dr appointment

On tuesday i was asked to bring lexi into the doctor so we could try her on liquid ritalin to try and help her calm down and learn better. I really didn't want to put her on medicine because i know the side effects and know that in time they sometimes stop working. but i did it anyway. so we gave her the first dose in the office and waited a half hour. the dr came back and told me to read to lexi. she sat there and listened to 3 books without moving and actually found the object when i asked her where it was in the book. the dr then gave lexi a puzzle. and not that easy of a puzzle it was one that has the hands. lexi sat there studied the pieces and put them in there place and never once got mad and tried to throw them or walk away. i know its too soon to say hey its working but when she actually sits and does a puzzle by herself when before she needed help i think its something to think about. also on tuesday her doctor told me about a study that is going to be going on next friday and they want lexi to participate. the study is on seeing how she learns and what the best way is to teach her. so of course i'm going to take her cuz im curious to see how she learns. and finally i got the call about the play project and she will start that may 5th. im excited because they said the waiting list was a year and they got her into it in 2 months.

feelings

someone once asked me how do you deal with Lexi having autism? well you just deal with it. Don't get me wrong its hard sometimes, especially when she is meltdown mode and you have no idea what is causing her to have meltdowns or how to get them to stop. but i deal with it because she is my daughter and God gave her me because he knew i could handle a special girl like her. i just wish everyone could understand her like i do. people say i'm spoiling her but i'm just trying to keep her going into a meltdown. people need to stop thinking shes dumb or doesn't know what people are saying just because she cant talk. she is a very special little girl and is very smart. she knows what your saying and understands it. she just cant communicate with the rest of the world. i guess my mission now is to teach people about autism and raise awareness. everyone should know it can happen to anyone from your family and you shouldn't be quick to judge the parents.

the diagnosis

I took Lexi to her doctor for her 2 year old check up. At that time i told the doctor what i suspected and she did the m-chat. the m-chat is a quick little test to see if they should be evaluated further for autism. She scored high enough and was referred to a developmental pediatrician. We went to see the developmental pediatrician in august 2010. She started off asking me questions about Lexi's development and how she developed as a baby. I told her how she developed and my thoughts. We then moved out into the hall where she closely examined her and watched how she ran, how she acted with kids her own age. The evaluation lasted 3 hours but when it was all said and done she diagnosed Lexi with classic to moderate autism, sensory integration disorder, behavior disorder, and hypertonia. The doctor said that she is functioning at a 18 to 24 month old. she has a vocab of about 10- 15 words. When i heard she has autism i was in shock and didn't want to believe it. Mostly because i really just wanted to think she was just a little behind and would catch up. Now i accept it and want to do whatever i can do to help Lexi. My hope is she will be able to talk like other kids but if not thats ok because she is truly an amazing child.

the beginning

where to even begin. i decided to start a blog to keep up people up to date on lexi's journey with autism and to share my thoughts and my feelings. lexi was born on feb 19th 2008. she weighed 5lbs 120z and was healthy. my first clue that something wasn't right was when she didn't want to eat when she was born. then she did. then when she should have been lifting herself up she was slower at it but i never thought anything about it. i tried to feed her baby food at 4 months but all she wanted was formula. so i didnt pressure her to eat baby food until around she was ready at 8 months old. she started walking at 13 months and starting saying a few words. a few months later i decided to say something to her pediatrician because she wasn't talking like she should be. so they referred her to first steps and put her with a developmental therapist. during her time with her developmental therapist we started noticing changes. she started banging her head on the floor, having really bad meltdowns, losing any words that she once had and she started acting like she wanted to be a little baby again. so my mom went searching on the internet for clues as to what might be causing lexi to do this she found the term autism. i freaked because i had only heard of sever cases and i knew she didnt have the most sever case. so i did some searching on my own. i finally looked at all the symptoms and said yes i think she has it and took her to her dr.