I haven't had a chance to update for awhile, so here we go! Jacob has finally gotten over his cold and asthma, but this week was ALLERGY week. Seasonal allergies are here! Lovely. He missed Wednesday afternoon's class because he was so miserable sniffling and sneezing and trying to stick his fingers down his ears (to the point of one of them bleeding). We started Singulair and Benedryl.
Thursday morning was much better and I hoped the Singulair was doing the trick. He went to school and had a miserable afternoon. I got a call midway through saying he was scratching his legs badly and so I took the girls over with some of his steroid cream. Unfortunately we were there at recess and had to interrupt him at the lunch table with his friends. He had a total meltdown...and Sydney did too, because I wouldn't let her out of the stroller to play on the kindergarten playground. So here we are with two screaming kids, me trying to keep Sydney in the stroller AND apply lotion to Jacob's legs at the same time. Soon we had a number of kindergarteners around us, standing there with mouths open. Teachers helped disperse them but it wasn't the "low key" event I would have preferred!
I got another call about 30 minutes later saying his allergies were awful, he was crying, and he said he wanted to come home. So back we went to pick him up again. His face was red and he jumped up when he saw me...he definitely wanted to leave. When we got home, though, his allergies didn't seem too bad to me. My hypothesis is that he was just so confused by us coming to school and NOT taking him home that he couldn't deal with it afterwards.
So today his allergies were moderate in the morning. I decided to give him Benedryl on top of the Singulair and see how the afternoon at school went (and warned his IA!). Halfway through the afternoon I had to go pick him up. He'd been acting very spaced out and like he was uncomfortable from allergies...and he did request coming home. This time the IA came back to the house just to see if he'd perk up back at home. He spent about an hour or so completely in la-la-land. He was in a good mood, but couldn't concentrate on anything. Then the Benedryl seemed to be wearing off and he did get some energy and his normal personality back...but the allergies got worse. Sigh. So we stopped about 45 minutes early.
I did talk to a compounding pharmacist today about putting together some special medications for him. Well...not special medications, but regular meds in special forms that would make it easier to get into him. She is willing to work with me, so I am hoping within a few weeks we'll have better ways to get him to take what he needs to feel a little better. A light in the dark!
The other thing going on is that he has really been acting out at school...seemingly related to not feeling well. Between his mouth issues and allergies it's been rough. He has been grabbing peers (we call it the "claw" - reaches out and with a claw-like hand, will dig his nails into you), and he grabbed onto his wonderful older "peer" so tightly in class that it took about 10 seconds for his IA to remove him. He's been vocal and crying. So his therapy company has started pulling him out of class into another room for 1:1 instruction during certain times. And today started pulling him out for everything except recess and music time, I believe.
Jacob isn't happy about going to the other room. He didn't mind when it was sporadic and for short periods but apparently today he kept asking to "go back to class!" He does love his class. Poor guy. I wish we could get him to understand that he can go back when he stops being aggressive.
So it's been a rough time for him. I am not happy that he is having to leave the class but I support it because it's not okay for him to be hurting other kids. I hope we can quickly get things back under control and he can spend more of his time in the regular classroom. I have been told that the area he goes to is comfortable and pleasant, but I want to check for myself. I don't want him in a tiny windowless room (I know it's not, but you know what I mean) for the day.
Please keep Jakie in your prayers, he does need them right now...
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