Took Hailey to Allergy doc

[Guest guest]

Hailey saw a new allergy doctor, mailed off a ton of blood for antibodies to

specific things. He understood what I was saying and describing with behaviors.

For an older doctor he was on the stick with believing this. He told me to read

a few books out of his office, I picked up another myself at the library of

hers. Amazing stuff. Her is a video of her on Phil Donohue 22 years ago, she

dedicates this one book to Phil. Must watch, it is long. I have only watch part,

watching the rest today. Try to find this book also, it is worth reading it. I

sat in my chair in shock last night, reading these kids stories and how many are

like Hailey!

Doctor feels he can

help her some, but gave me resources and her number is under this video to find

a doctor near you that deals with severe,rare allergies.

________________________________

To:

Sent: Thu, November 18, 2010 2:49:44 PM

Subject: Re: Happy Thanksgiving and other horror stories...

I'm trying to think of a holiday story. We used to try to take Darwyn to my

parents, but he would barf everywhere after 15 minutes in a crowded house.

Nothing like vomit to communicate a desire to leave. Once a grandparent insisted

he join us at the table (back when I used to acquiesce to these requests) and he

barfed all over the table of food. Awful at the time, but a good laugh now.

Works better than any words ever could!

Now my husband stays home with Darwyn while my daughter and I go for a 24 hour

blitz of family. My parents are divorced so I grew up with frantic holiday

cramming - 2 turkey dinners etc. So now the holidays are nice as a mom/daughter

night away. I get a full nights sleep which is blissful. Everyone says they wish

Darwyn could be there, but I've developed the raised eyebrow response because

they want their idealized version of him, not the real him who would just barf

everywhere and throw the decorations. And probably destroy a TV too. He loves

the pretty colours Nana's plasma screen makes when he whacks it.

For us, what works best is not trying to force any holiday celebration and

giving up any attachment to holiday rituals that are less important than being a

happy family. It helps that my husband and I don't celebrate the standard

holidays, for which I'm grateful because it allows me to approach them without

expectations.

We also have an ongoing game where if Darwyn kisses us on request we add a

dollar to our " book money " and then we go spend it on a holiday. My daughter is

highly motivated by the game.

Mom to (age 10 NT) and Darwyn ( age 6 DS ASD and a few heart surgeries)

, Canada

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Happy Thanksgiving and other horror stories...

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone on the list.

After 21 years of marriage, my wife and I are having Thanksgiving at home,

by ourselves. Had been going to the extended family yearly. Our little guy had

been small enough that we could " manage " him in the strange environment. Since

the grandparents live 4 hours away, we would drive up and stay overnight. Of

course, wife and I took shifts watching after our son, affectionately nick-named

" boy wonder " . He never sleeps at their house, not even with pharmaceutical

assistance. He prefers to stay up, watching TV, and giggling at all hours.

Last year was a special year. We had been in the " throwing stage " for a

good year and warned the grandparents to put away anything fragile or " hand

sized " that " boy wonder " might throw. All went pretty well the first day. At

about 3 am I was awoken by a shriek from my wife and a large crash. Turns out

the " fridge DJ " from Walmart that my son could sit for hours playing with became

the next " throw toy " . It made contact with my parents brand new, 3 week old,

super-wide, high definition, expensive, flat screen TV. It hit almost perfect

center, got to give the little guy credit. He has pretty good aim. He realized

he did wrong and was pretty upset himself when he saw the cracks spread out over

Barney's picture on the TV. It looked like a spider had weaved a nasty web

across the picture. That incident cost us $2500. Home-owners insurance did not

cover it. My wife and I look back now and laugh. At that time we were ready to

cry.

Now the grandparents are pouting that we won't come up. We simply don't

want to buy another TV or a window for them. They of course, don't want to come

down to visit us. It's hard not having family understand what we live through.

But then again, I remember the good old days of not having a child with autism,

and how naive I was then. My wife and I are really OK with it at this point,

but just venting. Everyone here understands.

In the spirit of the holidays, we are interested in other HUMOROUS stories

others may have to share regarding their children and Thanksgiving or

Christmas. I can't wait to get our tree up next week. sits and

watches it for long stretches. He is fascinated by the twinkling lights. It is

a pleasant memory of the holidays for us.

Shane Avery

father of , age 10