We have been having so many wins lately with our severely autistic son. He is thriving. Our family is letting that breath out we have been holding for years. I feel like many parts are actually getting easier. And yet, the roller coaster continues. Our son had his longest behavior to date yesterday, 10 minutes, and had to be put into a hold. I spent the night feeling guilty. And worrying. And wondering why his life has to be so hard. Why can’t it just be easy? And as he…
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I just encountered a handicapped gentlemen in the skyway outside of my office. I would say he was in his fifties. I heard him coming. He was saying the most cheerful ‘hi’ to every person he passed. I noticed he was being ignored. Which I guess isn’t all that uncommon. When a stranger says hi it’s probably normal to ignore. When he said hi to me I gave him the most cheerful hi I could give. He stopped walking and asked if I was going to have a baby. I…
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The small room is kept cold and quite. It only has one long rectangular table with 12 black cushioned chairs that have wheels at the bottom of them. The walls are painted light tan, with no pictures hanging from it, and the carpet is dark brown. You can not hear the sound of my heels walking to one of the chairs where I will sit for the next hour. It’s August and every room at the board of education is full and humming with excitement and nervousness for the upcoming…
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Making the decision to have another baby is a huge decision no matter what your situation. When you find out you are expecting a baby, you are flooded with excitement, joy, concerns, fear and so many other emotions! It can be a time of great worry for some people, but when you are a parent of a child with additional needs, it brings a whole new level of worry to it. It wasn’t long before the birth of our second son that most of the problems Master W was experiencing,…
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I promised I would give a weekly update on our journey with medical cannabis for our severely autistic son. We are 21 days in! In Minnesota, medical cannabis was legalized for autism in July 2018. The program is regulated by the state of Minnesota. You can read more HERE about how we got started. Want to know if medical cannabis is legal for autism in your state? Click HERE. After getting a prescription from his doctor and jumping through all the hoops, we started him on the lowest dose possible.…
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It has taken me almost a year to write this. On February 16, 2017 my life changed. Keegan got his diagnosis of severe (level 3) autism. I had known in my heart for over six months that it was autism, but prayed that it wouldn’t be, and that the early intervention would start working. I had prayed that his symptoms would go away, but when they didn’t…I had hoped for a diagnosis of mild. Looking at his symptoms I knew it would be more than mild, but I kept telling…
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‘The best feeling is watching things finally fall into place after watching them fall apart for so long.’ The beginning was so hard. Before the autism diagnosis. The unknown. The hating myself for suspecting something was wrong. The watching all of his peers and even younger kids pass him by. The exhaustion. Never sleeping. Wondering why my baby was different. The fighting with my husband because I saw something he refused to see. The hoping it was anything but autism. Late bloomer. Boys will be boys. Holding my breath. Waiting.…
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When I first received the news that my son had autism over three years ago, my mind instantly started making a list of the potential challenges that awaited us in the future. Will he ever talk? Will he ever be potty-trained? Will he need to be in a special classroom with other disabled children? Negative or difficult scenarios would keep me up at night, and I’d toss and turn thinking about how I was going to help him face each one. Fast-forward three years later, and ironically, many of those…
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I promised I would give a weekly update on our journey with medical cannabis for our severely autistic son. We are 14 days in! In Minnesota, medical cannabis was legalized for autism in July 2018. The program is regulated by the state of Minnesota. You can read more HERE about how we got started. Want to know if medical cannabis is legal for autism in your state? Click HERE. After getting a prescription from his doctor and jumping through all the hoops, we started him on the lowest dose possible.…
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I’ve scoured so many posts, blogs, and advice columns looking for moms like me. The moms who still struggle with the diagnosis. Moms who still wake up in the middle of the night unable to breathe, and moms who doubt everything they thought they knew. I look for moms like me, who have been crushed by the weight of autism. It’s been ten long years. Nothing has soothed these wounds. I’ve tried. I’ve tried different therapies. Antidepressants. Christianity. Wine. Way too much wine. No one seems to understand what this…
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