Telephone Conference Visits

I brought Chase home to DC on April 1st, and we are so happy to be home. Chase has been such a daddy's boy since he got home, and it's just been wonderful to be home and to have things as normal as possible. We've done conference calls on Friday April 3rd, Friday April 10th, and then today, April 14th. The biggest change that has been made is that they have completely taken him off of Lithium, and so far he's not had any noticable signs that he stopped taking it. (YAY FOR THAT!) I was terrified honestly when they said they were taking him off of it, but it doesn't seem to be a bad move...yet. We'll just keep an eye on it.

As far as the 3rd, there were no major issues to report - just the usual of how's school, how is he outside of school (he always has more trouble outside of the structure of school), and what are the dosages he's on currently. Nothing major to report.

The conference on the 10th was the same way. It was kind of a funny situation though, because I had taken Chase to a museum to play in the kiddie building land, and the metro got stuck in some kind of mess on the way home so I knew I wasn't going to make it home in time for the call. We had to just get out of the underground metro station to get up to ground level so my phone would get service, so that at least I wouldn't be a no-show. Well, so I exited at the Navy Memorial/Archives exit, and found this little archway to a hotel that I could park Chase's stroller in and we could sit in out of the wind. So I got the call from the therapist, and then got linked up on the conference call with the home psychiatrist, and then it became obvious that we had some company where we were sitting. This guy was seriously smoking something and trying to light a little plant on fire!!! So that was odd... Then I got asked to not loiter! That was a first! But other than that all was well with Eli and it was another "he's doing okay, still having some reds and aggression, but overall he's still doing better". I honestly expect some reds...I mean ALL kids have aggression - even NORMAL ones! :) So I don't equate aggression with autism necessarily...just when it is over the top, out of control aggression.

Then again the same thing today on the 14th. The most significant thing that happened today was that I got my flights booked to fly out to OK/TX and got the hotel booked, and everything is set up for our visit back out there. Poor Chase...I have many friends who have never flown and that poor child has so many frequent flyer miles...I wish I had kept better track of all his flight miles. I cannot believe it will have been 27 days since I have seen Eli when I get to see him next Friday. I didn't know if I would be able to survive it...if Eli could survive it...but we have. And I am proud of both of us. :) My sweet big boy...he is so much stronger than I even could have imagined. I'm so proud of him.

And the HOPE is that we can have our overnight visit this coming Friday. The plan was to go to Seaworld in San Antonio, but his developmental team really didn't think that was a good idea until he was discharged...so I will be coming up with an alternate plan.

Okay, I might make some changes to this post tomorrow...Norman is waiting on me to start watching a movie, so I better wind this up. Thank you all so much for keeping up with us. Knowing that I have people out there who care about us make this bearable on days when I don't think I can keep going. Thank you thank you thank you...from the bottom of my heart. You bless my life more than you know...