Who We Are

Tony and I are the parents of two children, both through the miracle of adoption.  Our oldest, Caleb, who is currently 7 - but is now on the countdown to his eighth birthday - is our exceptional child.  We began seeing signs that there was something wrong at the age of 15 months.  We began asking questions, but everyone just told us it was the terrible twos. 

After moving to a new state things were a little off, but we thought that was due to the move and new day care.  Then at the age of 2, Caleb had his second set of ear tubes put in and his adenoids removed.  At that point things went south very quickly.  Caleb quit sleeping, which meant we didn't sleep much. 

Finally, after being to two different psychologists, having a consult with a pediatric psychiatrist and finally getting a referral to a neurologist, we had some answers.  At the age of three Caleb was diagnosed with bipolar, ADHD, OCD and Anxiety Disorder.  We had numerous tests run prior to starting on any meds.  After the baseline tests we started him on Trileptal.  He seemed to do fairly well on the medication, but still had a lot of anxiety.  We were finally able to get services started with our local Community Mental Health Agency and had an appointment to see their pediatric psychiatrist, who just happened to be the doctor that we consulted with when Caleb was two.  She recommended adding Risperdal to the Trileptal.  We started with a small dose and Caleb started saying that he was falling.  Due to the concern that it was making him dizzy, based on the doctor's instructions we decreased the dose in half.  Two days later we made our first trip to our Crisis Center.  Caleb had a rage for two hours over the color of a sucker.  At that time it was decided that Caleb would be removed from the Risperdal and put n Seroquel. 

A year later, just five days after Caleb's fifth birthday, we experienced his first hospitalization.  Fortunately the hospital that he went to was 30 minutes from our house and they allowed us to be there as much as we wanted.  While there he was taken off the Trileptal and put on Depakote.  Caleb was the most stable he had ever been.  We had a really good period of time; however, we started to see more autism-type symptoms come out.  After the doctor had seen and heard me talk about those symptoms, she added Aspergers to his diagnoses.

At this time we were able to find a respite organization, which was a God-send.  ROCKO helped us so much by giving us a break to spend some alone time.  We knew that the kids were well taken care of and we could reconnect as a couple.

Since last May we have learned, after much testing, that Caleb has been having Complex Partial Seizures.  We also had some neuropsychological testing completed with Caleb.  On January 6th, we received the results of that testing and learned that Caleb's diagnosis was Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, which is a very rare form of Autism, and Mild Mental Retardation. 

So, in short, we know what it is like to raise an exceptional child.  There are many doctor appointments, therapy (individual and occupational) appointments, medications, and lab work that we must do on a very regular basis.  We're here to help!  Please let us!!

What is SPECIAL Needs?

As my husband, Tony, and I have been in the throws of parenting an exceptional child, we have found that it can be difficult to have the support and understanding of people who don't truly understand what all life entails to parent our son. We have been very fortunate to have some great friends and family that support us; however, they all do not understand what our life is like. As such, we have felt it is important to have a group where parents can come together to have a time to talk and share with other parents in similar situations, which is where SPECIAL Needs comes into play.

SPECIAL Needs stands for Supporting Parents of Exceptional Children by Informing, Advocating, and Listening.

If you are the parent of a child (or children) with special needs, we are here for you, whether it's too listen or help you locate services that are out there to help you and your family. In the near future we will be setting some dates to get together to meet and doing some fun activities.

Let's support each other on this journey that we are walking on.