Special Needs Dentist?

I never chose this club though with adoption of a preemie, adoption of a child with no prenatal history and the host of problems I had during pregnancy culminating with an emergency c-section when the twins stopped growing and e found they’d received no sustenance from their broken down placentas and our non talking angel with meconium, it was a possibility.

But I didn’t choose it. It chose me. I didn’t even know about it, never saw it in anybody’s life. So I’m living it alone. I guess same with AS. Living it alone.

So, to make sure it’s just typical autism sleep issues and not pain, I’ve emailed the pediatrician fora check up (though she hates being touched) and am looking around for dentists who can painlessly sedate my angel. She definitely needs a thorough cleaning as she bites the brush and doesn’t open her mouth when we brush her teeth. She needs a clean, and she needs to be checked for cavities. This is so complicated, readers! And I’m lying in absolute agony too. How will I do all this? Will medical aid pay for the anesthetist? How soon can it be done? How painless will it be? I don’t want to ever witness my child rolled in a blanket, screaming, looking to me for help while medical staff prick and pick and sweat and prick all over and find no vein and thank me for telling them to just STOP. Even writing it makes me cry. That’s a memory my son doesn’t have in HIS mind but will never be erased from mine. It needs to be sick and easy for both of us. (We ended up sedating him and going to theatre where the needle was put in a vein in his neck.)

I pray for a miracle but none comes. Everything is getting harder. I need a break. I truly can’t do this. I feel like my brain is going to snap. I feel like I’ll have some kind of weird stroke and my brain will literally explode. I’ve said that for a while and it hasn’t happened. I guess that’s a good thing?

The days are long and the nights longer. How can this be? Isn’t dealing with pain day and night bad enough? Why now when my days are becoming more difficult physically? Truth is, no time would be better. No parent would voluntarily sign up to stay awake from 1am, no napping. Nobody would.

So, it’s time to find out if there’s a cause we can treat.

I need a diagnosis AND a cure for something! There’s none for AS, for autism, ADHD, GDD, intellectual impairment. Please let there be one for the sleep problem.