Well here we are at the end of September already. It's been a busy summer for the Sypek family. We moved, spent most of the summer trying to get organized in our new surroundings, and then left for Disney a week before school started.
Sean got off the GF/CF bandwagon in early June. We also decided to take a break from all the chelation appts. over the summer. At first, all seemed fine. But looking at him NOW, compared to how he was pre-June, there is definitely a downward spiral in the behavior department. And I have to admit, during the 18 months we were doing the diet and the other biomedical interventions we were implementing, Sean was always making steady gains. They weren't all huge, or even in close succession, but at least we were always conscious of the fact that we were consistently moving in one direction: forward. Mike and I used to wonder if it was just Sean's age and his school routine (and finally finding a fabulous speech therapist) that was responsible for his gains, or if it was the biomedical route we were taking. Or both? We were resigned to thinking we may never know, but that we were content in knowing we were doing all we could be doing to help him.
So I know what I need to do. This diet sucks, it is so much work, but I feel so confident in my decision because I now know that it was really helping him. And I feel like a jerk for letting him go off it to see what would happen because now we're behind on our progress. Sean has a lot of catching up to do.
In Disney, he was really good. The lines didn't phase him, but I think that's because he spent most of that time in his own little world, daydreaming. We did have the pass, which helped, but the lines weren't really bad the week we were there. I took him on the "Tower of Terror" and his expression was pretty peculiar while we were flying up and down, up and down, up and down, well, you get the picture. He was pretty expressionless. I couldn't tell if he liked it or hated it. I think he may have just been taking all those crazy sensations in; he was on overload! He loved the Runaway Train, that made him smile. He also loved Shamu, he was craning his neck for the best view of the whales.
School is going really well. We are very happy there. His teacher and her 2 assistants are awesome. She sends home daily email updates with pictures and tells us what they're working on. There are only 5 kids in his class; they have 2 autistic support classes this year. Last year there was only 1. They are integrated with the "typical" kindergartners at recess and for specials (music, art, etc.)
Sean's speech is still progressing, but I feel like his words have been slushy lately. He's not articulating as well as he was before. But he's still using language for many things and I am so grateful for that! Just today he asked his brother for a drink. He said, "Austin, I want some juice please. I'm thirsty."
So we're back on the biomed bandwagon. We shouldn't have been off for as long as we were. But in a way, it's so nice to see how much progress he's made because of it!
