The answer should be yes. Not "how can I get my loved one help?"

Category Archives: ocd obsessive compulsive

Dad, I killed the car!

Another day done. For the most part, I would call this day a success.

My girls, who have both been licensed to drive for less than 6 months killed the car tonight. They thought that they were in trouble, because it wouldn’t start… They walked home, then we went and got it after mom got home. A simple jump start cured it. Probably a weak alternator belt isn’t allowing enough juice to be generated, coupled with someone not shutting the door all the way and an interior light blinking occasionally. No big deal. And even so, if they had wrecked it or something, a car can be replaced.

Lined up another IEP meeting for our oldest boy. Next week unless something shakes loose in the schedule this week. Tomorrow, our youngest son and I are going into the city for a psych consult. Hopefully he can get back on the med that they took him off, clorazil.

Overall, the few times that our youngest was misbehaving aren’t worth noting. There has to be a point where some of his beavior is just because he is the baby in the family and acting as a 10 year old boy. Life is good.

That reminds me, I need to follow-up with the people regarding Respite care for our youngest. That will help alleviate some stresses in our family.

This weekend I am in Bismarck for a class, and he will get to spend a couple of hours with his mentor, and then his Aunt.

Waiting on a call from Department of Public Instruction regarding the facilitated IEP request that we made.  More tomorrow. 🙂 Cheers!

Day 10 ~ the truth shall set you free

This morning started out fabulous.  David was well rested, I was fairly well rested, and we were up on time to see everyone else off to school. I first give David quiet time in the morning, gives him a chance to get himself in sync with the day.  This morning was no different, after a quick breakfast of Cinnamon Life Cereal, he got his meds and went to his quiet space.

Later in the morning, I heard some noises that told me fairly quickly he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.  So I stalked quietly into the area near his quiet space, and he quick jumped up, shoved what he was doing under a blanket and came out and asked me wahtI was doing.

I explained that I thought he was doing something that was off-limits.  He denied it, as is typical of any ten year old who gets caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing.  In his case, we need to be more vigilant so that he doesn’t hurt himself or someone else.

So I sent him to the living room with a blanket for quiet dark time.  This is where he covers his whole body with a blanket for not more than ten consecutive minutes.  While he was attempting to get himself under control, I went back into his quiet area to see what he had been doing.

I found missing keys.  David has this thing / compulsion / obsession about keys.  Real keys, fake keys it doesn’t matter.  He had key rings with keys we haven’t used in years, plus he had my extra set of keys for our world.  all of these were mixed together.  In talking with him about the keys, he blamed his older brother.  I know that his brother didn’t do it, because I had moved the keys to the top of my dresser this morning after everyone had left for school.  Which means that David went into our bedroom without permission.  (he likes to dig through other peoples stuff and take whatever interests him.  In his defense, I forgot to lock the door this morning.)  So I told him he was lying.  This evolved into a huge meltdown.  David doesn’t handle confrontations well.  So he had quiet time with his father for an hour this morning.  No toys, just a book.

In the end, he admitted to stealing the keys and lying about it.  He doesn’t understand the compulsion to take keys from other people.  He doesn’t understand why he lies all the time when confronted with behavior.  I don’t understand either, but it is part of what makes him the person that he is.   At least I didn’t find any empty cat food containers in his dresser again.

So for now, David is limited in his roaming around the house ability.  He can go in his quiet area, but for not more than 15 minutes without coming out to report what he is doing.  Why?  Because he can get in a lot of mischief if he is left unmonitored, and having him report to me allows me to do chores like laundry, dishes and baking.

So over all, while we had an incident this morning with negative behavior, we got through it, we resolved a meltdown without anyone getting hurt, and he took ownership of his behavior.  All positive things in our book.

Cheers to a good day!

Day 9 ~ A long night, a short day, exhausted

David, our youngest was up and down most of the night with his cough.  Poor guy sounds like he is going to cough up a lung or something.  So I spent the night monitoring him to make sure he was ok.  Long night.  His breathing finally calmed around 5 am so I got to sleep a bit.

You forget how quickly 6:30 comes until the wife turns on the light so she can get dressed for work.  So I was up and about, got all of the kids off to school this morning, and then laid on the couch.  David woke up briefly, long enough to eat something so that he could take his morning pills, and some cough medicine.  Then he sacked out again.  So I snoozed as long as he was snoozing.  Had to lay some noise traps around his bed so that I would wake if he did.  (he can be sneaky, if he thinks he can get away with something, he will try.)

Four hours later, I am up and about, feeling more rested.  Coffee in one hand, shame it’s decaf, and a diet coke in the other.  Bring on the day!!!

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Completed the paperwork for requesting a Facilitated IEP.  We will see how that goes.

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I am thinking about writing an article about auto-immune disorders and how they affect men with special needs kids.  So if you have an auto-immune disorder, and you have special needs kids, and are willing to answer a few questions, please let me know.  You can send me your information through the contact us page.