Day 21

I have to say that today has completely convinced me that the NV is having the effects I have been talking about. This was Josh's first full day of camp. The camp was sponsored by one of Illinois' special rec associations. When I first signed Josh up for the camp, I had spoken at length with one of the rec's reps. After talking about Josh's special needs and the things he had been going through at the time (hit a bus transportation person, having trouble getting on/off the bus, laying down on the ground when overwhelmed, the frequency of the psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, etc.), we decided to sign Josh up for camps that were close to home in the event I would have to come pick him up. The camp today was all about environmental adventures - something Josh isn't that crazy about to begin with but that I felt would be "good" for him. As it turned out, the campers were going to get on/off the bus 4 times, including once at a restaurant for ice cream. Well, Josh doesn't do restaurants that are crowded (and this one would be), and he doesn't eat cold things (sensory issues) so I had my doubts about at least that part of the day, let alone the idea of on/off buses that many times. For the last several weeks, I had been planning my own work at the office to allow me to take work home should I need to get Josh.

Gotta say, my guy was amazing today! I decided to take him to Elgin to get on the bus - less kids, a bit more time to talk with the driver and bus aide, get him settled on the bus. We stopped off at a bagel place to get snacks for the office, stopped at the office to drop them off, then went to have a breakfast car picnic while waiting for the bus. The bus arrived at 8:40 and there were three or four other kids to get on. Josh hesitated maybe 1 minute in the car, had a very short PNES (less than a minute, I think), got right on the bus, said hello to the driver and aide, sat down in the first seat (his usual bus spot), and let the aide - a complete stranger - help him with the seatbelt without incident. I got no calls from the camp all day!

The bus had picked up some more kids along the way and then went to the first of the nature centers in McHenry. They were there for a couple of hours, then went to the next - the Algonquin Water Conservancy. Then they were going to one more nature place in Crystal Lake, and the restaurant. The camp folks decided that Josh could hang at the camp offices in their lounge, watch a movie or whatever, while the others went to the restaurant, and that was fine with me. He had a great time all day! I don't know how involved he was with all the things they actually did at these places but, gosh almighty, he made it through the whole day and they made it through the day with him!

When it came time to pick him up at 4:45 the weather had turned horrible - bad storms, hurricane force winds, sky as dark as night, thunder, lightening. I had actually called the camp just to find out what they were going to do in the event the kids got caught outside and the person I spoke with said she had actually gotten a report back that Josh was doing just great, even with all the on/off the buses. By the time the bus arrived, the rain had let up a little and I was standing outside the bus. I saw two of the other kids stand right in Josh's space (he was sitting in the aisle seat rather than closer to the window) and all I could think of was, omg, this is bad (when kids stand in his space, he has been known to pull hair or hit rather than use his words "move please"). What I saw blew my mind - Josh sat there, hands down, turned to the kid closest to him and was talking to him! Never, never have I seen that! Josh has always related better to adults than kids, although his teacher this year said that Josh would talk with one kid in particular at school, even asking him to come to Josh's table to play. But I saw it today - he is relating to kids! YEAH!!! Josh didn't want to get off the bus - the rain and thunder - but it took less than three minutes for him to get up, and then run to our car! And, when we got home, less than a minute to get out of the car and into the house - he did lay down for all of about 30 seconds on the floor, but then got up and went right into the bathroom - AND PEED!!! I had put him in double depends and underpants this a.m., not knowing what the bathroom situation was going to be while out and about with camp. He must have gone to pee during the day - the one depends was barely wet, and everything else was dry. Whoo hoo!!!!

Tomorrow, we celebrate! This week has been so amazing for him, he has done so much, accomplished so much (for him) - I am going to get him over to the lab for the blood tests (finally) but then we're going major train hunting. I had suggested we go to Rochelle again but he said, "No, Hindale, Burlington trains!" We haven't been to Hinsdale in probably over a year but it is a great spot to watch BNSF trains and, weather allowing, have a picnic. So, at his request, we will have PBJ sammies and watch the BNSF trains!

Funny story - Josh is still watching the Blue's Clues, although less - he's just busy doing other things. But, tonight he wanted to watch one of the episodes on On Demand - Cafe Blue. I was reading the synopsis of the episode to him with a French (horrible) accent, and he was correcting me on my words! LOL!!

I have one serving left of NV until the new stuff comes on Monday (I hope) - so I divvied it up into three cups, made up the rest of the 8 oz with just milk, and I hope that just keeping some in his system until Monday will not make too much of a difference in all that I've been seeing. Can't wait for Monday's UPS delivery!!!!

Tomorrow, Day 22 and trains! Storms are starting again - severe thunderstorm warnings are up still. Better shut down the computer before something blows!