Thank you for the warm welcome!
To answer everywoman's questions:
We knew something was not right when my son was 3 and all the
school district or county could tell me is that they thought he was
borderline retarded...his IQ is 76. He was placed in a pre K program
under a Language Disability. At that time they labeled him SLD
(slow learning disabiltiy with language impaired). At 7 yrs old he was diagnosed with ADHD and placed on Ritalin. At 11 yrs old he started
having seizures that was caused by the onset of puberty....was placed
on Depakote for a year until he was seizure free. We had him repeat
the 6th grade and on his second attempted, they put him in EMD classes
(Educatable mentally disabled). We did not see any major problems other that the stealing of money from us so we had to watch where money was
placed including where we left purses or wallets. He would go through different obsessions as well. Started seeing more problems with son when he was 17 (Junior in high school). He was doing on the job training through a class from school and that is when we started seeing the big flare ups.....diagnosed with Bi Polar then and placed on Depakote ER. I was not completely satisfied with just that diagnosis so I had him see a neuropsychologist in his Senior year where he was diagnosed with autism. My son did graduate with what is called a Special diploma. We did not let him go any further in school after the age of 19 since we were having problems keeping him in the classrooms....he would walk out of classrooms and be found by vending machines (another obsession). Security guards at school got to know him rather well....LOL.
Vocational Rehab got my son a job at McDonalds and he was able to hold on to the job for 2 3/4 years. He wanted to be maintenance but they kept him on the grill and fry products. We explained why and so did they
because he could not do maintenance unless he could handle cleaning the big fry machine and being able to empty the old grease. They said it was quite heavy and it also was a very expensive piece of equipment. Well for six months he has been stewing over this because he did not get what he wanted....so he started burning bagels, talking back to management and copping a big attitude. So finally the manager said to him one day.....Are you wanting me to fire you? And he said "Yeah why don't you just do that!" So that weekend they did! I have to give them credit for working with him as long as they did.
We applied with the Agency for persons with Disablities so we could get my son more help and services in 2005. His application was declined because the neuropsychologist put the wrong diagnosis number down.
We reapplied in 2006 and was put on a waitlist. In November 2007 he was Baker Acted in to the hospital for being suicidal. When he came out he had a new psychiatrist who took him off his Ritalin, kept him on his Depakote ER, placed him on Remeron, and Effexor XR. In June 2008
we applied for Crisis situation to get him placed in a group home or supported living since he was playing hell on our health. Most days he is
fine but you never know when he is going to blow like a volcano over something so stupid. We had a hell of a time this weekend and it happened out in public. My son normally would not try to pull anything out in public but he has an I don't care attitude now and if he does not get his way he will put you through Holy Hell.
He has a support coordinator from the Agency who is working to get him services but she is limited on funds because they gave my son the highest tier which only provides funding for $14,000 worth of services. He has started seeing a behaviorist twice a week who comes to our home and his file was sent back up to Tallahassee a month ago to try to get him a lower tier so the funds will pay more much needed services including getting him out of our house and in to a facility that can handle him better. I would think that we should hear something soon for Tallahassee.....if it does go through then we have to go in front of a placement committee to ask to get him placed. I have fought for this kid his entire life and I have not stopped yet.
Sorry this was so long but we are talking about condensing 22 yrs of a kids life down to what is stated above...LOL.