Holiday Weekend Update

Well, the weekend is already flying by - as holiday weekends often do. I wish we had more than just tomorrow left :) I wanted to update that Katie is doing really well on her new meds and I am hopeful that this will be a great transition for her and one that will help her shed some of the pounds she gained while on risperdal.

This pic is of Katie and her fabulous teacher, Heather. Notice the chocolate ice cream on Katie's shirt. This was their field trip/walk to the local ice cream store. Yummy, yummy!

This, on the other hand, is the result of Katie's new meds (which are making her tired as she is not yet used to them) and swimming for 2 hours at our neighbor's pool party. Thus, falling asleep in the sandbox. You can laugh, I think I'm still laughing ! Don't worry. I brought her into the house so that her legs wouldn't get sunburned. What a precious one she is! Hope you are having a fabulous Memorial Day Weekend. YEAH SUMMER!

Katie Update

I am happy to report that our ENT must know what he is doing (we know he does, and actually he is great)....the antibiotics seem to be working for Katie. Her nose and sinuses seem clearer than they have been in months. She has been on the "mega-dose" for one week now - 5 to go. That seems amazing to have her on antibiotics that long - but if means not having to put her under anesthesia to "flush her sinuses" (doesn't that sound like a great time) I will continue to (slightly) battle her to get the antibiotics down. :)

We are also changing around some of her other meds - so we are are having some good days and some not so good. I have talked about risperdal before on this blog -- Katie has been on it for probably 18 months now -- and as a result has gained about 25 pounds - not a great side effect of the med. We are trying to reduce her to nighttime only on the risperdal and are going to try an ADHD med for her during the day. I wasn't sure how I felt about this -- especially after I read a few of the possible side-effects (and let me just tell you they make weight gain seem like a walk in the park) -- but after a good talk with Katie's neurologist, and realizing that this new med is in and out of her system in 10 hours - and if we don't like how she reacts to it, we can just choose to stop giving it to her. Risperdal is different in that it builds up in their system over time and it isn't really safe to just take them off of it cold turkey.

We are still in the process at looking to change Katie to the new school for their start of the year in July. We have 2 visits and an IEP to try to squeeze into the next 4 weeks - so I'm not sure how all of that will unfold, but we would like to get Katie's meds regulated before the switch .. so basically, we have our hands full for awhile... I'll keep you posted.

The World in Which We Live...

Well it's been another week in our world....Gas is "cheap" 1.63 here. I can't even remember the last time gas was that price. That has definitely been the highlight of the news lately. It is nice to be able to drive around town without feeling guilty about "wasting" expensive gas.

We are getting ready to start Katie on a new med. We are also increasing her risperdal, so we'll see how that goes. There are concerns whenever we adjust Katies' prescriptions, so we're hanging on for the ride to see how things go. The risperdal is the one that gives her such terrible constipation, so we are a little concerned about how the dosage increase will affect her. The new med is commonly used for ADHD - we are giving it to her to try and decrease her OCD which has become completely out of control. ADHD meds aren't commonly used in autistic kids - because it's a different part of the brain - but for OCD this one is supposed to be helpful. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes. We are hoping to start it on Monday. Bill has the week off, so if we have any issues/side effects with the medicine, Bill will be around to help.

Well..not much else happening here. I have a busy weekend of work in the world of retail.....More later.

My kind of town, Chicago is....

I want to do a post on our great, no awesome! trip to Chicago today - including American Girl Place and Giordano's - but I am whipped! So tomorrow I will be back with all the goods -- but here are some pics to get started. And yes, we left Katie at home with my Mom - and my Mom said that this is quite possibly the best and easiest day she has ever had watching Katie -- THE MEDS ARE WORKING - and the Lord is working in her too - it's so exciting to see.

Meds Update

Just wanted to throw out a quick update on Katie's meds. Mostly so that in a month I can look back and see where we were at. She is taking .25mg in the morning and the same dose again at night. This is only half of the dose that the neurologist originally prescribed for her - but right now it seems to be working. She is calm but not spaced out. She is able to sit in one place for more than 5 minutes - which in and of itself is amazing. I would like to see a little more focus - but I'm not sure that up'ing the dose is the answer at this point. Bill and I are happy with the improvement that we have seen - and she is starting to talk ! PTL! I'm looking forward to sending her back to school next week without telling them that we have added the daytime dosage and see if they notice any improvement!

A Little Improvement and A New Outlook on Life.

Well, Katie is definitely doing a little better. Her "regularity" is returning :) and she seems to be a little happier. She hasn't had her risperdal for almost a week now -- but Bill and I had a pretty poignant conversation about how this is difficult. Autism is difficult. We are going to put her back on the meds. She will have to take Miralax everyday to help combat the constipation, but she takes it with no problem and her pediatrician says it is one of the safest drugs out there...so we are okay with it. It all goes back to the fact that we have to do all we can to help her, and some of these things aren't easy.

I have been very convicted lately that I'm not allowing the Lord to lead me where He wants me to go. I've been anxious, confused, depressed - mostly because I shut HIM out and do what Jill wants to do. Sometimes its "easier" to wander in self-pity than to look to HIM for guidance. This is a personal journey - but God has been using Katie in my life to lead me "back" to Him. I can't do this alone. Bill feels the same way. We have each other, but we need more than that. We need HIS direction, guidance, love.....Sometimes when you are a "mostly stay at home mom" (that is what I call myself b/c I really don't work all that much)..you get caught up in this isolation mode. What I need to remember is that I'm not isolated. I always have the Lord. He's always here. He's always guiding me --even if I'm not listening. And He loves Katie more than I do...He wants what is best for her, too. So, I'm listening. We're hoping to start the meds again tonight. I'll keep everyone posted.

Risperdal...??? Hmmmm...

RISPERDAL...

Well, things aren't going very well with Katie's new meds. She is having all kinds of side effects. That is the problem with using meds to help with autism -- they often cause so many side effects that the results are worse than the original problem. Katie is having a huge appetite increase, greatly increased sensitivity to light, and terrible constipation. Lovely ;). Poor thing. It is so hard to help her. The Doctor's office has told us that this is basically "the price you have to pay" to have the meds help her -- the only trouble is we aren't doing very well finding the right dose to actually help her without having her be "stoned". The whole first week she was on the med she looked like she was just wasted out on drugs....and now with the reduced dose she just has a lot of side effects and not much improvement. It's very frustrating. I wish I knew other moms who had tried risperdal with their autistic children....the choices we have to make to help our kids can often be very difficult -- and when your kids have autism - it's even more difficult.

A Snowy Easter..Who would have thought?

Easter is over...

Wow -- an early SNOWY Easter...who would have thought? Things have been crazy here. 15 inches of snow on Friday. We have been trying to re-regulate Katie's new meds. We have started her on Risperdal - we had to take her off of it last week - give her a few days to recoop and now we have started her on a quarter dose at night only. If things go well we will up her to dose to a half dose and will give it to her morning and night. She was so "zombied" out on the full dose that it made me cry. She was crying too -- I think she didn't know what was happening to her -- and we can live with that.

This week is going to be crazy, too... Soccer practices were supposed to start, but with 15 inches of snow on the ground they have been postponed for at least a week...

I'll keep everyone update on how Katie is doing on her meds...