Category: Health

Mom’s Biggest Fear: Autism!

Posted on by Moonie

Today I took William to see the psychologists at the Regional Center of OC in Tustin after his class at Mitchell.  The appointment was at 2 P.M,  and it took about 1 hour.  Dr. Kyle D. Pontius ( PhD, RCOC Psychologist) came with a lady named  Iris Richard, (MD, RCOC Physician) , they brought us to a big room with a few toys.  William at first didn’t want to stay; he pulled my hand and dragged me to the door.  I led him back to the toys; then he started to play with the ball, climbed up the slide and touched other toys.  At first they just observed him and then asked me lots of questions about his behavior.

William is playing with Service Coordinator Thuy

Does he respond to his name? When did he started to crawl, walk and say first word? What words does he  know? Does he know if I’m upset? Does he follow simple commands? Does he like to look at the ceiling fan? does he ever get into a fight with other children? how does he eat?  Does he feel hurt when he falls? Does he like everything to be neat? The result of the hearing test? how does he like when getting a hair cut? etc.

No, William is now 3 years old but he doesn’t respond to his name at all.   Doesn’t matter who calls his name, he doesn’t show any sign of hearing it: doesn’t turn his head or look up or look at the direction where the voice is coming from; but he does respond to music and sounds from the TV or videos.  He’d spin in a circle so many times when he hears the music that he likes. He can only say Papa or Mama or count to 3.  That’s about it.  Lately he tries to repeat some of the sounds he hears from those Mickey mouse videos from YouTube.  He says it in a very soft voice.  He likes to close things; if he sees the oven knob covers are open, he’d close them.  If I close the lid of the Aquaphor bottle not too tight, he’d try to close it right.  He doesn’t seem to know how to use a toy; he has a Ride-on bike but he always turns it over and spins the wheels only.  Some times he does respond to some simple commands like Stop or Eat or Drink.  He does understand some of the basic activities like Shower, Brush Teeth. When I say these words he’d run to the bathroom.  When he wants something but we’d not give it to him, he’d cry, kick his legs and throw himself out on the floor; if we don’t catch him, he’d hit his head on the floor or the wall.  Haircut? last time we tried was 2 months ago. We put him on the high chair; he cried, kicked his legs and shook his head from left to right until we gave up and let him go.  The result is terrible!

Every time we go out to the mall or park, he’d just run around so fast that we have a hard time to keep up with him.  Times like this saying “Stop” doesn’t mean anything to him.  He’d run to and touch the things that he sees & likes.  He especially like the escalator and elevator.  He’d ride them so many time without being bored.  We’d be tired of the repetitiveness but he would not.

Toward the end of the session, Dr. Kyle said “He has Autism, classic case of Autism”. As soon as I heard that I burst into tears.  He asked “Didn’t that you already know?”.  “I was hoping to hear differently!” – I responded in tears.

I guess it’s time to stop being in denial!

 

Thanks God, Fever is Gone!

Posted on by Moonie

Yesterday afternoon when he came home from Children World preschool, he was not warm but he coughed more and felt nausea more.  So I gave him some DimeTapp.  Later at night I checked again, no fever, great!

When I picked him up from Mitchell school today, his temp felt normal but he continued to cough.  His daily report said he only had chocolate milk; no wonder when I gave him a sausage, he ate it (he refused to eat the sausage the last 2 days).

It’s a very windy and rainy day today, he felt asleep on the way to the Children World preschool; I wish I could take him home so that he can sleep on his comfortable bed but unfortunately I have to get back to work.

3rd Day Watching Fever Temp

Posted on by Moonie

last night, 11 PM, William still could not sleep.  I went to the kitchen to refill his milk and he followed me.  His forehead was warm to the touch so I measured his temp: 100.4; not bad but I was afraid that his temp would increase more while we are sleeping so I gave him Children Tylenol.  I took him back to bed shortly after that; he kept playing with his toys until I turned off the light.

5 AM, Tim asked if should he stay home again today; I touched William’s body and it was not warm any more so Tim went to work.

8 AM, I tried to dress William to take him to school, he let me put on his jacket but he looked sleepy.  He didn’t eat much last night so I gave him some milk, he only drank half of it and showed signs of nausea.

When I dropped him off at his classroom, he walked around looking fine; all my worries were gone.

Hopefully fever is gone!

Fever Continues

Posted on by Moonie

Last night around 10 PM his temp increased again to 101.3 F (he didn’t eat much during dinner) so we gave him 5 ml Children Tylenol.   During the night I checked his forehead several times, and his temp had decreased to warm only.  We decided no school for him today so Tim called in sick to stay home watching him.  He has been having fever on/off for 2 days already.

He plays and laughs as normal so hopefully this is nothing serious.

Fever on Valentines!

