Bad Dream

I thought I had thoroughly mourned at this point for the loss of my old son, the one I had before his autistic regression. I had let him go and embraced the son I now have. So different, but still so easy to love.

Then I had a dream. In that dream was my old son, at about 7 or 8 (he regressed at 4 1/2). He was going to a sleepover birthday party with some other boys his age. He was having a great time playing and didn't want to leave. On the walls of the playroom were all the trophies from sports and activities that the boy had done. I chatted with the other moms and waited for my little guy to finish up his playing.

This is the life he and I never had, and never will have. No sleepovers, no meaningful friendships, no trophies. He is 13 now. All those things never got to be. No sleepovers, cub scouts, soccer practice. He will never have those things.

Today the pain is fresh again.

Been away for a bit.....

Well, my sick kid ended up being a sick kid with pneumonia. After a fairly traumatic trip to the ER (she had never been there before), we survived the week and things are getting back into a routine. Unfortunately, the pneumonia has clearly set her back ADHD-wise. I couldn't get her supplements into her most of the past week or so, and it's definitely showing.

It's really frustrating, as she was doing soooo well before she got sick. One step forward and two steps back I guess.

Medical journals begin cracking down on fraudulent studies funded by drug companies

Medical journals begin cracking down on fraudulent studies funded by drug companies
This one is not surprising at all....It's a step in the right direction that they are finally at least appearing to crack down on this. Merck is a manufacturer of vaccines as well. I'm sure they have had their fair share of fraudulent studies done on disproving links between neuroimmune disorders and autism/adhd.

There is still a long way to go....I have become very wary of believing what comes out of the traditional medical community lately, as so much is steered by $$ and pharmacy companies.

Ritalin stunts growth of preschoolers; 40 percent develop side effects

Ritalin stunts growth of preschoolers; 40 percent develop side effects
Sadly kids are getting prescribed this stuff younger and younger.

We Have Sleep!

We got some new slow release melatonin, and he did wake up at 4:30, but then went back to sleep! Yay!
I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more if my daughter had not been up all night with a fever. Never a dull moment, ya know.

The fall hellishness continues...my son is still on a rampage....sleep or no sleep....but sleep is definitely better :-)

Did I mention I hate Fall???

My son is now treating us to a daily 4am wake up call. Unfortunately for my family, we picked tonight to run out of melatonin. Would have been nice at 4am to have something in my bag of tricks. So far this is two nights in a row, so I'm hitting the store today. This kid is like superman, how can he not be tired??? Yawn.

Anyway, the other treat for the past week has been lots of aggressive outbursts, with his favorite new behavior, throwing stuff. Remote controls, books, and my favorite, tennis balls at my head. I encourage myself with the fact that at least he's working on his ball handling skills. His aim is pretty darn good.

Jenny McCarthy Rocks!

Jenny McCarthy has been all over the place sharing her son's story of autism and recovery. She is the official spokesperson for TACA (Talk About Curing Autism). I just checked out their website, and there's a lot of great information on there. http://www.talkaboutcuringautism.org/index.htm