My wife took Anthony to see a neurologist today as recommended by the doctor at the emergency room last week.  She called worriedly to ask if I could somehow leave work--I ended up finishing at home--to join her at the doctor's office because Anthony was showing signs of getting violent.  Thankfully, we didn't have an incident there.

The doctor told us, somewhat differently from what we heard at the emergency room, that the chance of having a second seizure is in fact 50% within the next six months for people in general, and higher than that for those with autism.  If Anthony makes it past six months without one, the likelihood for another episode goes down significantly.  We were grateful to have clarification about that, as well as information about what to do in general if it happens again.  We will also be getting an emergency nasal spray prescription that can stop a seizure if it goes excessively long--we learned that a seizure that lasts five minutes, for instance, is just as likely to continue for ten, and clearly intervention would then be in order if possible.

*********************************************************************************

As I have mentioned before, we are at a loss about what to do with Anthony wetting himself.  He has completely regressed to not even considering going to the bathroom on his own before doing so.  Maddeningly, he will come out to us or go into the bathroom immediately *after* he has done it, and it is apparent that he knows we won't be happy with him.  We don't know what to think.  It's almost as though the blessing we felt of him suddenly learning to go on his own at five years of age--after nothing we tried worked--has just as suddenly been revoked.

This impacts us not only in time lost due to dealing with him once, twice, and even thrice a day with the washing, changing, cleaning, et cetera, but there is an additional challenge for us, and part of it is almost amusing: we have to scramble to find pants or shorts for him to wear because things are constantly being soiled and waiting to be washed, and I realized today that the stack of plastic bags we get from stores for our garbage has been depleted because we keep using them for Anthony's wet clothes.  We will have to stop being ecologically friendly and ask for more plastic rather than paper bags for the time being, I guess.