Today my evening plans to attend a CodePink meeting in Portland were dashed.
How one sentence can make your evening plans go from
this:
to this:
“MOM! I JUST THREW UP IN MY MOUTH!”
But… this is not to seek pity, this is to remember where we have traveled. Come timewarp with me to April of 2000 when I first sent an autism support e-list my bittersweet “good news”.
Tuesday, 25-Apr-2000
Breakthrough!!!!!!
I hope you dont think the major breakthrough was in speech development.
Nope.
Hope you dont think Im so elated due to some miraculous agreement with school officials.
Nada.
Hope you didnt come here hoping to read about some new medicine. So what’s the big breakthrough? The thing that would have a mom so happy and wanting to share??
My son for the first time puked in a bucket.
Now I must preceed this with lettting you know we have been attempting this for years. And more recently, Ive been dealing with a sick kid for 4 days now. Not mildy sick – nopers we are talking about jet propulsion here.
The Saturday before last, I for some reason had the energy and time to rent one of those steam cleaners and I busted my hump on the carpet and was very happy with the outcome of my effort. This Saturday after the major Easter Egg Hunt put on by the local Lion’s Chapter (who seemed to have a surplus of chocolate, jelly bellys and those glorious hard boiled eggs) as they were passing them out left and right.
I kept telling Wesley that he shouldnt feel compelled to eat it all at once. But Wesley kept shoveling it in – for two hours he was content to eat anything and everything the Lion Club Members handed him. Maybe I shouldve taken his basket away and put my foot down? Ya right – I wasnt in the mood that day to engage in
WW3. You know what they say about taking candy from a baby – well they never tried to take it away from my kid.
After my daughter won the grand prize in age group (a huge box of… you guessed it more chocolate) we decided to head home. This is when my son started to say “tummy hurt”. At first I thought “well he had too much candy – he will get sick briefly and it will all be over”. So the first time he showed signs of appearing to be “sick” I was ready folks. I had towells and everything. Some would say I was helping my child in a time of illness – NO way, I was saving my newly cleaned carpet.
Well I thought I had done a mighty fine job and was pleased that I saved the day. I turned on the TV for Wesley and went about my work. That is when I heard his stomache making sounds that should never come from a human. That is when I realized we werent dealing with a case of “too much candy” – we were headed for “the flu”
Wesley went around the living room like a whirling dervish – he managed to hit every spot of the wall to wall carpet. He even managed to hit the backside of the couch. Our two labradors went running for cover as well. There was nothing I could do.
Now my son has always seemed to get very panicked when vomitting. This weekend he basically has undergone “sensory intergration” with this all and can now “get sick” with ease and no fear. The seventh time, I calmed him down and got him settled in with a new Pokemon video and then I sat in the kitchen and cried until my husband got home.
The cashier lady looked funny at me – and I told her “Yes, I just rented one of these machines last week but I need it again” She tried to tell me to just buy some stain remover and I told her that I was just lucky that our overhead fan wasnt running at the time. NO, a can of stain remover wouldnt help today.
My son doesnt always talk, let alone announce what he’s about to do. But this for us is a major breakthrough that he is now on his own using a bucket.
He has even “progressed” to saying “Wesley haffa cough” as he lunges for his very own bucket. Seems “coughing” is what he calls the feeling – and that is fine with me – at least its something. I feel bad that he is so sick and having a terrible time – but I feel like high fiving everyone – cause my kid has learned how to .. um no other way to say but to say it as it is..
My son can puke in a bucket. Hooray!!!
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Another Mother Of A Child Like No Other
