Augusten’s Blog

So many of you have told me that you love my essays about my older brother, who has Asperger’s Syndrome. Well, I’m very excited to tell you that you’ll soon have the chance to read a lot more about him. Not only has he written his own memoir, but it’s swiftly shaping up to be the hottest book of the fall. You can pre-order LOOK ME IN THE EYE today from Amazon.com.

In other news, Bentley is recovering nicely. Though we’re still living in the basement and have decided to turn the basement into our permanent bedroom because we realized he’ll never climb stairs again. So this is my new Lorenzo’s Oil life, constantly changing his diaper, making sure I bring him water, wiping goo and ick off his head.

The day before yesterday, as I was feeding treats to Bentley and Cow, Bentley suddenly toppled over and could not walk right. He would take one, two steps, then fall over. His expression changed instantly from GIVE ME THE BIGGER TREAT to one of confusion and panic. It was the same look he’d had in his eyes back in December.

We took him back to his doctor at Tuft’s and they ran a series of tests including an MRI. It appeared that some sort of vascular event occurred and there was now a blood clot pressing against his spinal cord. The doctor called us today, Wed. April 4, and recommended surgery. While we initially felt we would never allow him to undergo surgery again, in this case -because there is a clot pressing on the cord and this is what’s causing his paralysis- we decided to go forward with the procedure.

Bentley doesn’t do well in the hospital, so we’re hoping we can have him out by the end of the week. Knowing how these things go, I expect we won’t have him home until the middle of next week.

I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for your thoughts.