Catching Up

I didn't even do my normal Easter post, there wasn't much to write about. Selena enjoyed her Easter basket, and not long after we got ready to head off to church, Selena got sick, really sick. The rest of the day was spent with her feeling pretty poorly. She continued to feel poorly through the week, and we finally took her in to get something for the nausea. Even after we got that under control, Selena still complained of flu like symptoms. We finally decided it had to be the new medication she was on. We quit that and the very next day she was bouncing around feeling herself again.

I haven't blogged about much that has been going on with her of late, I really just couldn't or anyway not until we got all the loose ends pulled together and truly knew what we were dealing with. As time went on everything began to point more and more towards the Autism Spectrum. After being so sick, we dealt with a Selena that we had never seen before, one who couldn't even enjoy being outside without being afraid of every bug, fly, or bee. Now if you have been following my blog for long you know this is just so not Selena.

Anyone who has ever been around an Autistic child knows or has seen the melt downs they can have, well, yes, Selena was having melt downs that would go to the extreme. These were usually brought on by a change in her schedule, or a day of just way too much OCD or Sensory overload.

Her psychiatrist tried that one last medication in hopes it would calm her down, which it did but her reaction on it also brought him to the firm conclusion that she has PDD-NOS Autism. Now this is a diagnosis we can agree with and except. We have started a new medication, not that we really want to medicate Selena, but we felt it was necessary for her own safety from the melt downs she has.

Here are just a few of the things that has brought us to this conclusion. If an item has a * by it you will know it is something we have seen from a very young age.

• Rigid in her routines, schedules, diet, life in general. *
• Hard time making friends, she wants friends but just doesn't know how to make friends or what to say to show them she wants to be their friend. *
• Doesn't understand many verbal or nonverbal cues. *
• Sensory issues with foods. *
• Sensory issues with textures.
• Anxieties.
• Separation Anxiety. *
• OCD tendencies *
• Melt downs
• Not willing to eat anyplace but home or food prepared at home and served on our own dishes and will only use our utensils *

There truly is so many other things we see, but this gives you a good taste of what we see, and why we have come to this diagnosis. The picture above was taken on a day trip to visit some friends. Selena did great, but did get a headache from worrying as we drove there. She didn't want to go out to eat, but come home and eat, we insisted that was not going to happen. She is sitting happily at Skippers, where yes the only thing she would eat was french fries, so long as they were not on a plate. Being a finger food that took the worry out of using utensils. She had a great day though and enjoyed every minute of it. She did however, sleep almost the entire trip home.