Wednesday

Woke up with a migraine so went back to sleep and avoided the gym...Now know why i have been so emotional last few days and also why the migraine...If your male and reading this you wouldn't understand LOL...Roll on the menopause i say :o) ...Still in 2 minds if to go private for the rants or not...I know there are people who read this journal who have kids similar to mine...I also know there are people who read it who are similar to my lads...Lots i know just read and don't leave comments and i don't want to upset anyone...I know when you have young kids same as my lads that looking at the future is scary and reading what i am going through just now could make that worse...In saying that they are all individuals and not everyone is the same or goes through same stuff...I have 2 and they are as different as chalk and cheese yet have same condition...This is what drives me potty at times with ASD as most other disabilities can be the same...By that i mean the disability affects whoever has it the same way and you can deal with it in a very similar method or use same techniques...ASD has such an incredibly wide variance it can be incredibly frustrating to cope with...Don't know if i have done this before but below am going to do a little history...

With my eldest is was blatently obvious there was a problem when he was just 18 months old...He didn't talk at all, he would drag you to whatever he wanted and point...As i had know someone with glue ear i did think it was that...He'd been getting regular check ups on his hearing anyway...By the time he was 29 months old the ENT dept decided both his ears were full of fluid and he was booked in to get them syringed and grommets put in...He was also put on waiting list for speech therapy...My ex took him up to the hospital to get it all done, by this time he was past 2 n half years old...That morning they looked in his ears again and said both were full of fluid...When they got home at 3pm my ex said they had done nothing whilst he'd been knocked out!!!!...When he was under they found no fluid and no sign of there ever having been any there...I of course went nuts and phoned my health visitor to demand he was seen at local assessment centre...Now a friend had a son who was autistic and we'd both decided eldest was the same...So GP wrote a letter to this place asking could he been seen as we thought he had autism...This was back in 1992 long before autism was well known by people as it is now...They decided to take him in for a weeks assessment and that was done in april 1993 just after he turned 3...At end of the week we got told he was autistic...Now back then he was quite severely autistic as he didn't speak or anything...He'd also been put on a waiting list for a place in special language unit here...He got a place there in january 1995 and they got him talking within 6 weeks!!!!! Once he started there was no stopping him...He left the language unit for mainstream primary school part way through 1st term of primary 2...He coped brilliantly academically but due to horrible bullying i moved him to a different primary school in easter of primary 5...The 2 years he spent in the other primary school were brill...He's now in secondary 4 in a specialist base for aspergers/high functioning autism...He's doing fantastically well although socially he still has some problems...There is a parent in our support group who knew him as a toddler...She hadn't seen him since he was about 6 until he was 13...She could hardly believe he was the same kid...His school are even talking about him going to university :o) ...Now my point in that brief history there is that although things can sometimes look bleak when they are younger they aren't always...On the other hand youngest developed normally as a toddler...He was a right chatterbox actually LOL...I'll do a brief history of him another entry...I just want the help he needs just now as i know as his mum that he can achieve like his brother...Maybe not quite as high as university academically but he can achieve and gain more than his horrendous mood swings are allowing for just now...I know my mum would help me to go private for help BUT it would be the same people i saw!!!!...My anger is really with the clinical psych who refuses to see him...Maybe i should move to cambridge or sutherland so he could be seen at the units at the universitys there LOL...I really believe that there should be specialist clinical psychs, psychiatrists, educational psychs etc specifically for autism...Maybe one day there will be for others in the future...

The builders are just starting LOL...This is the ground being cleared to build yet another block of flats...It is barrat who are building them...So once the ground is cleared there will be more actual building work going on for months and months...They took over a year tobuild a block of 20+ flats out the back in a different corner <sigh>...It's not just the mess and noise but the workers take up all of the few parking spaces we have around here...Then yesterday the next street down they put down double yellow lines AARRGGHHH...Ok so these brand new flats are being built with private parking...What about the people who live here who are in the old victorian tenaments who do not have that privilege...I can't get a disabled parking bay, they keep refusing me one, yet i am supposed to make youngest walk ages from parking car to getting to our flat...The main street has 3 main bus routes on it and lorrys etc using it all the time...It is one of the main streets here and it is dangerous for someone who although he can walk has the road sense of a 5-6 year old...Anyways am off to lie down for a nap...Toodle pip tc xx