Emma_74

hi i have 4 boys aged from 17 to 9. My 10 year old has recently been dx ASD,ADHD and DYSPRAXIA and my 14 year old now has a dx of ADHD with autistic traits . I also have 2 step-daughters and a step-son and 4 step-granchilden - with another 3 on the way!!! and I'm only 34!!!

I work part time as a team leader in a supermarket in the evenings just to get me out of the house and it does me good.

I have several problems myself which i am trying to sort out - i have been dx with manic depression for the last 5 years which i am finding pretty hard to manage, I also have agrophobia, anxiety/panic attacks - which i have to say is getting alot better as i have been in therapy for this for the last few months and i also have problems with my kidneys which is under investegation at the moment.

I am married to Connor and Jacks dad and have been for the last 10 and a half years and have been with him for the last 13 years we have a good solid relationship which is just as well considering all the problems that we have to deal with!!

to unwind i usually real a book or watch a film i will watch/read just about anything except horror.

I have a deep love for animal which has resulted in our house looking much like a zoo at times - at the moment i have 6 yes 6 parrots ( 2 African greys, 2 blue and gold macaws , 1 greenwing macaw and a umbrella cockatoo )2 dogs a golden lab and a chocolate lab and a cat.

Connor my son with ASD etc also has a few other problems he has - high frequency hearing loss, a perferated ear drum, depression , anxiety/panic attacks, agrophobia, excema (which he often gets in his ears and causes ear infections) and constipation problems. He also had speech and language therapy for 5 years because he couldn't say 1 word when he first started and as a result now has selective mutism, this is the reason he was dx with ASD rather than AS ( which in all other catagories fits him to a T ).

I have to say it's been a long road getting Connor dx and at times i felt like i was talking to a brick wall, i knew there was something wrong when he was about 2 and by the time he was seven he really was in a meltdown situation, we went to the specialist who said it was just the situation we were in at the time and things would get better. ( my nan used to live right next door to us and she died on Xmas day and Connor was with her when she has the fatal heart attack on the 23rd that eventually killed her 2 days later, my dad had also died the previous year in Nov. )

It took another 3 and a half years for us to finally get a dx and that was only because the school's behaviour specialist got involved and we did a CAF and she knew right there and then what the problem was and arranged an appointment with CAHMS straightaway ( they took notice of her because she knew what she was talking about! )

Now he has his dx and take medication for his ADHD he's like a different child at home and in school - but you can definatly see the Autism side alot more clearly now, he's alot happier and settled and his teachers know the right way to deal with him at last.

Through all this his school has been brilliant helping us and supporting us when really he should have been permanantly excluded for some of the things he has done - but we have all worked together.

My worry now is that he is due to start Secondary school in September and i don't know how he's going to cope with it all i'm not sending his to the same school as his brother because to be quite honest they can't deal with my 14 year old very well and he doesn't have half the problems Connor has, so i feel they will be absolutly hopeless.

Instead he will have to catch a bus to school as it's quite far away and i don't drive and he will also have to go on his own as i have to take the youngest to school and this is really worrying me, another worry is that i can't get to him quickly if i need to.

Kyle is my 14 year old and is undergoing an assesment at the moment, which i only got as i asked Connors doctor to asses him again for me - we have had 4 assesments already and all i get is he has issues with his dad leaving him etc etc ( his dad now lives in Australia but has contact with him and he has been out there 2 times to visit him )

Finally someone is listening to me because this time when we took him for his assesment the doctor said "well your his mother if your telling me somethings wrong then there is something wrong"

I could have kissed her!! lol

we have just had a dx ADHD with autisic tendencies/traits.

As for my other 2 boys Aaron 17 and Jack 9 luckly they haven't been afflicted with the same problems as their brothers have but they are boys!!!!