Saturday, May 19, 2012

ZOOM! -or- The Seventh Month Part I

DSC_0040 Another month has blown by. How do they go by so fast? Man, so much can happen in a month. Thankfully, at our house all the happenings were the every-day sort: getting new teeth, loosing old teeth, getting new glasses, taking the last day of school, eating new foods...you get the idea.

Wonderwoman begged suggested that I give an update on Trevor. I know that lots of people have been praying for us, so I'll try to at least get out a bit of Trevor-news.

About two weeks ago, Trevor and I headed up to Birmingham for some more therapy. While eating breakfast earlier that morning, I had noticed Trevor mumbling about something. I just barely restrained myself from saying something through my teeth like, "Tre-vor...cut it out" and instead happened to say something like, "what are you jabbering about?" I was rewarded with some insight. Trevor said he was calling his OCD names. Sounds strange, but it's actually one of the recommended tricks for battling OCD. I can't remember the names, but they were silly, just like they are supposed to be. I was impressed.

Later, during the car ride, I asked Trevor about it. I told him that it seemed like his OCD wasn't bothering him as much lately, and he agreed. I learned that not only is his OCD bothering him less frequently, he is also able to handle it more easily when it does bother him. Rating things on a scale is often an effective way for Trevor to communicate, so I had him rate how bad his OCD was--"0" was not bad at all, and "10" was the worst you can think of. He rated it a "3"...but then changed his mind and gave it a "2". I asked him what he would rate it at back a couple months ago when things were really bad. He gave it a "9".

Wow. That is a huge difference! It's funny how when things are bad, and they get better, sometimes you don't notice right away. It's like when things are working the way they are supposed to, you don't notice. That little conversation helped me notice what a long way we had come. I had to look back at the last couple posts to compare... I noticed that last month I said that Trevor still mentioned his OCD every day. Now, I bet it is maybe every-other day. Eating is no longer a problem. Can't remember if I ever mentioned that, but for awhile, Trevor was having a hard time even eating because of the lies that his food had feelings and that he should feel sorry for it. I know...that's totally crazy. But, that's OCD. It's totally crazy. And it can be totally crippling. But we're not there anymore!! Praise God!!! OCD is still an unwanted part of our life, but it is not in control of Trevor anymore. Trevor is control of it. When a thought comes, he battles it...and wins most of the time. When he has trouble, he asks for help, and we work it out in a couple of minutes.

So, where does that put us now?  We still have some issues that we are dealing with...

Trevor's hearing has been increasingly painful. He is sometimes brought to tears by Zack's loud crying. Today I had an idea to see if I can't get some protective ear things...whatever they are called...like you see people wear when they are mowing. I think if I kept some in the car that would help.

Also, we are doing vision therapy with Trevor. That takes about 45 minutes...every day. It's been 2 weeks, and I'm already tired of it. All we do are simple activities using only one eye in order to strengthen the eyes. But it is time-consuming. We do it while Zack is napping.

We are still doing our gluten-free, dairy-free diet, and are growing more convinced that it is helpful for our family. More on that later, hopefully.

That's all for now. Thank you so much for all the prayers! God is so faithful and good.