HUNTER AND A NEW MYSTERY!!

Wow what a week it has been. Last Wednesday the 28th of March, Hunter had more testing for ADHD and autism for which they did not find. That is a blessing!!! Dealing with a global sensory child in itself is enough. I was a rough day, Hunter managed to only make one girl older than him cry!!!! I still don't know what he said to her but it must have been enough to make her cry.

Now for the Mystery!!!!! this is the picture of the new mystery shawl that I'm working on. This is clue 1 and 2 complete.





Got to go help with homework and bed

I think I'm in Love.....

This I think... No I know I'm in love with!!!! This is my first spun yarn after buying my wheel and receiving it 3 weeks ago. I went to have a class with the lady I bought my wheel from last thursday and she said " you don't need to be taught anything, Your a natural!" WOW what a compliment!. This is 100% alpaca. there is approximately 682 yards and weighs about 8 oz on my kitchen scale. This yarn is a bulky yarn I would most likely knit it with size 9-11 US needles. I'm not sure what I will use this for as of yet but, I'm sure something with be calling it name/



this is some wool that I tried to make into lace weight, but It does not have enough twist. I guess I will have to spin faster!!




These two pictures are of clue 1 of the mystery shawl KAL. I spun this myself!!!! I'm so impressed. this is a 50 merino and 50 silk from the Copper Moose in black cherry. There is about 840 yards in the ball and skein that needs to be wound up. I think I will do one more skein but just a little bigger and we'll see if that will be enough for the whole shawl. I'm not sure but I don't want to spin more that what I need. I'd like some left for some lace weight. I am using a size 7 needle.



OK, well that's all for knitting at the moment. I need to get to bed tomarrow Hunter has a appointment at the University of Iowa for testing for ADHD and Autism. We have to leave at 6:00 am and hopefully will make it home by 6:00pm. So, I need to try to sleep but I don't think I'll get much. To much on the mind:((

Happy Knitting

Now we can see what I've been up to

This is my Ashford Traveller. (and my messy kitchen. Who wants to clean when this arives!!!!????). Well, now I just have to figure out what to name her. I know there are several people who have named there wheels. Any Suggestions????? Doesn't hurt to ask!!



OK, does this not look like a purple nightmare?????!!!! This is my first spinn on my wheel on Wednesday night. I actually don't think the the spinning was all that bad. But, I tryed to ply it and I have no idea really how to do that so that just might be the issue. Of course it's was a freebie so that's ok.


This is 3.2 oz of suri alpaca form Alpacas D'Auxvasse. I think I'm in love with this fiber. It is easy to work with and just so soft that you want to use it as a pillow. The only thing that I noticed is that it is a fuzzy yarn. I'm not sure if this is due to my inexperience or just the way it is supposed to be. I have not plyed it yet for I am waiting to have my first spinning class with the lady I bought my wheel from. I'm hopeing this coming Thursday.



This is what I am currently working on. It is a deep red superwash wool from The Sheep Shed Studio. I just have to keep reminding myself.... thin but not to thin. It's going well so far.

I would love to hear feedback from all you spinners out there, when I get back on Yahoo, You'll know because you'll actually get an email from me asking you to take a look at this.


As for Yahoo, I have not heard anything from them yet. I guess yesterday I couldn't firgure out pictures for this blog and today my Yahoo issure. I guess there always has to be something going to crap or it just would not be my life.

Keep spinning

Yahoo deactivated my account!!!!

I can't belive it I email 5 of my yahoo groups requesting help with the whole not being able to put a picture on my blog and I get 35 undeliverable emails back to me. Then latter I find out that they deactivated my account. Now after talking to custermer service I have to wait for 12-48 hours for them to review my case and determine it they are going to reactivate it. I can't believe this shit. Oh well I guess I will keep spinning. I already have one spool full of some beautiful alpaca.

