Read the past posts here:

• Mission: Two Weeks Without Mom
• The One Where The Autism Siblings Were Alone Together
• What I experienced with my autism sibling as his caregiver

Devina’s Final Thoughts
I’m exhausted. And I’m only 24. Every day, mostly the only thought I had was: “I cannot wait to feel that soft bed underneath my body and rest.” It’s tiring. It’s draining. And when you have no help, it’s even worse. You’re assaulted by feelings of not having enough time for anything other than your responsibility to your child and to your house. You end up feeling guilty for not having enough time. You feel alone. Sometimes you doze off on the sofa, or your eyes feel scratchy when you’re driving on Emirates Road because the monotony of that route definitely doesn’t help your sleepiness. But you do it anyway because you have to and nothing is too much for your child (in this case, my brother, but he feels like my baby most of the time!). It hits you that what you would’ve normally done only for a few years of your child’s life, you will do forever. It’s not exactly uplifting but when you sink into bed every day having gotten the job done, there’s a sense of satisfaction and the hope that when you wake up the next day, you’ll do it well, all over again. When you wake up, yeah you’re worried today is the day you’ll collapse and just not be able to do it anymore, but…you soldier on. Because this is your child. And if you don’t support him/her and don’t fight for him/her, then no one else will.

Adita’s Experience
It was a nice change though in the beginning I was feeling very stressed and not getting sleep because I was constantly worrying about both my children. Then slowly I got used to it. Since every day I normally do things with and for Karan, throughout the trip I was feeling very empty, like I didn’t have anything to do. I felt lost quite a bit because of that. Even towards the end of the trip, I wasn’t getting sleep properly, not because I was worried but because I’m used to waking up all the time to check on Karan. It was nice to meet people and just go wherever I wanted without a second thought because otherwise I always have to think about what Karan will be happy with. So liberating in a way. Everything is always according to his routine, but here I was free to do as I wished. I was going out for movies, staying out for dinner with family and friends…but I think I’m so used to this life, I missed my routine too! After 16 years, because I’ve been doing everything according to him, even though I went out and did everything that is fun, I don’t miss that sense of social life I think. I was sort of waiting to get back to my routine life. But it was definitely a nice change to get a few days off.

First post: Mission: Two Weeks Without Mom
Second: The One Where the Autism Siblings Were Alone Together 

Same advice as last time…read in parts or keep 10-15 minutes aside. Or 20 if you read verrrry slowly.

The One Night Where Dee was Dancing
One evening, Karan decided he was going to cry his heart out. Now he has these rare moments where he cries properly with a quivering mouth, real tears and his ears go red. He started crying. For real. I freaked out, called Mom and asked her what could be wrong (he’d eaten, gone to the loo…everything). “Put on his favourite songs,” she said. I paused Dollhouse, and looked and found a CD of…Dabangg. Yeah, really. And so that evening for one hour, if anyone looked through our windows, they would’ve seen me jiggling away to Munni Badnaam Hui. Seriously. I decided since he couldn’t see Salman Khan and Malaika Arora Khan, by the billions of blistering barnacles, was I going to give him a show (to be clear, I was channeling Salman Khan in my moves)! I couldn’t move him upstairs and play it on my laptop since it’s generally a bad idea to try and bug him further than he already is at the moment. After a while, he calmed down and could be found rocking to the tunes of the song himself.

The One Where Dee Wakes up at 5:30am. Every Day.
When he finally got better, the week starting December 18 (a Sunday) was when I started sending him to school again. His school is in Sharjah, off the infamous National Paints roundabout. I live in “new” Dubai (Springs/Meadows). Yeah. That. Mom says she wakes up at 5:30am and advised me to do the same. I do. I wake up, brush and all the usual morning stuff before heading down to make Karan’s snack for school. Right now he’s in a pasta phase (apparently he’s been refusing his sandwiches) so pasta it is. Every day. Fresh. Little bugger. Once the pasta is made, dishes are washed and all that, I wake him up. Brush his teeth. Give him breakfast. Get ready. Get him ready. Jet off between 7:30am-7:45am. On the third and fourth day of the week, my alarm fails me (read: it correctly follows my “snooze” button instructions) and I wake up only by 6:30am. I don’t know how I manage but I do (in a rush) and leave by 7:45am or 7:50am max and make it in time for school (time = 8:30am). Then I wait till 1pm when I have to pick him up. Then drive back home and go back to work (feeding, cleaning, cooking, cleaning, dishwashing, clothes washing, vacuuming, bathing, feeding). 

And the dishes?! Where do all these dishes come from? There’s just two of us, for crying out loud! I shudder to think of how many dishes there are when four of us are in the house. I’m very sporadic with my dish washing otherwise. To be fair we have a dishwasher, but for some reason, the day after my father left…it stopped working. Ummmm. Yeah, I didn’t do ANYTHING. It stopped on its own on the day of the height of my flu situation. Poor, sick ol’ me washed EVERYTHING.

The One Where Dee Feels Lonely
Wow. It’s lonely here. You have no idea. I knew Mom felt alone but I experienced it first-hand now. It’s insanely bad. There’s nothing, you know? You wake up, take him to school, either finish grocery shopping or quickly have some breakfast while you wait, drive back home on the same, deserty stretch that is Emirates Road every day, cook, clean, wash, try and put your feet up for a little while and sleep. Rinse and repeat…forever. You feel so tired at the end of it, you don’t feel like doing anything else. The thought of even blogging for me was repugnant during this time because I was just so bloody pooped. And I love to write; I make my living by writing, for heaven’s sake! And to be honest, no one else was there. I don’t know how to explain it…I was still tweeting for example, talking to friends/chatting…all that. But there’s this sense of isolation that prevails when you take care of a child with special needs. Two friends visited me during the 16 days I was alone…one to bring me cake because I was having flu-cravings (she claims this does not exist…I do), and the other drove all the way from Deira to my place to pick up a very heavy water bottle to place on the water dispenser since my back issues prevent me from doing so myself (thanks Shruti and Ayub!). Every one else is busy…I don’t blame them. People have lives to lead. But when you are caring for a special needs child, they lead their lives as it was with no thought for you (as it should be…no one else is responsible for you or your charge. Never expect. EVER.) and it just makes you feel more alone than before. Bear in mind most of my friends have cars and I would’ve liked some company sometimes… but you know. Shit happens.

