Strange behavior, anxiety, or sick?

The past week has been a strange one with Liam. He has been throwing up at random times. He hasn’t seemed sick is the puzzling part. Liam will suddenly say “gonna puke” and we will have to rush him to the bathroom. Luckily he has made it several times to the bathroom, but on a few occasions he has not. What a mess to clean up. We are trying to determine if it is some learned behavior he is doing, if it’s his anxiety, or if something is medically wrong. Where do we start? What doctor do we see? We’ve decided to continue to observe him to see how long it lasts.

This past weekend at the fish fry Liam was in the middle of eating and he said “puke” and Jill had to run him to the lady’s room though the crowd. Luckily he did not puke. Saturday Liam was laying on our bed watching tv when he says “puke” and before he could get up, he threw up all over our bed. So it was time to head to laundromat to wash blankets.

Sunday was a special day. We were taking the boys to Kalahari Resort and Waterpark in Sandusky. We were expecting Liam to right in his element in the water. We knew Seamus would have fun, but we were skeptical about Aidan and Brendan. We had a suite in the hotel so there was plenty of room for the boys. We got to Kalahari and the boys were extremely excited to be there. Once we got settled in we went to the waterpark. The boys all had a great time, except Liam. The water was too cold for him. Aidan, Brendan, and Seamus had the time of their life in the water. Seamus was big enough to go on a lot of the cooler slides so he and I hung out a lot. Jill had to hold Liam to keep him warm as Aidan and Brendan were having so much fun in the kiddie pool and slide. Liam whined repeatedly he was done, and wanted to go home while he was with Jill. We finally got out of the waterpark around 6pm. We were there for 5 hours! We were all beat. We took the boys back to the room, got cleaned up and went to dinner. We brought their Leapsters and Gameboys to play with while we waited for dinner. The restaurants were very family oriented as their entertainment was geared towards the kids. It made for a real nice time. Liam and his brothers were dancing in the booth while the DJ played music and encouraged the kids to dance. When we finished eating, Aidan and Brendan had to go potty. Liam was engrossed in a game. After Jill was gone for a few minutes, Liam asked where she was. I told him and he wanted to go see her. I tried to calm him, but he quickly got anxious. As I was holding him, he says “puke” and I grabbed my napkin to put over his mouth. Sure enough, he threw up and I had to run him to the bathroom weaving through people. I ended up catching most of it, so the mess was minimal. By this time the throwing up is becoming a concern. The boys went right to bed in their own room with a tv after dinner. They thought it was the coolest thing. They were exhausted and went to sleep quickly. Monday we ordered room service for breakfast knowing the boys would think it was cool. The other reason was we were leery of Liam throwing up again. After breakfast we checked out and went to waterpark for a few hours. Seamus, Aidan, and Brendan, each had a great time again. Liam was done. I decided to stick with him so Jill could go with Seamus and have some fun. Liam did enjoy the hot tub that was there, but after 15 minutes, it was time to get out. We headed for home after a few hours in the waterpark. One thing we are considering is looking for a wetsuit for Liam to help keep him warm. He has gotten used to the warm pool he has his adaptive aquatics in. This will allow Liam to swim in cooler pools he will no doubt encounter.

Monday evening we met Jill’s parents at Stamper’s for burgers. I was a bit reluctant, but we thought Liam would be ok. While we were waiting for our food Liam and his brothers were playing around and having fun. All of a sudden, “puke”, and Jill grabbed Liam and ran him to the women’s restroom. He did start to throw up as she carried him. We have no idea why, he was fine, no reason for anxiety, or anything. It is just absolutely perplexing why he is doing it.

The rest of this week there have been more throwing up incidents. It just seems to have stopped. We continue to watch him and determine what exactly the cause may be. Liam is on spring break this week so it has given Jill a chance to watch him better. The only problem here is Jill is sick now. Very sick. She has been unable to get out of bed. She seems to have the flu. So, hopefully she’ll get better soon.

