happening in the first place.  I have no health problems, aside from my cholesterol is out of balance.  Lizze has tons of health issues but most of these are caused by long term stress and not something that would necessarily be passed down to the kids.

Why is it then, that they have all these bizarre health issues?  We’re not even talking common disorders.  I mean,  some of these issues are very rare.

I just don’t know what to do at this point.

Seizures are the newest problem that we have to contend with.  They have likely been there all along,  just undetected.  We were blissfully ignorant for all this time and now that we know about the seizures,  we are worried.

I don’t think there are enough. Antidepressants in the world to even take the edge off.

**Thanks for reading**

       -Lost and Tired

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Posted from WordPress for Android so please forgive any typos as auto-correct and I don’t see eye to eye. :-)

Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/03/21/when-you-have-more-questions-than-answers/

Feb 15 2012

What was the most important day of your life?

This may sound like a weird question but I have my reasons for asking.

I was listening to the radio this morning on the way to take the boys to school. They were talking to people about the most important day of their lives.

I heard some crazy answers and it got me wondering.

What qualifies as the most important day of your life?

For me, the most important day of my life was when my children were born.

A very close 2nd would be when I married my best friend. I think she would likely agree with my choice.

So, what was the most important day of your life?

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Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/02/15/what-was-the-most-important-day-of-your-life/

Feb 02 2012

Aspergers, Anxiety and Medications

I’ve been talking about Elliott’s anxiety issues for quite some time now.

I wrote about his issues with germs as well as his unusually high anxiety level. As time passed by,  these issues have begun interfering with his daily life and reducing the quality of it as well.

In my experience,  kids with Aspergers are prone to issues with anxiety.  Does that mean that every child or adult with Aspergers struggles with anxiety?  No it doesn’t. 

Having said that,  my kids are perfect examples of Aspergers coupled with anxiety. 

We had Elliott to see Dr. Reynolds last week.  Elliott was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.  Which,  as I understand it,  means that he simply is overly anxious all of the time.

After a long discussion and a whole lot of thinking,  we decided to try medication. 

While it’s true that Elliott is harder to raise as a result of all the anxiety,  our main concern is for the quality of his life. I mean,  he worries so much about everything and his stress level is way to high for a kid his age.

We decided,  based on Dr. Reynolds advice,  that medication would be tried.  Basically,  he will be starting an extremely low dose of Zoloft as soon as the script is ready.

In low doses,  Zoloft aides in the reduction of anxiety. 

It’s not an easy choice to medicate your child.  However,  when done for the right reasons and managed by a good doctor,  medications can benefit even the life of a child.

I hope that this will provide Elliott with some much needed relief from the constant worrying and through the roof anxiety.

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Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/02/02/aspergers-anxiety-and-medications/

Feb 01 2012

Stealing from a special needs family: update 8

I have some big news.  Yesterday,  I managed to replace our van and I financed it all by myself.

I honestly couldn’t believe it went through.
We got a 2004 Freestar Limited.  It’s basically exactly what we had before just newer.  Downtown Ford really came through for us.

While this is great news,  it did come at a significant cost.  It took took every last dime we had.  I would never have done this if I had any other choice.  Taking on a car payment is the last thing in the world we needed to do.

We are completely tapped out and many of the things that needed to be done with tax return won’t happen now.  I needed to get a treadmill so I can improve my health since I’m rarely able to get away to run outside.

I also still have to pay off the repairs on the old van as well.

However,  I was able to replace each of the boys mattresses.  I feel really good about that because they really needed to be replaced and Elliott’s old mattress had to trashed about 2 weeks ago.

I also won’t be able to finish my Android4Autism project because I can’t finish setting up the 501c3 nonprofit now. So that will be delayed yet again.

However,  I was able to get my Autism Support group off the ground and running.
The group is taking off and I’m pretty stoked about being able to provide that to everyone.

The other huge setback is the move.  It was going to be tough before but now it seems impossible.

I had to replace the van for obvious reasons and now the move will have to go back on the wishlist….  That is really depressing because if it wasn’t for those people stealing and subsequently totally our old van,  we would be in a much better situation.

