Ups, downs, and back around!!

It always seems just as we get comfortable a curve ball is thrown at us.  That curve ball has a name......AUTISM.  Autism always keeps us guessing and pushing us to forage ahead.

This past week we celebrated Thanksgiving.  Our loving families decided to make all the food at Thanksgiving safe for Hayden to eat.  It was wonderful!!! In the past Brandon and I were so stressed at gatherings, watching Hayden like a hawk to make sure that he didn't eat something he was not suppose to.  Not this Thanksgiving.....he could eat everything that everyone else was eating.

Hayden has had a great couple of weeks.  It seems we are back on track after chelation (heavy metal detox), and adjusting to his new therapy program (Son-Rise).  It always seems just as we get comfortable with what we are doing Autism smacks me up side the head.

Friday was a great day.  We celebrated Thanksgiving with Brandon's family and had a great time.  We were both very proud of Hayden.  He played with his cousins and rarely snuck off and hid.  This is a HUGE change for him.  Normally he would want to be by himself in another room, stimming away.  He smiled, laughed, and seemed to be enjoying himself.  That is until we got home and bedtime rolled in.

Hayden was agitated and difficult to get to sleep.  I could just feel in my gut that we were in for a rough couple of days.  Hayden was up most of the night.  He was extremely agitated and stimming a lot.  I got a total of one and a half hours of sleep that night.  Then it was off to work for 12.5 hours for me.  I honestly think I got the good end of the deal.

Poor Brandon had to be home with him all weekend.  It kills me to be away from Hayden when he is like this.  When he has an "episode" there is lots of tantrums (that last for up to several hours), aggressive behavior, extremely agitated, and very poor sleeping.  Unfortunately I have to work. I have FMLA for these types of situations, but I can't use it or I will be removed from the weekend premium program I am a part of which is a lot of $$$$.  Yep, I could complain for a very long time about this......but I won't!!!

I get home from work and can tell that Brandon had a super rough day and that Hayden was a hot mess.  Bedtime was a nightmare again and was followed by poor sleeping.  We continue this pattern for the next two days.

Hayden seems to back to normal the past two days.  I would even dare to say that his language and eye contact are improved.  It always seems that we have to take a few steps back to move forward.

Every time Hayden regresses it is harder and harder on me.  I panic in my own way and go into an obsessive....."why is he acting like this mode."  I think about all the food he has ate in the last few days, think about what kind of stools he has had, and his daily routine.  I think this time it was a yeast die off or over stimulation from Thanksgiving.

Speaking if yeast we are going to try a new approach to kill off Hayden's raging systemic yeast infection for good.  We have been battling if for two years now and I am DONE!!!  The medication (holistic) arrives in the mail tomorrow.  This is going to be rough on Hayden, but I know this is what needs to be done.

In order to kill and get rid of the yeast it has to be stirred up.  When we stir up the yeast in his body it will effect him even more.  So we are in for about 2-7 days of some nasty behavior from him.  Which means I should stock up on alcohol.

We also have a facilitator coming from the Son-Rise program Tuesday to work with us and Hayden.  I can't wait for that :).