#1429 Thursday 15 December

It's the last day of school for this year.  Kaylia is just as excited as always.  Looking back over the past few years it has been a joy to see the way she has changed ....

Then = anxiety was such a burden for her  ....combined with the sensation overload ... plus the routine compulsions .... wow - what a triple whammy!
Now = anxiety? is mostly not a problem ... sensation overload? much better .... she can control this herself mostly ....... and routine ... naah - that's still a large part of her .... but she can accept changes to routine much better than before.

The biggie has been the anxiety.  Helping her through that has been very interesting .... she started on the medicine .... AM and PM .... and we played with the dosage .... finding out what was too much .... then when we had the dose right, we hit on the idea of giving her small 'top up' doses when anxiety signs showed during the day ....... this worked really well and after about 12 months we changed it to a pain killer rather than the anxiety med.  After another 12 months she no longer needed the pain med!  Now she is often able to control the anxiety with breathing and distraction.  My theory is that the method of medicine use has allowed her body to change the way it reacts ..... in effect, she has learned that she can manage the anxiety herself. 

And so we now have a very happy Kaylia!