Quite an eventful week we've had here at the Allen's. On Monday, (yes on Halloween) Joe turned THREE!! Can you believe it?? Seriously, where has the time gone? I will post more pics when/if we get a computer/Internet that works. I am at my moms right now. We had a really fun Halloween party we went to on Thurs and Sat. And Trick or Treating was fun, even though I had to literally MAKE Jack go because he fell asleep and just wanted to sleep. I knew he would wake up the next morning and be sad and not understand he couldn't go the next night. But Joe got all the loot!! When we would tell people it was his birthday, they would give him extra hands full of candy. We ended up putting a lot into Jacks bucket. But all in all it was a great holiday/birthday! His party will be this weekend. We wanted to make it separate from the holiday.
On to the hard stuff.
Joe was officially diagnosed with autism yesterday. We don't know why we were so blessed so have all these special spirits be apart of our family. It's been really hard this time around, well harder. I don't know why. I think it didn't help having him have periods of being "normal". And then he would have periods of being autistic like. Everyone (including therapists) would remind me that Jack and Tyla are his only examples of how to do stuff and how to say stuff. But at what point do I think the behaviors are "learned" or true behaviors??
Then after James was born it was all down hill. I mean literally, MY Joe was gone forever. I called the developmental pediatrician in June. Their first available was yesterday! Joe lost all his other therapies he had for "prematurity" when he started school in Aug. Then the regression REALLY set in.
We came out of there with an autism diagnosis. Now the Dr actually wants us to see a genetic specialist in hopes she can find something that is connected and the autism is a "side effect". Not that it would fix it, but it would technically make it a "medical condition" and insurance may have to cover it! Because as of now, they cover SQUAT for autism or developmental delay. Which is ridiculous if you ask me! Especially how prevalent it is these days!! Anyway, we'll see. Not sure what to do about that one yet. But now here we go again. All the phone calls. All the paper work. All the therapies. And all the melt downs in between.
If I had to describe Joe's "level" of autism, I would just say he is worse than Jack but better than Tyla. Well, only in certain areas. He is more aggressive like Tyla. He bites himself and hits himself. The others never did that. He SCREAMS (like blood curdling screams) on the top of his lungs for NO reason that I know of. There are so many other things, but I am out of time. I have to go. But just wanted to let you all know...3 outta 4 kids with autism.
Let's hope it at least stays that way!!
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