Health Update

Thomas has had a school vacation all this week and it’s a good thing since he’s been sick for the entirety of it. On Monday both he and I had a stomach bug. It seemed to have passed for both of us by Tuesday, but on Wednesday he started coughing terribly. We took him in to the doctor on Thursday and he was diagnosed with pneumonia. He was prescribed the cure-all pink liquid ammoxicilin and seems to be doing better. He did sleep until 9:30 this morning, and I think it’s going to be a long time before he falls asleep tonight. My hope is that he sleeps in again tomorrow since I have developed a head cold in the last 24 hours as well. I’m hoping that Thomas illness passes quickly since he is supposed to start gymnastics on Monday after school. We finally found a class specialized for autistic kids.

 

Autism Case Decided in Favor of Vaccines

If you go to the story here, you can read more about today’s court decision.

I’m putting this up front on the main page rather than on the Family News page, because of how important it is.

One of the most frustrating things about having a child with autism is that so many people want to tell you that vaccines cause autism. They don’t. Science does not support this theory. It’s not true.

 

Chicka Chicka BOOM BOOM!

So yesterday Thomas asked me to read him Chicka Chicka BOOM BOOM which is one of our favorite stories because of all the great rhymes and the beat of the words. I read the first line, and then Thomas recited the next one. I read another line; Thomas answered with the line that follows. We went through all but the last two pages of the book like that. I read a line and Thomas recited the next one back to me.

We had parent-teacher conferences today. We spent a very productive hour talking with his primary teacher, Ms. Lisa. They have started a new curriculum which he is breezing through and should really help his language skills. Also, she said that they have made some changes to the structure of the day that he has really responded to well. He’s transitioning between activities in the classroom more smoothly and they are having less trouble with him being “silly during serious time.” Outside the classroom he still tends toward the silly and that unfortunately often manifests itself in him bolting away from the group. We also talked a little about options for next year. Probably late next spring we will have a big meeting with all the teachers and the coordinator to get recommendations for whether he should move into kindergarten or if he should have another year of preschool or some combination. The school district is looking to set up a kindergarten similar to the preschool he is currently in where there would be a PDD-NOS/autism specific classroom, so my feeling is that he would probably start kindergarten in the fall. But we’ll have to wait and see how he’s doing later in the school year. It’s definitely going to be a challenge balancing his academic abilities with his social abilities. We want to keep him challenged and growing, but not overwhelmed.

On other fronts, I had meetings today with both my primary and secondary thesis readers and worked out what revisions I need to do on my first draft. The revisions are due on December 18th which is also the day I give a 15 minute presentation on my topic. After that, DONE!

At work, I’ve been invited to join the Content Committee of COSTEP (Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness) that is working with cultural institutions (libraries, museums, archives, historical societies) on preparation and planning for dealing with emergencies and disasters. The first meeting I’ll be attending is in January. If it sounds at all interesting to any of you, check out http://www.nedcc.org/services/disaster.costep.php and http://statewideplan.pbwiki.com/. I’m actually pretty excited about it and think it will be a great opportunity.

 

Family Updates

Thomas has had a rough week and a half. He was sick with croup and missed two days of school. Having his schedule thrown off seems to have contributed to a general sense of being overwhelmed and he had a few meltdowns at school. Those have subsided, but he was still having them at home through the weekend. Erik and I met with his teacher on Tuesday morning and she gave us some ideas about structuring his weekends a bit more so that he has a better sense of what is going on and doesn’t get overwhelmed or anxious. It was a productive meeting and we seem to be doing better with him.

In other news I had another thesis meeting today, this time with the group of people writing this semester, not just my adviser. I’m so glad I have a stricter schedule to follow-I don’t think I would be able to turn the whole thing in on November 23rd with no feedback beforehand.

 

Family Update

Things have been crazy busy since our return from vacation. It turns out that then you work in academia, it is really bad to be gone the week before school starts and the first week of classes. It makes you feel like you’ve had no transition whatsoever from summer to fall.

Anyways, we were very glad we got home on Saturday and not Sunday. We really needed Sunday to recover. Thomas started school the following Monday. He is in a new classroom this year that is specifically designed for kids on the autism spectrum and have multiple specialists as teachers. Unfortunately we also missed the Open House for his classroom due to our vacation, so we didn’t get to meet the teachers or see the classroom in advance (I still haven’t been in to see the classroom). The restructuring of the preschool classes also led to a change that we initially thought would be good, but is not: Thomas gets done at 2:30 instead of 2pm. The problem is that the high school (which shares a building with the preschool) also gets out at 2:30 and its a madhouse of cars and kids and parents and all in all a very unsafe environment for the little ones like Thomas (who if given the opportunity would run all over with no concern for safety or the word “stop”). So Erik and I have made our first foray into school politics; we attended the 1st school committee meeting of the year to voice our concerns. It seems to have helped in that Erik saw a few of the committee members out observing the situation with the preschool program coordinator on Friday. We’ve been assured that some sort of solution will be found.

Thomas is loving school, as always, and is charming his new teachers. Even better, he is also getting to see his teachers from last year, Miss Jean and Miss Phyllis, on a regular basis. Unfortunately he is also exposed to lots of other germy little kids and he has his first cold of the school year. We took him to the doctor on Wednesday and he has croup (again). He went to school today, but they sent him home a little early with a fever. He went to bed early and I’m hoping he doesn’t spend the night coughing again since he really needs the sleep (and so do I).

Erik’s started back at Borders a few nights a week. He was able to get back into the same store and department he was in before. Other than that, he’s plugging away at A New Nation Votes on Ohio data. It’s been a bit of a rough patch due to death of the  parent of one of his college friends and the illness/hospitalization and impending surgery of a co-worker, but he’s muddling through.

I’m glad to be back to work and I’m almost feeling caught up (although staying home Wednesday with Thomas threw me off a bit). I’ve turned in the first draft of the introduction to my history thesis and I met with me adviser today. We set up the schedule for the next chapter and I’m optimistic about finishing on time.

Those are the high and low lights of the last week and a half. Now that things are settling a little bit I hope to able to write in a bit more regularly again.

 

Off to Oregon and Michael Savage Can Go to Hell

My caring, loving, autistic little boy

As it says, we’re off to Oregon for a week to attend a wedding and see my family, so the blog will be skimpy for a week.

Before we leave, a quick note.  If you listen to Michael Savage, you’re reading the wrong blog.  If you believe his ignorant disgusting statement that 99% of autistic children are simply brats, you’re reading the wrong blog.  If you believe it’s because parents aren’t parenting, you are most assuredly reading the wrong blog.

Savage is a blowhard and a jackass who has no business commenting on other people’s ability to parent when he was raised so poorly that he doesn’t know how to be a decent person.  My son is the most loving, most wonderful child I know.  And he’s autistic.