Teen Autism

I like to be prepared and calm when I go into an IEP meeting. So last night after dinner, I sat down with my notepad and jumbled head, full of points to bring up at the meeting, and tried to make sense of them. I planned to spend some time researching topics online, and then I figured I better call Nigel’s dad to go over a few things with him, since he lives 700 miles away and does not attend the IEP meetings. I got up from my desk to go get the phone.

It was then that Aidan came and breathlessly informed me that he had pooped blood. Not that there was merely some blood in his poop, but that when he sat on the toilet, almost all that came out was blood. I checked and became alarmed. I grabbed my HealthWise Family Medical Care Handbook and looked up his symptoms. The book said to call a doctor. Then Aidan vomited. I got on the phone and, since it was after office hours, I was told that a nurse would get back to me within the hour. During that time he pooped more blood and vomited again. The nurse called and told me to take him to the hospital. While I was getting things ready to go and giving instructions to Nigel, Aidan pooped more blood and crashed into a wall. We quickly went to the ER, where they hooked him up to an IV, took blood samples, and exclaimed over his high heart rate. They asked about Aidan’s eating habits, so I explained about his oral defensiveness, and the ER doc told me that he didn’t know what that was. He looked at me like I was making it up. They x-rayed Aidan’s stomach. They did a rectal exam (poor kid). I called Nigel every 45 minutes to check up on him, and he said, “I hope Aidan’s okay, because I don’t want to be an only child.”

Four and a half hours later, we made it home with a bunch of materials with which to collect stool samples. Aidan’s heart rate had normalized and he was no longer pooping blood or vomiting, but his stomach x-ray and blood tests showed nothing, and we had no answers as to what had caused the bleeding. It was one in the morning. I put the boys and myself to bed, now worried about Aidan and unprepared for Nigel’s IEP.

I awoke realizing that we had all slept through the rest of the night. I checked on Aidan and he was fine; he had also slept through the night with no further episodes. I called his regular doctor to schedule a morning follow-up, as instructed. I called their father, as I had meant to do thirteen hours earlier, and told him about Aidan. No time to go over the IEP. I got Nigel started on homeschooling, then Aidan and I went to see his doctor, sans stool sample. I brought my notepad, and while in the waiting room jotted down some ideas for Nigel’s IEP. Aidan’s doctor didn’t have any news for us, except that it is rare for a twelve-year-old to experience the passage of so much blood in that manner. Thought so. In any case, still no answers until they’re able to do a stool sample, so we’ll work on that. Good times.

Came home, called their dad back to try to discuss Nigel’s IEP. Got in ten minutes of sounding board time. Supportive, but too far away to help. Ran out the door to the meeting, armed with my mantra and my print-out of Mama Mara’s helpful post. Dismayed to discover that the meeting was only scheduled for 45 minutes; it was only to cover scheduling and placement. No time to go over anti-bullying suggestions, nor potential academic concerns.  Way rushed. Tried to wedge in a mention of Circle of Friends at the end of the meeting, which was met with nods about what a good idea it would be. Like, in the future, when the 1-in-150 crop of ASD kids enters that school. Thanks.

So, the IEP was not as successful as I’d hoped. One person can only push so much. Especially when that person has another child with unknown health issues. In all honesty, my mind really wasn’t on the IEP. For now I’ll just have to trust that Nigel’s therapists and teachers, and his new medication, will get him off to a good start next week. In the meantime, I’ve got a few stool samples to collect.

This entry (Permalink) was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 11:31 pm and is filed under Health & Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.