A Good Day

Well let's see....after a really long hard day of cleaning and rearranging to move my new dresser into my room yesterday, I got a good night of sound sleep. Yay me.  Johnny slept well too, which is always awesome.  I worked from 10am to 3pm today.  Called home a few times to check on things with Johnny.  This morning he had a small fit because he didn't want to eat the PB&J I left for him, he wanted to make his own.  Fine with me.  I think it's great if he wants to do it himself.  It probably makes him feel like he's got some control over it and that's good.  I made sure my daughter Riley knew that it's okay.  She and Lanny (16 yr old son) take turns getting up when I go to work and watching Johnny while the other sleeps in for a while.  My mother is always here to help supervise, although she can't walk, she is a huge help.  As are my children.  I really appreciate all of them so much.  So apparently that was the only problem today, about the sandwich.  This is SO good to hear, and it is happening more and more often lately.  Johnny has been taking Risperidone for one week now.  I know that it takes awhile for medicines to kick in but there have been some other changes too so it could be a combination of things or it could be the meds.  Who knows?  He is talking more, that is one of the changes.  He is using complete sentences.  He is answering questions.  He is offering conversation.  A few times this evening I noticed he isn't as angry when corrected.  He had a cardboard roll, like a paper towel roll and he was yelling through it and having a blast.  Then it was bathtime and I told him if he put it in the water it would fall apart, so don't get it wet.  Normally this would have sent him off the deep end.  He just looked at me and got into the tub and left it laying on the sink.  Little did I know he was thinking "Ha!  You just watch me."  I went and got a few chores done while he was in the bath, talked to my mom for a few minutes, then went to tell him it was time to get out.  By the way, he found a small, travel size shaving cream can and asked if he could spray it into the tub.  I gave it a shake and noticed it was just about empty, so I let him do it.  Is anybody else nauseated by the smell of that stuff?  Oh my I was coughing, hacking, felt like I couldn't breathe when I walked in there to get him out of the tub.  Guess I had forgotten how much I despised the smell of it.  See what happens when you don't have a man around and you only shave when it is ABSOLUTELY necessary?  :)  Like every 4 days or so.  Anyway there will be no more of that.  So when I walked in to wash his hair and all that business, I saw all these tiny pieces of brown floating in the tub.  Now it had been awhile since I had seen that, years, I'd say, and the last time was NOT pleasant.  What I had thought it was at first turned out to be wrong, thank goodness.  It was the cardboard roll.  REMNANTS of the cardboard roll.  Floating everywhere.  They were lodged in his hair, up in his curls.  What a mess.  (This story has a point, I promise).  I was a bit aggravated because I have a lot to do in the evenings and I didn't really have time to fish out all the pieces and after about 10 seconds of it my back was hurting.  So I said, totally expecting no reply at all, unless he wanted to shout the F word at me which he often does, just for effect, I said "Johnny I told you not to put that in the water, that it would fall apart if you did."  Then I cringed, expecting him to either splash me, smack me or cuss me out.  But he totally shocked me, saying something I have NEVER heard him say before.  He said "I know you did."  WHAT!  Where did that come from?  That is the same as saying "I was wrong and it's okay.  You were right.  I should have listened."  That is an example of how his language has changed in the last few days.  As well as his attitude.  It's very exciting.  
He also had a great time with me this evening, laying on the bed all tangled together in a weird hug, making up nonsense lines to nursery rhymes.  One Johnny said was "Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle the cow jumped over the trampoline." This sent him into wild fits of laughter, which I soon joined in. He also asked me to scratch his back and said "Do it slowly, please."  Not slow, soft, easy, nice, or any other word he would usually use instead of SLOWLY.  (Or just screaming NO!!! and I have to figure out what I'm doing wrong).  He said "Do it slowly, please."  So a grammatically correct complete sentence?  And saying please without being prompted to?  And on top of all that, a great day?  I love it.  

I am glad to share this with anyone taking the time to read it.  It gives me the chance to sit down and reflect on his behaviors AND I can go back and check what has happened from day to day as well, if I ever need to.  I am hoping his recent change to Risperidone is helping his behavior and so far can only think positively about it.  I also hope I'm not jinxing myself by actually saying the words "good day" because plenty of times it has turned out to be something temporary. Let's hope for the best though.  :)