I got my Ashford Traveller and look what I've got so far

UGG I cant stand this. I finally found my camera and now I can't upload pictures to my blog for some odd reason. I'm doing exactly the same as I did before and it just keeps telling no file was sellected after I hit the upload button. I wish someone could tell me what the heck I'm doing wrong. anyway I guess I will spin some more. I love this.

Hunters OT sessions and some knitting

I know it's been a few weeks since I posted about Hunter, they have been some very busy weeks. Hunter has has thus far 4 OT therapy sessions and thus far. I have seen some much needed and suprisingly quick changes in Hunter. Here are some of the things that I have noticed from before starting therapy to present.

1. hunter would not eat until 9:00 pm. now he eats when we do. He still is a little vocal about not being hungry but then decides that he is indead hungry. He is still picky about what he will eat but we give him two options and he picks one.
2. before therapy Hunter would not go to bed until around 11pm. Now he is usually asleep by 8:30-9:00. this is a nice little treat. He seams to be actually getting enough sleep now.
3. Before therapy Hunter would hit, punch and throw things at his younger sister and frequently say that he hates babies. He would also say the he hates us (his parents). Now he will go for days or sometimes weeks before he says I hate you and I cant recall the last time he said he hated Trinity. As for the throwing and hitting it is also on the decline.
4. He actually now says Please and Thanks you!!!!! before threapy he wouldn't.
5. before therapy he would always make us carry him in/out of school complaining that his legs were to tired. He no longer does this.
6. he would not ride his bike. Now today since it was around 70 degrees. He rode it slowly for several hours and never once complained or go angry. He actually was outside playing with his sisters for more than 4 hours. This is something that he would only do for about an hour this last fall because he said he was to tired.


Those are the ones that I can think of at the moment and I am really pleased with his progress. As for what he has been working on at therapy....
1. brushing and joint compressions
2. laying on his side and spinning around 10 times in both directions to music with his eyes closed
3. having his arms cross midline and touch the opposite leg in a marching rhythm. This last time was the first that he has tried and it was very intersting to see him try this.
4. music therapy
5. following a flash of light with only his eyes. This is very hard for him, he actually ends up moving his entire body.
6. wheel barrel walking.
and some others that I can't think of right now.

as for at home his sensory diet consists of the following
1. music therapy for 30 minutes two times a day
2. brushing and joint compressions every two hours
3. wheel barrel walking.

Hunter will have his appointment at the University of Iowa hospital for further testing including autism on the 28th of this month. It is an all day evaluation with several differnt people. It will be intersting to see how well he does. I will let you all now afterwards.

OK now for some knitting.

I have purchased a spinning wheel and still await its arrival. In the meantime I have been busy researching differnt fibers and having fun ordering some. I also purchased a drop spindle starter kit from someone on ebay and that arrived to day. I had a few minutes to play with it and spun a little just to see what I could do and well a spindle is not as easy as it sounds in the instructions that came with it. I wish that I could find my digital camara, it has for some reason disapeared. I hope I find it soon so I can get some feeback on my first attemps. In the meantime I'm working on a sock that I hope with fit Autumn, If anything it will be to big but not by much and I'll probably end up saving it for this next cold season. So regardless It will have a pair of feet in which to travel on. Well that's all for tonight, I'm going back to searching for the camera or just simply go to be for once early!!!! If you call 11pm early.

NEW ADVENTURES IN FIBER

Ok, so I've been thinking about buying a spinning wheel and today I went to look at the Ashford Joy and the Ashford Traveler. I fell in love with the traveler and just didn't want to leave without taking one home with me. But, It had to be ordered. I should receive it next week around Wednesday. I can't wait. Now I just have to figure out where my wheel will be stored. I think that I will clean out my bedroom closet and store it in there when I'm not using it so the little ones won't get into trouble. As for fibers, I have a few ordered and hopefully they will arive around the same time next week. Wouldn't that be sad..... A wheel and NO fiber!!!!!! When I get it assembled and get a little bit of fiber spun I will post a picture. What an adventure this will be!!!

