The Crab Trap

I wanted the last post to be totally positive, because it really was a wonderful vacation we had. I'm really glad we were able to take Owen on this vacation.... he really did have a blast. So now our goal is to save up and maybe take him to Disney next year. Woo!

We had some minor issues with Owen, like I thought we would. We brought his body sox and his brushes for brushing therapy. I let the brushing therapy slide for the first few days but we used the body sox as needed (he climbs in and I do deep pressure to calm/sooth him). It works great.

He really didn't have many major issues at all, which is why I was shocked at what happened one night at dinner. We were at the Crab Trap (posted about it in the last post). We had just gotten our appetizers and Owen wanted to sit on my lap, no biggie. We were all just talking and eating when Owen did a complete 180 and grabbed my arm. He pinched me so hard he left a nasty bruise. We have NO idea what set him off. He wasn't upset. He wasn't overstimulated. He was just sitting there nicely when he flipped out. I've analyzed it over and over and over again and I cannot figure out what happened. It hurt like you know what though so I gently tossed him over to Jason to take before I flipped out on the kid. I tried to stay calm, and I did for the most part. But then it just overwhelmed me. It finally hit me that my child is getting bigger and stronger and really starting to do some damage. Thank God it's almost always me he hurts and not usually other people. A couple weeks ago I posted about the huge bruise he gave me in Best Buy. That was bad, this one was worse (the best buy one was bigger but this one was deeper/nastier). I'm getting him all this therapy. We spend hours every week in therapy and hours and hours working with him at home. I've taken him to dozens of doctors, I can't even count up the hours I've sat in doctors offices for him. I've spent thousands of dollars out of pocket to buy therapy tools for home. We spent all this money to take him on a nice vacation. But none of it matters because *something* is still going on. Something is not right, and noone can tell me what. When he's acting fine I hear people say all the time "Oh, nothing's wrong with him. He's just a perfect little boy". Ha. Yes, he's a perfect little boy who has SOMETHING going on. He just doesn't get it. When it happened I broke down in the restaurant, crying right at the table. It was a combination of the fact it hurt like heck, but more because it hit me hard that he just isn't typical, no matter how you slice it. He had NO idea what he had done. I tried to explain it but he just kept saying "what's the matter mama? Why are you crying?".

This is what it looked like the next day. It's not the best picture, it actually looked worse in person, but it gives you an idea.


So now that leaves me with.... no idea of where to go. He can't keep doing this, but what am I supposed to do? He can't do this when he goes to school or he's just going to get kicked out. But what the heck do I do? We're still waiting to get him in for another eval in Louisville (waiting on the phone call to tell me when) and his ped was supposed to be setting up an appointment with mental health to see how they can help. I need to give the ped a call and see what's up with that appointment.....