Just a quick note before I get my day underway. I hope you all have a great Monday. I know that Monday's can be rough, Lord knows mine usually are. Try to focus on the positives and also remember to celebrate the victories. Please be kind yourself and remember that self-care is an important part of being a caregiver. Don't let Monday defeat you and have a great day. 😀
There are times when I can distance myself from my feelings, focus on facts and remain objective. There are also times like tonight when I can't and emotions rule the roost. I've mentioned recently that Emmett, my youngest of three Autistic boys, is struggling lately. He's been the focus of recent family therapy sessions. Emmett is overwhelmed, frustrated and having a hard time coping with whatever's eating away at him. He's very reactionary, slow to open up and quick to anger. We've been trying to help him work through whatever this is but it's not going so well and he doesn't like to talk about it. I know that there are a few things bothering him and consuming his resources on a daily basis. There's probably more than that but…
Trips to public, busy and sensory unfriendly places don't always go well. It's pretty common for Autistic people to find themselves overwhelmed by all the sensory input that exists in abundance at places like Walmart.
I mentioned earlier that Gavin appears to be more and more paranoid. Part of the concern is about his schizophrenic hallucinations and the direction they're currently heading in. He seems to be worried about bad guys watching him or something to that effect. That's not necessarily new, but we see it with more frequency lately. What's weird is his current obsession with his health. He's very focused on rather benign issues, and we've never seen him show any interest in his health before. He's continually coming to us with things like I just coughed, my nose is runny, I just had to blow my nose, my arm muscle just felt funny, there's saliva in my mouth, my toe hurt for a second, I sneezed twice, my knee cramped up, and…
The day has gone by quickly for some reason. Lizze had an appointment this morning, and I had an interview with someone from the UK. I got my walking done and picked the kids up from school. Gavin has been mostly unseen today. He's dealing with a crisis in his world that has taken up most of his time today. Lizze and I are a bit concerned because Gavin is exhibiting signs of paranoia. He's talking about people in his worlds being out to get him, and he's also becoming very preoccupied with his health but in a weird way. I'll explain more about that later. Anyway, we've got one day left in the school week, and we're about three weeks out from the end of the school year. I'm…
We had Elliott to Akron Children's Hospital yesterday. It was a routine follow up in behavioral health. We discussed any concerns we had. We talwdat things are going well and what needs work. We also follow up on medications and make sure we're still on the right track with that as well. I personally feel like Elliott is making a serious effort in many areas, and I made sure to bring that up. I'm incredibly proud of him because I know that life in our house isn't easy. That said, there are still things that he needs to work on as well. That's not anything against him at all. He's a newly minted teenager, and that's never easy, especially when Autism factors in. One of the things that Elliott is…
It's another day, and that means a clean slate. The boys are heading off to school, and I'm going walking. We don't have any plans for today, and I'm okay with that. Well, Gavin has therapy tonight, but that's about it. I'm hoping to get some writing done and maybe, a bit of housework as well. I haven't seen Gavin yet this morning, so I've no idea what we're dealing with in that regard today. Time will tell.
We had an incident tonight that sorta derailed our evening. I had assigned everyone a chore to do after we got home from dinner. They were all simple things like feeding the dog and changing the trash. I asked Emmett to split up the new bottle of hand sanitizer between the bathroom and the kitchen. We buy a large bottle and use that to refill the two smaller bottles we have in the house. Anyway, Emmett ended having a rough time for some reason. He had spilled some on the front of the new bottle, and because there's alcohol in it, the ink on the label bled. He was doing this in the bathtub for some reason, and the ink left blue marks all over the bottom of the tub.…