A Mother's Heart and the Will to Fight

By Lisa Cassat

At age two years, five months, and six days, my son had a surgical procedure that forever rocked our world. This procedure resulted in the drastic loss of my son's developmental skills in seven days. Due to the severity of developmental loss, his physician made a referral to the children's hospital, in order to get a medical diagnosis to start treatment. It was during the grueling eight and a half hours before we were given a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (299.0). However, when my son's test results came back, I was told that he didn't fit the normal profile they see with children with Autism and that it was her professional opinion that my son suffered an allergic reaction to the anesthetic given, but it would be up to me to prove it. It was this phone call that has made me fighter on my son's behalf, helping him to regain developmental skills once lost, and giving me the courage to find the answers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781641386760

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A Mother's Heart and the Will to Fight

Lisa Cassat

Copyright © 2018 Lisa Cassat

All rights reserved

First Edition

Page Publishing, Inc

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc 2018

ISBN 978-1-64138-674-6 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64138-676-0 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

ONE-SENTENCE DESCRIPTION

My book will offer other single parents, as well as families, encouragement in the fact that they are not alone and that they too can overcome the devastation and hopelessness that autism brings.

CATEGORY

Inspiration

AUDIENCE

Primary: Those families that are dealing with the everyday struggles of autism, including the behaviors that this neurological disorder dishes out, without the hope of a cure so far.

Secondary: The extended family that may not know how to help and those who blatantly don’t have any compassion or understanding of this debilitating disorder and the day-to-day struggles these families face, whether this comes from their own fear or ignorance of this neurological disorder, or the attitude, if it doesn’t affect them.

PURPOSE and NEED

I wanted to share my story and experiences of my life before and after the diagnosis of autism. I want the readers to see from the very beginning how my child was developmentally excelling in his tasks, like other children his age and how each of my child’s developmental goals was an exciting adventure for him. However, due to the many chronic ear infections my champ suffered during his two-and-a-half years, this led to a simple surgical procedure that went wrong, leaving us devastated, confused, and unsure at what the future held. How we literally had to start back at the beginning to get to where we are today.

I want the other families to know that even though their struggles are real, and they feel that there is no hope or silver lining at the end of the tunnel, that they are not alone in this fight, and they too can overcome these obstacles once they realize that they are a lot stronger than this disorder, that they are important individuals, not only to themselves or their champ, but to their society as well.

We only cave in to this kind of devastation and hopelessness if we allow these challenges/obstacles to win and rule over our lives.

UNIQUE ANALYSIS

Beginning

Everyone has a beginning to their story, Chapter 1 will show ours.

Developmental Milestones

Chapter 2 will show how my child was excelling at his developmental milestones and how exciting these goals were for him to achieve.

Chronic Ear Infections

Chapter 3 will deal with the two storms I dealt with: the thrush he got at six days old and his ear infections and the dangerously high temperatures that led to the surgical procedure that left us devastated and confused to what the future held.

Surgery and Loss

Chapter 4 will deal with the surgical procedure that forever rocked our world and the loss of his developmental skills within a matter of days following this procedure.

Autism Diagnosis

Chapter 5 will deal with the grueling eight-and-a-half hours appointment at the children’s hospital that led to the autism diagnosis.

Starting Over

Chapter 6 will deal with literally starting over with developmental milestones and dealing with the behaviors and challenges that autism brings.

Taking Classes

Chapter 7 will deal with the steps and classes I took to understand autism.

Dealing With My Emotions

Chapter 8 will show how I dealt with my champ’s autism diagnosis and how I continue to deal with his autism, how I struggled with my faith in understanding why God allowed this to happen, and what was the point.

Your Place In Society

Chapter 9 deals with the struggles these families face in society and how these families are viewed within social circles as well; you definitely find out who your true friends are.

Overcoming Autism

Chapter 10 deals with how we as a family finally got the victory over this debilitating disorder and started to enjoy my champ and my life again.

READER BENEFITS

Getting a better understanding of the struggles families face on a day-to-day basis with autism, and that everyone deserves to be accepted in society, despite their differences, not to mention bringing hope to families across the globe that face this disorder and have the courage to overcome.

