Knowledge

 

Knowledge

When my child was diagnosed with autism; I went thru so much anxiety and trying to look for resources on the web to see what I can do to help her. Called several places and was put on several waiting list for ABA therapy and for speech therapy and occupational therapy; in one of those evaluations my daughter needed physical therapy for a short period of time because of her balance. I can honestly say these waiting list were so long that I literally called every single day to see if there were any cancellations and had a paper list of all of them that she was put on their list. 

There was a point in my life that my daughter's diagnosis affected me terribly; I went to being a happy person to being mad at the world because I saw that my child was struggling and I could not do anything to make it go away or make her progress faster. I was a medium to overweight person in that time, but I turned to overeating because of the anxiety I went thru. 

I passed thru a lot of emotions and things in my life; I had my child 9 months in my stomach and I was her mother and I was doing this all alone. I thank my parents for helping me as in me living with them; but I was the one making the phone calls to several places, searching the web to find different types of things to help my child, going against the clock because I was told by the developmental pediatrician in Philadelphia that when your child is diagnosed with autism; you have a short window because their brain is like a sponge and once the years pass it is not anymore and the therapies will help but it will just be more difficult or longer. 

Knowing of her diagnosis made me thru the years a stronger person and an advocate for my child, because no one else was going to fight for her in the school system or in her IEP meetings or in general in her everyday life. I do not say I am the perfect mom but I always try to do the best for her and make her future better. I do always try to keep communication with her teachers thru email or phone and they know I am always available if there is a problem with my daughter in school that needs a plan change. The school does know that she is gluten free and I always offer to bring gluten free snacks or cupcakes to the classroom if in case there are any parties in school.

My point is that us as parents with children with autism or any type of diagnosis go thru a tremendous amount of anxiety and the need to help their child. 

There are people in this world that do not know what we go thru and why we might see a therapist or see a psychiatrist and judge us as being crazy or mentally ill. They should be under our skin and know our past and see what we as parents go thru and then judge.  

I became this shy girl in high school in my young age who did not want to speak that much because I stuttered a lot in school; to being a mom who had no choice than to talk even if I stuttered because I had a child who needed a voice and help; which had to be me because I am her parent. 

Ups and downs

It has been a while since I have not published anything in my Blog, but a lot of things have happened these past years. I have my daughter who has autism and more than a year ago she was diagnosed with OCD too. My daughter still remains Gluten Free for several years and everything is separated in the house to make sure there is no cross contaminated with our food and hers. She drinks Lactaid milk and not regular milk, but the only thing I still remain is on her Gluten Free life. 

I have always been a believer that I did not want to child to be on medication for no reason before more than a year ago because when she was first diagnosed with autism they told me she had also ADHD; which in the end was a misdiagnose in that point of her age and the medication that she was on made her worse than better. There are times in life you have to see what is important for your child health and when she was diagnosed with OCD; I knew that going biomedical in that portion of her life was not going to resolve her condition. The Gluten Free made her autism better as in changes and results I saw when she was GF, but with OCD it is a different condition that I decided after talking to the psychiatrist in her school and my husband and I decided it was best for her to be on medication. 

I thank my husband who is her step-father, but a big part of my kids life because for my little ones he is the only father figure that they have seen for years; I thank him because in that stage of my life I had his support; both emotional and as a mom too. I was honestly scared because I did not know what was going to happen after she was put on medication for her OCD diagnosis. 

It did work out as she lowered her OCD; I am not going to lie to you guys as in there are times she has her moments but they are less not than they were before years ago. Just today I had a situation with my daughter as in she had an episode with her OCD and it was very difficult because we always want the best for our children and want them to be better in life. Nothing is perfect in life and we just have to be strong and never give up on them. 

Just like when she was diagnosed with autism; several physicians told me she was not going to get better and that they were sorry for that, but I never gave up on my daughter and now I see the best in her. I searched the internet, found different alternatives for the autism; which I am not a doctor but I am an advocate for my child and I am not going to never just stand there and give up on her or none of my kids if they ever have anything. 

Now we are in the waiting list for her to go back to private speech therapy and hopefully she can get in before October so she has speech therapy in her school which she does already and in a private facility as well. I am not a perfect parent, but I try very much to be the best I can be and as long as they are doing great; then I know I did my job as a parent. 

I even found out a gluten free cosmetic website that sells lipsticks and foundations and also a shampoo that is Gluten Free that I currently bought for myself and my daughter now uses the shampoo, but the cosmetics not yet because she still is a teenager but when she does in years to come at least I know what things she can use.