Thursday I took Liam to his swimming class since Jill was sick. Liam gets really excited when I take him since it doesn’t happen too often. The last time I saw Liam swimming they were starting to work on freestyle swimming and he was really struggling to get his arms over his head in the stroke motion. It was really a challenge for him. This week the progress he has made is awesome. He is now able to do the arm stroke motion with each arm. He struggles to do it smoothly, but that will come along with time. His underwater swimming and diving have improved tremendously. If you recall, I described his diving as a belly flop. This time I could actually see him coordinating his leg movement to jump and push himself off. It was great to see his progress. Liam continues do wonders in the pool. It’s great to see him progressing like this. It just shows what a good teacher can do for an Autistic child. It would be great if we could see more progress at school now.

Spring break time!

This past week for Liam has been much the same. Anxiety continues to be an issue, as well as stopping him from picking his teeth. He has had a few more tantrums this week. The reason has been he has wanted to go out and play, or go to Kelly’s. It has still been cold Liam almost seems to think it is summer time. When Liam is not allowed to play after dinner he gets quite angry and has a tantrum. He will lay on the floor kicking and screaming, or banging on our windows. When we try to calm him he will start trying to kick us or scratch us. He will eventually calm down, but this has gone for up to a half hour at a time.

Thursday was a rough day for Liam. As I’ve stated, change is a difficult thing for Liam. This morning started off rough for Liam. His school bus arrived and Liam started saying “That’s not it, that’s not it”. Jill wasn’t sure what Liam was talking about as she was looking all around. Liam finally pointed to the bus and said “that’s bus 6”. Liam normally rides bus 5. His bus driver assured him everything was ok as he got on. When Liam arrived home from school he was quite upset getting off the bus. He was clinging his blanket as he got off. As it turned out, Liam was on a completely different bus style with a driver he has never seen before. The driver told Jill Liam got very upset when he got on the bus. It was no surprise that the bus changes today really bothered Liam. Liam also brought home a note from his teacher in which she stated Liam seemed very anxious today and he stated he was not feeling good. Liam took a rest before he went swimming.

When it cam time for swimming Liam was feeling much better. He insisted he take a donut with him to swimming. When they got to Lifeworks they sat down in their cafeteria so Liam could eat his donut. Jill said Liam had another great day at swimming. She said he had his lesson alone today and his attention was the best she has seen it. Liam was really working hard at the lesson he had today. Liam of course got to have his McDonald’s on the way home. Jill said there he didn’t really eat that much. Once they got home Liam insisted on having his bath right away and getting his pajamas on. When I arrived home from work around 4:45 Liam was already for bed. He was shivering when I saw him. He sat down on the chair and Jill wrapped him in a blanket. She checked his temperature and it was 103. He fell asleep after Jill gave him some Motrin. When he woke up around 8pm he wanted to sit with me in the chair. He did and within a few minutes he was sound asleep again. Who knows if he just wasn’t feeling well today, or if the whole day of changes affected him this way. We will see how he feels Friday. Hopefully he isn’t getting sick again. This would be a big damper on our plans for Sunday at the water-park resort.

Busy Busy Busy!

It has been very busy this past week at home and for me at work. Each night I have gotten home I have been ready for bed at the same time as the boys! I haven’t done a good job keeping this updated, so I hope to do a better job.

This past week has been another “typical” week of late. Liam’s anxieties continue to be a battle every day. We continue to keep an eye him picking his teeth that he seems to have eased up on lately. Now that the days are getting longer with daylight, the boys are getting spring fever. They want to go out and play after dinner each night now, but we have to keep telling them it is still cold, only in the 30’s and 40’s lately. They insist, so we bundle them up and go out for a short time. As expected, they get cold quickly and want to come in.

