FOR CHAIRTY

Ok so I’m going to be fundraising for an autism charity.

My son has autism.

1st let me tell you my sons story so far.

I call him Panda, the reason for this is his cousin couldn’t pronounce Alexander and called him Alexpanda, so Panda stuck for me, for years it stuck with everyone but now it’s only me.

He was found to have stopped growing at 25 weeks into the pregnancy, found at the 28 week scan.

They wanted to get him out there and then, but there was no NICU cots available (What Is the NICU? When babies are born early, have health problems, or a difficult birth they go to the hospital’s NICU. NICU stands for “neonatal intensive care unit.” There, babies get around-the-clock care from a team of experts. Most of these babies go to the NICU  pronounced “NIK-yoo” within 24 hours of birth.) He was rushed straight in after birth.

His mother was kept in hospital throughout all of this, waiting for a cot to become available, it felt like forever.

At 33 weeks a cot became available at Glasgow hospital, so the next day they were getting her prepared to be transported by ambulance there.

As they were preparing her and taking her to the ambulance there was a phone call come through to DR Davis (no relation to me) her amazing doctor, our hero.

MY HERO WHO SAVED MY SONS LIFE.

The phone call was to tell him a NICU cot had become available at Worcester hospital.

We had an angel looking down on us that day, so she got transferred to Worcester straight away with the cot reserved, thanks to a massive persuasive DR Davis (who saved my sons life if I didn’t mention it)

The Drs and nurses at worcester were amazing, like you would never believe.

He was then taken out the sun roof, weighing a tiny 3lb 3oz.

He was then taken to the NICU unit. The nurses there were the best ever, they saved my sons life too. They saved my life in many many ways by saving my son.

He then lost weight (as all babies do after birth) he went down to a tinier 3lb. He was jaundice too (Jaundice is a common and usually harmless condition in newborn babies that causes yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes).

So he had to go under a blue light, a special light called phototherapy.

Phototherapy is treatment with a special type of light (not sunlight). It’s sometimes used to treat newborn jaundice by lowering the bilirubin levels in your baby’s blood through a process called photo-oxidation. Photo-oxidation adds oxygen to the bilirubin so it dissolves easily in water. This makes it easier for your baby’s liver to break down and remove the bilirubin from their blood.

In NICU there were other premature babies, it was scary, some were on the edge, some being kept alive by machine. Such a scary place to be, but the most amazing place I’ve ever been, because the things these nurse do 24/7 none stop to keep these babies alive is unexplainable. They are the angels of the world.

A couple weeks went by and a cot became available at Walsall hospital, my home town. So Panda was transported back home. Then a week later he was released from hospital.

It was a tough time, a very expensive time too as I was having to travel to Worcester every day, and getting food there too, his mother stayed at the hospital, thanks to the nurses arranging that at the time, because it was an hour drive there and an hour back.

I was still working at the time and my payernity leave when he was home.

Anyway let me now tell you about how he was diagnosed with autism.

You see my son has autism, along with that comes anxiety and SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) at 3 years old, that means his senses are very much difficult to control and very over sensitive with many things. Bright lights, including the sunshine, hurt his eyes. Little things like a hair on his arm can cause him pain. Too much of a crown can be over whelming, he can breakdown in a crowded shop and freak out. Loud noises hurt his ears, like music too loud can over come him, too much noise in a shop can make him have an episode of lashing out.

If you see a child, or even adult anywhere freaking out or “being naughty”, they are not necessarily playing up or being naughty, they may be autistic.

Let me also say something, having an autistic child is very very tough, it is not easy at all, the slightest thing can cause a meltdown.

Autistic people are very obsessive over things, like my son is obsessed with signs and logos, shops (because of their signs and logos), and most of all buildings, especially weird/awesome shaped buildings.

Which then brings me onto saying, they are very very clever, my son wants to be an architect and builder. He remembers things from years ago like 2 or 3 ect, with strict clarity. He can remember a shopping list for days, if I forget anything on a shopping list he will tell me, and if I don’t get it or explain to him that item has been removed from the list he will freak out.

He was then diagnosed with Autism at 6 years old, 5 is the standard age for testing. At a very early age we was told he may be diagnosed with autism as he grows up, but will not get officially diagnosed until 5.

