Fits and tantrums go on

The fits Liam has been having lately have continued. One thing we have seen is his fits have turned into tantrums a lot quicker. He has also been showing a lot of anger and aggression towards his brothers, other children outside, and even Jill and myself. Each day and night lately has been nothing but a battle on how to handle each of his fits. His fits and tantrums lately have really become wearing on Jill and I. There is no way we can really tell what will cause him to have a tantrum. It can be from something as simple what to eat for breakfast to putting his shoes on. The most wearing part of it all is that this behavior repeats itself over and over all day long. Liam’s tantrums have been inside the house and outside while playing. While having his tantrums Liam has kicked doors, walls, and pounded on the floors. If his anger is towards one of his brothers, he has scratched, hit (sometimes with objects at hand), and even on a couple occasions choked! Sunday Liam was having a tantrum in the laundry room when Brendan went in there. Brendan tried getting his sandals that were near him and Liam lunged at Brendan, grabbed his neck and was growling at Brendan. As soon as I pulled him off I asked why he did it, he said it was because Brendan was touching his shoes. While playing with another neighbor, Liam hit another boy on the head with a plastic water gun. I don’t know who had it first, but this kind of behavior is not good. This is lending more credence to the fact that Jill and I don’t believe the risperdal is working as it should anymore. We used to see Liam calm down after he took it. Lately we have not seen any change. He is currently taking 2 tablets in the morning, and 2 at night. I think Liam does not see his neurologist until October. If this continues to get worse, we will have to take him in sooner.
On Thursday the 25th, Liam and Seamus both start school. We are hoping that getting Liam back in to a routine with school is going to help give him more structure in his day. Liam repeatedly asks when he is starting school. Quite often the same question “Do I go to school tomorrow” will be asked repeatedly in a short time span. We really hope the structure of school helps Liam settle down. We also hope that his behavior lately does not carry over into the classroom.

Jill received a phone call from a mother of a child in Liam’s class Saturday. She apparently heard that their class is not going to have gym class in the gym. The reason given was that the gym is going to be used for art class for older students. Only the afternoon class will have use of the gym. The mother has already left messages with the school board president about this. The physical activity for her daughter and Liam is extremely important. Liam would be swung in the gym when he would become anxious. This would help center him for the rest of the class. There is also a legal issue here. The school can not say one class can have gym, and another can’t. When the teacher was asked what going to be done, she said they could possibly have gym in the hall way. Poor answer. If this is the solution, it is going to by highly disruptive to the other classes in session. With this in mind, Jill and I need to look closely at the Autism Scholarship. If the school can not provide for the needs of Liam, we would gladly have him go to Middleburg. We will know more come Thursday afternoon.

Adding to our frustration last week was when we got a call from Liam’s swimming teacher at Lifeworks. Apparently the county sent her a letter stating they will only pay for a small amount of Liam’s next session of swimming. We would have to come up with $240 in order to continue. That doesn’t sound like much, but when you just a larger chunk of money on getting caught up on the co-payments it is a lot. Jill placed a phone call Monday. She received a call back stating we need to email the person who notified Lifeworks about the reduction in payment. Jill and I have a letter stating they would pay around $864 through March 2006. Dividing that up we easily should have enough to carry him through to 2006. We did catch wind from another therapist that there is a budget freeze on at Cuyahoga County. Now we need to battle our way through this to see if the county is trying to cut as much as it can. Jill and I have not received ANY notification of this change from the county, another aggravating point, and another battle. It never ends.

Throw all these problems above in with a lot of necessary car maintenance I have had to do lately and you can tell just how stressful and crazy it has been. Luckily I have a great friend and neighbor named Steve who was a huge help in getting my brakes fixed on my car. I was at a point where they still weren’t working and I was about to take it into a garage for them to figure out. This was going to be expensive. The mechanic I spoke with told me he couldn’t get me in until a week later. He gave me a few things to look at. Thanks to his honesty, he was right. I ended up having air in my brake lines. We had to bleed the brakes and then replace the 2 rear cylinders as they both broke while bleeding the lines. Steve’s help really meant a lot as I took up his entire Sunday afternoon. The car has been fine since! Thanks Steve!

Now, back to our crazy life……