Gavin Archives - Page 38 of 113

This is why we have to watch Gavin so closely around food

Gavin's not feeling so well. It began last night with him overeating at the cookout. Gavin has never been one with a functional ability to self-regulate. As an example, he doesn't ever really feel full when he eats. What happens is he will eat too much and end up making himself sick. He's been doing better over the last few years because we've been trying to create habits for him to help compensate for what his brain doesn't do correctly on its own. Unfortunately, we still have times where Gavin will eat and eat and eat, until he makes himself sick. Last night was a perfect example. When we're at home, it's much easier to monitor what he eats but when we're somewhere else, it's much more challenging. We dropped…

2 Comments

May 13, 2018

Clozapine / Gavin / My thoughts / Schizophrenia

This isn’t good

I spoke previously about Gavin changing the way he takes his medication. I also shared how we suspect that the voices in his head are the ones telling him to do this because it wasn't us (see As if life wasn’t already hard enough, it seems the voices are back). We're seeing further evidence that the voices have returned. So far this afternoon, Gavin has come down from his room on the second floor because he swears we called him to come down. We haven't called him down and that leaves one of two possibilities. Either he just thinks he's hearing us and wants to double check or he's actually hearing us call him in his head, even though we aren't. Gavin is Schizophrenic and has been experiencing both audio…

0 Comments

May 12, 2018

Clozapine / Gavin / My thoughts / Schizophrenia

As if life wasn’t already hard enough, it seems the voices are back

Last night, Gavin came downstairs after being in bed for a couple of hours, mumbling something about a glass of water and claiming to be wheezing. He was heavily sedated and that's not necessarily normal for him. With no changes having been made to his meds, there shouldn't be any change to the way they impact him. This morning, I mentioned to Lizze that something wasn't right last night and I wonder if he's taking his medication, specifically his Clozapine, correctly. We were prepared to write if off as a one off event and move on. Right about that time, Gavin came downstairs and I asked him about last night. As I suspected, he didn't really remember what happened. I then took the opportunity to ask him about whether or…

2 Comments

May 12, 2018

Gavin / My thoughts

Way to go Gavin

I'm sitting in the car, waiting for Gavin to have his blood work done again. As I'm sitting here pondering life, I'm reminded of just how far Gavin has come. Up until about five years ago, the idea of Gavin needing bloodwork would send shivers down my spine. The reason for that is because until about five years ago, Gavin did not do well with bloodwork. It used to require scheduling a head of time because they would need to have make sure there was enough staff present to pull this off. Gavin used to have to be restrained because he would freak out, lash out at the tech and be anything but cooperative. There were times it would take six people to hold him down and draw his blood.…

0 Comments

May 11, 2018

Gavin / My thoughts

A frustrating moment with Gavin

I had a frustrating moment with Gavin last night. Actually, it was several moments long and I was really, really frustrated. Gavin had finished moving some things around in the ferret pen, including their litter boxes. He's not super graceful with his movements and so I wanted him to make sure that he washed his hands really good before touching any food. We have hand sanitizer throughout the house for everyday things but when you're working with a litter box, you need to wash with soap and water. If he wants hand sanitizer after that, whatever floats his boat. He only used hand sanitizer last night and I reminded him that when his hands are actually dirty, he needs to use soap and water. That will help to physically wash…

0 Comments

May 11, 2018

Gavin / My thoughts

I hate putting Gavin through this

After taking the boys to school this morning, I'll take Gavin to get this week's bloodwork done. If you're not already aware, Gavin needs weekly bloodwork in order to get one of his medications refilled. It's a huge PITA but it's a safety thing and since we don't want anything bad to happen to Gavin, we make this happen every seven days. It sucks having to put Gavin through this so often but we don't have a choice. He's also going to need his IVIG infusion as well. Assuming everything goes perfectly, he will only have to endure three needle sticks. After that, I hope to sneak a walk in before a conference call at noon. Outside of those things, it should be a relatively quiet day. I'd like to…

0 Comments

May 11, 2018

Akron Children's Hospital / Autonomic Disorder / Gastroenterology / Gavin / My thoughts

Fingers crossed and prayers sent

This is take two for this post cause the first one glitched out and disappeared. I'm gonna try to reproduce it as best I can. I played phone tag with Akron Children's Hospital today. I called this morning to get the results of Gavin's labs from last week and it turns out, they never received the results. We went back and forth a couple times but finally connected in the late afternoon. The nurse had managed to get the results and it turns out Gavin's labs came back normal. I love hearing those words in the same sentence when referring to Gavin. That was good news and it meant that we could move forward with his endoscopy. She went over the intake questions and when we hit the one about…

0 Comments

May 11, 2018

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

Anxiously awaiting Gavin’s test results

I just left a message with Gavin's Gastroenterologist at Akron Children's Hospital. We're supposed to call towards the end of this week to get the results of Gavin's labs from last week. We're looking for his ANC or Absolute Neutrophil Count. If his numbers are high enough, they will schedule the testing that needs to be done. If his numbers are low, which they have been for the last year or so, they will not be able to go forward with the testing he needs to have done. I'm nervous about getting this returned call because so much hinges on it.

0 Comments

May 10, 2018