I'm finally Home!!!!

Wow, What a weekend. I left on Friday at 4pm and finally made it back home tonight from work in Cedar Rapids because of the lovely ice/snow storm that Iowa received. I was lucky to find a hotel room and didn't have to stay at the hospital. There were alot of nurses that were unable to get to work and many that couldn't get home like me. I went prepared and glad that I did. since I got there on Friday I ended up working three 12 hour shifts and one 8 hour shift. Which means that I have a chunk of money that I can put towards my knitting. I have no idea as of yet what I"m going to buy but I'm sure that I'll find something that I just can't live with out. Well time for bed in my own house.

my AMH DCX and monthly bookmark Feb mid month KAL

I finished my monthly bookmark Feb Mid Month KAL today. I was even able to get it blocked. I love the way that it turned out. I had some left over pink 100% cashmere that I used and it is super soft. I was originally going to give it away as a gift but now I might just keep it for myself. The other picture is what I received from my At My House dishcloth exchange partner Lynn Anderson. I just love the heart cloth. I'm actually a little envious because I can not crochet. Maybe one day I'll have time to learn.

Mid Feb KAL and Leaf dishcloth

Here are two dishclothes that I just finished. The green leaf one I started two days before my monthly dishcloth KAL began and I finished it the day that the KAL started. I think that it really turned out nice and will be making more of these in the future. The Pink varigated dishcloth is the Feb Mid Month KAL that I just completed. I really like this one also and would like to thank Andi for this design and all the hard work that she, Janet and Carol do for the monthy dishcloth KAL yahoo group. With out them I wouldn't have been able to knit such beatuiful dishclothes. I have learned alot from this group.

Hunters hearing evaluation

well, Hunter had his hearing tested today. The left hear has normal hearing and the right ear has a 40% hearing loss at low tones. They were unable to do a complete hearing evaluation because he would not sit still and the audiologist had no patience to continue to work with him. The Dr. said that he wanted to wait until Hunter was closer to 7 before considering him for surgery to repair his right ear drum. So, I guess we wait some more. Oh well. In the meantime I'm going to start music therapy with the OT to see if that helps some with his sensory issues.

my recent finished knitted projects

Ok, so this last week has been a heck of a week, very busy. I just was able to sit down yesterday and knit and knit I did. I just recently joined a bookmark KAL and did there Feb KAL. It was alot of fun. I also about two weeks ago made a pair of tube socks that were supposed to be for my son but they were to small for him so Trinity ended up with them. She loves them. I have never made socks before and have one started for myself I haven't had much time to work on that one lately. I'll get to it sometime. As for other thinks that I'm knitting, I have a mystery shawl knit along that I'm working on. I'm on chart 4 and hopefully will get that done today as long as Hunter and Trintiy behave themselves. I'll see how far I get today and see if I can get a picture of the shawl posted tonight. this is the first time that I have ever taken on a project like this and I think that it is the start of many more to come.

Hunter's second evaluation

Well today Hunter had his second evaluation done. This one was more indepth than the first one that was done. I took 3 hours for the OT to get him to do everything that she need him to do. It was actually very interesting to watch. You could just tell when he was starting to get frustrated but was trying to control it. what he would do is stick his tongue out, start panting almost to the point of hyperventilating and his feet would be going a million miles and hour. There was so much body movement that it made it hard for him to do what he was suposed to do. This is something that I have never seen him do before. well except the breathing part, he has done that before but not very often at home. Basically Hunter is for the most part a sensory seeker in almost all areas and a sensory avoider in only a few areas, I couldn't remember which ones exactly. But, he is global, meaning he has issues in all the areas. I'll get a full report from her next week. There is alot that needs to be done for Hunter. The OT said that she is first going to strengthen his core. I'm hoping that some of you reading this understands this because I'm not. She also wants to do some music therapy, but first I have to get Hunters hearing tested to see what frequencies he actually hears since he has a hearing loss to begin with prior to his right ear drum rupturing. So he will probably have a more significant one now. She also did some visual tests and want me to look into a developmental optometrist. Which is very intersting because one of my yahoo groups sent a newsletter on that very topic tonight. I'll have to read it when I don't have a headache.

