Doggie Cancer

After we got home from the Parent/Teacher Conference, we took the dog to the vet. He had some kind of infection, we thought. There was a sort of bubble or lump near his anus, and we thought we better take him in and have it lanced, or whatever it is they do.

Visiting the vet was a nightmare. The place was packed, and the dog was freaked out. Nathan was starting to go into sensory overload, and looked pale with dark rings under his eyes. They made us wait forever, first in the main waiting room, then again in the exam room. Dh and I were getting ticked, standing in that hot little room for so long. Finally the vet came in, and she was a real piece of work. She was angry when she walked in (probably because the place was so busy) and made no attempt to hide it. The dog was all freaked out, and was hard to control, which seemed to piss the vet off even further. She was trying to give him his annual shots, and she was throwing stuff across the counter as she did so. Dh and I were startled by her unprofessional behavior. Then she took him into the other room to do whatever it is they do for heartworm checks. As she left the exam room, she SLAMMED the door hard, loud like a gunshot. (Yeah, and that's all Nathan needs, with his sensory overload). Dh just looked at me and mouthed "What a bitch!" (out of Nathan's eyesight). I nodded my agreement.

When the vet came back in, she seemed nicer. I should have known that was not a good sign. She said she had a chance to examine Riley while she had him in the other room, and he has a tumor. It would have to be removed as soon as possible.

My heart just sank. No wonder she was suddenly being nice. I didn't expect this. I thought this would be a quick and simple thing to get the dog fixed up, and we would all go on our merry way. Now we're talking cancer, and surgery, and risk.

I'm not so sure dh was really registering the news. He said, "But he's okay, right?" The vet did not give him a direct answer. I was kind of hoping for some sort of disclaimer, like "oh, he'll be fine, just as soon as we remove this lump." We never got that. She just told him that he needed to have this removed, and that she recommended that we have it biopsied. Her lack of a positive statement made my heart sink further.

So we take him in for surgery the day after tomorrow (Wednesday). We would have tomorrow, but dh has to talk to work, and let them know he will be in late.

I just hope Riley will be okay.

RockfordAutism.com Revamped

This has been a tiring weekend. Yesterday we went out to dinner with dh's parents and aunt and uncle. Nathan was not on his best behavior. In fact, he hasn't been that bad in a long time. He kept mouthing off to us, and was rude and defiant. Finally dh got up and basically dragged him right out the door, after Nathan threatened (and tried) to flip over the dinner table. He refused to go outside, and tried to resist dh's attempt to escort him out, so he just pulled him right along, and I joined them and helped dh pull him out the door, with Nathan threatening to chop off our heads. It was embarassing, and depressing.

We stood outside with him for quite a while until he calmed down. After that, he was considerably better, but we were feeling like we had been dragged through the ringer. (We think hunger was making his mood worse, and we waited for over an hour to get served). Poor dh wrenched his back in the process of pulling Nathan out of the restaurant, and may have given himself a hernia. Yikes. He's worried that he'll end up spending Thanksgiving in the hospital. We're both hoping it's just pulled muscles.

Tonight we all went out again. Nathan started to act up a bit, but I threatened right off the bat to take him outside, and he sort of reined in a little. He doesn't like the scene any more than we do. He was not exactly good tonight, but he wasn't really all that bad either. He was so-so, I guess. He was really hyper, and kept bouncing all over the place. It was hard to get him to eat. He started to get mouthy, but he did keep that in check, which was at least an improvement over last night. I wonder why he is so out of control this weekend? He behaves pretty well at home, then gets so defiant when we're out. I don't know if it's a blood sugar thing, and he's ready to eat, or if it's an environmental thing, or what.

Oh, and I've changed colors on the site! I was trying to put the new logo on the Support Group's website, and the puzzle pattern on the state of Illinois just seemed to clash with the puzzle piece border I had at the top of the page. I didn't like the combination at all. So I tried some solid color puzzle borders that I found in pink and in blue, and I like the look of this much better. I think it's less blinding, lol. I used the same pink background on 360, and on the LJ, too. It's calmer, and it allows the logo to stand out. I think it makes the site look more sophisticated. At least I hope it does. It's cleaner, and easier to read, anyway. I had some problems using the puzzle piece buttons on the new site. The words just didn't show up on the small graphic. So I opted to do it manually, instead of using the navigational bars. I put the page info beside the graphic instead of on top of it. It took a lot longer, but I think the results were an improvement. I'm curious to see what the Support Group thinks. (If they don't like it, I can always switch back).

Your feedback on the new site is welcome!

www.rockfordautism.com

Honor Roll

Nathan had a really good morning! He got up without me telling him, got dressed without being told, and fixed his own breakfast. Normally I have to keep telling him to do things, but this morning he was a step ahead of me the whole morning. It was great!!

Then I pulled out his folder, and was taking out the papers that he was supposed to leave at home, and I find this certificate. It says that he's on the honor roll! WOW!!

I asked him about it, and he just smiled. Like he expected me to know all about it. Like it was no big deal really. Just the honor roll.

