My absolutely horrible start to the day :( Just venting...

June 18, 2002

Took my 6 1/2 year old autistic son Brocky to summer school this morning and

he decided this would be his first time ever to dash off Scared the

complete poop out of me to say the least. School starts at 9:00 and we get

there at about 8:50 and have to wait 5 minutes for his teacher and associate

to come out of the building to get him (they meet all of the kids outside the

school and then take them inside as a group after all of the buses have

dropped everybody off). They come out of the building and I let go of

Brocky's hand, the associate takes his other one, and everything is cool.

Then Brocky decides he doesn't want his backpack on anymore and as the

associate lets go of his hand to rearrange it Brocky turns around and runs

down the hill. At first this doesn't concern me because BEFORE Brocky often

hops, skips, runs, jumps about 3 feet away and then turns around and stops

and makes sure we're still there. Not today. He kept going down the

hill/slope the school sits on, hits the bottom and the sidewalk, and still

keeps going...BETWEEN two parked buses, OUT INTO the street and ALL the way

ACROSS the street before he stops/slows down just enough for the associate to

catch up to him and grab him. And RIGHT after he gets across the street

there is a whole string of cars that go by (everybody dropping their kids

off) so I'm now thinking (now that it's two hours later and I CAN think) that

the first car in that long string must have seen Brocky, the associate, and

me all running down the slope and slowed down...because we all know that if a

kid comes running out from between two buses he can't be seen in that one

instant. Thank God everything turned out OK but darnit my poor heart can't

take this kind of stress It took me an hour and a half to stop shaking

and for the waves of nauseau to leave me. And trust me...we will be much

more vigilant and the boy is NOT ever going to be anywhere outside without

holding onto somebody's hand and if I have to drag out the safety harness I

will without a second thought to what people think because this CANNOT happen

again.

ANYWAY...

The whole adrenaline rush has now set my fibromyalgia into a flare and I hurt

all over and my muscles are twitching along with one of my wonderful

migraines. I truly don't think this day can get any worse The pain I

can sort of deal with but the stress has got to go.

Thanks for listening guys, I do actually feel a little bit better getting it

all out there...

Jen in Iowa...who needs some painkillers, a nap, and a long hot soak in the

tub (and a kid who knows or could even learn for that matter not to run out

into the street)

June 18, 2002

Mommy@... wrote:

> And trust me...we will be much

> more vigilant and the boy is NOT ever going to be anywhere outside without

> holding onto somebody's hand and if I have to drag out the safety harness I

> will without a second thought to what people think because this CANNOT happen

Wow, what a really scary moment! I'm glad to hear that your little boy

is ok. I have a friend who has an autistic boy, and he has given her

some heart stopping moments as well. I think you should go by what you

want as far as a harness goes and let others think/say what they want.

It's easy for them to say you should just hold onto the kid's hand, but

with my little brother, it just wasn't possible. My mom had to use a

harness with him a lot because it was the only way to keep him safe.

hugs

Darcy

June 18, 2002