Hi, happy weekend everyone! If you thought I was going to announce baby number 4, I am sorry to disappoint you. Ha! We're talking diagnosis. Who? You've guessed it! Mr. Chubby Cheeks. Y'all know he has a pretty impressive collection of diagnoses for his age but apparently there was room for one more.
While in Minot, we were pretty limited with specialists and so we never saw a developmental specialist. Until recently that is. I might have mentioned that IJ's pediatrician had put in a referral a while back (or my then pregnant brain might have forgotten to mention it). Well, it took me a minute to get everything for the pre-evaluation package together and we ended up seeing Dr. P right before IJ's birthday last month. I initially expected to get an answer about IJ's cognitive development, we knew he was nowhere near the level of a 4 year old and had our guesses but wanted a professional opinion. It was crucial for us to know because obviously it makes all the difference in discipline and understanding. We got our answer but this wouldn't be all there was to discuss.
At first Dr. P watched IJ play and interact with me. He gave me his spiel about who he is and what he does and that he has worked with plenty of kids with ADHD and Autism. There it was, the A word everyone else had been avoiding like the plague. I knew where this was going. You see, a doctor doesn't specifically mention these diagnoses if he's not trying to smoothly work his way up diagnosing your child with them. I've seen too many doctors and professionals in the past 4 years. Well played Dr. P. We were 15 minutes into the appointment and he already said we may have to investigate other labels. I asked if he was referring to ASD. He nodded. I told him I wasn't surprised. Dr. P asked me a multitude of questions, played with IJ and observed him. We were there for 3 hours. (Side note: On behalf of all nursing mothers and parents in general, warn us ahead of time that it'll be this long. All this talking and nursing made me quite parched, haha. I would've brought some water with me. Anywho.)
More questionnaires were sent home with us and we were to come back a week later for the actual evaluation. We returned with said questionnaires and answered more questions to see if IJ had the ingredients needed to fit the diagnosis. He did. And he wasn't one of those cases where it wasn't really clear, he's pretty generous with the ingredients, he has plenty of them. But I was always told that he's too social, he doesn't fit the bill. Well, how very wrong they were. Upon sharing the news with family and friends, we received condolences from quite a number of them. And we understand they meant well. However, we don't need them. You see, we've been down this road for 4 years now. We knew we had to expect more possible labels. And really we're just changing from SPD to ASD. Autism is not the end of the world. And part of us is relieved, even glad. IJ needs behavioral therapy, but without the ASD diagnosis he would not have qualified, no matter how badly he needed it. And most importantly, it doesn't really change anything, he's still the same kid. He's still the loving cuddle bug with the crazy fro that he's always been. With that big smile and infectious laugh. The kid that gets handed a quarter from an elderly person because he's just that cute. The kid that made his physical therapist carry him although it was part of his therapy to walk because she simply couldn't say no when he asked to be picked up. The only difference is, we will be able to enjoy him so much more because ABA will help him with his meltdowns, express his emotions and to make sense of a world that doesn't make any sense to him so that it will be less frightening, less overwhelming. And it'll help us make sense of his world.
So really, what's one more? ;)
Love,
Mimi
