Playing Detective

 

When I was a kid, I loved reading The Happy Hollisters series of books in which a family of five young siblings somehow finds themselves involved in mysteries they need to solve. Perhaps I was initially drawn to this fictional family because the oldest daughter is also named Pam, but I stuck with the series, reading every one I could find at the public library, fascinated by the ways these kids put together the clues to get to the bottom of the mysteries. Little did I know that as an adult, I would be solving mysteries of my own.

Because not enough is known about autism and because Alex’s communication skills are weak, I often find myself sifting through clues, trying to discern why he does some of the things he does. By putting together the research that I have done over the years––especially medical research––with careful observation of Alex, I can usually come up with potential reasons that have reasonable validity. Sometimes, however, I must sort through a wide variety of clues before I know the real reason.

Recently, Alex has been a little off. While his behavior has not been that bad, he just doesn’t seem quite like himself. Because we never want behaviors to escalate, we always try to get to the bottom of the problem right away. After having such a wonderful summer where he was content and cooperative, we didn’t want him to regress. Therefore, I went into detective mode and tried to figure out what was causing small changes in Alex.

Usually the culprit for behavioral challenges is yeast overgrowth in his digestive system, namely thrush, which makes his mouth and throat sore, causing him to be irritable. After dealing with yeast flares for more than three years, we recognize the symptoms and know that we must treat him immediately with antifungal medication to ease his discomfort and to prevent increasing agitation. Our experience has also taught us that yeast flares bring “abcd” symptoms: acne, behavior issues, coating of tongue, and dandruff. Fortunately, we didn’t see any of the telltale signs this time. Moreover, Alex seemed to be his usual pleasant self in the evenings, so an ongoing problem like yeast seemed unlikely. Therefore, we crossed yeast flare off our list of potential causes.

Another reason for Alex to be irritable is change. From past experience, we know that changes in routines can cause negative changes in his behavior. Although we considered that our returning to our teaching jobs after the summer off work might have bothered Alex, he seemed to be adapting to the transition reasonably well. In addition, he had maintained his afternoon schedule throughout the summer: Tuesdays with Jennifer for behavioral therapy, Wednesdays with Jessica for respite, Thursdays with Noel for music therapy, and Fridays with Jennifer for recreational therapy. Since his schedule had stayed the same, he didn’t have to adapt to any changes. In addition, we had not made any changes to his medications or supplements, so we couldn’t point to those as potential triggers for his being a little different.

After ruling out obvious causes, I then focused on potential environmental changes. While Alex doesn’t show typical seasonal allergy symptoms, such as sneezing, runny nose, or watery eyes, he has in the past acted irritable during allergy season. After checking the Weather Channel website and discovering that weed pollen has, indeed, been moderate to high in our area the past couple of weeks, I suspected that pollen could be bothering Alex. However, he usually does not want to be outside when pollen bothers him, and this week he has specifically requested to go outside in the yard, enjoying the fresh air. In fact, being outside seems to put him in a good mood, so pollen is probably not bothering him. Also, I suspected that some of the weather we’ve had lately could have affected him because he is like a human barometer who senses every change in air pressure, often acting irritable when the pressure is very high or low. Despite thunderstorms and a deluge of rain, he didn’t seem bothered by the weather.

Aside from the natural environment, Alex can also be annoyed by changes in the economy. Since he watches the business news channels faithfully, he is aware of oil and gas prices, stock market trends, and interest rates. At times, he has been very upset by high oil and gas prices and drops in the stock market. However, he has learned to take economic news in stride and not let changes upset him. In fact, he often compares various fluctuations to the stock market, knowing that things naturally go up and down, making observations, such as, “Temperatures are like the stock market; they go up and down.” Since Alex has come to realize that the economy fluctuates and watches the news without getting upset, we decided that he was not affected by the stock market, either.

After ruling out all of the usual suspects, I had to look deeper to figure out more clues and see what might be behind them. First, we noted that he typically seemed irritable in the morning and late afternoon, and he was at his best in the evenings, especially after a big dinner. During these times when he seemed off, we noted that he was anxious, impatient, fatigued, mentally foggy, and shaky. Although he has been getting a good night’s sleep every night, he still seemed tired in the morning. However, he would be energetic and active physically and mentally every evening. I wondered if he needed for his morning medications to take effect, but even when they should have been helping, he still was not quite himself. Moreover, when he was at his best every day, his medications would have been wearing off. I even considered that some of these symptoms could be side effects of some of his medications, especially the tremors that go along with lithium that he takes to regulate his moods.

Another factor I considered was the change in Alex’s waistline. Since Alex weighs himself every night before he goes to bed, I noticed that he has lost some weight. Although he looks quite healthy and has lost the belly weight caused by some of the medications he takes, something has caused him to drop those pounds. In thinking about his eating habits, I realized that once his obsessions about eating for set amounts of time or insisting upon three servings of food every meal had passed, he wasn’t eating as much as he used to eat. In addition, he didn’t seem interested in eating breakfast, nor was he snacking as much as he used to. Not wanting to force him to eat, we trusted that he knew what his body needed, but perhaps this was the culprit.

Realizing that he was at his best after eating a large dinner, I began to wonder if Alex was off whenever his blood sugar was low. After some quick research, I discovered that symptoms of low blood sugar include the following: fatigue/sleepiness, shakiness/tremor, anxiety, irritability/impatience, mental confusion, and dry lips. Alex had all of these symptoms. Consequently, I decided we needed to change his eating habits to see if eating more would alleviate the symptoms we’d been observing.

This week, Ed has been fixing Alex breakfast that includes fresh fruit every day, and we have increased the amount of food he eats for lunch, as well. In addition, we have been offering him healthy snacks, such as hummus, tomatoes, and bananas, all of which he especially likes. After just a few days of this new healthy diet, he already seems better. He has been more active mentally and physically in the mornings, and he doesn’t seem as anxious and irritable in the afternoons. Thankfully, he can afford to gain some extra weight, so we can feed him more without worrying about that consequence. Hopefully, we have figured out the problem and the solution, both of which are fairly simple. While I’m thankful that my childhood reading habits taught me the value of looking for clues and trying to solve mysteries, I’m even more grateful that God shows us the way and gives us the wisdom to help Alex be his best.

“Listen as Wisdom calls out! Hear as understanding raises her voice!” Proverbs 8:1