We dealt with the fits and the violent outbursts, we started pulling away from our friends. We stayed home and stopped doing play dates for fear that Tabitha would hurt someone with one of her fits. We started noticing that when someone got hurt she showed no empathy, she would say sorry and give a hug out of some sort of memorized protocol. We noticed that she wouldn't look people in the eye and when she did catch their eye she would freak out. A few months ago she was tested at preschool, and she was tested at an almost 9 year old receptive vocabulary, but she can't use it, and she gets very frustrated when she can't express herself.
There are other things that we noticed, and we tried talking to drs about, but it was just the same old song and dance from them. I finally decided to switch drs. About two weeks ago I took Tabitha to our new dr to talk about what was going on. Things had been getting worse with her for some time. I had bruises, bloody noses, and dislocated fingers to show for it. I'd had enough, I needed answers. I was tired of being afraid of my child, and afraid for her. I needed help.
I sat down with her dr and discussed my concerns and fears.I finally found someone who would listen. I finally found someone who agreed that her fits were not that of a normal 3 1/2 year old. Then he said what I feared he would say. Tabitha is on the autism spectrum. I think I knew for a while, but I had convinced myself it was something else, maybe bipolar or something like that. Something that can be "fixed" with medicine. I wasn't surprised, but I did cry when I got to the car with the girls. I had a hard time not believing it was my fault. With all the junk science, blaming mothers for having epidurals, and c-sections, and vaccinating their children. Even though I know its not my fault, I still blame myself. I think its natural for parents to think anything that happens to their kids is their fault. But while we have been waiting to meet with the therapist and get some diagnostic tests done on Tabitha, I finally stopped thinking that this was something that "happened" to Tabitha, and started realizing that there's nothing "wrong" with my daughter, her brain just works different than other kids.
For the past two weeks Morgen has been trying some tactics he learned from ABA therapy when he used to worked with a friends son who has autism. They seem to be working. Tonight we met with the therapist, he asked lots of questions and listened to our concerns. He stopped short of saying she is autistic, but said he believed she is on the spectrum. She is high functioning, and he said she seems like with the right interventions, she will be ok. We will go back next week for more evaluations, and to talk about our next steps.
I have a range of emotions going through me for the last two weeks. I'm scared, I worry that people wont be accepting of Tabitha, that she will be shunned because shes a little weird and she freaks out at things most kids would let roll off their backs. I'm happy that we are on a path to helping her. The only thing I want in this life is for my children to be happy. I will do whatever it takes to make my children happy. Now that i have some sense of how to help her, I know we will all be ok.
Over the last few weeks, we haven't told too many people about whats going on. But of the few people we have told almost all have been really supportive. They have been true friends. They have been there for me, and they have loved Tabitha and they have been a shoulder for me to cry on. I'm thankful for our friends who have helped us. I'm thankful for the friends who helped me talk through this, who have shown me what real friends are. There are a lot of emotions going though me, there are a lot of unknowns in our future, but one thing I do know, is that Tabitha is loved.
