My Award - Sisterhood/Triple Award

My blogger friend Stefanie at "I Brought You In" and Mom's Most Wanted gave me this award for choosing to make a difference in someones life. It's so sweet of her to think of me and I appreciate her kindness and her blogs! Stefanie was even kind enough to guide me through the "award" process, how cool is that?




There are the rules that go along with accepting this award:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude(If you don't have 10, its ok.)
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.


Logo - Got it after Stef told me what to do!
Link to the other post - I think it's working!
10 blogs - Ok, here are some, random order

1. Dear Noah - what a great idea to write to your child like this!
2. A Devonshire Design - My baby sister who got me to blog
3. Living Graciously in 3/4 Time - A Wonderful Independent Strong Woman who is so inspirational
4. Mom - Not Otherwise Specified - a wonderful special mom to a special child
5. GFCF Free and Not Starving
- a special mom who does everything she can to help her special child and then shares it with us!
6. Who says 8 is enough? - What an inspirational family!

More to come, I need to take care of Timmy right now!

Let's hope they pass this bill, it's time for a change

Nevada leaders are discussing a bill this legislative session could change the lives of children with autism and those of their families as well.

Assembly Bill 162 would mandate insurance coverage for autism screening and treatment. It can cost as much as $40,000 a year for effective treatment and right now many providers refuse to cover it. Proponents say if we don't pay it now, we'll pay ten times the amount or more later.

Lawmakers, autism advocates, and insurance companies are close to making the bill a reality.

Four-year-old Cameron Kmetz has autism, but you wouldn't know it. Two years of therapy, called behavioral analysis, has transformed him. When Cameron was diagnosed with autism, he couldn't speak. He wouldn't engage with other children and he withdrew into himself.

But now he plays with other kids his age, speaks in full sentences, and laughs... a lot.

Cameron's parents, Marcia and Rick Kmetz, credit his progress to intensive therapy. Cameron logs nearly 30 hours each week with five therapists. The treatment is expensive.

Explains Marcia, "I knew in my heart that this was the right program, that this was going to be the answer for my child, and then he (therapist) said it costs $2,000 a month. We both broke down in tears because we couldn't afford it. We couldn't think about affording it and we knew we had the answer in front of us, but we couldn't have access to it. "

The Kmetzs do receive some help from The Sierra Kids Foundation, but ask other families who have children with autism and they will tell you the burden is a heavy one.

"Therapy for my son is costing $30,000 a year and we just cannot afford that for much longer," said Wendy Hruska, who is caring for a child with autism.

Said parent Kevin Richards," I work six days a week. A lot of the time in the evenings, I take care of the boys so Toni (spouse) can go to work so we can make as much money as we possibly can. Even with as much money as we are making, it still doesn't come up with as much as we need to help Tyler and give him everything he needs."

A piece of legislation could provide financial relief to thousands of Nevada families coping with autism. Assembly Bill 162 would mandate insurance for autism treatment. It's treatment that is, according to experts, vital to children who suffer from autism. That treatment could allow them to live productive lives and become contributing members of society.

The bill has wide support from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers. 49 of the 63 have signed on.

Ralph Toddre is a member of the Nevada Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders. He is optimistic that teamwork will help pass this legislation.

The legislative team working on this, Assembly-people Leslie, Conklin, Orenschall, and under the direction of one of the best referees in the state, Speaker Buckley - they want this to happen and want to help our kids. It's going to be us working together with not only the legislature, but insurance industry and advocates and I think we can all get together and come up with something that makes sense for everybody, but keeping in mind it's for the best interest of kids and families.

Toddre believes it is those kids and families who will motivate the right people to do the right thing.

We do need to get this done. We do need to get this done this time. It's the right bill at the right time and I think everyone involved believes that both the advocates and insurance industry. I hope when this is all over I can sit there and say, see, I told you, people do do the right thing. If I can't, then shame on all of us.