Thursday Liam had another great day swimming. They continued to work on back floating and free style swimming. Liam continues to struggle with the coordination of all the muscles, but you can see he really works at it and is progressing. Liam continues to enjoy swimming with Marcus and even having a few minutes with Addy whose lesson is after Liam’s. Jill gave Addy’s mom some pictures I took of them a few weeks ago. She was very grateful for them. The value of these swimming lessons has been phenomenal. I think it has really helped his coordination as he walks and runs. Liam used to require braces on his feet to keep his heels flat on the ground and to keep his toes from pointing in so much. I now notice when he runs he does not trip anywhere near as often as he used to. His whole body just looks so much more in sync when he runs and walks.

Friday was the big day of the week, St. Patrick’s Day. Liam and his brother’s looked so forward to it all week. It was a nice day, just very cold, in the 30’s all day and windy. Seeing that Aidan and Brendan were just getting over being sick, we opted just to go to the Hibernian’s post parade party. Liam had been having some anxiety over the noise he remembered from last year. A marching band from Belfast played at the party and was extremely loud. The loud noise really bothered Liam and I had to take him out of the room to calm him down. We weren’t sure if they would be there this year, but we kept assuring Liam it would be ok. It turned out the band was not there and Liam even reminded us! What a memory he has. The party was another great time as always. It was everything St. Patrick’s Day should be, good friends, family, good Irish music, and of course, beer! Liam and his brothers had a great time playing with the other kids and dancing to the music. A great time was had by all!

The rest of the weekend the boys spent recovering from all their fun Friday. Liam continues to be up at 5:30 each day no matter what. We have been telling him to not get out of bed until mommy or daddy come and get him. Liam ends up waking the whole house up! Sunday Jill heard him up and took him back to his room. I told Jill to look at the bright side, in 3 weeks it will be daylight savings time. When Liam wakes up at 5:30, it is actually going to be 6:30! Instead of losing an hour of sleep, I think WE will be gaining one!

The anxiety goes on

Last week I was out in Portland for work. I arrived in Portland on Sunday to review one of my employees who works out there. I got to see Multnomah Falls and Mt. Hood. Multnomah Falls is along the Columbia River gorge. It is really a beautiful place to see. I also made it to Mt. Hood and got to see what real snowfall looks like. Mt. Hood has already had 47 feet of snow this season. The day I left, they were calling for a long snowstorm. The storm ended up dumping 6 feet of snow in 3 days! Pictures are available over at my smugmug site.

In preparation for my leaving, I kept telling Liam where I was going. Saturday I showed him and his brothers on a U.S. map where I was going. This gave him some idea I was going away. This usually helps Liam understand where I’ll be. Sunday I arrived and went to Multnomah Falls. I had called Jill earlier when I landed. She called me as I was hiking a trail 1.5 miles up to the top of the falls. It was good timing as I was ready for a break! I told Liam what I was doing and he seemed intrigued by it. The rest of the week he kept asking me every time we talked if I was climbing a mountain. It was cute. All week he did very well while I was away. He still had his typical bouts of anxiety over just about anything during the week.

Friday night we took the boys to the IA fish fry and it was packed. Liam ended up having a great time. One of the kids down the street from us, and who is on his school bus was at the fish fry. Liam was excited and ended up hanging around and playing with him. It was really great to see Liam being excited about playing with other kids.

Saturday was a nice day outside. The boys spent a good portion of the afternoon outside playing with all the other kids in the neighborhood. It was really nice to see Liam playing with other kids. His buddy Kelly was outside with him and they played for quite a while. I noticed later in the afternoon that another neighbor girl came out to play with Kelley. I saw the 3 of them talking and then Liam came speeding back saying he was told he had to go home by the other girl. The other girl is never nice to Liam. We think she senses something different about Liam and as children do, she gets mean with him. I then told Liam to go join his brothers over another kids house where they were playing. They stayed there outside for a couple hours. It was great to be outside! Spring fever has sprung.