A Day Off!

Monday was so much fun!

I took the day off of work. There was no school on Monday, and I was reluctant to put Nathan in daycare for an entire day. (The last two times we did that, he never made it past 10:30). We had hoped for my in-laws to be able to watch him, but they had a funeral to attend out of town that weekend. I requested the time off of work and got it.

I wanted to go out and spend some time with Nathan. We don't get to do that very often anymore. So I suggested going to the movies. That's a rare treat for both of us. Figuring that most parents would welcome the opportunity to sleep in on a day off of work and school, I opted on the earliest showing of the movie, hoping to avoid the crowds. Nathan picked the Santa Clause 3 movie. The theater was empty! There was one group of four parents and four kids way up behind us, and a mother and child at the far end of our row, and that was it! I couldn't believe how vacant the place was.

On the drive to the theater, I felt Nathan grabbing at my jacket collar and hair (I think he was just trying to hold on to my seat for leverage), and asked him if he was buckled in. He said he was, and I expressed surprise that he was able to just lean forward and grab the seat like that. I told Nathan he was getting so big! Then I began to tease him, telling him he can't be be that big, he's just a baby. He always pretends to be super annoyed with that, insisting that he's not a baby, and I play along and wail about how it was just yesterday that I was carrying him on my shoulder and stuff. As much as he complains about my calling him a baby, he seems to get a big kick out of the game, and we both play it to the hilt. At one point, I was saying something like, "You can't grow up, you're just my little baby!" and Nathan grabbed the back of my seat, giving it a shake, and announced, "GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF, WOMAN!" I just burst out laughing. Geez, I had tears in my eyes, I was laughing so hard. Where does he get this stuff?

Nathan had a hard time getting moving in the morning, so we left a bit late. We arrived about ten minutes after the movie was supposed to start. Since another one started in less than a half hour, I suggested we go to that one, and kill some time getting munchies and hitting the arcade. That worked out quite well, since that way our time in the arcade was limited (and helped limit the spending). Nathan had the entire arcade to himself! The driving games drew him like a magnet, and they had a bunch of them. He was getting hungry so we hit the lobby. I couldn't believe what they charge for a bag of popcorn and a couple soft drinks. Ouch. But what the heck. It's not like we do this often. We splurged.

The movie was cute. I was curious to see the new character that Martin Short played, and enjoyed him a great deal. They looked like they must have had a blast making that movie. There were some scenes that the kids really went nuts over, particularly one scene where the reindeer are passing gas, and snickering about it, and other scene where Santa's pants catch on fire. Nathan was just in a fit of giggles.

On the way home, we entertained ourselves singing Christmas carols, and got very silly. It was a great time. Later, we went to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, and a bunch of other relatives, including a couple of young kids. To my great surprise, Nathan played extremely well with the two boys, and even shared his video games with them. I was very proud of him.

It was such a nice day!

Oh No!

Here we go again.

Riley's surgery scar has opened up. It wasn't really bleeding, so that was good, but still, it's a big concern.

Dh took him back to the vet this morning. He had to leave him to get re-stitched. We had just assumed that the dog had been licking his wounds, and opened them up, but the doc didn't think that was the case. He said it didn't look like he'd been bothering it. The dog is just so active and bouncing that he basically just wiggled out of his stitches.

The poor thing will be hurting again, I expect.

Bruised Again

I noticed yesterday that Nathan has ANOTHER bruise, this time on his other arm! It was bad, too!

The new one is red. It reminds me of the bruise you get when your skin is twisted - sort of red and speckled looking. But it is bigger than the last bruise, and much worse looking! I don't know where he got it, and Nathan has no clue.

I wonder if this happened with his last meltdown, but it just didn't show up well until now.

Getting Better

When I went off to work yesterday, the dog seemed much better. He was moving more naturally, and no crying at all. Phew. I'm not sure I could have left him if there wasn't some kind of improvement.

By the time I got home from work, Riley looked like his old self! He was bouncy and wagging his tail, moving without any apparent hesitation at all! That was extremely reassuring. Dh said he wasn't moving so well when he got home, but he gave him his medicine right away, and he seemed just fine, now. But either way, it was all a vast improvement over the night before. We were both relieved.

We have to take him back to the vet in a couple weeks for the follow up. He has a long scar, stretching from his anus to his tail, maybe four inches...? Yowee. I thought it would be much smaller.

I hope that means they got it all.

Poor Dog

I was scared to death all day about the dog. Dh never called me from work with an update, and at 2:30 he called to say the dog wouldn't come home until 4. He never asked how the dog was doing. He said, "No news is good news." Shoot. Not to me. I've dealt with cancer before. Silence is not good news. All this waiting and uncertainty was really getting to me.

Shortly after 4, dh called to say that the dog was home, and he was in a lot of pain. They gave him meds, but only five days worth. I guess that's a good thing, that they expect pain to subside so quickly...?

