Friday, October 12, 2007

Lorenzo update


Well after I picked Lorenzo up from school yesterday I was hoping that he had had a better day, I was wrong! He ended up crying for over an hour in the morning and then at Lunch again and he was crying when I picked him up. I talked with the teacher and she does not know what to do. Everyone seems to be out sick this week so she was sending him to the office. I understand that you can't have him disrupting the rest of the class but there is supposed to be someone there to help him when he gets that way. I came home and called his doctor after that and he wanted to see Lorenzo this morning, so we went there at 9:00 and Lorenzo was having a lot of anxiety about school and the doctor noticed it right away. He also had lost a couple of pounds and I told the doctor that he has not eating very well and his snack I send him to school with is coming home every day. lorenzo has been complaining that his tummy hurts all the time the last week and I am pretty sure it is the stress and anxiety, we have been through this before. Well to make a long story short, we are going to add celexa back into his medicine regime but at a very low dose. This was the medicine that helped so much a little over a year ago but then Lorenzo started having more of the outbursts, rages, and Meltdowns that lasted days so we are going to take it slow and see if it helps. The nice thing if it works is that we will gradually take him off the other anxiety med.'s he is on now.

I think part of me is still in denial about this whole thing. I know something is not right, I have know basically since he was born but there is also a part of me that thinks no, he is normal he is going to snap out of this. If we have a few days or weeks that go well I think, OK, he is better things are going to be ok. But we always seem to end up back here. We have been spiraling downward for the last couple of weeks, but part of me just does not want to deal with it. I am seeing more of the highs and lows lately and it just breaks my heart. He has also been doing other strange things like when he eats it is like he goes into a trance. He closes his eyes and gets this glazed over strange look. i do not even know how to explain it.

There have been a lot of shown on tv lately about autism. I do not watch a lot of tv and I missed the one on oprah but a friend of mine told me about it and i was able to read about it online. I was able, however, to catch a similar program on Larry king Live a couple of weeks ago and it alarmed me how many similar characteristics Lorenzo had with the kids they were talking about. The only thing is Lorenzo is vocal and is not detached. In fact that is just opposite. But the way they play and the repetitiveness. The rocking back and forth and strange body movements. The problems with bowles and digestive systems. it makes me think that maybe the Autism spectrum is a whole lot bigger then people are giving credit. I wonder if that spectrum will open up to include more of the mental disorders or vise versa.

7 comments:

onedayatatime said...

I am sorry he is not doing as well. He is such a cute and sweet little boy. We just love Lorenzo! I hope the Celexa works well this time and that you can figure out if anything else is going on. I know it is heartbreaking to watch your child suffer - there is no worse feeling in the world. Love, Cindy

Sheila said...

Wish we could do something! Send Lorenzo, Liam and Riley our hugs! Jacob misses Riley so much. He always asks which house you guys lived on Mayflower. Sniff, too bad we aren't closer! Maybe someday! :)

Briana Ward said...

Thanks for your thoughts. They are appreciated. we will keep you updated as to how he is doing.

Holly said...

After I read your blog the other da I saw this article on the news:

http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=567732f4-a5d0-4d8c-be4e-7e4ec456c6a1

Not sure, but it might be worth a try :)

Briana Ward said...

Thanks for the link Holly I have seen lots of stries just like that. We are thinking of going back to the doc and looking into it. We will keep you guys updated.

onedayatatime said...

How did Lorenzo do today? Was it any better?
Cindy

onedayatatime said...

I had just made a link to my favorites for a similar type of article: http://www.generationrescue.org/testimonials2.php?story=72

I am always trying to keep on top of things for my children should I need it. See, if we were still in Rhode Island, we could go gluten/casein free together! I think this is the diet Paul was on with his asthma because I remember along with other things, he could only have rice breads and nothing with wheat at all. The thing I thought was so interesting in this article was how these ingredients act as almost a morphine. Jenna is really the one I am thinking of in particular because all day long she says she's hungry ... hungry ... hungry and those types of food are all she wants.