Wednesday, September 17, 2008

It's in his eyes....

Well, with all of this wonky weather that we have had lately, all of our allergies have been going crazy. Poor Drew has had incredibly itchy, red eyes. His eyes were very red and swollen for a couple days, but didn't have the gunk or pinkness of pink eye yet and I was convinced it was just bad allergies. I decided to keep him home from school yesterday just in case, besides the fact that he would have just been miserable with how puffy his eyes were.

Well, I took him to the doc just in case, and sure enough by his 3pm appointment he started getting the pink eye gunk in his eyes. So he now has to have the antibiotic eye drops for pink eye put in his eyes, four times a day. Four times a day, you would think that we could have a better way to cure pink eye than pinning down a small child four times per day! The part that cracks me up is that the directions say to keep eyes closed for 1-2 minutes after putting drops in....yeah, right..... After the 4th dose I was able to hold his hands to keep him from rubbing his eyes and ask him to close his eyes and count to 30 with him, but that was as far as he could get. But the good news is that his eyes aren't nearly as red today.


The doc is having us give him Zyrtec every morning now. It should help him keep from getting pink eye over and over this season since he rubs and itches his eyes so much from his allergies. I guess any germs and viruses that he rubs in his eyes can cause pink eye.

On another note, he is to stay out of school for 48 hours. That would have him going back to school on Friday. Friday he has no school because of a teacher workshop, so Drew has a mini vacation.


Only a few more days until my boys eyes are back to normal!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Baby Cooper is home!


I JUST got this picture from mom. She went up to stay with Matt and Amber for a couple weeks. How CUTE is Cooper?! He is so precious! I can't wait to hold him and spoil him! After all he is my only nephew!
I told Matt that Cooper has to love me as much as Drew loves Matt. Drew thinks the world of Uncle Matt..... so Matt have you already been telling Cooper how awesome Aunt Kelly is!?!
Love you guys!!!


If you think I dropped off the face of the earth.....

So I have been slacking off with blogging lately. Maybe it is the fact that I have been going to the gym after Drew goes to bed at night during the time that I usually blog, or the fact that Drew has had some regression that has taken more attention lately, or that Tony has had more testing going on to figure out what is wrong with him, or that I had a brand new nephew born this week. I don't know, but I am trying to play catch up today so bear with me!

Thank you for all of the phone calls and emails to check to see if there was something wrong with the blog and to check on us. I will try to do better this month! Check out the back posts, there is too much catching up for one post!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

The thing about change....

We see regression at certain times, primarily when Drew is getting sick, but also when he is understimulated, overstimulated, extremely tired, when there is a lot of change and a little bit sometimes when he is going through a growth spurt. When he is going through regression we see him having tantrums, screaming, not using his words, spinning in circles, hitting his head, lining things up more than usual, tipping his head to one side, and he makes a constant humming type noise. We see his OCD kick into overdrive where he likes things 'just so' and gets VERY upset when things don't go exactly as he plans.




It's also important to remember that just ONE YEAR ago, Drew was not talking at all except for a few random words. He did not know how to communicate at all and would basically tackle any one that took anything from him. One year ago his favorite activity was taking all of the cans out of the pantry and lining them up in the kitchen floor. His progress in the last year has been amazing. He now has some pretend play skills, can request things, has a HUGE vocabulary, will share (usually) and take turns (usually), and he can even read.

(picture from last Winter - Drew loves the snug feeling of being in the cube)


The problem comes with the changes in the school system's Pre-K program this year. Basically it boils down to a class with 12-13 kids (last year I think there averaged about 5 in the class on a given day). Drew does not do well in large groups. He does best in structured activities in small groups. He can handle other children as long as it is structered and guided. Drew has been regressing since school started. He did so well last year, but I think with the smaller class size he was getting more attention and guidance. Yes, he needs to learn to be independent, but he needs the skills and guidance to know how. He still needs someone right there to know what to say when someone takes something from him, or what to do when he uses his words and asks to play with something and the kid says no.


It is so sad to see Drew this way. His teacher thought he might be getting sick, I guess because that is the only time she has seen him regress before. I even took him to the doctor yesterday to have them check his ears, urine, etc. Turns out he is 100% healthy. Nothing physically wrong. He got his flu mist while he was there, and the pediatrician recommended that we add a probiotic like Culturelle to his daily regimin which includes a multi-vitamin, magnesium, and two mega doses of fish oil.


Drew's teacher says he is not getting along with his classmates. Doesn't want them being around him, and screams when they are playing with what he wants to play with. I know this is frustrating for her because she didn't see this side of him last year in such a small class. But this is who he is, he has autism, he has problems with social skills, this is what he needs help with. We are just hoping that the school year only gets better or we find a better solution.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Daddy and Mommy update

As many of you know, Tony has had his ups and down this last year with his health. He has had stomach problems pretty much every week since November of last year. Over the last few weeks Tony has had more appiontments and testing done to try to figure out what is wrong. On Friday, he went in for an endoscopy. He now has to take 2 medications for his stomach to see if it helps. Hopefully over the next few weeks he will be feeling 100 times better!

Tony has also started seeing a new endocrinologist for his diabetes. Tony has not had a typical case of diabetes and was originally diagnosed as type 2, and then 1 1/2, and now 1. He was only diagnosed with diabetes in the last few years. The confusing diagnosis often made it hard for diabetes educators to help him and keep it under control. This new doctor is awesome. We had to wait a long time to get into him and he doesn't usually take new patients. It has been really great to basically "start over" with care. This doctor was really proactive in helping Tony figure out what is wrong with his stomach and thinks that his diagnosis last winter was wrong. He has also been proactive in getting Tony an insulin pump. We have received the pump, but Tony has to wait for his appointment next week to learn how to use it. Not only is this new doctor awesome, but the diabetes educator is a Registered Pharmacist and that makes Tony happy.

Tony was also pulled out of his Walgreens store in March to open a new store that just kept being pushed back. Great News! This week he has been in the new store getting it ready! It has still been pushed back another week, but construction is finishing up and hopefully they will start stocking product in the next couple weeks.

In August started babysitting a few days a week to try to get a little cash. Between the rising prices and all the medical bills, we really needed it. It isn't a lot of money, but it helps with the gas and food. I babysit a little boy who is 15 months old. He is an absolute sweetheart and such a good boy. Drew and him get along 90% of the time and play really well together.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Baby Cousin has arrived!

Baby Cousin Cooper arrived on September 9th at 10:00 pm. He was 7 lbs 5 oz and has the cutest reddish blonde hair. I can't wait to see pictures of the little cutie and the new family.

Drew is still basically taking credit for him. It is so cute. He says MY Baby Cousin. We have talked about that he is outside of Aunt Amber's tummy now and his name is Cooper, so now he is "MY Baby Cousin Cooper" He still hasn't dropped the Baby Cousin. I can't wait to see him!!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Hooray for Grandparent's Day!

Today was Grandparents day at School. Grandma and Grandpa paid Drew a surprise visit. They took some pictures of him in action in the classroom. I cropped out all of the other children, since I didn't have their parent's permission to post, but I guarentee you he is not the only one in the class!
Just realizing that Grandma and Grandpa were in the room!
Drew's speech teacher doing Circle Time

Look Grandma!

I love you Grandpa!

Fixing the doll house

 
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