June 26, 2006

On Hiatus

I thought that I would be able to return to blogging last month, but circumstances have dictated otherwise.

I am hoping to be back in the fall.

All the best to you and your little ones.

Ginger


While you wait:

How Mercury Causes Brain Neuron Degeneration

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

all the best to you, ginger. i'll miss you. sending my best!

Anonymous said...

Hope all is well. Come back soon.

Anonymous said...

Ginger,

As a long-time reader who's only written to you once --

I eagerly await your return.

Hope all is well with you and your family. Your work on this blog is very valuable to many people.

Terri Lewis

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say thanks for sharing.

I am a Life Artist said...

Word G.

Be well.

Anonymous said...

i most truely commend your work ,but i still have this to say about autism ,if MMR vaccines introduced in the 70s is the primary cause of autism as we see it today ,then every child from that time to date should be autistic ,not ONE should escape it ,since poison is poison ,no child at infacy should escape it since it is given to every child to prevent measels.but this is not so ,for there are also non autistic children around everywhere .and Hans asperger began to study autism around 1944.so it had existed long before vaccine theory.could it be genetics ?

Anonymous said...

am doing some thinking

Anonymous said...

autism is triggered by radiation

Clay said...

Ginger,

I discovered your blog earlier tonight and have read almost all of your posts. I really like your blog and I hope you do return.

As a parent of a child diagnosed with autism, adhd-agressive, bi-polarism, I am interested in learning from other parents who have been dealing with autism. I realize each case is different, but I have a lot to learn. I recognize some similarities between Chandler and our daughter Edith Rose.

Edith started having, what was diagnosed as febrile seizures at 10 mos. At 18 months she contracted encephalitis. After that she was hospitalized numerous times for seizures lasting sometimes over an hour.

We were refered to a neurologist after the encephalitis. He never would tell us what was wrong with Edith. And, we soon began to notice disturbing behavior from Edith. She started banging her head on the ground, extreme temper tantrums, biting her arms, and passing most of the time screaming and crying.

For a long time we thought the anti-seizure medicine was causing Edith's behavior. We eventually broke away from the neurologist because he kept ignoring our concerns over Edith's behavior.

To make a long story short, we were lucky enough to get her seen at a children's hospitial, (I am in the Air Force and have been lucky that our medical insurance has been highly cooperative). At that hospital they diagnosed Edith as haveing Epilepsy.

Needless to say Edith has been in hospitalized many more times with seizures that have lasted over an hour. Even with a new neurologist, we kept being ignored. The new neurologist just kept recommending books on child discipline. (Keep in mind we have a 21 yr old son, and an 18 year old daughter so, I think we know a thing or two about raising children!)

By coincidence during one of Edith's hospital visits, Edith was in full form, behaviour wise and some nurses took notice. Much to Edith's neurologist's chagrin, she finally had no choice but to take notice.

We managed to get Edith to a psychologist who evaluated Edith and diagnosed her as autistic (medium to mild range), ADHD Hyperactive and Impulsive type, and bi-polar.

That changed everything for us, and doors have begun to open up for us. Edith is also now seeing a child psychiatrist, receives occupational and speech therapy beyond what the pre-K offers, and has a specialized team who comes in to our home to help us. I am awaiting also possibly ABA help, although I worry, or wonder about whether or not that will be needed or a good idea.

We have had a hard 4+ years. Most of it has been people staring at us in public, muttering to themselves, or out loud why we don't discipline Edith, (as if we hadn't tried that and found it to be irrelevant).

We can't take Edith anywhere (except Burger King or Chucky Cheese her favorite places) without her running wildly throughout the stores or pitching tantrums.

I am nervous when Edith is around other children because she will either hit them or hug and kiss them against their will.

We are fortunate in a lot of ways. You would think that after experiencing seizures that have lasted as long as an hour or more (10 minutes can cause brain damage) that Edith would be severely brain damaged (i.e. retarded), but she isn't. She seems to be very bright, she just has some baggage in her way.

I see her as a miracle and I know that she is in God's hands and that He is taking good care of her.

Edith is not severly autistic. She can look in our eyes, she is affectionate and can speak, although her speech is behind somewhat. Sometimes she won't look in our eyes, and sometimes whe won't tolerate touch, but these are rare occurences. For the most part her self injuries (biting) have resided. She still bangs her head some, rocks and occsionally flys into extremely violent tantrums for no reason - very rare now.

Behavior wise, Risperdol might be helping. I have been considering vitamin therapy and possibly the gluten c (can't remember this word) diet as well.

I believe her anti-seizure medicine might be close to being right to stop her seizures (which is her gravest problem since seizures can kill her, whereas autism most probably won't).

Anyways, sorry for the long-winded rant. It is just really a blessing to finally, not only know what is wrong with Edith (to have a name as opposed to a mystery)but to learn that we/she aren't alone.

Until recently we have lived in tumultous world with Edith with no guidance, much idea of what was going on.

God bless you Gina. I hope you can come back, but if you can't...I bet we all understand. An autistic child is both a challenge and a blessing.

Just curious, why are all the pictures of Chandler and you no longer here? Not that it is crucial, but seeing what he looks like would help to put a face to a name.

I don't know, maybe it is a good thing that his picture is no longer here. After all, the internet also can be the hangout of creeps.

Again, God bless you Gina and thanks for sharing. You have no idea how much it is helping other parents like me and my wife.

Anonymous said...

Hellooo. I've been waiting and waiting for you to blog again. How many times after all can a person look at the same youtube video? Sheesh! It's fall already. Really, I mostly just wanna know how you're doing. (tho i did enjoy reading the blog posts)