A really odd day (long)

[Guest guest]

If you've been reading my posts here (I'm fairly new), you know that my son

is a hoarder. He constantly picks up things. I don't think I've seen him in the

past three weeks without something in his hands. Well, okay, when he first

puts these things away in his room, he walks out with nothing but usually spots

something else to pick up almost immediately. His hands are always clenched

tight. (I actually took photos of him like this, sort of documenting)

Well, today, THREE hours went by before he asked for a wet paper towel to try

and get the fuzz off his hands. I told him how proud I was of him for going

so long without picking anything up. He seemed much happier this morning (after

crying hisself to sleep last night), which put me in a much better mood too.

THEN he noticed his turtle wasn't looking too well. (Water turtle) So I asked

ds if he would like to go to the petshop with me to buy a thermometer (to take

the temp of the water). He agreed to go. This surprised me because ds doesn't

like to go anywhere now, knowing he can't walk without closing his eyes, or

if he peeks, he'll pick something up. So, off we went (I was feeling the

stress) and into the store. He did close his eyes but said He was sleepy..hmmm.

He

was talking to himself, saying things like, don't look down...just ignore that,

etc. He tried to look at the fish. He was using lots of hand signals and not

talking. I thought it was strange that he wasn't talking, but ignored it. I

was looking at the wall full of thermometers when I happened to glance at my son

and guess what!! He was covered in red spots! Yep, his face had broken out in

a rash. His skin was actually starting to peel off around his mouth, cheeks,

chin. It all happened so fast!

Off we went to the Dr's. The Dr then tells me it's caused from stress! He

gave ds a prescription. This meant another store (where the pharmacy is located)

to visit. Now I was dreading it. I actually told him it was okay if he wanted

to pick up things. He didn't have to force himself not to. Probably the wrong

thing for me to say, but it looks like the stress was coming out in his face!

Ugh! I felt soooo bad. On our way out of the store, he picked up a receipt. I

still told him how proud I was of him. I mean, picking up one thing compared

to probably a hundred things in an hour, this was great.

After I applied some cream to his face, he looked slightly better, my dh

insisted we go to the grocery store. (Turkey stuff...I know, last minute) Dh was

driving and I turned back to look at ds, who was totally engrossed in his hands

and any fuzz he could see there. The hoarder ds was back. He couldn't stop

picking up stuff from the parking lot, the store, all the way home. He had so

many tiny things in his hands he couldn't buckle his seat belt. His Dad gets mad

at him. It was a total mess.

We homeschool and we're suppose to meet with his Charter school teacher

tonight, but we just couldn't. All covered in rash, his hands in fists, and of

course crying his eyes out. I am so tired yet totally happy to have seen the

" old "

ds, even though it didn't last long.

One thing that ds has everyone and anyone do that comes in the house, is wipe

their feet a certain way on their way out. This is going to be crazy tomorrow

with family here. You have to start with the right foot, left, right again,

left, step outside with right foot, wipe left and quick jump outside. If it's

not done right, he'll scream for you to come back and do it again. This drives

everyone, especially my two teenage boys and their friends nuts.

I am so sorry that this is so long. This is the only place where I can talk

it about freely. Everyone else just thinks we're all crazy. I do have hope that

one day I'll have my son back. Even if it's just for a while. It was great

seeing him again today.

I don't really have a question, but if anyone has a child who broke out in a

rash from not doing rituals, I'd love to hear about it. He is trying so

desperately to stop, it hurts to watch him. I rented the newest Harry Potter

movie,

so we're off to watch it. Hopefully we can all get our minds off of things.

I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving. Oh, one question, how many

subscribers are there to this list? Just wondering how safe it would be to post

photos

or a website with photos here.

Thanks for listening,

Debbi (PS: His turtle looks much better but we contacted the Turtle &

Tortoise Club to pick him up. Ds says he'd rather have the turtle taken care of

properly than have to see another pet die.)