If the bill passes, Nevada would join a growing number of states that require insurance coverage. Three other pieces of legislation concerning autism are currently being drafted in the state legislature.

Found at this link


And more here

Awareness and detection have grown over the years, but is that the whole story? It’s an issue made timely by insurance debate

By Marshall Allen

Fri, Feb 20, 2009 (2 a.m.)
Sun Archives

* Insurers likely to get bill for autism (2-11-2009)
* No money, no treatment (12-15-2008)
* 5,000 autistic Nevadans, two bills that could help them (6-2-2007)

Sun coverage

* Archive of Sun health stories

Autism and its related disorders are confounding parents, health advocates and scientists. And now, state legislators want insurance companies to step in and help.

The disorders are difficult to identify in children because there is no biological test to confirm their presence. Thus, “autism spectrum disorders” emerge as an ominous specter during early childhood years. An autistic child may respond to the sound of a refrigerator, but not his mother’s voice. He may stare off into space, but never make eye contact with his sister. His senses may by hypersensitive, to the degree that he throws tantrums around bright lights or loud noises.

Identifying the disorders is complicated by the fact that they share characteristics — often causing an impairment in socialization — but don’t share the level of severity. A child with Asperger syndrome may look and sound normal but be unable to recognize social cues, while a severely autistic child may be totally unable to speak.

In hindsight, the signs are clear. But in the course of discovering the problems they are muddled. It can take years before parents realize a child has an autism-related developmental disorder, though experts say it can be reliably diagnosed by age 3.

Once the disorder is diagnosed, early intervention is essential to ensure a child’s development isn’t stunted. Usually this takes the form of occupational and speech therapy that may cost parents tens of thousands of dollars a year out of pocket.

Democrats in the Nevada Assembly introduced a bill this week that would require insurance companies to cover the cost of therapy. Similar legislation has passed in other states. Insurance companies complain that providing autism coverage would increase premiums, which may prompt some employers to stop providing insurance.

Autism spectrum disorders have received increased national attention as their diagnosis has increased. When autism was first described, in 1943, it was assumed that it was a low-incidence disorder, and initial studies in the 1960s suggested the disorders affected perhaps five in 10,000 children, said Catherine Rice, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s national center for birth defects and developmental disabilities.

In the early years, however, only severely impaired children were placed in the autism spectrum. As researchers have learned more about the diseases, they have broadened the definition of what qualifies as an autism spectrum disorder — and today studies suggest about one in 150 children have some type of autism spectrum disorder.

So are there more autistic children, or is the broadening definition causing more children to be classified as autistic?

It’s impossible to say for sure, Rice said. Awareness of autism is increasing, which leads to more effective identification, but it’s also possible that it’s increasing. Even with the more inclusive definition, the number of autistic children seems to be on the rise, Rice said.

It’s not known what causes autism.

Researchers say environmental factors could contribute to the onset of the disorders. Studies have linked autism to air pollutants, pesticides, pet medications and even drugs used in the birthing process, such as Pitosin, Rice said.

“It could be anything from the exposures in our physical surroundings — chemicals around us in homes, clothes, products, medications we take and food we eat,” Rice said.

Rice said the recognition that environmental factors play a role in causing autism shows that there is common ground in the debate about whether vaccines play a role in the disorders.

“The debate has been more polarizing than it is in reality,” Rice said. “Hopefully there is common ground in recognizing that autism is more complex. It’s not going to be solely explained by biology or genetics or a single environmental cause.”


at this link

More drugs for our Autistic Children? Are drugs the answer?

Washington, Feb 5 : Researchers at Brown University have discovered a structure in the brain called the Fragile X granule, which offers a potential target for treating certain kinds of autism and mental retardation.

Led by Justin Fallon, professor of neuroscience at Brown, the study''s finding opens a new line of research about potential treatments for autism.

Autism is a neurological disorder that strikes young children and can impair development of social interaction and communication.