Posted on by Moonie

William woke up around 6:30 AM and could not go back to sleep.  His whole body felt warm; and he refused to drink milk.  He really loves milk so if he refuses to have it then something must be wrong.  I measured his temperature and it was 101.7.  He was just lying there with his eyes open and his hands scratching here and there on his legs.   His breathing was also faster than normal.

Gave him 5 ml of Children Tylenol; half hour later his temperature decreased.  Touching his forehead, body, hands and legs were not hot anymore.  I also let him use the Albuterol machine for some cool steam to help with his breathing.  Soon later I gave him the milk and this time he took it and finished the bottle really quick.  I also applied some Aquaphor on the areas that he felt itchy.

7:30 AM, while watching him watching the videos on iPad I was debating if I should call in sick and let him stay home.  His temp seemed to be back to normal (I should have taken another measure to be sure!)  so I decided to let him go to school; plus it should be a fun day today with everyone is giving out Valentines gifts.

I just hope that he’s OK at school today.

Hand made gift wraps and name tags by Mom

Last night I prepared some of the little gifts for William’s friends at Mitchell school; I tried to hold William’s hand to help him write down his initial but he refused and ran away.  Hopefully next year he will do better :).

A big fence hit William!

Posted on by Moonie
William with bruises
William with bruises

William was walking on the playground at Mitchell Child Development Center, and a metal construction fence felt on him; gave him a big bump on his forehead and several scratches on his face; I also found some scratches on his back and his right feet.

He has just started this school 2 months and got injured already!

The next day we had a meeting in the principal office with the Principal Mark Bello, his teacher Hana Suh and the school nurse.  Mr. Bello apologized for what happened to William and promised that he would make sure the school is safe for all the children.  This happened because the school is under construction; and a piece of the fence was left there leaning against the other fences without anyone noticed.  So when William was walking by, that loose fence suddenly felt and hit William.  They said William did not cry that much; and that they took him to the school nurse to apply ice to his face.

I received the call from school around 11:30 AM; so I came I picked him up right away.  He looked so bad with lots of scratches on his face.  I took the rest of the day off from work, took him home, fed him lunch and put him to bed for nap.  He didn’t want to each lunch at all; I tried to feed him his favorite Macaroni & Cheese but he refused, and 1 time he wanted to vomit.

He drank his milk and felt asleep around 2:30 PM; woke up around 5:30 PM; he didn’t show any bad signs at all.  I’m glad!

1 section of the fence like this hit William
1 section of the fence like this hit William
Actions taken by the school nurse
Actions taken by the school nurse
2 days later

 

Update 2/6/2017:

Mrs. Hana called and said that they watched the video camera from the playground and found that the fence did not hit William.   The fence was on the ground and William tripped and felt on it when walking by; he tripped a SECOND TIME when trying to run to the teachers.   It was a big fence, and no one noticed it? And when he felt the first time, no one noticed that to come and help him? Where were all the teachers and assistants?

To be frank I’m glad to hear about this fact because the impact of tripping might be much less than a big fence hit on him, I think!

Update 2/8/2017:

Met with Mrs. Hana and Mr. Bello at his office to watch the video clip of the incident.  The camera angle is really far from where the incident so all I could see was a very small and blurry image of William running around (he was wearing a yellow sweatshirt) on the new concrete area which is next to the playground.  No one else was there at that time.  He was walking to the fence near the street to watch the cars passing by and walking around, jumping up and down looking very happy.  Then he felt with his forehead, stood up and then felt again on his butt.  It’s really blurry that I could not see if he hit the fence or on the ground.  Mr. Bello’s assumption is that by looking at the pictures that Mrs. Hana took, there was lots of concrete stuffs on his face so he said he might not hit the fence.

Mr. Bello said there’s some skipping of the video that he didn’t see how William walked to this area from the playground.

They said there was 3 adults supervised 8 children at the time; but 1 adult needed to go to the bathroom; and there was some issue that the other adults needed to resolve with the kids so no one really saw the whole incident.  When William ran to them for help, they saw the fence on the ground so they assumed that the fence felt on him.  This is why they told us this story the first time. According to them, they knew William was walking in that new area but wasn’t aware of the fence on the floor.

Mrs. Hana said that she has changed her schedule to make sure at least 3 adults will supervise the kids when they’re on the playground to make sure no incident like this will happen again.   And that the new concrete area is blocked for now; but they will open it when it’s ready (this is the bike area) and they will make sure at least 1 adult will watch this area.

Update 2/10/2017:

This morning when I dropped William off at class, I asked Mrs. Hana if I could have a copy of the images that she took.  She said yes.  But soon she called me and said that Mr. Bello said no video or images should be given to me.

When I picked William up when school ended; Mrs. Hana said the picture that she took is AFTER William’s bruises were cleaned at the nurse office so it’s nothing different then what I saw when I picked him up on the day of incident.  I was hoping that if I could see the pictures of William right after he felt to see how bad it was but I guess that was too much to ask.