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Mikey had his quarterly checkup with the Developmental ped today. He hasnt changed any in height or weight which is good (although he IS at 10% for BMI.. tall for his age but slightly below average for weight).
Today we saw the nurse practitioner who was a very nice woman who asked ALOT of questions. She even had Mikey take an anxiety questionnaire, half of which he did himself and the other half she asked him directly.
I have had concerns about his anxiety for quite some time now. Some things he can be talked thru, others are just flat out not getting past him. Social situations are the worst, bad enough recently that he has gotten himself worked up enough to throw up.
He did this at the last family birthday party at Jeremy and Wendy's house after we'd been there a while. During this time I couldnt get him to interact with anyone, talk to anyone or do anything other than cling to me. Well, I think I did manage to get him to say congratualtion to Wendy and Amber on their pregnancies but thats about it. I think the situation as a whole was just too much. The house is smaller than where we usually attend, and so even the same amount of people seem like more; everyone is talking to each other and *gasp* occasionally people even want to talk to HIM. He just shuts down. He can't even wrap his head around the situation much less answer questions.
The next time was our park visit a few weeks back. We had no sooner gotten there and given Mikey a french fry when he started throwing up. I got that under control and we continued with the visit. Heather playing with a little boy and having fun, Mikey sitting next to me asking when he could go home and get back on his computer. The difference here? Towards the end Mikey actually got up and started playing on some equipment on his own. He didn't interact with anyone, but he DID play and that's a big step?
The differences in those situations? One obviously is the amount of space around Mikey. I am sure he didn't feel quite so closed in and forced to cooperate at the park. (not saying anyone forces him to cooperate, but he may feel MORE forced in a smaller setting with lots of people).
Also I let him decide what he wanted to do. I didn't pester him. If he wanted to sit next to me the whole time, so be it. My ONLY goal for that outing was to get him out of the house. I had no expectations of him actually participating. I think by not placing too many demands on him he was able to relax and loosen up enough to play some at the end. Something I intend to remember at future gatherings.
These are just a few of the anxiety issues we deal with. In the test she had him take he scored low on physical anxiety but she thinks that is more than likely because with Asperger's, he doesn't recognize what he's feeling or dealing with or the different words that may be used to describe it.
Social anxiety he scored above average (duh). And separation anxiety was off the charts. Again, not surprising in the least. At one point she attempted to take him to a room right across from ours to do the test at a little table and he was freaking, although we did get him calm once he realized he could look up at any time and see me.
So she wanted to try him on a new sleeping medication. I had told her what Mikey is currently taking had its ups and downs. She put him on Remeron which is supposed to help with appetite and anxiety in addition to sleeping. I plan to start him on it tomorrow.
Hopefully I will see a few changes, appetite especially but socially as well.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Adam
Today my Dad picked me up for some father daughter time that I remarked I didn't believe we had had since before Heather was born!
He took me to the restaurant of my choice (Olive Garden yummy!) and then we walked around the Winter Park village a little while until it was time to head into the theatre.
I knew this movie was gonna be rough from the time Dad first sent me the trailer. In reality it was a little like being emotionally backhanded.. hard.
Adam is a 29 yr old man with Asperger's Syndrome. In this movie he meets Beth, an NT (neurotypical) young woman for whom he develops an attraction and she with him. The movie focuses mostly on Adam and the social issues he has, with the relationship being the secondary plotline (to me anyways.. but it's also possible I viewed it that way because of Mikey).
I am honestly not sure I have ever had a harder time with a movie. From the opening scene till the end I think I was on the verge of crying 75% of the movie. The actor himself deserves an award for his unbelievably accurate portrayal of Asperger's. From the erratic eye contact to the difficulty expressing himself to the animated and run together sentences on a topic he was passionate about..Spot on.
There may be some spoilers past this point so stop reading if you plan to see this and don't like them.
I have always felt sympathy for people who got emotional during movies that touched on some major issue in their lives; cancer...suicide...rape.. etc etc. I didn't feel what they felt but I knew it must be hard. I was wrong. It's agonizing.
The scene where Adam slams his head against a mirror I had to close my eyes and just breathe. The scene where he covers his ears and starts melting down because he doesn't wanna move; where he lashes out at Beth because she lied to him.
The look on his face as he contemplates the thought of a social situation.. his anguish at being unable to make himself do something she's asked him to do. I wanted to reach thru the screen and hug him so many times.. and all I could think of was Mikey.
Was the movie all sad and anger? No. There were a number of funny scenes.. heartwarming scenes. So many times where I would chuckle because I could SO see Mikey doing that. But the future is always on my mind. I wanna be there for him.. help him. That's why I read every account of adult's with Asperger's I can find. And that's why I saw this movie. So I can understand him as much as possible and help him grow.
Anyone who has someone on the autism spectrum in their lives should see this movie, in my opinion. I would love for everyone in Mikey's life to see it (and thank you Granny and Grampy.. I love you guys so much). If the only thing you come away from this movie with is a realization of what it's like for my kid and thousands of others like him, then I am happy.
It didn't exactly end how I expected but instead, it ended better. With Adam in a better place than he had been. And Beth was reponsible for a large majority of that. If Mikey ends up where Adam does one day, I can rest easy.
He took me to the restaurant of my choice (Olive Garden yummy!) and then we walked around the Winter Park village a little while until it was time to head into the theatre.
I knew this movie was gonna be rough from the time Dad first sent me the trailer. In reality it was a little like being emotionally backhanded.. hard.
Adam is a 29 yr old man with Asperger's Syndrome. In this movie he meets Beth, an NT (neurotypical) young woman for whom he develops an attraction and she with him. The movie focuses mostly on Adam and the social issues he has, with the relationship being the secondary plotline (to me anyways.. but it's also possible I viewed it that way because of Mikey).
I am honestly not sure I have ever had a harder time with a movie. From the opening scene till the end I think I was on the verge of crying 75% of the movie. The actor himself deserves an award for his unbelievably accurate portrayal of Asperger's. From the erratic eye contact to the difficulty expressing himself to the animated and run together sentences on a topic he was passionate about..Spot on.
There may be some spoilers past this point so stop reading if you plan to see this and don't like them.
I have always felt sympathy for people who got emotional during movies that touched on some major issue in their lives; cancer...suicide...rape.. etc etc. I didn't feel what they felt but I knew it must be hard. I was wrong. It's agonizing.
The scene where Adam slams his head against a mirror I had to close my eyes and just breathe. The scene where he covers his ears and starts melting down because he doesn't wanna move; where he lashes out at Beth because she lied to him.
The look on his face as he contemplates the thought of a social situation.. his anguish at being unable to make himself do something she's asked him to do. I wanted to reach thru the screen and hug him so many times.. and all I could think of was Mikey.
Was the movie all sad and anger? No. There were a number of funny scenes.. heartwarming scenes. So many times where I would chuckle because I could SO see Mikey doing that. But the future is always on my mind. I wanna be there for him.. help him. That's why I read every account of adult's with Asperger's I can find. And that's why I saw this movie. So I can understand him as much as possible and help him grow.
Anyone who has someone on the autism spectrum in their lives should see this movie, in my opinion. I would love for everyone in Mikey's life to see it (and thank you Granny and Grampy.. I love you guys so much). If the only thing you come away from this movie with is a realization of what it's like for my kid and thousands of others like him, then I am happy.
It didn't exactly end how I expected but instead, it ended better. With Adam in a better place than he had been. And Beth was reponsible for a large majority of that. If Mikey ends up where Adam does one day, I can rest easy.
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