Emmett is having one of his really bad days. He has more blisters in his mouth and they are lining the inside of his lips.  He’s absolutely miserable. The Lost and Tired family has a saying and it goes like this,  if Emmett ain’t happy,  ain’t nobody happy. The poor kid is in a great deal of pain and so the only way he knows to deal with it is either bullying Elliott or screaming at the top of his lungs. Obviously,  we are trying to provide comfort to him but nothing is really working. The screaming is stressing everyone out and making Lizze’s migraine even worse. With any luck and if God is indeed merciful,  this will be over for Emmett and subsequently the rest of us,  in the next few days. Please keep Mr. Emmett John in your thoughts this week and if you don’t mind,  it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to…

Good morning everyone,  I hope your weekend went as well as can be expected. I know it's a Monday but please try to have a great day anyway.  :-) I have a week full of phone calls and planing a head of me. However,  those phone calls should bring with them progress on the Gavin health front. There is much to discuss this week but I truly hope,  at least for now,  this post finds you doing well.  :-) **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…

I received a phone call from Dr.  Glazer,  former head of pediatric psychiatry at the Cleveland Clinic on Sunday. He will be officially retired from the clinic this week and if anyone deserves it, it's him. He personally returned a call I made to his office last week,  before I knew he was leaving.  I never expected to hear from him personally but it was really appreciated. We discussed Gavin's current state and he was able to provide me with the name of an local psychiatrist that comes highly recommended. This is really,  really good news.  If that doesn't work out,  he's also emailing his successor and passing along our information and we should be able to get Gavin into the Cleveland Clinic for his psychiatric care. He also is…

Sometimes,  well actually,  most of the time,  I find myself having to improvise in order to survive.  Without the ability to think outside of the box,  I shudder to think about where we would be right now. While I never understand at the time,  there seems to be a rhyme and reason for many of the things that occur in our lives,  all the way down to the decisions I make. Truthfully,  much of the time I'm shooting from the hip.  People seem to think that I always know what I'm doing and honestly,  much of the time I don't. Sometimes all I can do is throw whatever I have left at the wall and hope something good will stick. When we brought Bella into the family,  there were those…

  For those of you that have been following my blog for a little while, you are aware of Gavin's ongoing health situation. His list of health issues continues to grow steadily with the latest official diagnosis being epilepsy. Dysautonomia is pending diagnosis but that's more of a technicality at this point. Last week we had a scare in regards to his current antibody levels. Oh yeah, Gavin also has common variable immunodeficiency as well. Thankfully that turned out to be somewhat of a false alarm, although his IVIG dosage is going to increase from 15grams to 20 grams beginning with his next infusion. I swear I'm not looking for things to go wrong. Gavin has such a complex and ever changing health related landscape that something new is always rearing it's ugly head. It seems like there…

Today I was forced to lay wubby to rest.  Wubby is or rather,  was,  Bella's favorite toy.  Surprisingly,  wubby latest for about 6 months and I have to give her credit for that.  Bella,  like my boys,  plays very rough with her toys.  A lesser toy would have quit many months before now.  This afternoon however,  she finally expired.  There was nothing that could be done.  I declared time of death at 3:47 pm.  There was nothing I could do,  as her face and head had simply sustained to much trauma. So, I wanted to pay my respects to a favorite toy and even closer friend.  Wubby kept Bella from chewing on things that she wasn't supposed to and I truly appreciated that.  Wubby,  you will be sadly missed but…

Gavin had a major meltdown this morning. We knew it was just a matter of time before it happened. He had already come close about 3 times before the meltdown finally occurred. The meltdown finally happened after Gavin was caught telling his brothers to keep something a secret from Lizze and I. Upon questioning Gavin,  he flipped out. The self-injury began shortly after that. There was no question as to what Gavin had done because Lizze and I both witnessed it first hand.  We simply gave Gavin a chance to explain himself. What Gavin wanted the boys to hide from us was not even a big deal.  However,  we can't allow Gavin to persuade his brothers to keep secrets. Apparently,  a few years ago,  Gavin tried to clean his windows…

As a special needs parent to 3 boys on the #Autism spectrum,  it's no secret that life is challenging. On most days I feel completely overwhelmed by all my responsibility.  I suspect that many of you out there have experienced similar feelings as well. When you find yourself completely overwhelmed what do you do? Typically,  when I find myself overwhelmed I turn to my blog and write about it. I find that writing helps me to put things into perspective and that helps me to move forward. What do you do to help cope with the stress of special needs parenting?  **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…