Gavin Archives - Page 23 of 113

The heartbreaking reality of how trauma has seriously impacted one of my kids with #Autism

I've been meaning to write this but the idea of doing so has been too overwhelming. There are a number of reasons for that but the main one is that I'm struggling with my own depression at this point and many things have me overwhelmed. I'm going to try and keep this super quick so I can actually finish it. Elliott finally got into psychiatry at Akron Children's Hospital this past week. We'd been waiting for a very long time for an opening because child psychiatrists are nearly impossible to find in our area, especially good ones. We ended up meeting with a nurse practitioner. Turns out we already knew him because he used to work with Dr. Reynolds, Gavin's longtime psychiatrist. That was very comforting, although we'd never spoken…

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October 14, 2018

Gavin / My thoughts

A major update on the mass in Gavin’s forearm

Real quick, I wanted to share a bit of good news. We heard back from the doctor today in regards to the mass in his forearm. The doctor sent us a message via My Chart and explained the results of the ultrasound. She said it appears that the mass consists of fatty tissue. This is good news. ☺ We are supposed to monitor it for any shape or size changes and let her know if it ever becomes painful. I did ask her a question about whether or not it was pressing against the vein and if so, should we be worried about that? Maybe I misunderstood what I saw in the ultrasound. Either way, it's good news that it's apparently a fatty cyst or mass and nothing that we…

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October 14, 2018

Autism Parenting Insight / Gavin / My thoughts

An example of how repetition helps Gavin learn or maintain skills

It's been a difficult day because Gavin is definitely struggling but it's sort of a mixed bag. I'll give you an example. I mentioned to him last night that he needs to shave because if he's going to grow facial hair, he needs to maintain it. His goatee comes in pretty nice but the rest doesn't. If he doesn't shave the rest of his face and neck, it honestly looks like that episode of South Park where Cartman glued someone's pubes to his face in order to look like he had a beard. After his IVIG Infusion, Gavin remembered that he needed to shave. I give him major props for that because even remembering is a big deal for him. ☺ He decided to completely shave off his goatee and…

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October 12, 2018

Gavin / My thoughts

Gavin’s been freaking out all morning

We have nothing on the schedule for today, aside from the activities that happen every Friday. The kids have school, and Gavin has his IVIG Infusion. Everyone is dragging this morning cause it's been a very emotionally dragging week. Gavin's already caused some unnecessary stress. He was washing some dishes and began screaming. I'm talking a blood curdling, my fingers have been cut off kinda scream. Lizze runs into the kitchen screaming for me cause Gavin sounded like he was in a seriously bad way and she wanted backup. Turns out he accidently sprayed the hose and the trigger got stuck. He got water on the floor and didn't know that simply turning the water off would solve the problem. That was it. A small amount of water on the…

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October 12, 2018

Gavin / My thoughts

An update on the mass in Gavin’s forearm

I'm a fucking mess today. It's not one particular thing either. It's everything as a whole and it's stirring up my depression. I'm getting stuck in repeditive thinking and that's not a good thing for me. My anxiety is through the roof. Anyway, Gavin's appointment went well in the sense that he did well and the staff was amazing. I was able to see the mass on the screen as she scanned it with the ultrasound. I sketched a rough picture of one of the images I saw and it is a little worrisome. The mass is sitting right up against what I think is his cephalic vein. It appears to be a separate object and not a ballooning of the vessel wall itself. What I did see that has…

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October 11, 2018

Akron Children's Hospital / Cardiology / Gavin / My thoughts

Dear God, I’m not sure how much more I can take right now

It's been a rough week and yesterday, we lost our 3rd pet to cancer in less than a year. The kids are devastated and everyone's a mess. We did manage to get the boys to school but not without a great deal of effort, which pretty much drained us of anything even resembling energy before the day even began. With that in mind, you can probably understand why we're so stressed out about Gavin's appointment today. Gavin has a solid mass on his right forearm and it's concerning enough that his doctor sent him for an ultrasound, which is being done in about an hour. We scheduled this about a week or so ago and it's been a long wait. The mass in his forearm isn't a lymph node and…

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October 11, 2018

Gavin / My thoughts

I have good news and bad news

It's Monday and while Monday's are no one's favorite day of the week, it's a fresh new start for me after a rough weekend. ☺ I want to begin the week with some good news. It's actually a good news/bad news kinda thing. Gavin has been struggling with weight gain for most of his life. At 18 years of age, he has been down to 117 lbs within the last few months. It's obviously concerning and no one really has any idea why he's not able to gain weight. His gastroenterologist prescribed Boost Shakes. He drinks one with every meal, meaning 3 times a day. He's been drinking them for the last 3 weeks and when he weighed himself this morning, he was up to 129.2 lbs. That up from…

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October 8, 2018

Gavin / IVIG Infusion / My thoughts

Chalk one up for the win column

For the last month, we've been struggling with Gavin's IVIG Infusions due to a shortage of supplies. It wasn't a huge deal because we had them send out the missing supplies and he never missed an infusion. While the supplier screwed up, it was my fault for not checking everything when it was delivered. It got lost in the shuffle and fell through the cracks. Gavin's October infusion supplies arrived this afternoon, while Gavin and I were at his appointment. As soon as we got home, I had Gavin go through his new supply box, and pair up all the supplies. He needed to make sure there were enough supplies for eight IVIG Infusions. He did a pretty good job matching everything up. He needed some guidance but he still…

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October 5, 2018