ABOUT ME

I am a single mother of an intelligent, high-energy, go-getter boy with autism, who has taught me the meaning of the word champion, that’s why I call him champ. Being his mother is the best honor I have ever experienced in my life. I was born, raised, and have lived in Colorado all my life. I graduated from college with a degree in general studies and pharmacology. My family consists of my father, Thomas, a Marine Veteran who teaches me every day what true courage is, as he continues to fight his cancer; Erlin, my mother, who kept my life interesting and challenging growing up; and lastly, my brother Mathew, who I affectionately call my nightmare, for the experiences of having a daredevil for a brother. I come from a huge family of twenty-two aunts and uncles and tons of cousins in which the majority are boys. I enjoy hiking, swimming, and riding horses, and a love of outdoors.

Dedication

I am dedicating this book to my son, who has taught me to look at our world with a smile and constant wonder. Also, to my dad, who has taught me what courage and will-power is all about, as he battles his cancer.

Chapter 1

Beginning

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

—Unknown

Everyone’s journey in life begins the day they are born; however, my journey with my son began before he was born.

In order to fully understand how we overcame some devastating blows we faced, I feel it is important to you, our readers, to understand our beginning.

In the summer of 2005, I moved to Greeley, Colorado, and was accepted to the University of Northern Colorado in the Fall. I was on the wait list for the Nursing Program and was going to take the remainder of the prerequisites needed for the program. It was a long wait list and I had to wait my turn, the prerequisites I took were pathophysiology (study of how diseases start in the body), English, time-management, music, and math.

I also had to work full-time. So I worked during the weekends and took classes during the week. I got a job at a nursing home and started the week after I moved there; I worked from six in the morning until ten at night for the first year, until I received a great opportunity to work as a unit assistant (UA) at a newly built hospital near my home. At this point in my life, I was more focused on accomplishing my goals and getting my degree than being a mother; this was the furthest role on my mind. It amazes me that no matter how many times we plan our lives and, where we want to be at that moment, life gives us curveballs. We’ll get to the curveball here in a moment; let’s first discuss the great opportunity: I applied for the UA position in November of 2006 and was hired in December of 2006, but didn’t actually start until January 2007. All of us that were hired had to do a two-week in-service before we were allowed on the floor, I started out working at Poudre Valley Hospital, until work was finished enough at the new hospital for which we were hired back in December. We began cleaning the rooms, placing the equipment in the rooms as well on the floors, and whatever needed to be done, until the grand opening. I was excited about the opportunity for the simple fact that I was about to put into practice what I learned for the past three years in classes. Once the hospital opened for business, we had to rotate to different floors for the first three months, until the hospital was adequately staffed. Every floor I worked on gave me a great opportunity as a nursing student to have hands-on experience and excel in the craft/profession.

I was on the cardiac wing for the first month; the whole floor was bright red and had pictures of the different valves, arteries, muscles, and functions of the heart itself. Although I was capable of performing a lot of tasks needed to provide the best care for the patients, I was only allowed to do the basic care, which included vitals, height, weight, showers or bed baths, feedings, and linen changes, not to mention paperwork. Until I gained enough experience on floor and with an RN in the room, would I be allowed to do more, which included placing catheters, taking an IV out, and assisting in-tube placements. Also, there were times where we would have to provide one-on-one care, which meant we were in a single patient’s room and provided care just for that patient. It was rewarding and challenging at times; I used this time not only to provide care but to study. I only encountered one serious situation on this floor the whole month I was scheduled, it was just before my day off, and a patient went into cardiac arrest and code blue was called. We had to react fast and get everyone and the equipment needed to help the patient and assist the specialist. It took ten minutes to stabilize the patient, but it felt like three hours. Once we had the patient stabilized, we had to clean the equipment and finish our duties before the next shift came on. What a way to start the school week, I was drained.

With one more week to go on the Cardiac Floor, I didn’t face any more serious situations, but we did get a little child on the floor, and that tugged at the heartstrings. It was difficult to watch and provide care with a patient so young, but I did the best I could and finished out my week with this little one, until I was rotated to the Recovery Wing. The Recovery Wing was a maroon color and had artwork on the walls. I still had to do vitals, weights, heights, showers or bed baths, linen changes, paperwork, one-on-one patient care if needed, and assist in serious situations. I spent a lot of time doing one-on-one patient care for eight hours, on a tweltve-hour