Single Moms Raising Autistic Sons


city map

Followers

Friday, December 22, 2006

Griffin went to the doctor yesterday because he needed a new prescription for his Clonidine. I had my concerns about the medication that I had presented to him such as: Does Clonidine, being a medication for high blood pressure, lower Griffin's otherwise normal blood pressure? The doctor answered with: Clonidine does not lower "normal" blood pressure only "high" blood pressure. That was a big relief. I asked him about Griffin waking up in the middle of the night despite him having taken the .2mg of Clonidine and having zonked out. He told me that the medication only lasts 4-6 hours and then wears off (that is when Griffin wakes up). So, it is up to me at that point as to whether or not I want to give him more meds to get back to sleep. Usually if it is around 5 a.m. or so I will just tough it out and stay up with him and not give him more meds but if it is earlier than that I will give him more meds in order to help him get back to sleep. We also discussed the fact that Griffin might be having night terrors and the doctor explained to me that he is in a transition between stages of sleep and they are hard to awaken and very difficult to console because they are still asleep and do not hear or see you. Then Griffin got 3 shots: DTAP, Polio, and the 2nd Chicken Pox vaccinations. I feel so bad giving him his vaccinations but he cannot school without them at least as far as I know that is the law but I was wondering if there is anyone who has stopped giving vaccinations due to the possible thimerisol in the vaccine. My sister has not given her child any vaccines at all and her daughter is 2 years old but I am afraid to not give Griffin his required vaccines even though some of the illnesses are pretty much non-existent anymore. I would love to hear what you have to say about what your opinion is about vaccines/thimerisol and whether or not you think that they are necessary and can my child attend school without these vaccines. I need to do some research and find out whether or not he can go to school without them. Othewise, Griffin is doing great and the toilet training is coming along wonderfully. He uses the toilet by himself now and will even go when I ask him if he needs to. I usually tell him that it is time to go "potty" but he now knows very well whether or not he really has to go, so asking him if he needs to go and leading him into the bathroom he will then decide if he truly needs to go or not. Of course he still has times when he is too involved to take out time to go to the toilet but that is not so often anymore. Just in case I don't write again soon then I wish you all a happy and joyous holiday, may you and yours have lots of smiles and laughter and be surrounded by those you love the most.

3 comments:

Mom said...

I had to struggle with whether or not to vaccinate Charlie when he turned two and whether or not to vaccinate Rachel. Here are a couple of factors in my decision process. I sought out a doctor who could prove to me that she was using vaccine that was free of the additive thimerisol.

I do not let them take the flu shot, because it still has thimerisol in it.

I decided that it was better for them to be vaccinated because around here we have lots of Amish folks and they never vaccinate, and we are having outbreaks of things like diphtheria and pertussis. So I did it. We haven't had problems.

One thing I did decide to do was to wait on getting Rachel's initial shots until she was a couple of months old. With Charlie they gave him five shots the day he was born. I would never do that again. And those were all the old mercury laden shots.

Anonymous said...

only the flu shot still has mercuray as far as I know. In the future-spread them out. they DO NOT need to be given all at once. Make sure that it is a law that he has to have them. We are able to just fill out a form and claim either personal or religious exemptions in the state of Colorado. when you have time, do your reasearch. it is very personal, but, you will be surprised by what you find.

JUST A MOM said...

I have floated your blog, I would like to come back and keep check on you. You are a strong woman,nice to meet you.