"If you are going to treat the disease you need to be able to target the defective elements. The Fragile X granule offers such a target," said Fallon.

Although, autism can be caused by a variety of genetic factors, Fallon''s lab focused on one particular area - the Fragile X protein.

If that protein is mutated, it leads to Fragile X syndrome, which causes mental retardation and is often accompanied by autism.

It is believed that autism and mental retardation are diseases of the synapse, the basic unit of information exchange and storage in the brain.

The researchers focused their study on the Fragile X protein and synaptic connections in healthy mice.

By examining specially prepared sections of mouse brain tissue with high-powered light and electron microscopes, researchers made a number of determinations.

First, they showed that Fragile X exists at the pre-synaptic, or sending side of the synapse, an area that had not been widely studied.

"For over 25 years the field has focused almost exclusively on the post-synaptic, receiving side. Almost no one has looked at the pre-synaptic side, as it was not thought to be involved in Fragile X," said Fallon.

This discovery is important because scientists, if they are to treat Fragile X syndrome, autism or mental retardation must know where the functional defect actually is. Fallon''s research helps fill in a potential gap.

"The implication is that pre-synaptic defects could contribute to the pathology in autism in Fragile X," said Fallon.

Also, researchers found that Fragile X protein is only present in a small fraction of what are known as pre-synaptic specializations.

The pre-synaptic Fragile X protein also turned out to be present in microscopic granules, which look like tiny pebbles under a high-powered microscope. Understanding the Fragile X granule is important in this context because the finding could lead to more targeted treatments.

The researchers hypothesize that the granules contain multiple RNAs, or sets of genetic information to help modify the synapse during learning and memory.

If their theory is proven correct, the granules might serve as pinpoint targets for eventual drug treatments of autism.

The study, titled "The FXG: A presynaptic Fragile X granule expressed in a subset of developing brain circuits," is published in the recent issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. (ANI)

I read this at this link

An Award?

My blogger friend Stefanie over at her I Brought You In Blog got an award. Stefanie also has another blog called Mom's Most Wanted which has all kinds of cool stuff to check out and giveaways. I think her award was for her Mom's Most Wanted site.

I think she in turn is giving me an award for making a difference in someone's life. It should be an award for the "new lame blogger who doesn't get what she is suppose to do now". So I in turned emailed Stefanie to get a better idea of what I am suppose to do. When I know more you will also but in the meantime check out Stefanie's blog and her Mom's Most Wanted blog.

Hope everyone has a Happy Friday!

Research for Timmy and other special kids

I have spent a ton of time researching different things for Timmy. Diet, ABA, HBOT, Meds, Camp, Schools, you name it I have googled it. I wish I had the time and money and patience to take everything I have pulled together and learned to write a book for people who are struggling in their fight for their children. The thing is I know there is so much more I have to still learn but I have so much I can share. I am thinking of starting another blog to just document each agency I find, each PDF of services of I have located, each directory of phone numbers and agencies, each special school and camp out there. I just think it would be so awesome to have everything in one place so instead of taking years to find things someone could go to the site and get a link to what they need or a hint of where to begin. I wonder if any of you in blog land would be interested in helping me with this?

Let me know, you know how to find me...

Wednesday Word - Compassion

This word is something I strive to achieve on a daily basis. The following quotes touched me as I researched my word today:

Viktor Frankl:

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Martin Luther King, Jr.:

I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream -- a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality.

Unknown:

It is lack of love for ourselves that inhibits our compassion toward others. If we make friends with ourselves, then there is no obstacle to opening our hearts and minds to others.

Patience - Key Word for Today

I decided to think about keywords that can help in our daily lives and this is a big one for me. I need to be more patient. I found a site where I can put the keyword I am thinking about and get quotes from other people, below are some of them, today it's all about patience.

