Read more about the article Some very good news came out of our appointment today
Gavin / My thoughts

Some very good news came out of our appointment today

I made it through Gavin's appointment today. I needed to bring his shrink up to speed and that took a little while. Ultimately, Gavin's doing pretty good and we've not made any medication changes. The only thing we did was move Gavin from a seven day supply of Clozapine to a fourteen day supply of Clozapine. Assuming this gets approved by the governing body that grants permission for each refill, Gavin will only need blood work every two weeks. He's super excited about that. As long as his numbers stay good for the next six months, he will be moved back to a thirty day supply and blood work once a month. That will make managing this soooo much easier. If Gavin has any issues with his lab results going…

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September 5, 2019
Read more about the article It’s better than nothing and I admire his determination
Gavin / My thoughts / Self-Care

It’s better than nothing and I admire his determination

The kids got off to school okay. Turns out Elliott did not take his new medication to help him sleep. When I was putting the meds out this morning, I saw that he hadn't taken it. I don't think he did it on purpose, but regardless, I need to run a little tighter ship in this regard. I don't know if he was faking that he was asleep when I checked on him last night, but he's been known to do that. He was dragging this morning and it was pretty clear that he didn't sleep well. Either way, he made it to school, as did Emmett. ☺ On the way home, Gavin and I stopped at the park and went for a walk. Gavin can't go for great distances…

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September 5, 2019
Read more about the article He scared the shit out of me tonight
Gavin / My thoughts

He scared the shit out of me tonight

The boys and I had a pretty good day. Gavin of course had a good day, or was at least in a good mood. Gavin is nothing if not chronically happy. It can honestly be annoying sometimes but it's also something that I truly admire about him.. ☺ The only significant problem with Gavin was that he couldn't remember if he'd taken his Clozapine when he took his bedtime meds. He became very upset with himself for being unable to remember. Counting the pills wouldn't help either because of the refill timing. Just trust me on that. Counting the pills left in the bottle wouldn't help right now because we couldn't be certain. I have to assume he took it even if he didn't. The reason being that he'll be…

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September 2, 2019
Read more about the article Gavin did something pretty amazing tonight
Gavin / My thoughts / Today's Victory

Gavin did something pretty amazing tonight

I wanted to touch base and let you know that things are going pretty good at the moment. Gavin's appointment with immunology went well and he's had a pretty good day. In fact, Gavin's had an awesome day. The kids had therapy tonight and while we were there, we were trying to work through a disagreement with Elliott. It got a bit heated and Elliott expressed himself in a way that wasn't very respectful. We know he was frustrated but we still need to be respectful. It's a little bit harder for him but we just need to keep working on it. Elliott's rough time went on for about half an hour before Gavin, who was on the other side of the room with Emmett, just sorta snapped. He stood…

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August 8, 2019
Read more about the article #Autism parenting is all about progress not perfection
Common Variable Immunodeficiency / Gavin / Immunology / IVIG Infusion / My thoughts

#Autism parenting is all about progress not perfection

It's not a huge surprise that Gavin's appointment with his immunologist went well. These appointments rarely go poorly because he's monitored so closely on a weekly basis. Gavin sees his immunologist because he has Common Variable Immunodeficiency or CVID, which put simply, means he lives with a severely compromised immune system. This is a life threatening condition that has no cure. In order to stay healthy, he requires IVIG infusions twice a week and we do those at home. Today's appointment is a follow up. We have to physically check in about every six months and have special labs run. That assumes there aren't any problems between appointment. Anyway, everything went pretty well and Gavin was even able to answer most of the questions on his own. I only spoke…

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August 7, 2019
Read more about the article We’ve made it to immunology
Common Variable Immunodeficiency / Gavin / Immunology / My thoughts

We’ve made it to immunology

Gavin and I made it to his appointment. We actually arrived thirty minutes early because there was absolutely zero traffic issues. That almost never happens. Usually, we leave early enough to allow ninety minutes for travel time. Today it only took about an hour because there was simply no stop and go traffic. Who'd of thunk it? Anyway, Lizze is home with the boys and hopefully Gavin and I will be on our way home before too long. I have a couple of stops along the way but we should be back in the early afternoon.

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August 7, 2019
Read more about the article This scares the sh!t out of me
Autism Parenting Struggles / Gavin / My thoughts

This scares the sh!t out of me

Gavin is driving me nuts. He's talking nonstop and it seems like even single step instructions are needed to be repeated multiple times. Absolutely none of this is his fault. He's not trying to drive me crazy, and I do my best to keep that in mind, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with. It's pretty overwhelming to face this day in and day out. The only silver lining is that Gavin is very happy and still being maintained in the home. I don't know how long that will last but all options are limited. We essentially have two options. Firstly, we could find a way to make things work at home. We would have to do that in such a way that doesn't negatively impact the…

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July 30, 2019
Read more about the article I f*cking hate having to micromanage my oldest sons life
Autism Parenting Struggles / Gavin / My thoughts

I f*cking hate having to micromanage my oldest sons life

Today's been incredibly challenging for a number of reasons, and I'm pretty stressed out as a result. Truthfully, I'd be stressed out anyway but whatever. Mr. Gavin is struggling a bit right now. Who am I kidding? He's struggling a great deal right now, and it's taking a toll. Is there a nice way to say he's driving me fucking crazy? One of the more recent issues is that Gavin has been cursing rather openly. I get that he's almost 20 years old, but the reality is that he's maybe 5 or 6 years old on the inside. It's like having a kindergartener dropping f-bombs and other words that he shouldn't be saying. I think in most cases he's parroting stuff from YouTube and we've tried to address this but…

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July 28, 2019