We had to contact the Vet's office this evening because the sedatives aren't working and we figured out why. When Bella is away from Emmett,  she will actually sleep.  However,  when he's around her,  she is very much his service dog. We noticed this today.  We also noticed that Bella is hypervigilant around Gavin,  especially when Emmett's in the same room. We brought this to the Vet's attention.  They told us that they hadn't even thought of that but we are absolutely right.  That would explain why she isn't resting and is fighting off the sedatives. They explained that 99% of the animals put on these meds would just sleep forever and recover quickly. Because of Bella's bond with Emmett, she not allowing herself time to recover.  We can't safely…

Rob keeps asking me to write a guest post for him about how My Life Beyond Labels came into being. I’d love to write that guest post for him. I’d love to write that post for myself! (Lord knows I’m starting to lose track of all the posts I either need to write or I’ve promised y’all. {lol}) But this post is important. This is a post that must be written and so, I will write it. Some of it now. Some of it later. Please visit My Life Beyond Labels let me know what you think. I'm still doing some remodeling, but it's come a long way. :-)   Untitled All of my life I’ve been a label. A stereotype A classification Treated Heartlessly Cruelly… Sub-human. Because I am different. People fear That which is different. That…

Another night of walking is going to be missed.  Another chance of getting healthier down the drain. The reason for this is simply life. Lizze is having issues tonight in the form of the same or similar autonomic symptoms as Gavin.  Her heart rate is irregular and bouncing between a tachycardia and a bradycardia.  She been getting very dizzy, light headed and nauseous.  I can't exactly leave her home with the boys.  Plus,  Gavin just had another meltdown. Those of you with challenging home lives can probably relate to the near impossibility of trying to get out of the house to go to the grocery store,  let alone try and squeeze in 5 miles as often as possible. I have never really had a wishlist before.  However, I really,  really…

As a special needs parent to 3 boys on the #Autism spectrum,  healthy eating can be extremely challenging.  My kids have many sensory issues that interfere with eating many new foods.  These issues revolve around taste,  texture,  smell or color. Anyway,  I'm on a quest to make meals as healthy as possible. That means getting them to eat their veggies.  Today,  I spent all day making my world famous,  chicken noodle soup.  Alright,  maybe world famous is a stretch,  but it's pretty friggin good. Can you see the veggies?  Nope.  You most certainly cannot. All you see is chicken,  noodles and broth. What you don't see,  or taste for that matter is all the veggies I crammed into this soup. Here is the list of all the super healthy,  vitamin…

I realize that this is a very sensitive and deeply personal thing,  but I thought it might help of we can openly dialog about this.  Let me start off by saying that #Autism alone is not a reason to fear anyone.  Having said that, there may be subsequent behavior that may be scary,  for us as parents.  This fear can be very real and for very good or legitimate reasons.  When our kids are younger, we can better manage the outbursts that can occur,  due to various reasons. However, as our kids become older,  larger and stronger,  things can very easily become very dangerous.  Sometimes our kids can even become physically violent or aggressive towards their own family.  This is something that we have personally dealt with on too many…

We got back from the Vet's office and Bella is all patched up. She was all swollen and inflamed.  The doctor said that 99% of the time this doesn't happen but because of her extremely high energy level, she not healing well.  The sedatives aren't working and because she's so active there is a lot of seepage, to much information?  I know,  sorry. Anyway,  he said that she's primed for infection so she got an injection of antibiotics and a sedative.  She's also on take home antibiotics as well. She goes back on Thursday for evaluation and hopefully,  removal of the stitches. She going to spend most of time in the cone of shame,  but it's for her own good.  :-( **Thanks for reading**        -Lost and Tired…

I spoke with the Vet's office this morning and Bella needs to be seen once again.  She'll be there at 09:30 am this morning.  Hopefully,  this appointment will not cost anything and everything will check out okay.  **Thanks for reading**        -Lost and Tired Please join our Autism Help Forum Look for "Autism Help" app at the Google Play Store This was posted via WordPress for Android, courtesy of Samsung's Galaxy S III. Please forgive any typos. I do know how to spell but auto-correct is working against me.

Lizze is not doing so well.  I don't think that there is a scale to measure the amount of stress she is trying to cope with.  She's dealing with the same migraine she's had now for 7+ months. She extremely torn up over Gavin behavior towards her,  including the fact that most of the time,  he acts as though she doesn't exist. When he does engage with her,  he's rude,  disrespectful and just plain mean/hurtful. She's still waiting on the results of her MRI.  She's been having a great deal of back pain. Her doctors suspect a herniation or something called spinal stenosis. She won't get the results until her next appointment, which is sometime next week. As her husband,  it breaks my heart to know she's going through this…