During some of the writing or drawing parts of the test Hunter could not do them unless he used both hands to hold the pencil or if the OT wouldn't let him do that, then he would wedge the pencil in his armpit. He is very ridgid in his movements. I guess that I never noticed that with him at home. I'll have to check with school and see if they notice that. Oh speaking of school. I requested that Hunter be evaluated for a IEP, since he has a prior one and I want to see what they say. The teacher said that that is fine but she does not think that he will get one because Hunter does fine when he's in school. Hunters one of those--- great in school and melts down and processes everything after school, Yeh for me!!!- not. The OT that evaluated Hunter today saw that right away and asked if he does this. I can't believe the amount of things that she picked up on with Hunter. The other thing that Hunter did today was very very interesting, Just watching him you could see him transform from a happy energetic 4 1/2 year old to a very tired lethargic boy a 1 hour 1/2 into the evaluation. This is when he started to try to get out of doing everything, I have to go to the bathroom, I can't do that, I don't want to do that, when are we done, can we go home now were all things that he tried to pull to get out of dealing with the stress of the evaluation. I started to feel horrible at this point but I knew that we had to continue and just tried to encourage him to do so. I had to bribe him towards the end with McDonalds. It worked and he made it through, but not without telling the OT that he didn't like her any more and didn't want to come back. He then decided to scream at her when she offered him a sticker for doing all the things that she asked of him. But that he didn't get then, but that's ok he's not to big into stickers anyway. So Hunter will go back next tuesday for actual therapy to start and since my insurance company allows 60 treatment sessions a year, I think this will be a weekly tuesday outing for us for a long time.

What a day 1/25/07

Ok so, what a day it was. Hunter actually went to bed last night and stayed there. As did everyone else. Today was interesting when I thought Trinity was asleep and she walkes ever so quietly up to me and yells "mama, popo" Oh boy, poop there was from head to toe on this child. She's been doing that lately. The minute she does her business off comes the diaper and smear away. You'd think that after the first time of stinky poo in you hair, hands and face that she wouldn't do it again, but nope round two of poo everywhere this evening. I'm tired of giving here baths and she has horrible ezcema so that does not do it any good. So for Hunter he had an ok day, He screamed and yelled alot. His two favorite phrases are " I hate baby's" and " I hate you forever" . Tonight Aaron took Hunter and Autumn sledding and you would have thought that would have worn him out. Not at all, he came home and had to run in circles in the living room for an hour. Drove me nuts. But anyway. I hopeing to get Hunter to the Witwer childrens therapy center next week. I'll probably get a phone call on Monday to set that up.
As for the picture. that was after sledding tonight when they were running around, I managed to get them to stop for 2 seconds for a quick picture.

Pam

Todays crazy and strange events

Kari was kind enought to interpret Hunters very Professional language of his first referral. Thank you so much. I also found out today that where Hunter will be receiving OT will have to do another evaluation on him because they left out a few things in the original. But, I guess what the heck, It will be intersting to see how they compare. The first referral is from the only place in the town we live in and I decided that I'm going to do this the right way since it took me two years just to get the referral in the first place. So, I've decided to go 65 miles away to an actual childrens therapy center. Hopefully I will get in this next week to the same OT that works with my nephew that also has SID. As for how Hunter has been in the last 24 hours..... kind of weird. Last night he would not go to bed. I finally went to bed around 3:30am and he was still awake. Hunter has not done this for over 6 months. But the weird part of today was that he was actually really sweet. He had a couple minor meltdowns, but nothing that lasted long. Today was a preschool day for him also and he refused to take his boot and snowpants off, He told me he was going to go to sleep. I couldn't help but laugh. anyway when I went back to pick him up he was all smiles, extremely happy. He looked like a differnt kid almost. Usually on the way home is when he has his meltdowns and screams all the way home, there have even been times that I'd have to stop and buckle him back up. So today was really strange. The only thing that they did differnt was that they actually went outside and played in the snow. Wow, I'll have to make him do that tomarrow to, and see If I get the same response. As for going to bed tonight.... He's been asleep for over an hour. Hope he stays asleep. Well that's a recap for today, some good progress towards figuring out what this all means. I have tons of questions, but I'll post them another time when I don't have so much other information to talk about.


