Father's Day in the ER

"Happy Father's Day. Your son is in the hospital"

 

    
As usual, we ride the rollercoaster! When you have a kid with a disability, this kind of thing becomes the new normal.  Robbie didn't want to go to church that Sunday morning, and since he can't speak, he acted out instead. It's like a two year old throwing a tantrum, only he's a lot taller. I got a phone call after I got out of church myself that he was in the hospital.

 

 

Prepare yourselves if you're emotional (Moms!) because Robbie starts to cry in this one. I tear up every time I see it! LOL It's even harder to watch because he rarely ever cries. The last time I saw him cry was when he had a seizure and they took him to the ER, and when I got there I saw that they had him on a stretcher in the middle of the hallway and he was crying. He hates being in the hospital. Who doesn't?

The procedure when someone in a home has a behavioral incident is usually to admit them, for days, weeks, even months. I refused. I said "No" and told them to discharge him to me. He stayed home with me for two days.

 

Here is the first video on Father's Day. Episode 35

 

 

I took him home with me, and he was not happy to wake up there. He probably thought I was going to keep him in the house all day, and he wanted to go to his day program. We had a rough morning. But he went to his program and was much happier when he got home in the afternoon. That night I had to take him to one of his many specialists. We went to a Physiatrist for his feet.

 

 

Here is day one at home, episode 36

 

 

By the second day, I was starting to lose it. It really had nothing to do with Robbie. I was stressed out about work, the phone was ringing non-stop, and I was reaching my breaking point! But that night the Psychiatrist gave Robbie the OK to go back home, which made him very happy.

The next day we had an IDT meeting and I received really good news, which made Mom very happy!

 

 

Here's the one with the good news at the end. Episode 37

 

14-Moving Target

     This Saturday Robbie wasn't very happy.

     I had to leave work early to pick him up and take him out. He had no snow boots so I took him shopping. He was OK in the beginning, and let me play with him. But after a while, he just had had enough. He attacked me in Target. I kind of wish I had the camera on to show it. He pulled me to the floor as we walked in the door. As I watched this back, I can see that I pushed him over his limit. He was getting annoyed and I should have known when to quit.

                                                            Episode 20-"Moving Target"

 

 

The next day, he was still grouchy. But a ride in the car always cheers him up. So we got in the car and drove..........and drove and drove, all the way to Pennsylvania! My Grandparents lived in Hellertown, PA so we went all the way to their house. It's a typical old restored PA stone house.

 

 

 

They belonged to the Saucon Valley Country Club, which is such a beautiful place. So we drove through the club, and then turned around and came all the way back! We killed a couple hours in the car. After that he was hungry, so we hit the BK in NJ.

 

Episode 21- Sunday Drive

12-Robbie's Story

January 2, 2014

 

               Parents of kids that are younger than Robbie usually want to know how I got him into a group home. So in these videos I share information that was passed onto me. First, I tell WHY he is in the group home. I thought Robbie would live with me forever. I had no problem with that. But I came to realize, he didn't want to live at home anymore.

Robbie's Story: Part 1. WHY he is in a group home.

In the video I describe how much he hated holidays. Funny, as I look back at old photos, every time I tried to get that Christmas Card photo, Robbie never sat still for the picture and always pitched a fit! Here are a few:

 

 

 I can laugh at these now! LOL

 

He is whining and refusing to sit. The girls are holding him down.

 

Patti is holding him, but he is not cooperating

 Denise is holding onto him to try and make him sit

Here' he refuses to sit and is starting to get too big to hold down.

 

It's subtle, but Dad and I are restraining him a bit to keep him from running away.

 (Yep, that's my real hair color! ;-)

He was REALLY having a fit this day. Denise just got the dog that day, and I think Robbie was afraid of it. The dog didn't last long.

 

 

 

It wasn't until he had his first seizure that I started putting two and two together, and realized he always got sick on holidays. Here are some pictures I took in September 2012 when we stayed in the hospital for a couple days for an EEG.

                           

 

 

 

In Part 2- I share HOW I got him into the group home. No one tells you how to do this. I just "happened" to run into the right people who gave me the information I needed. Now I'm happy to pass it on to other parents.

 

Robbie's Story: Part 2 HOW he got into a group home.