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Fifteen Days Post FASD Camp

So fifteen days ago David had the opportunity to attend FASD Camp. Summer camp. The day I dropped him off, I snapped a selfie of the two of us. Minutes after snapping this photo, he was off meeting new friends with the same disability that he has. The Disability Yes. My son has a disability. You can’t tell it by looking at him. That disability is Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). It is not the only one he has, but it is the focus of this post. We learned last winter of this camp called fasdcamp. It is just for kids with FASD. Thus began the process of applying for camp which began before he came home from care in January. In mid-April, we learned that he had been accepted. This was after a rather lengthy telephone conversation with the camp medical director about David’s condition. See, they want to

The Hard Decision

I title this post “The Hard Decision” because we have had to make a difficult decision. We made the decision to not bring David home on pass. An expert in David’s disorder has recommended for safety reasons that David not come home. So we have made the decision to refuse passes. At 15, as much as the facility would try to have us believe otherwise, David just doesn’t care. I doubt that anyone at the facility has any idea just how difficult it is to do something like this. We have anguished about this decision since the recommendation first came from the doctor. If David was the only one we were concerned about, it would be a no-brainer to us, and we would bring him home all the time on pass. But without support at home, we just can’t put everyone at risk that way. Put aside your fear We

Anxiety high, as we near discharge for David

Anxiety In a little more than a month, David will return from his fifth placement in six years. As a result, we are on edge. Anxiety in people who are already in a heightened state of upset is not good. We are told that things will be different this time. By the admissions of the staff where he is, David needs constant redirects. Last Spring, a psychologist associated with the agency diagnosed David with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. This is in addition to the Reactive Attachment, Severe Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Conduct Disorder that he already had. The Specialist So I arranged to see a specialist in August so we could get specific recommendations regarding future care planning for David. Don’t live in the past We aren’t supposed to live in the past where David tried to kill me. Where David stole from everyone in the