When I got home from work, Riley was just laying there. If he stood, he barely moved. He looked afraid to move, which was probably pretty true. But then he started the crying. Oh my! That poor dog! He would just let out this looooooong cry. I asked dh if he gave him the meds, and dh said no, not yet. He wasn't sure if he should, if it was okay so soon after the surgery. I insisted he call the vet right away and ask. That dog needed something right now.

The vet said it was fine to give him the meds now, so we did, but there didn't seem to be any improvement in his crying. That's when it occured to me that the poor thing was probably scared to death. He'd never been in pain like that, and didn't know that it would ever end. Finally, he fell asleep, and the crying stopped.

Poor little guy.

Bruised

I got a call from the school today. At first I thought they needed me to come and get Nathan again. It was the principal, and she said she just wanted to let me know that Nathan got hurt at school. He was rushing to get outside for recess or something, and some kid pushed the door, and it hit Nathan right in the upper arm. He has a large bruise from it. They just wanted to let me know that he was okay now, but they didn't want me to find this bruise and wonder what the hell happened. I thought it was very nice of her to call. I also warned her that after getting hurt, Nathan would be ultra sensitive. She said they were well aware of that, and that his para was "hovering" over him. That's good. He didn't need another meltdown on top of this.

The bruise is pretty big, and nasty looking. I told Nathan if something like that happens again, and he just felt like talking to me about it, that he could ask the principal to call me at work and we could talk. Poor kid probably could have used a hug at the time, but maybe next time he can call and at least get a verbal hug.

Competition Catastrophe

Today was my son's Parent/Teacher Conference. I was looking forward to it, expecting his grades to be pretty good. Plus, I was taking off work a little early to go, which is kind of fun. But I didn't expect to get a phone call an hour early, telling me to come and get my son.

He had had another meltdown. Two, actually. They said they were trying not to call me, knowing I was coming in that afternoon anyway. However, things got so bad that they couldn't hold off any longer.

I knew that morning he had seemed ultra sensitive and emotional. I just asked him if he had any library books to bring back, as I hadn't seen any the past week. He burst into tears and said that he had gotten upset at school, and they didn't let him go to the library that week. Yikes. I didn't know what brought it on, and I had hoped it was just a brief mood; one that would improve with a little breakfast and his meds. He seemed pretty happy by the time I brought him to the bus stop. But I guess the mood lingered.

Around 12:45, they were playing a bowling game in gym. He did not do as well as he wanted to, and he got very mad. They finally got him calmed down, and then he went on to therapy, where they had him compete in a spelling challenge with another boy. Not a good idea. If he's already had one bad experience that day with competition and unsportsmanlike conduct, it is best to avoid anymore competitions that day. Nathan was determined to win, but the game ended in a tie. In Nathan's mind, there was no clear winner, so there was no prize (sticker) for anyone, even though they intended to give both kids a prize. He just flipped out.

When I arrived at the school, he had calmed down considerably. He was still not himself, but he was at least not angry any longer, and not violent. I wanted to bring him home, but I had to be back at the school in less than an hour for the conference, so I brought him to Grandma's.

It was on the way to Grandma's that he admitted to me that he had hit someone. The principal. She had tried to restrain him, crossing his arms over his chest, and he lashed out. Double Yikes.

He was behaving himself pretty well by this time, and I stuck around until the last minute to see if he was completely past the meltdown or not, but he seemed fine at Grandma's. Dh showed up (I had called him on my way to the school to tell him what was going on), and we left for the conference together.

Nathan had a pretty good report card. It was not as good as the last one, but still, all E's and S+'s (like A's & B+'s). That was good news! Plus, the reports from the team of therapists showed some real progress, which was encouraging after such a disasterous afternoon.

Halloween Fun

Halloween was great! Nathan went as Darth Vader, and dh took him around trick or treating. I stayed home and passed out candy.

Boy, did I have a lot of older kids! When their voices are as deep as dh's, I have to wonder what they're doing trick or treating. And I even had some grown ups asking for candy too! LOL!

It was cold last night, and I had a hard time getting Nathan to wear a coat, but I finally found one of my navy hoodies with thermal lining that I could wrap him up in, and a pair of gloves. Since the hoodie was so dark, it looked black outside, and didn't detract from the costume, and the hood was hidden under Darth's cape. He also had layers of clothes under the costume. He still looked like a little ice cube when he got home. And dh looked exhausted. They must have walked three miles.

This is the first year that the scary part of Halloween didn't seem to bother Nathan at all! I was glad of that. He went to a couple houses where the families made a big deal out of their decorations, including one house that had people in costume in their front yard that you had to walk past in order to get to the door to trick or treat. In past years, Nathan would have frozen and refused to budge, but this year he marched right past them.

(My little baby is growing up!) :*)

I was passing out candy last night, and went through one mega bag, and started on a second one. That's a lot of kids! We had this candy bowl with a skeleton head in it, and it would talk and sing (..."I ain't got no body...") It was quite funny, and a real hit with the trick or treaters - their parent escorts, too! Some hung around for a little bit, playing with the skeleton.

I love this time of year!