Anyone versed in Autism already knows what a struggle Autism can be. Gavin just got home from his 2nd hospital stay in as many weeks. I went from frustrated with his behaviors to horrified he was in the psych unit to glad he is home. Since he arrived home yesterday I have gone all the way back to frustrated. Gavin is trying and that's obvious. However, he is also back to telling me all his thoughts and incessantly talking. The tension between him and Elliott Richard could be cut with a knife. ER is glad Gavin is home but is frustrated at the same time. Gavin isn't the easiest kid to play with. Gavin is always easily frustrated and now is no different. ER is trying to connect on some…

It's amazing the twists and turns you experience on Autism's journey. Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Gavin will be released today. Lizze and her mom and ER are on their way to get him. I'm working on getting the house ready. Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Gavin should be ready to come home in the morning. He has been doing really well and his meds seem to be working. We spoke with him tonight however, and he was extremely upset. He was some how under the impression we were coming to see him tonight. Lizze and I never said we were coming or even mentioned anything about it. Anyway, he was waiting for us all night and we never showed up. He felt abandoned and lied to. He clearly believed we were going to be there for some reason. We explained that we were coming to get him in the morning. We couldn't make it because EJ was sick, in fact shortly after hanging up EJ puked up everything he had eaten for dinner. We told…

When it comes to an Autistic child they see the world in black and white. In most cases they don't even know the grey area exists. When talking to an Autistic child you have to remember that's how they see the world. With that in mind you can't use terms like "maybe" because to that child "maybe" means "for sure". Words like "yes" or "no" MUST be used. You never want to leave anything open ended as that WILL cause anxiety for the child. For example Gavin will ask if he can play video games. We know that he doesn't do well with them but sometimes he is allowed depending on the situation. However, when he asks we HAVE to say NO. If he asks when we respond "Never" even…

Since Gavin has been gone this time Elliott Richard has really had a rough time. He has begun having "accidents" on the carpet. We have talked to Dr. Patti and she says that he is angry about something. That something happens to be the fact that Gavin isn't home. We have been trying to insure he is ok but apparently we are falling short. I guess that's par for the course.

We spoke with Gavin you seems to be doing better today. He sounded loads better then he looked yesterday. He really struggled with OT yesterday but today he did it without a single meltdown. That was very good news. I told him we can't wait to have him come home. The doc's seem to be a bit concerned with the way the Cleveland Clinic handled Gavin while he was there. They treated him well but didn't treat his psychological conditions. One point of concern expressed to us was the fact the Gavin's left temporal lobe has a decreased level of electric activity.  Not entirely sure what that means but it's something they want to explain. They also said the test needs to be redone because Gavin was allowed to sleep (for obvious reasons) prior…

We just finished up our visit with Gavin went well. Its defiantly a different environment then what we experienced at Cleveland.. Gavin as well as other patients are wearing scrubs. Very few personal effects are allowed. They have their entire day mapped out on a board. Gavin attends school while he is there and is responsible for his own room. The environment is very blah, the reason for this is to keep the excitement to a minimum. I have to say that as frustrated as I am with Gavin's behaviors the moment I say him there like that I wanted to rescue him and bring him home. Don't get me wrong they take good care of him but seeing your child like that is very difficult.