The Standover Merchant
What else do you call someone who is in the 98th percentile for weight and height and who knows that he is bigger and more physically powerful than you and will follow that through?
Since the Noticeboard article, Will has had a tumultuous time.
Out of the blue, in the schoolbus in late October, 2001, he suddenly had a full-on grand mal seizure, then another one a week later. He was placed on Epilim, which unfortunately (because of the combination with Haloperidol) caused him to spend most of the following Christmas holidays in a barely rousable state. So, he was weaned off that and commenced Dilantin; which was very effective.
We had reports of outbursts at school - he was initially teased by one boy at his special school.....later Will became fixated on the student AFTER the teasing had ceased. In April, he turned 18 and seemed to be settling back at school. Not long after, he started showing signs of psychosis and he had the diagnosis of schizophrenia conferred mid-year by the specialist who had been seeing him regularly from the time he first diagnosed his autism.
Unfortunately, Will could not get into the mental health system at all, at a time when he needed to. Our specialist tried many psychiatrists and the local hospital for an urgent referral but they knocked us back. In fact, he lost an entire year of his life in severe psychosis.....he couldn't return to school after an attack on another student.....he wasn't suspended or expelled.....we withdrew him as we realised he couldn't return until after he was stabilised. And, of course, he withdrew to his room, waking hours all out of whack, outbursts seemed to be increasing. He had massive rapid mood swings....delusions and hallucinations.....we were able to see a top neuropsychiatrist (as it was strongly felt that the epilepsy had triggered his schizophrenia) - he recommended increasing his Risperdal and putting him on Epilim (an anti-convulsant that helped moderate mood swings). Occasionally, as before, we had him home for an overnight stay; he would seemingly be fine until the next morning when he would wake up with a strange thunderstruck look and I would worry that he was going to go into a dangerous rage. I'd breathe a sigh of relief when I returned him to his CRU but he could 'go off' later after transition. At this time, in the face of a lack of resources, our specialist said that the only way he was going to get help was for the house to call the CAT emergency response team, which shows the parlous state of affairs within this state's mental health system....that a child who urgently needed attention would only get it if he was taken away in a divvie van.
After knockbacks from many agencies and psychiatry clinics, he was eventually seen by the local CAT team and assessed.....all his psychotrophic meds were changed.....and this April, two weeks after the CAT team called first, he had a major outburst and had to be made an involuntary patient.....staying nearly 7 weeks in the ward because he couldn't return to his CRU and also the lack of accomodation within DHS. I think that the department and the ward staff thought that we might have been exaggerating the danger and gravity of the situation, until one night, there was a major incident and he had to be locked up for three hours. From then on, there was no pressure on the CRU to take him back (we were concerned about the danger to the other autistic young men there) because it was patently obvious that he needed a secure unit of some sort.
After his hospitalisation, he was in temporary crisis accomodation...since discharge, his mental state improved dramatically and his psychosis seemed to have gone completely for a while. He mostly behaves just like an autie....which is wonderful. The good thing is that (at last) he is in THE SYSTEM. But, unfortunately, in Victoria, acute mental health beds are scarce when you need them.
His neurologist at the Austin rightly thought that he could be weaned off his Dilantin because of his 2700 mgm Epilim per day.....but he had a grand mal seizure after only a 150 mgm reduction....so he did resume Dilantin - he's mostly controlled. Just one thing, the Risperdal and Solian have the awful side effect of making people gorge food and they stack on the weight. Will was already a binge eater...and needed monitoring with his diet. Years ago, when he was on Risperdal he totally blew out and I reckon he put on several stone in the space of a few weeks. It's DYNAMITE. And this compounds the management issues with behavioural outbursts in large auties. The bigger they are, the harder they are to manage when they lose it.
In 2004 , he moved to a permanent DHS CRU and the staff have been fantastic. Will's great love is to go the footy with us to see Geelong - and we've had a great year! My brother and I laugh because he just seems to spend the entire game pestering us about junk food and we've sort of got a system where he has to confine loo trips and yummies during the breaks. Otherwise we don't get to see the game ourselves. Beyond the Geelong Cats, he is obsessed about the weather and Melbourne's water storages.
This photo was taken when he used to access his computer, but we've since stopped that because it heightens his behaviour. Even with us breathing down his neck and monitoring his online usage, he would sneakily download shoot-em-up games and this would wind him up. He perseverates about violent videos and even the sound tracks from M15+ movies can get him agitated. So, it's PG from here on in!
(Will, on the left, that's Holly in the middle, hiding under her Geelong hat! My brother, Neil, a Geelong tragic is on the right.)
When he's well, Will has revealed his wonderful nature....he has a quirky sense of humour and is good fun.
© Debs 2003