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Today, my very soul is tired.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 9:43 on the first day of NJEA (or winter break appetizer as I like to call it), and already I\u2019m exhausted and simply heartbroken as I watch Justin suffer. I should preface this with the OCD we\u2019d battled off and on for the past year-and-a-half had subsided greatly over the past three months with a medication change, and for a time life was much easier chez McCafferty. Justin was back to his happy self, and after three months of improvement with no setbacks brought us a more harmonious household, I let down my guard and actually started to think that things might go back to our \u201cnormal.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s my fault. I got cocky with my \u201chope thing.\u201d Shame on me.<\/p>\n
Things were pretty good until around Halloween, when my son\u2019s obsession with moving, hiding, and trying to defy gravity with the way he attempts to angle objects kicked back in. Jeff and I made a thousand excuses as to why this day was just an anomaly (\u201che\u2019s hungry\/tired\/hormonal\/it\u2019s a full moon\/it\u2019s an election year), but after a few days we had to acknowledge the OCD was back, and began damage control.<\/p>\n
Fortunately Justin\u2019s neuroped responds to emails (which is why I\u2019ll drive an hour-and-a-half to see him) and we quickly came up with a plan which required of course ten thousand phone calls (only a slight exaggeration) and my own perseveration that I\u2019d forget one part of the plan. We managed to accomplish adding a dose at school (which initially had made him exhausted and spacey, so fingers were crossed this time that since he\u2019s acclimated to the drug it would be different), and then, as always with med changes, we sat back and waited.<\/p>\n
Not very patiently I might add.<\/p>\n
In case you\u2019re thinking OCD might not really be all that bad compared to autism, we actually find that this is the more challenging in some ways of Justin\u2019s two diagnoses. When not immersed in the disorder Justin is one happy guy, excited to watch movies and play on our computer while home. He\u2019s thrilled to leave the house even for a short errand, and one of his biggest demands is for kisses and hugs throughout the day. Frankly, when in this mode, he is completely delightful.<\/p>\n
When his OCD has reared its ugly head, nothing in our house remains sacred. This morning I had a ten minute battle with him about why he couldn\u2019t turn a five foot lamp upside down and place it in the middle of our kitchen. For some reason our lazy boy chair had to be upside too or things wouldn\u2019t be right with our world, and half of our kitchen drainer has disappeared.<\/p>\n
It was about two hours before I could even take a potty break. When he\u2019s like this, his care is the same as watching a toddler. The problem is, this toddler is ninety pounds and almost as tall as I am and not the least bit happy when I interfere.<\/p>\n
In the midst of all this chaos while I\u2019m ignoring my other son and the twelve loads of laundry I should be folding I still try to summon my happy place, reminding myself of how much we\u2019ve conquered over the years, that the med did work for a while and maybe he just needs more, and when I\u2019m really desperate, that it\u2019s only seventy-two hours before he returns to school and seven until I can reasonably have a glass of wine.<\/p>\n
Yup, today I went there.<\/p>\n
Of course all the time I\u2019m trying to dwell in \u201chappy land\u201d that pernicious voice of doom is also expressing its needs, badgering me with \u201cmore meds might not help\/ this may not just be a puberty thing\/ when you\u2019re dead no one will put up with this in a group home,\u201d which of course propels me to the fridge (it being before 5:00) to my chocolate stash.<\/p>\n
Really, Justin needs to work through this so I don\u2019t gain twenty pounds. I have my priorities.<\/p>\n
The truth is, today I\u2019m tired, my people. As fifty nears I find I\u2019m sloughing off that youthful enthusiasm I had about conquering new hurdles (it\u2019s a teacher thing, I couldn\u2019t help myself), and honestly, I just want this crap to stop. I want the objects in my house to remain where they are. I want to be able to help Zach figure out the crazy way they do math these days and not be rescuing said objects from certain gravitational doom. I want to be able to find my car keys. I\u2019d like to solve the mystery of my missing drainer.<\/p>\n
Hell, I\u2019d give someone a million bucks just to tell me why the damn drainer.<\/p>\n
And as I head over to rescue our desk lamp from being thrown behind our couch, I know all I can do is wait.<\/p>\n
For more on my family visit my blog at autismmommytherapist.wordpress.com<\/em><\/p>\n Follow me on Facebook at Autism Mommy-Therapist<\/em><\/p>\n