October 15, 2006

My last shift at PHI is on Tuesday...it is coming up fast. I will miss work so much...(well, I won't miss the paperwork!!! ;)
Yesterday, I decided to take Amy and Christopher out with me to the store. Christopher hadn't been away from the house in several days and I thought he would enjoy a change of scenery. He was a little antsy and irritable, so Amy and I decided that they would stay in the car while I ran in to the grocery store (I only needed a few things). On the way home, Christopher's irritability mushroomed into a full-blown meltdown. Now, for those of you who don't know, I no longer have my Honda CRV...I now drive a (no-loan-attached) 1992 Geo Prizm. Christopher sits in the center of the Geo's back seat in his "special needs car seat" (it takes up almost all of the back seat). On a good day, Christopher is cramped in the car and his feet rest on the console between the two front seats. NOW picture him in full melt-down mode....kicking, flailing his arms, picking up things around him (his sippy cup, the hard plastic lid to a "catch all box" that sits next to his seat, the contents of his diaper bag) and THROWING THEM. And the windows are OPEN. Amy has her arm on my seat-back and is trying to keep Christopher from kicking me in the head (and as a consequence her arm is getting beat up). I pull over as soon as I can and stop the car. Just doing that seemed to help calm Christopher down...and I said to him, calmly, "When you are happy, we'll go [home]". He looked at me, serious as can be and shouted "I AM NOT HAPPY!" (DUH -- like the kicking, screaming and throwing things didn't clue me in). I actually had to hide my face because I was laughing! We sat there a couple of minutes (in an exclusive neighborhood...the residents there must have been concerned to see us stopped...we clearly didn't live there!), Christopher composed himself and we resumed our trip home. (Big sigh of relief!). Probably 1/4 mile down the road (146th) toward home suddenly a car turned left in front of me (he was focused on getting home and I'm sure he never saw us) and I narrowly missed T-boning him by slamming on my brakes. Well, we were safe (thank the Lord, since the car has no airbags...but it DOES have those crazy, loose, built-into-the-door shoulder belts), but the sudden deceleration scared Christopher (Amy and me too) and the subsequent adrenalin rush RE-STARTED the meltdown! It was all I could do not to try to track that driver down and pummel him to death! Another simple task, made "interesting" by autism! GRRRRR.
This morning we found out what the basis of Christopher's irritability probably was...his asthma is acting up. Irritability is the first symptom...this morning he woke with an O2 sat of 92%!
Life is nothing if it isn't interesting! ;0