Having said that,  the new van is much nicer and more reliable.  The payments are relatively low considering our financial situation.

I wasn’t looking for fancy but this was all I could find and time was running out.

This incident has changed the course of our lives. Due to the actions of the people responsible, many sacrifices had to be made in order to simply get back to square one. Things are going to be more challenging….at least until the van is payed off and we can once again try to escape the ever increasing violence and crime in our neighborhood….

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers over the past 2 weeks.  We made it through.  We are left with scars but we are still breathing….and once again moving forward :-)

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Emmett claimed his seat and location for his brand new car seat.  I think he likes it.

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Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/02/01/stealing-from-a-special-needs-family-update-8/

Jan 27 2012

Stealing from a special needs family: update 6

I spoke with the total loss department at State Farm this afternoon.  The only thing we don’t know for sure at this point is whether or not they will take into account all the repairs we had done this year.

I have all the paperwork and I will send it back on Monday.  They will then overnight the check.

I was also informed that they will be pulling the rental car on Wednesday of next week,  so I’m kinda under the gun.

Elliott,  Gavin and I stopped by Downtown Ford on the way home from school today.  We needed to collect our personal belongings from the van.

Elliott is very clearly struggling with this because he spent much of the time crying. He really liked that van and is devastated that he will never see it again.

This is the part of this whole mess that really makes me angry. We had enough to worry about without having to buy a new van.  Even worse is the impact those thieves choice has had on my family,  especially the boys.  That’s what really pisses me off.

All I have been able to do thus far is try to reassure them that Daddy will make everything better and they have nothing to worry about.

Elliott is now hiding some of his things because he doesn’t want them to come back and steal his stuff.  Heartbreaking,  and as my boys are Autistic,  they tend to hang on to these experiences for a much longer time then they might otherwise. 

They also generalize a whole lot as well. Because the van was stolen,  they now fear everything is going to be stolen as well.

This is going to take awhile to recover from,  in more ways than one.

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Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/01/27/stealing-from-a-special-needs-family-update-6/

Jan 25 2012

Stealing from a special needs family: update 4

I got some news and then had to throw that news out the windows as more news followed.

Confused?  You and me both.

I spoke with the claims adjuster this morning and they now weren’t sure if the van was actually totaled.

So after having up,  I was left kinda hanging.  I mean,  I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.  If the van is to expensive to fix than now might be a good time to cut our losses. 

On the other hand,  if the van can be fixed, then the question becomes whether or not it’s worth it to fix. 

This van has been a nightmare,  literally.  It’s unreliable and unsafe.  It has been a serious money pit.  We have invested 8x more intimate repairs then we paid for the van in the first place.

I don’t know what the right thing to do is. If they total the van out,  we could be left with nothing. If the van does get fixed,  then we will have our van but be right back in the situation we were to begin with,  unreliable and unsafe.

Unfortunately,  in the end I’m not sure how much choice I have in the matter.

Take matters more confusing,  after I spoke with the claims adjuster,  I heard back from the body shop.  Since the snow has melted,  they have found more damage.  The scary part is they haven’t even moved the van,  so we have no idea if there are mechanical issues as well. 

He was going to update the estimate with the new find and let State Farm know.

Shortly after hanging up with the body shop,  I heard from the claims adjuster again. She told me that the van was repairable but barely.

I asked if she had the updated estimate and she knew nothing about it. 

So now we’re back to where we started,  knowing nothing for sure. 

State Farm is going to call the body shop and figure out what is going on.  All of this happened during a winter storm,  so the van has been covered in snow.  As the days are warming up the snow has melted away and they have a better idea of what we are dealing with in the damage category. 

It makes sense to me.  I just have no idea what to do.  Should I started looking for a new car?  If so,  the move may have to be delayed. This really sucks………..

I need an easier problem for once. One that I can actually answer and said answer,  it clear cut,  right or wrong.

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Permanent link to this article: http://lostandtired.com/2012/01/25/stealing-from-a-special-needs-family-update-4/

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