I Love You Because...

Lazy Eye + Autism = more questions?

Ethan got glasses at 10 months old. He was so tiny. His glasses looked like they belonged on my Old American Girl doll. We knew though that it was for the best for him. He had a Lazy Eye and we didn't want his vision to deteriorate. Then we moved.... and it took years to find another doctor that thought glasses were the best option...

Back in Sept. of 2008 I posted about a new solution we had found for Ethan's eye HERE  . I really did think we had the best possible solution for him. But as with most medical decisions regarding Ethan it's never cut and dry, black or white. They seemed to work for a couple months and we really were encouraged. His Eye Doctor was impressed with how well the weak eye was strengthening and we were overjoyed to think about never having to put on that patch again. School on the other hand.... they hated the drops. HATED. His behavior was worse, his temper was worse, his concentration was worse and he wasn't able to succeed in areas that he had previously been excelling. His teacher asked us what had changed and after trying to alter his schedule, his therapy, his sleep habits it was very obvious that the drops were to blame. We decided to take him off the drops for two weeks- just to see the difference. It was amazing. He was doing great at school her was learning again and he was being friendly to his peers. Needless to say we stopped the drops and were back at square one. A child that might go blind in one eye, or regress more into Autism if we treated it (in any way we knew how!). After a lot of research we learned that this particular eye drop has side effects of ,among other things, hallucinations and increased heart rate. Which for our little Autistic 5 year old translated into not being able to cope in school or concentrate. 

Seriously, will we ever get a break? Here we are over a year later and are still struggling with the same issue. We've changed his prescription and taken him to multiple Pediatric Opthamologists. One couldn't understand why we didn't just use the patch another was furious we wouldn't do the drops and none of them understood Autism. Then just last month we just happened to be talking to my Eye Doctor and asked if he had any suggestions. He quickly pulled out a card. There is a pediatric eye surgeon in our area that, get this, SPECIALIZES IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN! She even take's Medicaid (I know, it's too good to be true!) So, we've scheduled a visit with her this spring and I'll keep you posted. Maybe after 6 + years of trying to figure this all out we'll actually have a real answer

Guest; Husbandface

(stolen from Husbandface's blog... I'm posting it here because I want it in my blog book when I publish it at the end of the year.)

So we got a couple of Medicaid checks in the mail on yesterday, which we get because my son Ethan is autistic, and the state reimburses our health insurance premiums every month. We put it into a savings account that we use to pay for Ethan's non-covered therapies. I came in from getting the mail, and told Joanna that we had gotten two checks, one for November and one for December, and that we now had $600 to put into the account. Ethan was in the room and said "Who sent us the money?" to which Joanna replied, "It's because you're autistic." He cocked his head to one side and then, smiling ear to ear declared: "That's enough money to get the Lego Death Star! I'm going to get the Death Star!! It has the most men in it, you know!" He then proceeded to twirl around in delight singing "whoo hooo, the Death Star, whoo hoo, the Death Star!" We just looked at each other and burst into laughter. Ethan is awesome. He makes us so happy!