Two Excursions Today

The first excursion was this morning with Clark for an appointment with a new neurologist. Well, not a new one but a second-opinion neurologist, one who works with special needs children and adults. We went to the autism center to meet Dr. S. and to give Clark’s medical history so hopefully we can better understand what has been going on with him this past year with an increase in the number of seizures each month and periods of malaise. Clark’s anxiety kicked in before we left the house at 8:30 so that we spent time while driving there reassuring him that we would be with him, that there was nothing to worry about. Ha! When we entered the autism center Clark’s face told me he was not convinced and not only that he was going to report this to Mary Ellen (his Special Olympics coach). I had not heard him use her before. When Clark was in high school he always said to his teacher, Mr. H., that he was going to tell his dad. Whenever he was anxious about something at home he threatened to tell Mr. H. or the police. As I approached check in the receptionist greeted me warmly and then looked at Clark and talked to him with friendliness that briefly melted his anxiety. After forms were signed we met Dr. S. We liked him. His sincere interest in us with good eye contact gave us hope that we might get some answers to our concerns. He had concrete suggestions (like an EEG and blood work, etc.) that we will follow up on.

The second excursion took place mid-afternoon. I took Clark and Phil shopping for their sister’s birthday which is tomorrow. We went to Target where Phil pushed the cart with my purse in it. Shopping with them is always fun but stressful because trying to keep them focused on gifts when they have no idea what Cherlyn would like can bring on a headache and I could feel pressure mounting. After finding Phil who was so engrossed in watching the human and cart escalators he could not hear me, we found gifts and headed to checkout. Phil had the car keys so as soon as he paid he was gone, out the door. We found him in the car down four levels in the parking garage. As we pulled out of our parking place Phil opened the passenger door and yelled so he could hear the echo. That was repeated a few times until we were out of the garage. Clark was in the backseat with his strong sense of what is right and what is wrong and what Phil was engaged in was clearly not right and he needed reprimanding and then Clark needed reprimanding—from me. Tomorrow before the party I will help them with wrapping.