Sunday morning we decided to take the boys to Ihop for breakfast. We got a booth and Jill and I sat on the ends. They were all pretty good at first, but after a while Liam could hardly sit still. Overall, Liam was very well behaved. He was louder than his brothers and he had a very hard just sitting still. He was constantly in some sort of motion or talking about something. We then took them to Costco to get a few things. There the pent up energy from the restaurant came out. He was all over store touching everything and wanting everything. At times when I would hold him, he was literally vibrating. Luckily the store wasn’t very crowded so it made things a lot easier. On the way home the boys started falling asleep. It was short lived as we got home and the boys just wanted to play. Jill had to go shopping so after a “rest period” the boys went out and played. Liam was again playing with Kelley and his brothers Aidan and Brendan. When it came time to come in and get ready for bed the boys were all exhausted. It worked out that they were having some dinner and then went up to take a bath and go to bed.

The one thing that has gotten bad lately has been Liam picking at his teeth. Sunday Jill noticed Liam had blood on his fingers. We looked at his mouth and saw his gums were red, sore, and even yellow colored. It looked terrible. We have done our best to keep his fingers out of his mouth, but he does it at any time he can. For example, the boys were playing on the playground and Jill saw Liam on the top deck of the playground and he was standing there picking at his teeth. We watched this for a few seconds before going out and stopping him. It is when we are not able to watch him that we know he does this and causes a lot of the damage to his gums. His habit with this comes and goes, but after a while it may cause serious damage. We are definitely doing our best to control it, but how can we watch him all day long? It is just another one of the many challenges we face every day.

Good days

This week hasn’t been as bad as last week. Liam seems to have mellowed out a little the past couple days. He has not been picking at his teeth luckily. He still has his moments of anxiety and still wants his bath right when I get home from work. This must just be a down phase for him, but we’ll take it!

Jill’s parents got home from Florida Tuesday. They came over Wednesday night so Jill and I could attend the Autism Society of Greater Cleveland’s meeting. When Grandma and Grandpa arrived the boys were all excited to see them. Liam did something that really surprised me, and it was very touching. When Grandpa McCourt came in the boys were all saying hi and Liam said “I missed you Grandpa” as he hugged him. It surprised the hell out of me, and I think it even surprised Grandpa. I think we are truly blessed that Liam can at least communicate as well as he does verbally. Knowing how language is such a challenge for some Autistic children really makes hearing him say things like that even more meaningful and special.

We went to the meeting and heard therapists from Integrations Treatment Center speak. The vice president of ASGC and his wife took a class with them and were completely impressed. Jill and I were both just as impressed with their presentation, and the video clips they showed from their facility. The one thing we both were impressed with was that they offer training sessions in which they encourage parents to attend. The training they offer is covers the approach they use with autistic children. This was the first group we have seen that wants to teach parents what to do. Other agencies just offer their services at a cost. That’s fine, but seeing that we are with Liam more than anyone else, it would be great if we could learn how to best work with Liam. They have a class coming up and we are looking into having one of us attend it. We also are interested in their service of evaluating Liam’s needs. We think that will help give us some leverage with his school. We are going to suggest to the school’s program administrator send one or two teachers to Integrations for training. There is also a program coming up at Landerhaven in June that is excellent for teachers, therapists, and parents to attend. We are going to also present this to the administrator. I think it will be a huge benefit for them to attend.

Thursday Liam had his Adaptive Aquatics again. Jill said Miss Karen said this was by the far the best lesson he has had. Jill said she could see Liam really concentrating and working hard in the pool. Today’s lesson they really worked freestyle swimming. Liam really struggled with the kicking, arm movement, and turning his head to breathe. Miss Karen came up with a clever idea that really seemed to help. She had him hold a rubber rocket in his right hand and when he brought it over his shoulder he had to say “To infinity and beyond”. When he would say it, he had to have his head turned out of the water. It was really effective, but it will continue to take time. All these different muscle movements that need to take place in sequence is quite a challenge. We will see how this goes. Based on past performance, I’m sure Liam will do fine.