Hello, Anybody there???

I can't believe I have gone this long since my last post. The countless number of times that I have thought about posting something new ... It has been a bunch. Actually the reason I have not posted anything really has more to do with having too much going on, too much to blog about, not the opposite.

Everytime I think about it, I am simply to tired. Sitting here at work late and thought I would take a little Flynn break.

I guess the primary things are that over the last bunch of months we have substantially increased his therapies. He is now going to the special education pre-school 5 days a week, 4 hours a day. Speech Therapy on Mondays, 2 hrs of ABA on Tues/Thurs and we have some great folks at church that shadow him on Wednesday nights and Sunday School (I count that as pseudo-therapy since they are turn taking and working with him one on one with his peers around him).

We have gone to see a DAN! doctor and are working on some biomedical stuff. As a matter of fact my wife takes him to see the doc tomorrow ... that is another story ... well how about now ... We did a round of diflucan at Christmas break for a high yeast level and it seemed to have some slight positive effects. Started a couple of probiotics afterward (We are doing a multivitamin, Cod liver oil for Omega 3's and Zyrtec/singulair, as well). We had some problems with folks that work at the DAN docs office returning phone calls and such ... killed about 3 weeks before we got them to ask the doc the right questions ... really pissed about that. Needless to say the yeast levels came back up high. I suspect we will have to do that all over again. Diflucan in non-potty trained children is not a pretty sight. Oh, yes I forgot to mention, my 4.5 year old son is still not potty trained and still no where close to it. So getting urine samples for the testing was a complete pain in the ass and also another reason it took so long to get another doc appt. We had to have the test results first and therefore have to have the urine sample before that.

You know, I can't keep a coherent thought. We have had these issues since Sept:

Allergies - He loves the outdoors and wants to be out there more than anything. He has developed allergies to virtually everything outside.

Almond Allergy - found out the hard way that he has this severe allergy. Puked everywhere, swelled up and we spent 10 hours at Childrens hospital ER. We now are the proud owners of Epipens.

Started GF/CF diet - started slow at first and have really picked up that effort more. This requires a great deal of effort on my wifes part.

DAN! doctor stuff - which requires being a wanna be chemist, understanding biomedical stuff which no two doctors in the world agree on, recognizing that half this stuff is a best guess and that it worked for someone but may not for your child, realize that there is a grand total of 3 DAN! docs within 4 hours drive from our house. The one we see is 2 hours away. I guess this DAN doc stuff really is an extension of all of the biomedical crap. Did I mention the pain in the ass about getting a urine sample ... also did I mention the non-potty trained child ... yea joys of parenting an autistic child. Sometimes these things you take for granted with your other children really are difficult.

Work - I am just glad we are still in business. All of the above stuff requires bucket loads of money. Work is really, really, really hard right now. I need to spend all of my time at work ... but I can't.

Mother in Law - Her dementia is progressing. That is just a rotten illness and my wife is spending a decent amount of time with her. At least she is in assisted living. That has taken alot of the intense pressure off for big time issues.

Oh yea I have two other kids and a wife - Trying to maintain any symblance of a normal life with the remaining family is crazy hard. Competent baby sitters are hard to come by and the other time sucking issues of life make spending quality time with anyone hard. My two girls are doing well at soccer and seem to have a level head about the way life is going. They are required to do more than they should. I am very proud of both of them. They are angels to their brother. I wish and pray for the best for my wife and I. We are constantly reminded by people and literature/articles/news reports how high the divorce rate is for parents of autistic children. I am not going there without a fight. I love my wife and want to keep it that way!

Seminars (my wife went to see Temple Grandin in Nashville a week ago - said it was fantastic), Autism society meetings, TACA meetings, play dates/parties with other "disabled" kids, movies (Temple Grandin's movie on HBO was awesome), books, magazine articles, TV shows, advertisements, internet articles and all kinds of other stuff to constantly be engulfed in autism. There is so much that is not known and we desperately feel like time is sliping away from us during the crucial pre-school years. We desperately want him to stay close to his peers, but it is not looking promising. I am starting to have thoughts of whether he will ever progress. Gotta keep those bad thoughts outta my head. As a parent, you never feel like you are doing enough, no matter how much you are doing.

Ramble, Ramble, Ramble ... Maybe if I dont go so many months between posts I can keep each post concise. How about I give that a whirl! Hope to see you soon!