Thankful For Good Days

Several, several months ago, Christopher's psychiatrist wanted him hospitalized.  He refused to make any adjustments on his ADHD medication, even after several months of concern that his impulsion was once again, out of control.  He was endangering himself, and his sister, or anyone else he was around when his medication didn't work.

The side effect of two of the medications Christopher was taking (Abilify and Focalin) was aggression.  He said the only way we could know if the child, my child, was being aggressive because of his behavior, was to take him completely off one, and then the other.  Gradually.

Since I did not want my son hospitalized where I would not be able to be with him, I chose the long road of decreasing meds, using my oils when I could; but trying to make them last because we just could not afford to replenish them.

While Christopher is home schooled, because he was in the gifted program in Kindergarten, he was allowed to continue to be a part of the PATS program in 1st grade through Escambia County School District.  I just took him each week instead of him riding the bus.  No big deal.

By the last three months of school, his writing had become so poor it was no longer legible.  I could not get him to sit still and keeping his attention on the subjects was impossible.  Our daily schooling consisted of repetition . . . . mainly focusing on how we respond to people, emotions, how to process, "What do we do when we get angry, Christopher?"  etc.

Out of desperation I spoke to his therapist.  They were not working on his writing and abilities at the time, so she was shocked when I showed her this.

I then spoke with his PATS teacher, and yes, she was concerned as well as Christopher had been unable to complete ANY work in the last several weeks.

We suffered through the rest of the year and most of the summer.

A few months ago we had to put Christopher back on medications because we simply could not continue buying the oils and the impulsion was absolutely exhausting me and taking its toll on the rest of the family.

While one medication was working well, his ADHD medication was not working and the horrible side effect was not sleeping, up and down all night and hallucinations.  It was a rough few months of trial and error.  The hallucinations seem to be under control and I believe were medication related; however, he is now regularly having full body tics.  While we haven't "gotten there yet," and probably never will the way the body changes and metabolizes, it seems we are making progress in the attention and impulsion area.

We started back our 2012/2013 school year a few weeks ago, just a couple days a week to start getting in a routine.

We have had good and bad days since we started back; but today, my son thrived!

We worked from 9 a.m. to noon; broke for lunch and finished up lose ends from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.  Last year we used a computer program and he loved it, but would HATE to write and fought me all day on it; and while he still does not like to write, he is doing so much better using things printed straight off the computer!  

Christopher has only written on the THICK lined Pre-K and Kindergarten writing paper.  His writing is HUGE and he often runs out of space.

Today, for writing, we talked about how to write dates correctly, margins, and proper spacing between words.  Yes, this is something he was taught in Kindergarten, but, as his home-school evaluator explained to me, Christopher will always be ahead in areas because of how smart he is, but he will also be behind in areas because of his disabilities.  It is my job to push him along and encourage him in the slow areas (reading, writing, and spelling) and challenge his brain in mechanical, mathematical, cultural, scientific areas.  (Yes, pray for me.  I hated school and passed by unknowns reasons.  Seriously.  Pray hard!)

My son will be 8 this month. With the months of regression he had earlier in the year, he couldn't take what was in his brain and put it on paper, couldn't complete a thought verbally without getting confused where he was or what he was even talking about, and writing his own name was impossible.

Today, for the first time EVER, he wrote on wide rule paper and writing WELL!  It takes him a LONG TIME to get the information from his brain to the paper, BUT HE IS DOING IT! 

He had one spelling error.  I wrote, "When I grow up . . . . . "  He traced that, but everything else he wrote himself. 

Very proud!

Children, Animals, NLO, and Babies!

I have so missed blogging and promise to get back to it! 

It has been a whirlwind around here the last four weeks!

Kayla was home visiting for two weeks, kids had therapy appointments, and we started our THIRD set of rescue pups!   SouthBARK has been FANTASTIC at providing financially for these pups and continue to take care of Momma Dog's expenses as well.  She had to have emergency surgery for a rotten uterus while Kayla was here also!  Then we had another pup with a hernia the size of a golf ball that had to have emergency surgery this last week and NOW, we have two precious puppies with the dreaded Parvo.  I am praying the other five do not catch it. 

I hated to see Kayla go, but I know she will come back when she can.  She calls regularly and texting is always a plus!  She has an interview tomorrow for a job; please pray for her that the Lord would have His way.

Christopher developed full body tics last week; horrible to see it.  We believe they were triggered by a very bad emotional and embarrassing experience that morning; won't get in to it, but it was devastating for my little guy.  Because of Christopher's aggression issues, we are weaning him off of several of his meds.  The number one side effect on all of his meds is aggression.  We are weaning him because they are unfortunately addictive drugs.  We are trying some natural oil supplements that I purchased last year and never did anything with; I will share more about that later, but am trusting the Lord will provide for them.  Insurance doesn't cover them, and lets face it, we are below the poverty level with no income for 19 months now.

Several people have asked me about my involvement, or lack of recently, in Nothing Lost Outreach.  For months God allowed me to be an active part of providing clothing for the homeless.  When my daughter's sensory and anxiety problems became more and more of an issue, I had to make some cuts.  My prayer began that God would show me what to cut and what to keep and grace to walk through the tough choices.  Not only did He make it clear that I needed to reduce my AVON customer load, but that my time at home was what was needed.  My first thought, well, argument with God was, "I am home SIX days a week, what's the BIG DEAL about Sunday afternoons!"  So I went in disobedience.  My heart wanted to be there so bad, that I disobeyed God and put others before my family.  My heart still yearns to be involved; and while I don't have a huge room full of clothes for the homeless anymore, I do still have items on hand to distribute when I can, and still play an active roll in praying for this phenomenal ministry.  I do not know why God put this ministry on my heart, just to yank it out from under me, but what I do know, is that God gives us scriptural references that our priorities are to be Him, family, and then others.  My family needs me more than anything right now, so my hope, my prayer, is that God would honor this momma's heart in trying to be obedient to the calling He has given me, my family.

Thanks for stopping by today, and will add lots of pics soon!

OH!  OH!  OH!   My sister had her babies also!  She had them while Kayla was here!  They were four weeks EARLY, but are wonderful and are ALL HOME NOW!  I am adding a picture of her with both babies!

Congratulations to my beautiful, beautiful sister, Michelle, and brother in law, Ron on the birth of these beautiful baby girls!