Quarantine. Pandemic. Shelter in place. These words mean a lot to many of us. In Tristan’s world not so much. His routine has changed but many aspects of his life remain the same. He is not worried about much. His main concern is food. Overall he is content. But when he is bored…watch out! He will create his own entertainment. Here is one example.
This was one of the latest updates I received from his group home.
No we did not find the eye, The next step was to call the ocularist to have a new eye made. So the next morning I called Mr. J. I explained our problem that Tristan’s eye had been flushed down the toilet. Mr. J listened and then responded that a few times a year he gets similar phone calls, In fact, he just spoke to a lady whose eye was on the counter and bounced off into the toilet as it was being flushed. He said this is just one of those freak accidents. I could not believe it! We got the eye replaced rather quickly. Another healthy dose of laughter from our home!
Often we have different respite workers in our home. One day we had a nice lady, we will call her Mary, watch Tristan while we took our other son, Jacob, to the movies. Just about the time the movie was over, I saw on my cell phone she was calling. I said to Brian, ” I need to call Mary, because I just missed her call.” I quickly move to a hallway and called. She was crying on the phone. Mary stated that Tristan’s fake eye was missing. I reassured her that it would be fine. No worries we would be home soon. We arrived home and started searching. Mary explains Tristan came out of his room and went into the bathroom. When he came out of the bathroom she noticed his eye was missing. It is important to note Tristan was laughing when he came out of the bathroom. We continued looking while Mary was getting ready to leave. Our gut told us where the eye was. We waited for her to leave because we did not want to upset her anymore. We spent a few more minutes looking in a few locations. It was not found. We knew where the eye was and it was not going to be retrieved. We knew the eye had been flushed down the toilet. It was time to cancel the search. You may be wondering how we knew. If Tristan laughs it’s not good news. It means he is up to something. So our NEW rule to respite caregivers has changed. We now say they are not responsible if his eye is missing. We can get it replaced–no worries. Another healthy dose of laughter from our home!
thelightersideofautism.wordpress.com 