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Posts Tagged ‘pediatric rheumatologist’

a questionable improvement on the silence

Posted in Anderson School, autism, behavior, doctor, grandma, hospital, placement, The Anderson School for Autism, Uncategorized, tagged , on January 11, 2013| 2 Comments »

“Before you speak, ask yourself – Is it necessary?  Is it true?  Is it kind?  Will it hurt anyone?  Will it improve on the silence?”
~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba

How hurtful we can be without meaning to be.  You’d think I’d be used to being hurt, both physically and emotionally, but I’m just not.  And ’tis a horrifying thought to know I also have spoken quickly, without thinking, without asking myself these questions.  We all do it, I imagine.  This quote is so wise, whoever Sri Sathya Sai Baba is.  I learn lots by researching the person who uttered a quote I love. 

I saw Jonah on Wednesday at Albany Medical Center for his pediatric rheumatologist appointment.  E and J are back as the team who drives Jonah to and fro, but they do so much more than that, as I’ve mentioned.  I love these people and look forward to seeing them almost as much as I look forward to seeing Boo.  He did well at the appointment, mostly, but part of that was due to the caring doc’s speed and efficiency.  No waiting.  None.  We go straight to a room and as soon as she sees him, Dr. B is on her game and handling everything.  It’s refreshing.  I don’t know how she does it, but I’m more grateful for her than she will ever know.

I should have taken pictures but I keep forgetting my camera, or forgetting to charge my camera, so I’ll end the post with some more random pictures.  I like putting pictures in my blog post.  Tomorrow I’ll remember the camera when I go visit Boo, I promise.  I wish I had it at his doc appointment.  He was parroting in classic echolalia form.  “Jonah, sit on the table.”  Over and over.  He’d had enough at the exact moment she finished gently pulling and prodding his joints.

There are so many things I wonder about my boy.  I know the other kids like to cuddle with the caregivers on the couches and watch TV or play Wii, but Jonah doesn’t like it.  I know that much.  He wants to stay in his room a lot.  They coax him out when they can, it seems.   I hate thinking about him alone in his room.  If that’s what makes him happy, should I be more okay with it? 

I wish I knew more about what he likes to play with, and who he wants to be with, and things he says/does/sings.  They don’t tell you a whole lot beyond basic information but I want anecdotal stories.  I want to hear about it when he does good things, or funny things…not just whether or not he had “behaviors” that day, or how many, or what he had for dinner and whether or not he threw his plate.  I want to know more about my son. 

I know he is sick right now and I want to hold him close and let him lie on me and suck his thumb while we watch Barney or the Wiggles.  Of course I just described a fantasy.  Even if he were here in my home that scenario is highly unlikely, unless he were really, really sick.  He’d hit at me, pull my hair, scratch my face.  Is he angry at the world?  Is he angry at us all because we just don’t get it, whatever it is?

Some weeks it’s easier to have gratitude than others.  Sometimes I don’t sit down to add a blog post until I’m motivated by a hurt, worry, depression, shame, anger, or some other emotion that drives me to write.   I guess it means every blog post is skewed by its catalyst emotion.  I can’t do much about that, but today’s emotion, even though it’s Friday, is soul-tired.

I’m praying for a lot of people.  A lot.  They all have serious needs, problems, grief.  I don’t know what good the prayers do but I like to send them up anyway.  I’m a little unconventional with that, but I do pray from my heart and my heart always answers back you are not alone in your hurt.  You are not alone.  And that’s the gift you get back when you pray for others; it’s all mirrored back at you, offering perspective and empathy and, if you dig deep enough, peace.

Blah blah blah.  Some pictures:

Me and an unidentified large bear, outside the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, Missouri.

Me and an unidentified large bear, outside the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, Missouri.

his mama's bony body and his daddy's tan

Mama’s lean body, daddy’s tan skin

old days, exploring in the forest near home

old days, exploring in the forest near home

the waterboy

Waterboy

daddy holds Jonah's hand and grandma walks beside them - away from his residence and across the campus to the car.

daddy holds Jonah’s hand and grandma walks beside them – away from his residence and across the campus to the car.

Mama will see you tomorrow, Boo.  Sleep tight.

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the bottom of all this

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 25, 2012| 2 Comments »

Those of you who can find the thread in the midst of all my tangents and ramblings may be wondering what is happening with Jonah’s eyes.

Two or three blog posts ago (the eyes have it) I said:

“What’s keeping me from freaking out entirely is that God has gifted me with doctor number three, brilliant and kind, who lets me cling to him…all during breakdowns, emergencies, and these kinds of what-the-hell-do-we-do-now decisions.   He’s going to help us get to the bottom of all this.  He’s my ace in the hole.”

Luckily, before I needed to ‘play my ace,’ the doctors decided to talk to one another.  For now we’ve all come to the conclusion that the Reticert implant is best left in place for now, even though the thing is nearing the end of its efficacy anyway. 

Plus now there is all this concern about the “activity” in his right eye.  The new drops have mitigated it so far, we’re told.

Next we’ll go back to the pediatric rheumatology doc and find out about another drug she may want to try.  I like her; she’s cool, knowledgeable, and kind with Jonah.

Still, I feel like we’ll never get to the bottom of so many things.  But maybe that’s all right.  It has to be all right.  I don’t have any choice but to learn what I can comprehend and weigh options with Jonah’s dad and all the endless scads of doctors. 

It’s like looking at my boy through the water, all refracted by light and liquid.

Boo likes to be underwater

Jonah likes deep pools best where he can swim to the bottom and ‘merboy’-himself along as if finned. 

At the bottom of all this is Boo.  It’s always been Boo.  Like Mitch Albom, Jonah tells his mama:  We’re not a wave.  We’re part of the ocean. 

