Insomnia Archives - Page 120 of 353

Review: Quell 2.0 (@Quellrelief) may have just changed my life

The good people at Quell provided me with a free Quell 2.0 in exchange for honest feedback. All opinions and experiences are my own. Many of you are aware that I've been living in chronic pain since August of 2001. I was firefighter finishing up paramedic school and I got hurt on a call. I ended up with an L5/S1 left sided herniation and it changed the course of my life. Pretty much since that day, I've lived in constant pain. Over the last few years, I've been walking and that has made a big impact on my pain but it's always there to some degree. This pain, while better managed, still dictates a great deal of my life. I could sleep on the best mattress in the world and…

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December 24, 2018

Christmas can be rough for those like me with #Depression but I’m feeling pretty okay

When I originally started writing this post, it was just a basic update. As I was writing, it evolved a bit and will now serve a dual purpose. While this is still an update, I also wanted to share a bit about my Depression because it helps to remind or make people aware that Christmas can be hard for like me with Depression. Last night the boys spent the night with Lizze's parents. Lizze and I used that time to take care of a few outstanding Christmas related things. It's been a little while since I had some time off and I've been struggling with Depression a bit more than usual lately. When you're depressed, exhaustion is absolutely not your friend. For me personally, exhaustion makes it harder to fight…

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December 23, 2018

Artwork / Gavin

Guess what we celebrated today

I just wanted to share something we celebrated today. I get that some people might not get the significance of this but it's pretty significant to us. I'll briefly explain why we find this a reason to celebrate. ☺ Once upon a time, Gavin used to really enjoy drawing pictures. I would always take pictures of them to share here on the blog. He used to get a huge kick out of reading everyone's supportive comments and encouraging words. As Gavin's daily struggles began to interfere with more and more of his life, he slowly began to stop drawing or sketching. It's been forever since he sat down and drew a picture of anything. Out of nowhere this morning he asked me for paper because he wanted to draw a…

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December 23, 2018

Autism Parenting Advice / My thoughts

As parents we have to be able to adapt to change in order for our kids with #Autism to do the same

Today is just another day in the long, storied tradition of our plans never working out. Last night, Lizze popped her right shoulder out of socket while she was sleeping. This happens every so often and anyone with even a more moderate case of Ehlers-Danlos can likely relate to joint slipping out of socket. It's incredibly painful and in Lizze's case, her shoulder tends to not completely pop out all the way. Think of it as a sliding glass door that has popped off the track. The door hasn't fallen out but it also grinds when you try to open and close it. That's sorta what her shoulders like right now. Originally, we were going to a Christmas party tonight and then her parents were going to take the boys…

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December 22, 2018

Emmett John / My thoughts

The 1st rule of Fight Club is you don’t have it during a grade school Christmas program

It's the final day before Christmas break begins and the boys have their Christmas show this afternoon. Emmett's super excited and Elliott is not excited at all. The person most excited by a mile, is Gavin. Gavin has been talking about this Christmas program since Thanksgiving. I don't know why he's so fixated on it but totally is. It's nice to see him excited about something in the real world but it has gotten a bit annoyingly out of control. It's just the repetitive nature of it all, not the fact that he's excited. I hope you can recognize the distinction there. 😉 Unfortunately, Lizze and Elliott were both up all night with tummy issues and neither will make it today. That leaves Emmett's performance and Emmett's alone. Elliott wasn't…

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December 22, 2018

Autism Parenting Insight / Emmett John / My thoughts / Sensory / Shoes and Socks

This is what happened when I took my son with #Autism, shoe shopping today

I wanted to update you fine folks on how our shoe shopping excursion went this afternoon. I'm so proud of Emmett because it didn't go as planned but he adapted and worked through it. ☺ Emmett and I went to the Skechers outlet store, on a mission to find a very particular pair of shoes. There was no plan to deviate from what we know is working and didn't want to try anything else. We got there and discovered that they didn't have his size but it could be ordered. He didn't want to wait and also didn't want the shoes he was currently wearing. The only option was to look for something else and he was actually eager to do that. I was really surprised by his willingness to…

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December 21, 2018

Autism Parenting Insight / Emmett John / My thoughts

Shoe shopping for my kid with #Autism isn’t easy or fun but here’s what we do

Alrighty, I'm super excited about today because after school, I get to take Emmett, shoe shopping. I love Emmett to pieces and would do anything for him. At the same time, he's not a fan of things touching his skin. He's very sensory oriented and things like clothes, shoes and socks can be annoying and sometimes even painful. As a parent it's frustrating because we've spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on shoes over the years that ultimately get donated because he'll wear them once or twice and never again. I could lie to you and say that it's not frustrating but that'd be a lie and not what we do here. It's incredibly frustrating because we can't afford to do this. That being said, it's very important to understand…

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December 20, 2018

Emmett John / Gavin / My thoughts

We had some excitement today

We've had some excitement in The Autism Dad household today/yesterday, depending on when you read this. ☺ The boys got off to school without a problem. Lizze got her tooth fixed. She had a broken filling that needed repaired/replaced. She did awesome but it wasn't pleasant. Lizze's Mom took the boys after school to bake cookies and we had a bit of time to ourselves to work on some Christmas related things. That sorta sums up the day and now I want to briefly share the exciting parts. Maybe this isn't exciting, so much as it's a proud parenting moment. Gavin's been slowly weening off his reflux medication and he went from 2 times a day to only once a day. He remembered almost every day to remove his pill…

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December 20, 2018