Thursday, July 24, 2008

Clarity

After my last entry, I just want to clarify that we already knew she had Asperger's Disorder, as diagnosed by Frou Frou's child psychiatrist. The neurologist was simply reinforcing the diagnosis. But it almost felt like a new diagnosis all over again.

It makes me sad that it's one thing after another, but we're finding out that everything is linked and feeds off each other.

*Asperger's Disorder, on the Autism Spectrum. Includes sensory integration issues, PDD, global learning delays, and other symptoms.
*Lactose intolerance.
*Sensitivity to Red Dye 40 (that stuff is evil, so please minimize it if your child seems to have behavior issues, and your child is normal. I swear you'll see behavior improvements) AND Sensitivity to High Fructose Corn Syrup (also of Satan. This stuff is in EVERYTHING and can trigger "bad behavior" as well). The body can't process these chemicals through the liver, so it builds up and then the brain can't function as efficiently either.
*Likely developing migraines. Strong family history, plus descriptions she's given us of head/eye/ear pain and 3 (maybe 4) incidents of Vertigo.
*Likely has petite mal (silent) seizures, related to the autism AND strong family history.
*Likely has "space cadet staring into space like a daydreamer" episodes, related to the autism.

Unfortunately, it's next to impossible to completely remove either ingredient. Instead, we try to minimize it. If they're in the first half of the ingredients list or most especially, in the first 3 ingredients, then we don't buy it. I mostly cook home-made, and since I already have to eliminate dairy from Frou Frou's diet, I have lactose-free milk and other ingredients, which thankfully helps me to avoid HFCS and Red Dye 40. If Juliana has too much red dye, like in a store-bought Santa Claus cookie, she vomits it back up. It took us a few instances of red vomit to see the pattern.

I also got a call a little while ago from the children's hospital to set up the EEG appointment. We were going to go with allowing her to have a sedative, but the technician told me that their anesthesiologist won't be around. It would've been a last resort anyway if we couldn't get her to calm down for the placement of wires on her scalp and getting her to sleep. It would have been a very, very low dose, like enough to tip her from tired to drowsy. It's not an option now at all, though. And it's actually better because that means I can let her have breakfast and a snack before we leave.

"All I have to do" is deprive her of sleep. I have no clue how she's going to respond to this, because once she's asleep, she's like a sack of potatoes. She also has many more autistic "triggers" meaning she's more sensitive to stimuli than usual and not only gets grumpy, but she becomes Ms Bitch Thang and the arm flapping and blind fist-swinging kicks in. Demon voice replaces her soft little girl voice and she becomes incoherent and can't form complete sentences when she's over-tired. So I'm really nervous about tonight.

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