As you may know, for whatever reason, Lizze is in menopause.  Technically, at her young age of 32,its called premature ovarian failure but they are both the same thing, according to her doctor.  One of my biggest concerns was that because of her history of blood clots, she would be forced to endure this change of life, without any help. Turns out I was wrong.  Although, I still don't understand why but there isn't much about this that I fully understand anyways for I guess it's par for the course. Her new endocrinologist that specializes in menopause, is putting her on estrogen. This is where I'm confused because I didn't think she could safely have hormone replacement therapy. Apparently, I was wrong.  Lizze, on Monday, will begin receiving estrogen via…

After spending the last 2 days with Gavin, it's very clear that his speech is continuing to regress. I don't know how many times he's gone to talk to me and I swear that I can't for the life of me figure out what he's trying to say.  When you don't live with someone everyday, it's easier to notice things like this.  Even when Gavin was living at home, we noticed this but having him gone for so long and not listening to him speak everyday, makes the changes all that more noticeable. Right now it doesn't help that he's either dealing with allergies or another sinus infection because he's really nasally.  Gavin doesn't blow his nose very well and so, it's kinda hard to determine if what's inside is…

Gavin's been home about 24 hours already.  He's actually doing pretty well and we haven't had any direct problems with him. That doesn't mean we aren't having problems though. Sometimes, the emotional impact of something can be just as significant and disrupting as a physical one. This is certainly the case right now. I love Gavin and when he's not home, I worry about him and wish that I could bring him home once again.  However, it's clear to me, at least at this point that it's best that things are the way they are. When Gavin's home, even when he's perfectly well behaved, there is a cloud of tension and anxiety that falls over everyone in the entire house. I don't know how else to describe it. If you…

I meant to post this when it happened but sadly I forgot. I should have shined the spotlight on this because of how hugely positive it was. Better late than never. While Lizze was at the Cleveland Clinic visiting the endocrinologist this week, Emmett and spent the 2 hours we were there, just waiting for her to finish with her appointment.  Mr. Emmett John did so incredibly well. He was patient and very, very well behaved.  This was my favorite picture of him that day.  He's sitting on the steps in the Crile Building, waiting patiently for his Mommy to finish up and come see him again. These were the steps that Emmett and I walked up and down about half a dozen times that day.  He kept telling me…

With everything going on around me, I forgot to mention what's been going on with Gavin today.  Right after our wraparound meeting this morning, I was asked to visit the office and check on Gavin.. He was in the office, miserable due to allergies and problems with his eyes.  Gavin's immunologist gave us a script for allergy eye drops on Wednesday but it wasn't ready and the first chance we had to get it to Gavin was today.  He was so miserable and has ready been through too much this week, I just brought him home with me.  We gave him his allergy drops and they seemed to help. He spent the rest of the morning playing with Emmett.  Gavin then spent the night because Lizze's brother graduates from college…

We have another wraparound meeting this morning.  Lizze doesn't feel up to going so I'll be flying solo on this one again.  I just not into these meetings anymore.  Truthfully, I don't think they can help us and I feel like this is beginning to be a waste of precious energy.  It's not that the wraparound team is doing something wrong.  In fact, it's quite  the opposite.  They're awesome.  The problem is that we are dealing with a situation so complex and so convoluted that I don't think they are a able to help us with what we need.  Residential treatment is no longer a priority because we know that it's never going to happen. Besides, Gavin's health problems are way, way, way more important and a much bigger priority. …