Saturday, 23 January 2010

• Our Journey Through Autism

  My reason for starting this chronicle of what our family has been going through for the last 10 years is to help others see what we have found helpful in dealing with Autism - High functioning, Asperger's Syndrome.

  The pregnancy with my son was a high-risk one. There was too much fluid everywhere inside my abdomen and around the body of my son. Because of this, I was getting ultrasounds monthly. His head grew faster than the rest of his body so the doctors were thinking he was going to have hydrocephalus. Then when his head was at the upper limit of cm size (abnormal), it stopped growing. We were optimistic. 

  Though the pregnancy was high-risk, the birth was absolutely a joyful, wonderful, ecstatic experience. It was such a blessing to have the positive situation with giving birth. I could feel my son kicking and punching on his way out but because of the medication I didn't have any pain associated with that part of delivery. He had all his fingers and toes. Physically, he looked completely normal. He went straight to the nipple so we were so happy this came so natural. What wasn't natural is his suck was not very strong. No one at the hospital seemed concerned about that so we weren't either. Also, something they didn't seem concerned about was the rattle with every breath. We agreed with my mom when she noticed, "He was born with a cold."  
  

  We took him home and he failed to thrive. At two weeks old I took him for his normal check-up and he had fluid in his ears. Later, we would realize this problem would still be going on at 10 yr. old. He went on antibiotics to get rid of the fluid and put him on formula so he would get the nutrition he needed. Well, he got more than enough nutrition. He blew up like a balloon! At about four months old we noticed his head was misshapen. It was completely flat in the back. No matter what wedges I put under him as he slept he would turn his head so it was on the back.

  Gosh, he was so beautiful! Big blue eyes, smile. I noticed he didn't hold his body up normally. He didn't prop himself up with his arms. I carried him and he was like dead weight. Eventually my bicept tendon would tear because of this. Friends would notice how I carried him differently but it was necessary , regarding how he was unable to hold himself up. Another activity he started doing was throwing himself backwards no matter what the landing material consisted of. His mumblings were not developing normally. No progress with speech development could be seen. Upon noticing there were problems with his development, we were antipating the possibility of needing more support of our family so we decided to move back to California where we had lots of family.
  

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  Editor's Note:

  Why do you blog or read about Autism?
  

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