You can never have good without the bad. You can't have bad without the good. In order to better understand what our life is like and how *life's little bumps *impact us, you need to know the whole story.
The unfortunate reality of being an Autism parent is such that we never know what's going to happen next.
There's a saying in Ohio and it goes like this: *if you don't like the weather, just weight twenty minutes. *What that refers to is how constantly changing the weather in Ohio is. If you don't like what's currently playing, give it some time cause it's bound to change stations.
This is very much the say when it comes to Autism Parenting, at least in my experience.
Last night we realized that the boys actually went back to school today and on later on in the week. That was bad because it sent us scrambling to pull everything together, well after midnight. The good news was that the boys adapted to the change without much problem.
The bad news is the pizza I had delivered at 1:15 AM last night, ended up not being eaten at school today. Emmett was *okay *with the pizza but Elliott won't touch it and it's raining so I can't even walk to pick up Little Caesars.
This afternoon brought more bad news in that our car won't be fixed until at least Wednesday. The bad news continues as the cost has now doubled and I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
The good news is that there's no labor charge because my brother is kind enough to do the repairs, otherwise we'd be looking at even more expenses.
It's good news that my Mom will take the boys to school in the morning but the bad news is we don't know how they are going to get home, and Emmett will have to miss OT. He's not going to like that at all.
It's bad news that Gavin's IVIG infusion was had some hiccups today and he had to have one of the needles moved a few times, in order to get the medication infusing into his belly. It's was very painful.
The good news is the IVIG infusion finished without any further problems.
The bad news is that Gavin's body is not coping well with the donor antibodies this time around and he's having some complications as the day goes on. He's white as a ghost and has suffered from visual disturbances. When he stands up, his vision goes out and all he sees are black and white stripes.
The good news is he's not had that happen again but the bad news is it could be autonomic and that would be really, really bad news if that proves to be true.
My day is full of ups and downs. It's full of good news and bad news. Most of the time, these scenarios play out and are directly tied to being a special needs parent, meaning I haven't even begun to deal with the everyday responsibilities/problems that go along with raising any family.
By the time the day draws to a close, I'm exhausted beyond all belief and this wasn't even what I consider a bad day.
There comes a point where I just don't have the energy to care about anything other than the absolute essentials and this drives my decisions in just about every aspect of our lives.
I'm hoping that this will help to provide some insight into what families like mine might be struggling with, and if you're one of those families struggling, please know you aren't alone.