The One Where Karan Goes Out
I was very conscious of the time that he was sick and I was sick that we didn’t go out very much. As soon as we both were in varying stages of flu recovery, I tried taking him out. Once I ended up at a café on Sheikh Zayed Road with a few friends…he ate a bit from my plate and I left in time to get him home for his dinner. He was alright during that time…apart from wanting to grab the food off my plate without waiting for me to cut/scoop/feed. Impatient boy. Another time, in an impromptu fashion, I went to a tea joint near my house after a friend tweeted and said why not come over. I demurred at first…what if Karan didn’t like it? Friend said come anyway. I was still divided. Called up Ayub and asked his opinion…he said gooo! I went for about 40 minutes. Karan was alright…didn’t want to eat the cake I ordered though. He scratched the beejesus out of the rattan chair (he likes the texture) and eventually I left when I thought he was nearing the end of his tether. I’m glad I went both times though…my way of thinking is he needs to be exposed to different things and if people have a problem (ie other people at a public venue), then I am there to fight for his right to enjoy the same things they are. Innit?

The One Where We Eat Popcorn
Movies. I’ve talked before about how I want to get cinemas in theatres to have special needs showings like they do in UK and I haven’t been able to follow up on this yet, but this is still something I want to work on and I think I’ll have more time in the new year to do that. But till then, I brave the crowds and hope I find people in the theatre who will be understanding. But even so, why make it harder on myself? I pick an animation…Puss in Boots (or Cat in Boots as it’s called on the posters in the UAE). I pick the first morning show on a Friday. As empty as it can be, the better. Still, there are about 6 people in there apart from us. Karan devours that popcorn bucket like a starving man (he wasn’t Mom, I WAS FEEDING HIM I SWEAR!) and watches, closes his eyes, then watches again. Towards the end, he decided he was going to join Puss with the dialogues and went “Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm” and “AAAHHHEEEMMMMMM” for extended periods of time, but most of this was during action sequences so no one heard him. He did try it during a dialogue-y scene, and while a few kids did look back, they didn’t say/do anything since Karan wasn’t making it so that they couldn’t hear anything. He did seem to like the music though, which is only a good thing.

To be continued…

First post in the series here

Read it in parts, or settle down with a cuppa for a bit.

DAY ONE (9/12/2011)

Okay 6am…why is Karan awake? Okay. He needs to use the toilet. I wonder if I can go back to sleep after this? I dozed off for a bit but my grandmother called a few times so we had to wake up. Karan is disoriented by this point. He looked confused about being in my room, for one. Then spent the rest of the day walking in and out of Mom’s room, trying to find her. He still hasn’t got the hang of grabbing the iPad to show me what he wants so when I gave it to him, he quickly navigated his way to the Grace app and selected Mom’s face. I couldn’t bring her back from Bombay in a minute, so we settled for Skype and a phone call. He just got more annoyed. I’ve lost count of how many times he’s left to look for her in all the rooms of the house and has come back to where I am, looking utterly disappointed. He’s still got a bit of a cold, leaving him slightly tired. 

DAY TWO (10/12/2011)

Karan’s still looking for Mom. Going to her room, sitting on her bed, waiting for her to appear. He refuses to talk to her on the phone or Skype. He’s angry, that’s for sure. I cook today…scary! I watch nervously as Karan bites into my chicken curry. What if he turns up his nose at it because it doesn’t taste like Mom’s? But he eats and seems to like it. Whew. But this is insane…I look at all the dishes piling up and how much I’ve to clean and it seems insurmontable. Why are there so many dishes?! Why does my father not help clean up?! Oh wait, he never does. But…I now see how much work there is in the house. I’ve even put the dishwasher to work and empty it at the end of the day. I’m pooped by the end of the day and just want to sleep!

DAY THREE (11/12/2011)

Karan wakes up again around 6am. I can’t handle it…I go back to sleep and he walks up and down the room as I probably snore my way through for a few more hours. Today I don’t cook; there is enough left over from yesterday. I do walk downstairs to piled up dishes…what a surprise…my father hasn’t done anything. Again. I clean up behind him and after Karan’s dishes, go out to the garden to pluck some tulsi leaves to make a homemade cough remedy. But then I have to put the clothes in the washing machine. For this I’d written down instructions on how to use it (yeah I know…I knew how to use the washing machines in Sheffield and London but those seemed far simpler!) and followed them to the T, hoping nothing funny would happen to the clothes. But everything seemed to go well. The clothes were clean at the end of it, which is great. Karan has stopped waiting in Mom’s room but he still asks for her on the iPad. Uh oh…I’ve started coughing. I hope I don’t fall sick…when I’m sick, I’m pretty much useless.

THE NEXT 10 DAYS

I give up trying to write every day. I’m just so knackered all the time! I told a friend I didn’t mind tweeting because outbursts in 140-characters only seemed much less of a task than actually doing any work. I did fall sick…Karan essentially passed on his cold to me.

He eventually stopped looking for her constantly. Although he did occassionally ask for her by navigating to her picture on the iPad. Then there was the massive meltdown night.

To be continued in next post…where instead of days I write down incidents that I want to share.