Hi Pam,
The language used in the SID report is definately "professional
language"! I volunteer to attend and interpret meetings with parents
to help them understand what the heck the drs and therapists are
saying. So, here we go...

The test results indicate that Hunter has a SID. In the context of the
test he showed difficulties with auditory, visual, vestibular (inner
ear), touch, oral as well as motor planning (gross motor-large
movements) and emotional regulation. These areas of "disregulation"
are affecting his emotional responses (over react/no reaction),
activity level (hyper/lethargic) and his social responses.

Good news...he showed no difficulties with fine motor skills (small
movements), sitting still (this is great, many children with SID can
not regulate even when they sitting still!) and sensory sensitivity
(not EVERYTHING is bothering him all at once).

A SID basically means that the senses are not working together
properly. AUDITORY: may hear things louder or softer than others.
Certain frequencies are "received" different. You may be talking,
assuming that because you are the main source of sound that he can hear
you, but actually, he can hear things we can not or do not pay
attention to and he can not "discriminate" between these sounds.
VESTIBULAR: the vibrations in your inner ear give signals to our
brains that control much more than sound. Receiving these signals
immproperly can cause full body difficulties. TOUCH: touch that may
be too firm or soft for most people can be soothing or irritating to a
person with "touch sensitivities" . Deep Pressure, Brush Therapy, etc
are often effective interventions. ORAL: certain textures or tastes
are intolerable to the child and there are often serious eating issues
(limited selection, etc). MOTOR PLANNING: "planning" what to do with
your body before you do it. Most of us do not consciously THINK before
we move. Most children with motor planning issues "over think" what
should be done next and often the autonomic response is not there due
to over thinking all of the possibilities. EMOTIONAL REGULATION: he
experiences emotional "over loads" and does not respond "typically" to
emotionally charged situations. This could include anxiety,
motivation, extreme tantrums, etc.

Our "sensory system" works together with the brain to send signals to
tell us what is going on, what to do with our bodies and how to adjust
to a situation. If these "signals" are not working cooperatively, the
messages get mixed up. To complicate the situation, it is not that the
sensory system is necessarily delayed or malfunctioning globally, but
rather some areas are "typical", some are "over-sensitive" or actually
connecting at higher frequencies and some are simply effected by the
lack of cooperative "connections" , creating scatter skills.

I hope this helps and did not cause more confusion! It probably
sparked more questions. OT: Love your blog...find every outlet for
release and support you can! Your dedication, support and love for your
child IS helping him!

Kari Christiansen
____________ _________ _____

results of the SID evaluation

This is not the entire evaluation just the major parts of it
Hunter scored in the definite difference range for auditory, visual, bestibular, touch adn oral sensory processing with probable difference for multisensory processing. Hunter scored in the definite differnce for sensory processing related to endurand/tone, modulation related to body position, modulation of movement affecting activity level and movement. Hunter scored a probable difference with modulation of sensory input affecting emotional responses. Hes scored difinite differnce for modulation of vestibular input affecting emotional responses and activity level, emotion and social responses. Hunter scored in the probable differnce for behavioral outcomes of sensory processing. Hunter scores on sensory factors included definite differnce for sensory seeking, emotional reactive, low endurans/tone, oral sensory sensitivity, and attention distractibility, and poor registration; he scored in the typical performance for sensory sensitivity, sedentary, and fine motor perceptual. So, I'm not sure what this exactly all means as of yet. Once I find out I'll post it.

