Today is world autism awareness day. It was a year ago today that I sent a video to many of you. Many things have happened since then. Unfortunately I do not have a video today but the whole month of April is autism awareness month I hope to continue to update this blog the whole month. This day brings many emotions of sadness and thankfulness. Please the blog again and I will update what this year has brought for Tommy and what we hope for this year for him.
p.s. Mya is with me right now and it reminds me of last year, she was 14 months and I was still wondering what was going to happen with her. She is two now and if you know her she is anything but shy and loves loves to talk.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Tommy's Story
This is the story of how Tommy became autistic. I have written the spiritual and emotional journey separately. On April 27, 2004 our son, Lucius Earle Thompson VII “Tommy” was born. His birth was a rather traumatic experience that ended in an emergency c-section. The first year of is life was as normal and wonderful as any child’s. By this time Tommy had progressed in all of his physical abilities and he had several words in his vocabulary. We have videos of him singing is alphabet and he loved to smile and laugh. My first concern for Tommy did not come until he was 15 months old. I always made sure Tommy could do all the developmental milestones. Tommy did not point yet and he was no longer using the words he had learned. Our pediatrician reassured me nothing was wrong. By his 18 month appointment I was concerned that Tommy still was not pointing and he had a limited vocabulary. I was told that boys can be behind. I was somewhat concerned with his social skills, but I, like many attributed it to the fact that I was a stay at home mom and he didn’t get enough exposure. That summer I became increasingly concerned at his lack of words and the fact that other kids were asking why Tommy ignores them. That’s when I noticed that even though he did not do this with me or my family, he no longer would look at strangers. He also “ignored” us all the time and did not follow directions. During this time we were in the process of moving. He had his 2 ½ year old check up before we moved. Once again all my concerns were dismissed and I remember telling Chuck, my husband, I couldn’t wait to go to D.C. and get another pediatrician. As soon as we moved to Northern Virginia in September 2006 I made an appointment with a pediatrician concerning his speech. That first visit she confirmed that Tommy was way behind in vocabulary and she was concerned with his social skills during the visit. That was the first time my husband and I considered that Tommy might be autistic. I did a lot of internet searching, we prayed for our son. We prayed that he would catch up that he was just behind. We followed that pediatrician’s advice to get him tested with the county to get him services. We tried to get him speech but everywhere that we called had a one year waiting list! The whole process took about five months. Tommy started special education preschool one week after our daughter, Mya, was born. During this time we noticed more signs. In May 2007 we had him privately tested. I remember that testing, Chuck cried, it was just that obvious. Of course, there were a lot of emotions for us.
At that time I was just finding out about the link between the vaccines and autism. For that reason we chose to give Mya only one or two shots at a time and space them out. However, at her six month shots she had what they called a “severe” reaction. Within minutes of her shot her fever was up to 104 degrees and stayed that way for three days.
We started Tommy in occupational therapy with no progress. That’s were we were as of September 2007, he was 3 ½. Our lease was up and we decided to move out of our $1450 a month apartment. However, we didn’t want to leave Fairfax County because of Tommy’s preschool program. We moved one town over, which was the best thing we could have done. We loved Tommy’s new teacher. After one week there she had him signed up for speech. (The other teacher said speech was for kids who already talked?!) However, Tommy was not able to function in the classroom. He reacted to the stress with a new habit, screaming. Two days before his teacher’s first home visit I read about this new therapy called Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). It is one of the best methods for autistic kids, but the average price is $100-$200 an hour. The day his teacher came was a hard day. She told me she loved Tommy, but he could not function in the special education classroom. He followed no directions and screamed and purposefully ran into walls, and played with his spit. She told me that his school and one other one in the county had a PAC (Preschool Autism Class) that was full time and implemented ABA therapy. I was extremely upset and worried for Tommy, but thankful for the new class. I thought it was odd that the county offered this, concerning all that I had read about ABA therapy being so rare and expensive. At that time I was worried about him being gone all day and possibly reacting to the increased demands with new bad habits. We had no idea how good this would be for him. Within weeks they had him from two words a day to about twenty. His eye contact and interactions with others have greatly improved. He is starting to interact with the other kids some of the time. Lastly, Tommy is greatly improved his frequency in following directions.
Tommy has gone through a lot of medical tests to rule out any medical reasons for his delays and behavior. He has had hearing tests, an MRI, an EEG, and about twenty blood tests to rule out genetic disorders (including one for autism), metabolic diseases, and deficiencies. All of them have come back negative.
Tommy has started biomedical treatments, which I will go into later. We have seen amazing things, but not what some have. We want everyone to pray for our son because this is the most critical time for him. Most children with autism who talk do so by this time. According to the numbers at his age now he has about a 60% chance of having little to no speech, 9% never develop speech. We do not like those numbers and God doesn’t work in numbers. I will try and update on the steps and progress as we go along.
At that time I was just finding out about the link between the vaccines and autism. For that reason we chose to give Mya only one or two shots at a time and space them out. However, at her six month shots she had what they called a “severe” reaction. Within minutes of her shot her fever was up to 104 degrees and stayed that way for three days.
We started Tommy in occupational therapy with no progress. That’s were we were as of September 2007, he was 3 ½. Our lease was up and we decided to move out of our $1450 a month apartment. However, we didn’t want to leave Fairfax County because of Tommy’s preschool program. We moved one town over, which was the best thing we could have done. We loved Tommy’s new teacher. After one week there she had him signed up for speech. (The other teacher said speech was for kids who already talked?!) However, Tommy was not able to function in the classroom. He reacted to the stress with a new habit, screaming. Two days before his teacher’s first home visit I read about this new therapy called Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). It is one of the best methods for autistic kids, but the average price is $100-$200 an hour. The day his teacher came was a hard day. She told me she loved Tommy, but he could not function in the special education classroom. He followed no directions and screamed and purposefully ran into walls, and played with his spit. She told me that his school and one other one in the county had a PAC (Preschool Autism Class) that was full time and implemented ABA therapy. I was extremely upset and worried for Tommy, but thankful for the new class. I thought it was odd that the county offered this, concerning all that I had read about ABA therapy being so rare and expensive. At that time I was worried about him being gone all day and possibly reacting to the increased demands with new bad habits. We had no idea how good this would be for him. Within weeks they had him from two words a day to about twenty. His eye contact and interactions with others have greatly improved. He is starting to interact with the other kids some of the time. Lastly, Tommy is greatly improved his frequency in following directions.
Tommy has gone through a lot of medical tests to rule out any medical reasons for his delays and behavior. He has had hearing tests, an MRI, an EEG, and about twenty blood tests to rule out genetic disorders (including one for autism), metabolic diseases, and deficiencies. All of them have come back negative.
Tommy has started biomedical treatments, which I will go into later. We have seen amazing things, but not what some have. We want everyone to pray for our son because this is the most critical time for him. Most children with autism who talk do so by this time. According to the numbers at his age now he has about a 60% chance of having little to no speech, 9% never develop speech. We do not like those numbers and God doesn’t work in numbers. I will try and update on the steps and progress as we go along.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Welcome...
April is Autism Awareness month
April 2, 2008 is World Autism Awareness Day
April 27 , 2004 Tommy was born via emergency c-section
April 2, 2008 is World Autism Awareness Day
April 27 , 2004 Tommy was born via emergency c-section
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