But whales live in the ocean, Boo.  Ones that swallow Jonahs who’ve been insubordinate. 

“…(and) you can’t hide; standing under these stars
They know everything… they know where you are.
You’re in your head, you’re all turned around with it
And they’re shining down their light to bring you back again“

~ Careful by Guster

So soon we will know more, about both Boo’s eyes, and maybe try harder to get him to wear sunglasses for his light-sensitivity.  And I keep files and notes during doc-conversations so I don’t forget details.  If I cannot parent him I can advocate for him.  And others like him. 

I miss him so much tonight, though.  Usually I don’t let myself think about it, about him not being with me.  But sometimes because of a scent or a sound, all at once I have a punched-in-the-gut feeling, and I miss him like the day we dropped him off.  My God, it’s been almost a year. 

He has made a lot of progress.  He is toilet trained nearly completely and his language and social skills are coming along.  You can ask him a question now and usually he’ll answer it. 

“How is your sandwich, Jonah?”

“Good.”

It used to be more like:

“How is your sandwich, Jonah?”

“How is your sandwich, Jonah?”

And still he parrots, but he can make his needs met and now he will initiate conversation.  He says hello to teachers and the nurses, and his caregivers too.  Now he is so much better at communication.

shoes on please?

He’s independent, too.  His life has routine, and ritual, and he’s surrounded by people who know how to teach kids like him.  I don’t know what I’m on about.

Off I go to breathe and eat.

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boston children’s hospital

Posted in autism, behavior, doctor, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 3, 2011| 3 Comments »

Andy and I Jonah and I left Albany at 6am last Tuesday to bring Jonah to Boston Children’s Hospital for a 9am appointment with a pediatric rheumatologist (because even though we live in the pretty little capital city of New York State, there are zero pediatric rheumatologists here).   Jonah has been limping and was clinically diagnosed with pediatric juvenile arthritis based on other health problems like synovitis in his hip and jaw, and iritis/uveitis in his left eye.

In February of 2010 little boo had an operation on that eye to replace the lens, and they implanted something called Retisert to constantly dispense small doses of steroids locally.  When we got him home and the anesthesia wore off completely, I took a picture of him in his misery.  I guess I wanted to record it while desperate to alleviate it.

I hate this picture.

This was the only time in his little life that he verbally expressed pain to us:  eye hurt, he cried – just once – as if agony could forcibly pull language out of him.

We gave him medicine and I rocked him in my arms, wishing I could fix everything.  Turns out we can’t fix his arthritis either – but it’s mild, they told us, and naproxen should be able to help him with his limping and any associated pain.  They told us neither his eye nor his arthritis would cause his aggressions.  Nobody can tell us what causes the violence exploding like mines inside him, timed to a schedule so erratic it has no business being associated with time at all.

The three hour trip to Boston was okay – we’d given him sedatives the doc had prescribed – and we managed to get him in and out of the short appointment without any major aggressions.  It is undoubtedly an amazing hospital, even aesthetically, complete with musical steps, bubbling walls, and God knows what else we didn’t see because we were in and out of there so quickly.  On the ride home we had to pull over three or four times because Jonah went bezerk.  Andy ended up in the backseat with him, holding him, getting his own arms scratched to hell.  There was virtually no conversation there or back.  We were collectively frazzled – got back into town around 3.

After I dropped Andy and Jonah at the house I went home to my apartment where sweet Jack Ingalls was waiting,

and I lay across the bed, trying to make myself think of nothing.

“The things that I’ve loved; the things that I’ve lost
The things I’ve held sacred that I’ve dropped
I won’t lie no more, you can bet
I don’t want to learn what I’ll need to forget…”

~ Audioslave again, “Doesn’t Remind Me”

I can’t write anything else right now.

I’ll come back.

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never be the kind with an ordinary life

Posted in autism, behavior, singing, tagged , , , , , , , on December 8, 2010| 1 Comment »

Happy boy is still with us – only a few attacks here and there, none of which I’ve witnessed, at least not in quite a few days now.  Maybe even a week.  We took Jonah to a new pediatrician on Monday – one who specializes in developmental disabilities and behavioral problems.  I loved him; he’s level-headed, kind, and intelligent.  If we want Jonah to have his second chicken pox shot or the flu shot we’ll have to go back, but we might opt out of both of them this year.

We’re putting the wheels in motion to go to Boston to see a pediatric rheumatologist (there aren’t any around here and the ones for adults won’t even see children, for some reason) because of Jonah’s uveitis and iritis, and the synovitis they found some time ago in his hip and jaw.  He may have pediatric arthritis, they’re thinking, so that’s our next big medical project to tackle.

Also on the Jonah horizon is a big meeting tomorrow with the school district officials – teachers from Wildwood will be there, and his caseworker from Catholic Charities, and of course Andy and me, and we’ll try to decide what’s the best course of action educationally and placement-wise for Jonah.  I know we have to at least investigate our options but now that he’s so much better I want to keep him home and at Wildwood School.  They say he’s participating more and yesterday he had no aggressions at school at all – granted it was a half day, but still…he came home with math sheets all completed (it still baffles me that the kid can solve math problems) and a hastily scribbled art project (he’s not the biggest fan of coloring, though he does love to carry markers and colored pencils around, & roll them on the table and floor).  He still falls asleep early but he sleeps well, and peacefully, and I am grateful for every day he is himself again.

I love to see him skip around…hear him happy, even loud, again – lately he has been singing and shouting out the “hear-ar-ar-ar-ah-art” part to Guster’s “This is How it Feels to Have a Broken Heart” (which, despite its title, is actually kind of a lively song).

“We’ve colored in the lines and followed all the signs
Fought a war till the war was over;
Said you’d never be the kind with an ordinary life…”

~ Guster

(You can say that again, guys)

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