A Family's Autism Journey

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My First Blog Post

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

It was summer of 2012 when we first heard the word AUTISM. I was still pregnant, in my third trimester, with my 3rd child when we got our first appointment with a Developmental Pediatrician for P who was then 3 years old. What made us see a developmental pediatrician was not even from a recommendation of the regular pediatrician. Our son, P, hit all his milestones in the first 24 months of his life. He walked early (10 months old), he could say words by the time he was 12 months and he was just a happy baby. It was months after he turned 2, when we noticed that he was not talking as much as he used to and we would often catch him just staring in space. He started getting more sensitive with noises, and he flapped, jumped and was walking on tiptoes. My mommy instinct says “Something is not right” and it became even more of a concern when he started having issues with food textures. He started gagging on solid food and would only eat when it’s mashed. I googled all of this and checked on his milestones and then the word “REGRESSION” came up in a lot of the articles I read and suggested seeing a specialist, a Developmental Pediatrician.

Apparently getting an appointment with a Developmental Pediatrician takes a long time. It took us maybe a couple months to get one. So that day came, and off we went. The assessment was pretty quick. It took maybe 40 minutes where the doctor and her assistant was making P do certain activities while me and my husband were answering sheets of medical history. After the activities, the doctor started scribbling a bunch of stuff on a piece of paper and then when she was done, she just looked at us and says “He has Global Developmental Delay leading to Autism Spectrum Disorder”. I honestly did not know what to say or ask. I had no idea. Then she started telling us what he needs such as occupational therapy and speech therapy and writes therapy center recommendations that we were supposed to contact. And that was it.

On our way home, I was quiet for a long time and then I cried. I cried because I was not sure what to do, the diagnosis didn’t come with a manual. It was like opening a door to the unknown, or being dropped off in a different country so different from what I was expecting. I did not know anything about Autism and I was not sure how I can help my son. I cried at that moment and many days after because I felt helpless, I felt that I was supposed to be the one to teach my son, to help him create an amazing foundation of his life but I was not sure where to start. By the way, we went to see 2 more Developmental Pediatrician in the course of that year, to get more insights and simply trying to find the best doctor for us, the best fit.

Despite the crying, my husband and I knew that we cannot fail P. He needs us and we needed to do everything we can to help him, to learn everything we can about his diagnosis. We started buying books, reading online stories, and sleepless nights of research. We knew that if we learn everything we can on what this Autism diagnosis is then we would be able to help him. We were and still are each other’s strength, and this was the start of our family’s journey into the world of Autism.

Why?

Today, I decided to start our autism blog maybe because I know that raising a child in the autism spectrum is challenging and we need all the support we can get. That feeling that you know, you’re not alone. I read a quote once that being parents of a child in the spectrum is like being handed a map to a country you were not planning to be in. It’s like all your life you’ve planned to go to let’s say Australia so you’ve learned everything you can about the country and makes it even better that you did not have to learn a different language because you’re a native English speaker. Then you ride the plan all prepped and ready for your adventure then as the plane lands, they tell you you’re in… let’s say, France. So you feel a little anxious because you have no idea about the country, culture and you can’t speak the language but you’re there anyway and turns out you’re there for a long time because there are no flights out of the country. So you slowly try to learn everything you can, it’s challenging. That’s how getting an autism diagnosis felt.

Before I continue, I would like to introduce myself, I’m a 37 year old mom of a 10 year old in the autism spectrum. My husband has been the greatest support and even with his busy work schedule, he makes sure he helps me out whether it’s with the kids (Oh yes we have 2 younger neurotypical kids 7, and 5) or with house stuff. Our 10 year old, P, calls me “Mimi”. I’m an aromatherapist, pastry chef and a sales executive but I’ve been a stay at home mom since his diagnosis.

Anyway back to the why, why did I decide to share our family’s journey with autism? Because the rise of autism diagnosis is higher than ever and there’s a lot of people that after getting the diagnosis, they feel lost. I am not saying we’ve mastered the art of living with autism because even with the 7 years of experience, the challenge continues — you just never know what comes up. I just want to share how we rise above the challenges and how we try as much as we can to understand it and make it better for P.

I want to share our experiences because I want to let people know that a diagnosis is not the end but rather a beginning to a challenging yet rewarding journey of their lives.

“Mimi”

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
What topics do you think you’ll write about?
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.