It's been a very frustrating day. We had to totally adjust our plans because Elliott was home sick but we try very hard to roll with the punches. Autism and/or Special Needs parents have to be able to adapt because they living in a ery fluid environment.
I was able to get Gavin to his appointment at Akron Children's Hospital but that ended up being frustrating as well.
His gasteo is really nice and she's incredibly patient. ☺
I've spoken about this many times over the years but it bears repeating once again. Gavin is *not *a reliable source of information about anything, especially when it comes to his health. He struggles with memory issues and even basic comprehension.
None of this is his fault but he very much muddies the water when he tries to answer questions.
If Gavin doesn't know the answer to a question, majority of the time he makes up an answer that he thinks the person asking would want to hear.
He did this throughout the appointment today and it was very frustrating.
When he's with a doctor that hasn't known him very long, they try to involve him as much as they can in his own healthcare. That's a good thing.
The problem is that they don't understand how Gavin operates and they tend to simply accept his answers. Again, Gavin should have a voice in regards to his own healthcare but in many cases, the information he provides the doctor is simply made up or at the very least, inaccurate.
We were talking about slowly removing his reflux medication at today's appointment, a move we fully agree with.
I explained to Gavin that if he has any issues with reflux, he could try a glass of milk or have some Tums.
He immediately responded with *Mommy told me that because I'm drinking Ensures, I can't have Tums. *I told him that I think perhaps he misunderstood because that doesn't make any sense. Lizze and I have learned that you can't give Tums when the person is already on certain reflux meds but that's it.
There's absolutely no reason why he can't have Tums and drink his Ensures at the same time or in the same day.
Rather than accept the answer, he dug his feet in and insisted that he was right and he didn't misunderstand what Lizze had told him, if she'd even said anything in the first place.
The doctor stepped in and told Gavin that even if Lizze had said that, he was perfectly okay to take a Tums and still drink his Ensure.
I have no idea where he got this idea from but it wasn't from Lizze and it certainly wasn't from me.
He must have misunderstood something that was said and it turned into that. Gavin got really upset and began hitting himself. He would not let this go.
Update since writing: I double checked with Lizze about this and she has no idea what he's talking about. The only thing she can think of is that she and I have both told him that sometimes, you can't take Tums if you're already on prescription antacid.
The doctor may have thought I was being abrupt with him but this would have continued to esculate if I didn't shut him down. There's no reasoning with him when these things happen. I had to simply tell him that it was a misunderstanding, we would talk to Mommy about it when we get home and that at this point in time, *it's over, done with and gone*. He understands that to mean he's to let it go.
He them talked about being allergic to milk because every once in awhile he gets a tummy ache from consuming milk. He specifically stated that it could be regular milk or Lactaid.
She was going to put him on something to help with lactose intolerance until I spoke up. I explained that he drinks milk every single day and only on the rarest of occasions does he get a tummy ache as a result. Gavin made it sound like he's getting sick everytime he consumes milk and that's simply not true. In fact, he's only said something maybe three times that I can even think of.
He wouldn't let this go either and all it did was create confusion. He became upset to the point of hitting himself.
It really is frustrating because I know when he's going to sorta go off road and needs to be redirected, sometimes abruptly but it can look like I'm being harsh with him.
Gavin's random and sometimes incoherent comments during his appointment served to only make things more complicated.
This is the kind of thing that is extremely frustrating in regards to being a Special Needs parent. No one ever thinks about stuff because all too often, we just don't talk about it.
