Running a Family, Running a Business and Running Away from it All! Tales of a 40-Something just trying to keep it together!
So, nine years after doing this weird practice with Ellie, I had a feeling that some of the food she is eating at the moment isn’t helping her. We’re seeing some very random behaviour that just doesn’t feel right.
It’s so hard to tell though… she is 12 so is raging with hormones… she is 12 so is gaining an attitude with every waking moment, but she is also autistic and her ‘traits’ seem to be more exaggerated lately! Continue reading “Kinesiology results! Oooooh shit!”
It’s not often I will do this (I hope) but I’ve had a crappy morning and my first instinct was to bash out a blog. The whole point of me doing this – along with telling our story, was to get off my chest all things I would want to talk to my mum about (double meaning to the blog you see) so hopefully after this I will feel better… otherwise I may need a trip to the local bakery as it’s a little early for wine (unless you’re in an airport!).
So the morning started in a familiar way – sleepy hubby, crazy dog, chirpy son, mildly grumpy daughter… but today is a different day – which is usually not a good thing. It’s non-school uniform day and Glastongrove Music Festival (taking place at school for the last lesson of the day going into the evening – family can attend after school). Continue reading “Friday Morning Rant! The joy of non-uniform day and music festivals!”
So, we had already seen a bit of an improvement in Ellie’s symptoms from changing her diet, but we needed to know exactly what was bothering her. I personally had suffered with episodes of tummy pain in the past (we’re talking 2001 here) and it got sorted out with a practice called Kinesiology.
Kinesi-what?! It’s one of those ‘alternative therapies’ that you need to have an open mind about. We weren’t even sure if it could be done with two year old… but, it turns out you can!
We visited a practitioner who lived not too far away who saw myself, my Mum and Ellie. Now, this next bit may sound a little mumbo-jumbo to some of you, and to be honest, we weren’t really sure of it ourselves, but we gave it a go.
This is what happened…. Continue reading “Kinesiology… Kinesi-what?!!”
I’ve been trying hard to remember the order in which everything happened during that first year of Ellie’s illness. So much went on that it’s all a bit of a blur to be honest. Well, imagine the joy when I looked through the filing cabinet to find two files (‘Ellie Medical’ & ‘Ellie Food’) crammed full of paperwork including a typed up food diary and ‘Sequence of Events’ for the first year! Yay! Continue reading “‘Sequence of Events’ Hurrah for paperwork and filing cabinets!”
We are in full swing of the Wheat/Gluten and Dairy Free diet and Ellie is making slight improvements in terms of eye contact and speech, though a lot of other symptoms such as climbing, flapping, moaning still remained. I was also reading a book by Actress Jenny McCarthy (married to Donny Wahlberg of NKOTB fame) about her autistic son and what happened when she cut wheat, gluten and dairy from his diet. It was an almost carbon copy of our experience with Ellie. I remember reading it in tears. It’s a great book, called ‘Louder Than Words’ if you’re wondering.
Despite our best efforts, we found out pretty quickly what would happen if Ellie had an infringement on the diet. Continue reading “The tale of the poisonous cat biscuits!”
So, back to the story. Its January 2007 and what we know so far is that from a two day vomiting virus, Ellie started to lose all forms of communication… which then improved when we switched her milk… but then got worse again a couple of weeks later.
I hadn’t meant to tell hubby while he was away for work that Mum had asked if Ellie might have autism… but I’d been so worried, it just came out! Of course, this suggestion was ‘absurd and ridiculous’ … I couldn’t believe I was saying it myself! I’d got home from work and Ellie was in a confused state and making this awful moaning noise and shaking her hands frantically. I remember ringing the doctor in a panic and getting an appointment that afternoon (those were the days!). An hour later Ellie had calmed down and I called them back and booked an appointment for the following week. At least now we had some time to research. Continue reading “Our child… the two year old drug addict!”
Back in the present day now and I’ve been wondering …Will we ever nail the morning routine? Whatever we do, it always ends in stress and anguish… and that’s just me!!
We’ve tried all sorts in the past – countdown traffic light timers, ticklists, social stories etc etc and I’m sure I’ll come back to those in later blogs.
This week we have changed around the order of breakfast and getting ready – we’ve been doing breakfast first and then ready for school. This seems to be going a little better because it means Ellie is downstairs eating (her favourite thing to do in life!) whilst I and hubby are upstairs getting ready. Continue reading “Morning routine! Arrrggghh! (Present day ramblings!)”
The A Word…
I remember clearly – it was Boxing Day 2007 and Ellie, who was normally such a happy and sociable toddler was very upset by the visitors we had that day. She looked terrible – her eyes had black circles around them, she looked pale and her nose was constantly running. Over the following days, Ellie seemed to go even further downhill. Simple instructions such as “put your coat on” was met with moans and groans and hand flapping. Ellie stopped looking at my Nan and my mum, she became very quiet and speech was replaced with groans. Continue reading “The ‘A’ Word. Are we really talking Autism here?”
Welcome to what I hope will be the first of many posts, talking about the ups and downs on living with a ‘Tween’ with Aspergers. From past experiences to future hopes and dreams… it’s all here!
Welcome to ‘Tales of a Mother’s Daughter’.
What is this all about?
This blog is primarily about the ups and downs of living with a ‘Tween’ on the Autistic Spectrum. My wonderful, funny, kind, challenging, anxious daughter is now 12 years old and on the brink of teenage years – god help me!.
From tales and tips, humour and hilarity (hopefully) and moans and groans, I’ll be waffling on about all sorts! From special wheat/dairy free diets and alternative therapies to hormones, teenage strops (and strategies to get you through it) and anything and everything in between! Continue reading “The start of our Autism Journey…”
Mum Running Life 