**Important**
The US House of Representatives will soon vote on the the Combat Autism Act (S.843 for Senators) or HR.2421 for Representatives). It is vital that this act pass for our kiddos and adults affected with autism. Please go to the website www.combatautism.org and click on the "TAKE ACTION" button at the top left corner of the homepage. You can find a list of your senators and representatives, as well as instructions on what to ask when you talk to them. If your senator or respresentative is already a co-sponsor of the bill, thank them for their support! If not, please, please take the time to enlist their support.

(I would appreciate you passing this along to family & friends!)

Jacob's surgery update. Jacob had eye surgery on both eyes this morning around 9 am. We weren't sure if he would be healthy for the surgery. Joshua and Rachael are sick with pretty bad colds right now. Abby has had a runny nose and gut "issues" since the weekend, but we're thinking she doesn't have the cold, either, because Joshua and Rachael are up coughing at night, and Abby has been sleeping. Deren took Jacob to the surgery center at 7:30am. I stayed home with the others. I didn't want to hand Rachael and Joshua over to the babysitter until I saw how they were doing once they woke up. They both woke up in a fairly good mood, and both ate breakfast, so Mallory arrived at 9 am to take over.

When I arrived, Jacob was still in surgery. Deren brought a dvd player for Jacob to watch during the pre-op time. They gave Jacob versed, and Deren said he was pretty mellow and happy to be watching his movie. The dr commented on how great Jacob had done, and how she couldn't tell he had autism. I told her "wait until he wakes up." We saw Jacob just as he was waking up. He was screaming and trying to claw his eyes. I told the nurse to ask the anesthesiologist for some meds to calm him down. They gave him a shot of phenergran to make him sleepy. The anesthesiologist (and I'm getting tired of spelling out that word) said he will be sleepy the whole ride home - WRONG! When we put Jacob in the wheelchair to go to the car Jacob popped right awake and went ballistic. It took Deren and 4+ nurses to subdue him. Dr. Wang, the surgeon, was walking down the hall just then. She wasn't saying "he doesn't seem autistic" at that point. Instead of sleeping the way home, Jacob screamed at the top of his lungs the whole way. Thank goodness the drive was only about 10 mins. Then he tackled me to the floor as I was trying to get him in bed. Deren and I sat in our bed with him and gave him a popsicle to eat. We cut his nails then. At the surgery center when he was clawing at his eyes we noticed his nails were very long - yikes, I meant to cut them yesterday and forgot. As soon as Jacob was still for a couple mins he tired out and went back to sleep.

Jacob woke up a couple hours later, and has been cranky, but seems to be doing better and better as the day progresses. Rachael was the same way after her surgery. Too bad we won't be getting sleep tonight, with the resident sickies. I just hope Jacob has a least a couple days until he catches the cold, too (and wouldn't it be a blessing if he didn't get it at all!). We're to give him eye drops 4x/day for the next week. He's just loving that (sarcasm inserted).

..so I just got off the phone with poison control. FYI - the ingredients in flushable toilet wipes are non-toxic. Abby has developed an obsession with them. She dove into them again this morning, and was cruising around the house with a wipe stuffed in her mouth - sucking away. Ewwwww......!