Autism: Surviving and Thriving

Fourteen years ago my youngest 3 boys were diagnosed with autism within a 9 month span. Devastation and grieving followed. Doctors gave me little or no hope, but they didn't know me very well. I refused to believe that my boys were doomed.

My boys are now young men, adults with autism. They are thriving, but every day presents its turmoil and challenges.

My family: husband Mike, sons Ryan 23 yr, Nicholas 21 yr, and Cameron 18 yr. (Ryan and Nick have autism; Cam has recovered from autism.) Our oldest sons, Michael 34 yr and Stuart 25 yr, moved out of the house. Ryan has also moved out, and is still working towards complete independence.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Can Autism Be Cured? Seems So!!!!

Today Mike and I signed papers that totally released Cam, our youngest son, from all services at school.  That means NO MORE IEPs for Cam.  We gave permission for his speech pathologist to test Cam.  The results indicated that he is well within the range of typical kids.  Some areas he was above normal, at normal, and below normal.

Time to celebrate!!!

I take this to mean that Cameron is NT:  neuro-typical.

I am not sure what normal is anymore, so this will be a new experience for me.   After having so many special needs to deal with for so many years, I now need to educate myself as to what is normal.  For a pre-teen boy.  Cam turns 12 in a few weeks.

It has been a long haul for Cam.  He was born a very normal boy who met all of his milestones on time or early, as did his brothers.  After receiving many shots in his first year of life, things seemed ok.  Until the MMR shot.  We separated that shot out from the other shots given to Cam at 12 months--just to be safe.  Of course, the doctor laughed at me and said that there was absolutely no correlation of shots to autism; absolutely no scientific proof.  Well, I think Cam proves a much different thought process.  At 13 months, when Cam seem to have taken the other 3 shots in stride, I took him back to the doctor for the MMR shot.

Mistake.

Within 48 hours my healthy, walking-talking son became a blob.  Take any inanimate object, and that has the same activity as my son.  Cam didn't make sounds.  He didn't move.  He didn't respond to his name.

Heartbreaking.

It took him 3 weeks to start babbling again.  He started to move and roll after 3 months.  He had to relearn how to sit, crawl, walk, and talk.  Thank God we had started sign language when he was about 7 months.  He could communicate a bit with sign still.

At 18 months Cam became self-abusive.  He banged his head on walls and floors.  Tile and concrete were the best.  Bang. Bang.  Bang.  Mike and I occasionally discussed who would go to jail if Cam were diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome.  Who would ever believe us about this child who loved to bang his head constantly?  We put on a bike helmet on Cam's head for some protection.

At 2 Cameron was diagnosed with autism.  More heartbreak.  Grieving...  Cam was our most severe son with autism.  Fast forward ten years of therapies, research, protocols, and doctors.  Many tears have been shed.  Many sad tears.  However, today they are happy tears.  Tears of happiness and celebration.

Autism CAN be beat!

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