a few pics

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On Monday I went to an Autism workshop for a couple hours. It was really great and informative. A lot of what they talked about I already knew about, doing research on the internet and reading books. But I am also now a little depressed and feel like a bad mother. I hate not knowing what is going on in Shane's mind. And I feel bad because he can't communicate with me. I hate getting frustrated at him because I don't understand what he does. I hate feeling like I don't spend enough time with him teaching him enough. I hate not knowing if he's happy or hurting. When the speakers (special ed teachers and some parents of Autistic children) talked about their experiences with it, I could totally relate to everything they said, and it was a relief knowing that I'm not alone but it was also a wake up call...like wow, I am really going through this too. This is really happening to me... I never thought I'd be a mother of a special needs child. and its hard to take. i just want to cry and scream sometimes.

We are attempting a diet change with Shane again, and hopefully we can be more consistent this time. It is so difficult and frustrating. We are trying to do it slowly this time and starting by removing all his dairy products. Luckily he's been liking the almond milk we have been giving him. Once we get him used to it we are going to remove all the gluten from his diet- and believe me that is so extremely hard. Gluten is in Everything! In every single food he loves, chicken nuggets, saimin, mac and cheese, bread. I don't know how I'm gonna do it. It is also so expensive finding specific foods for him. Valdosta doesn't have much of a selection too unfortunately.
He is also finally starting his ABA therapy on Thursday. I can't wait, because I have heard so much good things about it. So he will be doing this type of therapy along with his speech and occupational therapy.

We also contacted a DAN (defeat autism now) doctor in Macon Georgia for biomedical treatment on Shane. Right now the wait list is 2 months but hopefully they can help out. I met another mom who went to the doc and she saw amazing results. This is the same type of treatment Jenny Mc carthy did for her son.

So that is what is going on with Shane so far. We go back to Marcus Autism Center in August for a follow up.