Service Dog for Autism: Riley Theodorou

I want to share a little story of how Riley's life has been since the start. I would love to give a little more insight on how Riley's journey started. Please take a moment to read about his amazing journey. Meet our amazing and talented young boy Riley who was brought to us May of 2010. At a very young age we knew that there was something very special about him. Early on Riley was meeting all of his milestones until just around a year old he became very ill. Chronic pneumonia, ear infections, sinus infections and even fevers as high as 105.4 degrees and would last up to 5 days at a time. We spent 11 months in and out of the hospitals ( most times 3-4 days/week) poking at him and testing him for anything and everything possible. At one point I remember the doctors telling me that my son could have had CF (cystic fibrosis). After 8 months a pulmonologist had recommended CT scans of his lungs and sinuses and what we found was incredibly insane. His sinuses were so impacted with infection that he had no room for it to go anywhere. In October of 2011 (only 18 months old) Riley underwent surgery for a sinus cavity reconstruction, ear tubes and adnoidectomy. It wasn't until the military finally moved us out of there that Riley started to show signs of healing. During his healing process we started noticing that Riley was not talking or interacting with others, he wouldn't make eye contact and started to have major issues with his sleep and behavior. Over the next few months Riley started getting so angry and frustrated that he would start biting himself to the point of drawing blood, pulling chunks of hair out of his head and even throwing himself into walls. For 3 years we went to doctors trying to figure out exactly what was happening to our son. Finally in January of 2014 Riley was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and ADHD. The last few months have brought a lot of changes to our lives and Riley has struggled to find a way to cope with our new situations. We packed up our lives from California, which included his therapy and school stopping. We drove across the country to report to a new command and our new home all the way in Virginia. Due to our move all of Riley's autism screening assessments had to be redone and all referrals had to be resubmitted which has caused him to be out of all of his therapy for almost 4 months now. Riley's world will be turned even more upside down when his dad deploys for 9+months just after the new year. Riley's autism brings him symptoms such as excessive anger/aggression, social/separation anxiety (with major meltdowns), self infliction of pain, and inability to sleep. Our hope is that SDWR will provide us with an amazing tool to help our son function in our world while living in his. We want to personally thank everyone for your support and help throughout this journey for us. Riley will forever be grateful. Riley has had a lot of struggles in short life. He deserves to have some piece in his life!!! You will never have met a more loving and passionate kid. He amazes us every day. Mommy and daddylove you so much Riley