Patience Definition
He that can have patience can have what he will.
Benjamin Franklin

Patience is the companion of wisdom.
Saint Augustine

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
Harriet Tubman


Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.
Saadi

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.
Victor Hugo

If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.
Mohandas Gandhi

You must first have a lot of patience to learn to have patience.
Stanislaw Lec

The greatest power is often simple patience.
E. Joseph Cossman

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.
Elbert Hubbard

How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young?
Paul Sweeney

Everything is out there if you know how to find it, and have the patience. I don't and haven't, but that's my problem.
Tom Holt

For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice - no paper currency, no promises to pay, but the gold of real service.
John Burroughs

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean Jacques Rousseau

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.
Carl Jung

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.
Lao Tzu

Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.
Hal Borland

Patience, n. A minor form of dispair, disguised as a virtue.
Ambrose Bierce

Endurance is patience concentrated.
Thomas Carlyle

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
George Washington

Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.
Titus Maccius Plautus

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.
Francis Bacon

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.
Joseph Addison

I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.
Saint Thomas Aquinas

Genius is eternal patience.
Michelangelo

All men commend patience, although few are willing to practice it.
Thomas Kempis

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
Leo Tolstoy

The keys to patience are acceptance and faith. Accept things as they are, and look realistically at the world around you. Have faith in yourself and in the direction you have chosen.
Ralph Marston

It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss; volatile spirits prefer unhappiness.
George Santayana

Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.
John Ruskin

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.
Napoleon Hill

Our patience will achieve more than our force.
Edmund Burke

It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.
Julius Caesar

I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.
Charlie Chaplin

Patience will achieve more than force.
Edmund Burke

Abused patience turns to fury.
Thomas Fuller

I believe there's too little patience and context to many of the investigations I read or see on television.
Bob Woodward

It is strange that the years teach us patience; that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting.
Elizabeth Taylor

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.
May Sarton

You have to find the peace and patience within yourself to be a model and an example to others and not judge.
Judith Light

The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.
Arnold H. Glasow

If you have confidence you have patience. Confidence, that is everything.
Ilie Nastase

Patience is the best medicine.
John Florio

Patience and tenacity are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.
Thomas Huxley

Patience can't be acquired overnight. It is just like building up a muscle. Every day you need to work on it.
Eknath Easwaran

As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind.
Cleveland Amory

As I pass it, I feel as if I saw a dear old mother, sweet in her weakness, trembling at the approach of her dissolution, but not appealing to me against the inevitable, rather endeavouring to reassure me by her patience, and pointing to a hopeful future.
Thomas Edward Brown

Humility is attentive patience.
Simone Weil

Patience and Diligence, like faith, remove mountains.
William Penn

Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.
Herman Hesse

There is no substitute for hard work, 23 or 24 hours a day. And there is no substitute for patience and acceptance.
Cesar Chavez


I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow.
David Hobson

Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience.
Hyman Rickover

My biggest weakness is patience, wanting to see things happen too quickly or get changes in place right away. Not having the patience to let things develop.
Paul Gleason

Have patience with all things, But, first of all with yourself.
Saint Francis de Sales

Reconnecting - Off Topic Post

I found a person very dear to me I lost contact with almost 30 years ago yesterday on Facebook. She has this special place in my heart and always has. It was amazing to hear her voice, hear about her life, her children, her husband and her triumphs and struggles. I am so proud of the woman she has become. Her children are both in college and doing well. She is now happily married to a wonderful guy and her Mother is still the pain in ass she was when we were younger! She has had some tough medical things come up and she has dealt with them and is dealing with them the way I would expect her to, head on and strong. I wish she lived closer to me so I could give her a hug once in a while. I wish she was closer so she and Timmy could be close. She was like a daughter to me and held me up when I was falling.

It makes me realize that there were some really special people in my life journey so far. People who I lost touch with physically but will always be so special in my heart. With the internet and facebook, myspace, classmates, etc it's easier to reconnect and find these special people. Go out there and look for them, you can never have too many people in your life to love or to love you back. It's worth the effort to find them...