Rick and Ashley, had just left the hospital after spending a very long day with Josiah.  Though it was my turn to stay the night, the harrowing experience of being attacked by my own son was enough to scare me away.  I called Rick.  I texted Ashley.  Both were ready and willing to turn around and drive back to the hospital.  What an amazing support team.

Ashley called, insisting Rick needed to sleep since he had to go to work the next morning.  She assured me she felt perfectly safe spending the night with Josiah.  She has experience working with much older, much stronger, much more challenging kids than Josiah.  I was hugely relieved.

I hung up from Ashley and made my way back to Josiah’s hospital room.  I peered in and saw 3 nurses standing a safe distance away, all around his bed.  I was afraid to enter the room.  A sedative was brought in to calm Josiah who was bouncing joyfully on his knees on the bed.

Read more…

Josiah was sent home from the ER after spending 2 sedated hours sleeping there.  A Crisis Intervention Team arrived at our house a few hours later.  I had hoped they would provide a solution.  They were kind and compassionate, took lots of information and said basically there was nothing they could do.  Josiah was mildly bouncy and slightly agitated while they were here.

Later that same afternoon, after more pleas for help, Josiah’s psychiatrist called to say he wanted us to take Josiah to a different hospital.  Both he and Josiah’s pediatrician were very concerned about him.  They wanted various tests to be done to rule out anything medically that might be causing such violent outbursts. Since he’s non verbal, he is not able to tell us if something hurts or he doesn’t feel well.  I didn’t think there was anything physically wrong with my son, but getting him to a hospital where he could hopefully receive some help made sense.

Read more…

The last few weeks of summer and the first 3 days of the new school year were very difficult.  Josiah didn’t sleep much.  Most nights he averaged 3.5 to 4 hours of sleep at best. We had to take turns staying up with him, or trying to get him back to sleep.  After a few weeks, we called his psychiatrist to ask for something to help Josiah sleep. It didn’t work like we had hoped.

Over the years we have tried just about everything we could think of to help Josiah sleep.  I’ve even offered suggestions to other parents who faced similar sleep related issues.  Sometimes we’d have periods of time in which Josiah would sleep well.  Just a couple of months ago, I remember him taking my hand at 7:30 in the evening to walk me into his room.  He crawled up in his bed, scooted down under his ‘Skweezers’ and fell fast asleep. He slept til 8:30 or 9 the next morning. This lasted for weeks. Perhaps I was over confident during those days and felt I had answers to offer others.  I was wrong.  Dead wrong.

Read more…

More often than not, with Josiah getting bigger and stronger, it takes an extra pair of hands to help with him.  I’m not so quick to whisk him off on an errand as I was when he was much younger.  Gone are the days when his little body could be transferred from car seat to stroller, allowing us to get out and about at whim, having fun.

Now, it takes a willingness on Josiah’s part to participate.  If he’s not on board with the plan of the day, life becomes much more difficult for all of us. If Josiah decides he’s not interested in something, he can easily cause enough of a ruckus to almost get his way.  Notice the word ‘almost’ there.

Read more…

Free tickets to a professional baseball game?  Why, but of course we will take some.  What could be better than a fun afternoon at the ball park with Josiah?  A full body wax perhaps? A root canal with no anesthesia maybe? Seriously, what was I thinking?

In his defense, Josiah did great for the first 4 and a half innings.  There was some serious fruit snack bribing in the beginning to get Josiah on the elevator so we could get to our seats. Then, just before the doors closed, an attempt to push through the crowd to escape.  I hollered out, “Rick!” to alert my husband I needed assistance, as I grabbed for Josiah. The man next to me assuming I was talking to Josiah said, “It’s okay Rick” in a comforting voice as if to assure him the ride wouldn’t be that bad. The doors closed before Rick, I mean Josiah could dart out.

We found our seats and settled in to enjoy the game. Josiah was quite content to be there. Almost looks as if he is concentrating on the activity on the field doesn’t it? Without those purple beads, I doubt he would have lasted 10 minutes.  We keep a pair with us at all times. We learned long ago, beads mean Josiah stays put.

This was the 1st inning.  By the beginning of the 3rd inning, we started feeding him.  He had ice cream and some funnel cake, then more funnel cake.  We’ve also learned food means Josiah stays put.

Then, around the middle of the 4th inning, Josiah started getting noisy.  He stood up a few times, made some loud vocalizations and began swinging his beads wildly.  I asked Rick to take Josiah’s beads away for a little while.  It usually helps to calm him.  Not today.

Read more…