My dad called a little bit ago and wants to come get Elliott Richard and take him home for a while. They are going to work outside and then grandpa is going to make him dinner. This is great for Elliott Richard because he needs some semblance of normalcy and he'll be tired when he gets home ;) LT

Standing here watching the water leak out of my broken bath tub faucet. I really need to fix that. The problem is that there are no water shut offs in the entire house. I have to shut the water off to the entire house. Since it's the hot water leaking I can shut the hot water off at the tank. Nothing in the 100 year old house was ever fixed correctly. Now in order to do repairs you need to almost do them wrong just so it will work. As an example the soil stack cracked a few years ago. So my dad and I tore into the wall to expose the pipe. We cut the pipe out and put in a patch. The problem occurred when we cut through…

Gavin's day started out a bit rough. I had to talk to him about the way he has been talking to and treating his mother. He denies ever saying anything like that. So of course Lizze must be lying to me (according to him). Nothing she ever does seems to be good enough for him. I wish he was typical even if just for a few minutes. I want him to know all the things she put herself through for him. But I know that just couldn't process it so it's pointless. He is absolutely rapid cycling now which isn't a good sign of things to come. Typically this is where we would see a psychotic break beginning to take place. Still waiting to hear from the doc about med…

Gavin had a good day at school but really struggled at home. He is starting to treat Lizze quite poorly. That will have to stop as I won't stand for that, period. He is starting to get creepy again. He is all over the place and talks about things that don't make a whole lot of sense. Clearly the bipolar meds aren't working and he is rapid cycling again. He does that when the meds are off. I'm not happy about the med changes coming but I fear it's a necessary evil. On a side note Lizze reviewed the "Shark Steam Pocket" for the Cleveland Examiner. If you haven't already done so you should check it out. Also subscribe to her page and get email updates when new articles post.…

Well today has come and gone. I'm sitting in my clean house playing borderlands on the computer I built. Everyone is sleeping, just me and Maggie (my staffy) hanging out on the couch. The help me grow people were very nice. Emmett John will probably be referred to the autism clinic. He did very well and they enjoyed their time with him. She comes back on Monday for more paperwork cause she didn't want to overwhelm us. I don't think my family really takes this seriously or are simply in denial because I haven't heard from anyone today. Not one person called to see how it went. These kinds of things contribute to the feeling of isolation. Only another "autistic" parent would understand what today was like for us. With…

My wife has a new article up at the Examiner. Please check it out. http://tinyurl.com/y4veowl LT

I've been a parent to an autistic child for about 9 years. I've been through it all before so I should know what to expect but I don't. For some reason it feels like the first time again. All the uncertainty, fear and feelings of guilt have all come back. I wonder what I did wrong. I ask myself what I should have done differently. I have also begun bargaining with God. Later the anger with God will kick in for what is happening to Emmett John. The fear of whether or not it is regressive like Gavin's is smacking me in the face. LT

In 2 hours Emmett John will begin his evaluation for autism. Up to this point it has all been speculation so we really didn't have anything to deal with emotionally. After today however, things will be made much more real. As much as I try I just don't see us coming out the other side of the tunnel without a diagnosis somewhere on the spectrum. The more we watch Emmett John the more it appears to be spectrum related. He smells everything, food and non-food items. The fits and the inability to talk are big ones also. As a father I just want him to be ok. As father that has been through hell and back over the past 10 years with Gavin, I want to put a name to…