When Something Is Wrong

Well we have decided as a family to change the cause or outreach of our family blog, to tell the story of our son Justist and raise awareness for Autism. Along the way, as his parents, especially as a mother it gives me an outlet to express what our lives are like to the ones closest to our hearts.

It has been said, "that Mom knows best." My subtle discoveries with Justist began well over a year ago in January 2008, James was deployed and I just noticed that Justist wasn't himself. He would become agitated when the routine in his life would change and he would shut me out. I simply thought this was just because Daddy was gone away and that the routine changes were another reminder of something else different in his life. But throughtout those 3 months he became less of a happy child and more of an angry kid who was withdrawing and unwilling to make regular eye contact with me. But alas, Daddy was back at home so we told ourselves it was just a phase and went on our merry way. Besides that summer, Justist developed regular migraines and we had greater worries on our hands because it was then that a CT scan would show us that he had a cyst on the brain that would require us to see a Nuerosurgeon for evaluation which they are still watching yearly. It is with much thanksgiving though that I can say his migraines are well maintained with medication and his cyst and scans are so far unremarkable!

However, this fall as our third deployment came upon us and Daddy was gone again for 6 months this time. I saw again, even more the kid who would withdraw and became angry regularly. He now showed me as we were admidst the home school year that studies were becoming a struggle for him, in that he couldn't focus for long periods of time and certain subjects caused him anxiety to the point of tears. More importantly the relationship he had with Jarett and Makenzie were becoming strained, he would get mad at them if he couldn't control them or they didn't do the things he wanted to do or weren't interested in what he was talking about. At this point I knew this isn't my son, not in the sense that it's the boy I know him to be! He was trapped in there somewhere....
Then the same night, my older son Jarett says"mommy, Justist has always been different, not in a bad way but just different from other kids." I knew then it was time to go to get help and so started our journey, first with the Pediatrician and DO. A journey to unlock the door to our son~

Thanks for your support,
Happy@Home


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