Friday, February 19, 2010

It's not a cure, but it is the next best thing




When I decided to write a book about Noah and his Autism, I knew it wasn’t going to be a bible about how I cured him. Mainly because he is not cured, and I thought it was more important to feature how we function and accept it. Though it is true, we have improved the situation greatly from where it began we also do not know from one day to the next what kind of day he will have, and therefore what kind of day we all will have. We also do not know what the future holds and what kind of new problems will surface or even old ones we thought were just bad memories. This is why I choose to focus on the present, since only you and your place in it is in your control.

So a blog is a natural step, figures it makes sense to share the day to day, good and bad.

A typical day here involves my husband waking at about 5:40 for work, I usually awake then but do the best I can to squeeze another hour before Noah is up. From the moment I open my door I am greeted by our two golden retrievers Fred and Chewie, usually I hear their tails beating on the walls of the hallway with a steady rhythm once they hear me rouse from bed. Once I open the door the fun begins, Fred is usually holding something in his mouth and whining, Chewie and him are following me quickly anywhere I go…which is almost always the coffee maker where I make my mommy fuel. Next on the line of annoyance is Sami the cat, he is usually whining heartily for more food since he ate it all over night, or the bowl is just dangerously low. The final cog in the machine of annoyance is Noah, who is also very hungry and starving, and somehow has the ability to bounce around even though he just awoke. Most mornings he next gravitates to the computer. Which is where he spends the next hour and half before the bus comes to pick him up for school. Routine is breakfast there, he gets dressed around 8:30, and the bus is to come sometime around 8:45. Then it’s mostly peace and quiet until about 3:20, not completely because the dogs require a lot of attention and Fred really hates the cat across the street, he barks at it even when it is in its own driveway. But regardless, it is a very important part of the day that can be filled how I choose, and gives me much needed space to contemplate and complete the things that need to be done.

Every day with Noah is spent teaching him the things that typical children just understand or get on their own. Some days are much easier than others, and sometimes what can be the most shocking is when you don’t see the meltdown coming. Mostly because he was doing well, almost where you can forget he even has a problem.

There is nothing wrong in my opinion to look for a cure to a problem, condition or disease. But from what I can figure, is while science is out there trying its best to find a cure for Autism, maybe the only thing we can do is adapt to it. Accept the things we cannot change, change the things we can and have the wisdom to know the difference.

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