We’ve had a fairly normal week, a bit hectic with some great times and some shitty ones thrown in! Last Thursday Beth had come out of school and exclaimed “Mum, you’re alive!” As she was fairly flippant about it I just laughed and said that yes indeed I was. She has said this before earlier in the year and I didn’t think much of it. The next morning though her aide came to talk to me and told me that Beth had in fact had a big meltdown the day before, saying that I had been shot in the guts, that they had to get a box for me and to be careful of my legs. The aide was wondering if perhaps the medication was giving Beth hallucinations. I said that no, I didn’t think so as we had had no incidents during the school holidays at all. I also mentioned that she had originally said this while on her other medication. We both agreed that the main thing is that Beth feels happy, safe and comfortable at school for her final term. The aide talked about having a roster system with all the kids in the class having to play with Beth and to encourage her to join in. Most of the kids in the class have been with her since prep so are good with her anyway and I thought that sounded like an excellent idea. The aide also suggested that I send makings for lunches and Beth could make them herself at school which I can report she has loved.
On Saturday I went to a talk with some of my friends from our support group HAGS (Happy Autism/Aspergers Group Support). It was a talk about adolescence and teenagers with autism and aspergers. Lots of it I had heard before but it was interesting. Once again it showed me the differences between aspergers and autism. It was interesting as it talked about the increase when kids his puberty of depression, anxiety and their own and others mortality. I was so glad that school had already discussed depression with me as if I had seen the talk first I would have been devastated as I would have had the realisation then and there. It was particularly interesting to hear about the mortality issue just after her having a meltdown about me dying. They also spoke about the anxiety causing tourettes – something which Beth seems to have developed a bit of. Luckily this should settle down once the hormones kick in properly.
We had Sensational Kids on Wednesday but Rod wasn’t available to see this week for Speech Therapy so we saw Whiskas (not her real name) – the Occupational Therapist. They had a good session and I spoke with Whiskas at the end about Beth’s worry about me dying. I had spoken with our Principal about the talk on Saturday also and said to both of them that I wondered if the fact that my mum died when I was 13 may have something to do with it. We all agreed that may be contributing to it and I said that I would have a talk with Beth. On the way home we chatted about my mum with me saying that if she had gotten sick today (she died of cancer), she probably would have lived as medicine is so much more advanced 30 years on. Beth was happy to chat about mum which surprised me and commented that she wished that she had the chance to meet her. It was a nice talk and I reitereated that I was well and that I wasn’t going to leave Beth any time soon.
We stopped in at Knox on the way home. Beth cracks me up! We were in KMart and a song came on from JRock – the performance that Beth was in earlier in the year. She started doing the dances and singing at the top of her voice. It’s nice to see that more and more people seem to be understanding about Beth without me having to explain, there were smiles all around. Of course there were the starers too but as far as I’m concerned they can get stuffed! We can all use a bit of Beth!
The big excitement is that I found the most beautiful graduation dress for Beth. It’s a minty green with pink and blue embroidered flowers. It’s floor length and just stunning. We went into a wedding dress shop and I told the woman that we didn’t want to pay more than $100 but there wasn’t much other than dresses far too old for her. I kept looking at this fairy princess dress but it was $200, reduced from $700. I thought “bugger it, let’s just see if it fits” and we took it in to the changeroom. Well, it was like the glass slipper, it fit perfectly! It looks so beautiful too! I’ve been secretly showing it to all of Beth’s teachers from over the years and all are in agreeance at how lovely it is. I think there’ll be a few tears that night! I’m so excited, I want Beth to be a standout on the night for her beauty and she certainly will be! I wont put up pictures until the night, I don’t want to spoil the surprise!