At the age of 5 he was diagnosed with hyperlexia unknown type 2 or 3 (that is triats of autism) he was kept by the panel which is rare to observe. Hyperlexia is the abilty to read far beyond their expected age. So at 3 years old he had the reading age of 6. Now at 7 years old, with the odd pronunciation mistakes he can read almost everything.

As I said at the age of 5 he was diagnosed with the hyperlexia with traits of autism, which is rare and he would grow out of by the time he reaches his 20s, but he would need to be tested 12 months later to see any change. At 6 years old there was no change, that told them he was autistic, thus then diagnosed with autism, SPD, ADHD, hyperlexia and development delays with speech and a language disorder called echolilia ( he repeats everything a few or loads of times, for example, “can I have some sweets” for like 10 times even after you have said yes right up until he get his sweets) and speech delay (speech was delayed from “normal” average speaking age) and he also developed a stammer same as me for a while (he still stammers now but rarely)

He had to have blood tests from birth and on a regular basis because he was struggling to put on weight, and they had to test him, at one point it was weekly.

He is now afraid of needles, as you can imagine, and petrified of doctors and nurses, hospitals and doctor surgeries too, and any room that looks or feels like a hospital or doctors room.

He was poked and prodded more times than a cross stitch. He also has the scars on his hands to prove it. Many have faded a bit but the camera doesnt pick them up.

So yeah sorry telling this story has been deep for me, brought up so many memories, and I’m enotional as hell. So please forgive any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Some info above was used from the NHS website,for clarity and explination purposes, not all info was used as it goes into deep depth.

Anyway back to this charity thing.

Any donations will be very greatful, big or small all is good. More info on how to donate will come in a blog before the weekend.

If any businesses can donate stuff to put into a raffle would be amazing too.

Any businesses who make a considerable doantion (money, things for raffle, merchandise, ect.) Will have a space on my blog to advertise FREE for 12 months (acceptable because I’m not profiting)

Anyone who can do t-shirt designs or amything similar and can help out I’d be eternally greatful. I would like to sell to donate to chairty too.

I’m getting some bumper stickers done too, so parents with autistic children can warn drivers behind them to back off esspecially if they have a loud horn, playing loud music or a boom boom box or got a noisy loud exhaust, especially them dickheads with cherry poppers.

I never have my boom boom box turned on when my son is in the car, and if I saw someone with the bumper sticker telling me they have an autistic kid in their car, I would turn it down.

This is the design I’m using for the bumper sticker, if anyone has a better design please show me ASAP.

Any money made from these bumper stickers will be added to the charity fund. I am keeping nothing I get during this fundraising.

My work also do a scheme, any money raised for a charity, they will match aka doubling the amount raised. Obviously if I make thousands I wouldn’t expect them to match the amount, but they can donate anything towards.

Any information, questions or suggestions please get in contact by amy of these means below, or comment.

My twitter
https://twitter.com/Plainandsimple_?s=07

My facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/theplainandsimpleguy/

My facebook messenger
https://m.me/theplainandsimpleguy?fbclid=IwAR0Og5AQPJHuIqgeO1vOPu2LhI42KbVqusCoCjxytO7HbTr2ufkIx-lM8Eg

My email
plainandsimpleguy2021@gmail.com

My linked in
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://uk.linkedin.com/in/rob-davis-theplainandsimpleguy-a50872209&ved=2ahUKEwjJku3gxdHwAhWMEBQKHbCPBOAQFjAAegQIAxAC&usg=AOvVaw2eJTfMPbBD7besoKGbrqnb&cshid=1621283013485

My pinterest
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/theplainandsimpleguy/

Please share as wide and far as possible, I will be eternally greatful and happy.

THANK YOU FOR READING PEEPS, MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW OR SUBSCRIBE TO THE EMAILS, LIKE, SHARE OR WHEREVER YOU CAN, INTRODUCE YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND HAVE A WANDER ROUND MY WEBSITE, CHECK OUT MY OTHER BLOGS AND PAGES, AND PLEASE I BEG YOU KEEP COMING BACK.

THEPLAINANDSIMPLEGUY

Categories:Rob's Blog

Tags: autism, autismawareness, autistic, baby, blog, blogging, charity, donate, fundraising, help, NICU, premature, small, tiny