PTSD?

I love roller coasters, but not this one we're on. It's too scary and I can't
see where it ends. Kellen is still home from school due to his anxiety. Sweet Husband and I have been taking turns staying home with him. He has an appointment at our Children's Hospital on Monday, but that's still a week away.

This afternoon was Kellen's IEP meeting. I've been dreading it all week. How do you write goals for someone who can't even go to school? Who currently has to be reminded what to do minute by minute? Take a bite of your hamburger. Take off your shirt. The meeting was hard, but not as bad as I was expecting. We had the neighbor boy come over to stay with Kellen. When we returned they were watching Sky High on DVD.

Everything seemed fine and they were enjoying themselves. The neighbor went home, Sweet Husband went out to get a pizza and I was in the backyard watering our garden while Kellen was inside watching the DVD. Just when Sweet Husband returned, we heard yelling coming from the family room. Kellen was wild-eyed and frantic. I quickly turned to look at the television and saw that there were babies who were being kidnapped. This is the exact scenario that Kellen has been obsessing about related to the movie Son of the Mask.

I have never seen Kellen so afraid. He was sweating, crying and yelling. Sweet husband said over and over again, "You're safe, you're safe. Touch the couch, it's real. Touch your leg it's real..." He was trying to bring him back to the here and now.

Sweet Husband works at our local veteran's hospital in mental health. He works mostly with soldiers who experience post-traumatic stress disorder. This is what my little warrior is experiencing. I'm sure of it now. I'm feeling shaky and I'm sad that he got so upset tonight, but it showed us more clearly what is going on with him. Right now we can use every clue we can get.