Gavin had a pretty rough day.  He's been struggling quite a bit and not necessarily just behaviorally. He's made some really good choices recently, as well as some not so good ones.  I think we ended up having two tantrums today.  Nothing catastrophic but enough to disrupt everyone. The other thing we have been noticing is that he's becoming more and more uncoordinated. He's walking into things and knocking things over as he walks by.  Today alone, he knocked his water bottle over at least half a dozen times, spilling it onto the floor. His movements are becoming quicker and more clumsy. This is really frustrating for him. All we can do is remind him to slow down, so we can limit the accidents and avoid him or anyone else…

I'm a special needs parent to three boys with Autism and various other medical and mental health issues. I love my kids more than anything in the world. Without a single hesitation, I would die for any one of them. Despite my undying devotion for my boys, at my core, I'm still human. The reason I'm writing this is because I want to share my thoughts on being a human, special needs parent.  As humans, we are inherently flawed and far from perfect.  We have limitations to our patience, energy, sanity and the overall load we can carry before we begin to buckle. Despite all these limitations, we are tasked with a tremendous amount of responsibility.  We are charged with the care of very special children. In the case of…

I wanted to share with you all, how my meeting went with the Autism Society today.  In short, it was awesome.  I will be joining the board this Fall and I'm really, really excited about that. First of all, I met some really amazing people today that I'm super excited to be working with. Secondly, as you know, I don't often align myself or this site with organizations and businesses because all too often they are about the money and not about the people in need. Having said that, I will be working with the Autism Society very closely going forward and here's why. The Autism Society and Lost and Tired share a very similar attitude and approach to all things Autism and Special Needs. We both believe in the…

I will be meeting with the Director of the Autism Society of Greater Akron this morning.  Lizze and I will working with them to establish a presence and resources in Stark County.  This is desperately needed.  Anyone that lives in my area and has a child on the Autism Spectrum can likely attest to that.  I'm really excited to be a part of this.  Lost and Tired was created to do things just like this. Helping to create support and resources for our families is exactly the direction that I want to go in.  I'm feeling quite proud at the moment and I'll be sure to keep you all in the loop.  :-) This site is managed almost exclusively via WordPress for Android. Please forgive any typos as autocorrect HATES me.…

I like to share these little facts about Autism, because I think it's important that people understand the facts. Doing these little educational tidbits in a form that's easily sharable means that more people can be educated.  Please feel free to share this post if you feel the message is deserving.  :-) This site is managed almost exclusively via WordPress for Android. Please forgive any typos as autocorrect HATES me. ;-) Follow @Lost_and_Tired Visit the My Autism Help Forums To reach me via email, please Contact Me

There are so many things that we go through as special needs parents that it's easy to get lost in all the chaos swirling all around us. What with all the things we have to worry about, like therapies, IEP's, medications, meltdowns, specialists and just about anything else you can imagine.  One of the things that I really try to do is not miss the forest for the trees.  In other words, I really try to appreciate the things that do come along and make me smile.  They may be few and far between but honestly, that makes them mean so much more.  I had one of these lighter make me smile moments today and I wanted to share it with you all. My wife lives with chronic pain.  She's…

Gavin is officially maxed out on Clozapine. This is one milestone I had hoped to never reach. I'm greatly concerned about this because we have nowhere left to go, as every other antipsychotic medication has failed to work.  It would have been extremely naive of me to think that this wouldn't someday come to pass.  My fear is that we will not be able to manage his schizophrenia and that is not a good thing.  This isn't even in the same universe as a good thing.  If his hallucinations aren't managed, he's not able to tell the difference between what's real and what isn't.  Historically, when he's unmedicated things get really, really bad. The things that he sees and hears become very, very dark.  He becomes very violent as well.…