Mid Jan KAL

I finally got it done and I also got my Blog set up, thanks to all those that helped with that. So here is a picture of the Jan Mid-Month dishcloth KAL. cabled cloth. Thanks Andi for all your hard work, It was tons of fun.

Picture of Hunter at his preshcool Thanksgiving feast

quick overview of SID and intro to Hunter

SID otherwise known as Sensory Integration Dysfunction is becoming more common today. So what is SID. SID is where the Neurotransmitters in the brain don't work properly thus causeing miscommunication in the brain sensory processing system. some examples that are commenly seen are. A child who does not like to have his hair washed or cut. the brain is telling the child that these everyday tasks are painful. there can also be delays in development, speach, ect. another way to explain it is a child with SID is like a trafic jam in the brain. There are many reasons that are believed to be linked to SID but at this time I will not get into them. this is just a brief explanation so that I can introduce you to Hunter and explain what the first 4 1/2 years have been like. This blog is by no means a way to answer your questions or diagnose your child. it is a way for me to document Hunters progress.

So I would consider Hunter's pregnancy and birth to be uneventfull, he was exactly 2 weeks early and weight 6 pounds 11.4 ounze on 6/11/2002. He did have the umbilical cord wraped around his neck once and the Dr. had to use what's called a mityvac to help get him out. From birth to 5 months Hunter was a happy child. He had numerous ear infections and required putting tubes in his ears at 5 months. He was a quiet child that loved to have his face rubbed. 6mo-1 year. Hunter had feeding issues. He never seemed to be able to keep anything in his stomach, he had a weak cardiac sphincter and would projectile vomit after every feeding. On Hunter's 1 year birthday he developed a high fever and was diagnosed with yet another ear infection. Shortly after turning one he started to pull his hair out. In one months time he was almost bald so I shaved the rest of it off. His Dr. didn't seem to think anything of it, but I knew that at this point something was differnt. Hunter continued to pull hair although it was doll hair and horse hair. At first he would eat it but as of today he just holds it in his hand and sucks his thumb. He will not go outside the house without his "fuzzy". by about 18 months he was throwing horrible tantrums, He would not sleep, eat, or let you put clothes on him. He had a ok vocabulary for an 18 month old. Around this same time the pediatrition thought that Hunters Anterior fontenells had closed and fused prematurely. So He had lots of xrays ect and determined that they did not fuse, just overlaped. By 2 he stoped talking and the fits, tantrums, rages worsened. Hunter could not communicate with us and he did not understand a thing we were saying to him. Hunter would wake up in the night screaming, crying, kicking and biting because we had no idea what he wanted. So finally at 2 1/2 we were able to get a special education teacher to come into our house and work with him for 6 months. We were taugh some sign language and hunter slowly started to have a way to communicate again with us. These fits, tantrums, ranges continued until Hunter was 3 1/2 when he finally was fully communicating with us aging. Potty training was impossible and finally done shortly after Hunter turned 4 this past June. Some of the other things that Hunter has issues with, sleep, eating, tires easily- he has no mucsle tone, bites still, hits, throws, verbally not nice to everyone, won't wear clothes with out a battle. Socks are totally out of the question, any type of suttle change in the house or everyday life throws him in a spin and a tantrum occurs. Hunter is currently in preschool and does fairly well except he tells me that he hates it becasue of all the loud kids, he loves to spin, get messy, bounce, jump. He is what I call my little tansmainian devil, my tornado, He destroys not plays with toys. So this past tuesday Hunter was finally evaluated for SID and today I will get a copy of the evaluation. So we will see what they say and recommend for Hunter.