Autism too?

[pipsqueak]

I talked with dh Tuesday night. The part I'm finding interesting is that both of us were beginning to suspect that we need to evaluate Pip for a dual ds-asd diagnosis independent of each other. Dh was picking up some hints and I was picking up other hints with little overlap between what was raising my suspicions and what was raising his. Combined it made the argument for evaluation strong enough that I contacted Pip's pediatrician to get the evaluation process started yesterday. Pip now has an appointment with a psychologist on 4/4 and his OT/PT/ST will be doing evaluations to provide their input for the 4/4 appointment.

You know that emotional upheaval that goes along with the evaluation process - yeah, it's hitting here.

[jreeds]

(( pipsqueak))

It's hard. But will be worth it in the end ( I know you know this). I hope you can get some answers/results quickly.

[sahara78]

Hugs to you. The “not knowing, but suspecting” phase was the hardest. Once we had the ASD diagnosis, behaviors made more sense & we better knew how to address. I’m glad that you’re getting in with the psychologist soon.

[pipsqueak]

One of the behaviors that we're having a hard time figuring out is Pip eats like any other kid as long as we let him watch videos at the table. If we don't let videos at the table he barely eats - super finicky about what's on his plate and/or will not self feed unless it's one of his few preferred foods. So the problem is do we let him have videos or not at meal times. He's not "addicted" to the videos because once he's done eating he turns off the videos and gets down like any other child his age would when mealtime is over.

I'm hoping we can get good guidance on questions like this.

[sahara78]

Are you thinking the eating/video issue is rigidity, like he for some reason thinks he must watch videos to eat? My DD is like that with a few things, which can get trying at times.

[pipsqueak]

Mar 17, 2019 22:27:39 GMT -5 sahara78 said:

Are you thinking the eating/video issue is rigidity, like he for some reason thinks he must watch videos to eat? My DD is like that with a few things, which can get trying at times.

I was thinking it was him wanting the visual/auditory input for distraction from the eating input.....but then again he starts chewing on fingers, chew tubes, teethers, etc every time he watches videos outside of meal times so I am confused on what the correlation between watching videos and eating/chewing is.....and since I'm confused on the cause/effect I don't know if I should be discouraging videos during all meals, permitting videos at all meals, or something in between.

[freezorburn]

Fingers crossed that you get some helpful information out of the eval.

[freezorburn]

pipsqueak, I know it may be some time before you get back full report, but I hope things went well last week.

[pipsqueak]

Apr 8, 2019 16:03:52 GMT -5 freezorburn said:

pipsqueak, I know it may be some time before you get back full report, but I hope things went well last week.

Well the psychologist sent in the referral to the autism clinic at Children's hospital for the full evaluation - they're scheduling out to January 2020. I have to return the medical history forms received today to them before they will contact us to schedule the appointment. Their description of the appointment is more involved (psychologist, developmental pediatrician, and one other in 1 3-hour+ appointment) than what I remember doing when I had ds1 evaluated a decade ago at a different provider. The extra stuff involved in this evaluation may be worth it but I want answers sooner than 9 months from now, ya know?

Appointment on 4/4/19 ended up being just a short intro appointment.

[freezorburn]

Wow ... January is a long time, and yet that wait time sounds very typical of many families. Do they have a cancellation list that you can get on, too?

[pipsqueak]

Apr 9, 2019 2:05:59 GMT -5 freezorburn said:

Wow ... January is a long time, and yet that wait time sounds very typical of many families. Do they have a cancellation list that you can get on, too?

I don't know yet. I have to get the forms in the mail today and then when they receive them they'll call to schedule the appointment and I can ask about a cancellation list then.

[freezorburn]

Fingers crossed that you can get in sooner rather than later!

[pipsqueak]

Update on the appointment. It is scheduled for 10/11/19. So happy I don't have to wait until 2020.

[macchiatto]

I haven't been in here in a while but just came to check in. Glad the appt was moved up some; I know the wait can be so hard!

[pipsqueak]

We're done with the autism evaluation. The Dr said Pip was in the borderline grey area where it could go either way. They ultimately came down on the yes he has autism side.

So now I have a whole binder full of information to go digest.

[freezorburn]

Hi! I was thinking about you recently and wondering how things were going. I hope the eval gives you good quality, helpful info. Pace yourself, you don't have to do everything all at once!

[pipsqueak]

I didn't even touch the binder today. We were up 1-2 hours before I normally am for the eval and so I was more tired than normal so I figured little would actually make sense so I ignored it.

[freezorburn]

How are you doing pipsqueak?

[pipsqueak]

Nov 1, 2019 22:14:03 GMT -5 freezorburn said:

How are you doing pipsqueak?

I'm doing pretty good. Still trying to get things set up....they kinda got put on the back burner while getting dh's social security benefits sorted since his 65th birthday is in 5 days.

Idk if you go to the CD board anymore or not but I confirmed last week that xh is on GPS monitored probation for the next 14.5 years and he's still in AZ so no risk of running into him. The address associated with him 2.5 miles from my house is most likely a place his mom rents/rented. The uncertainty related to that was so much more stressful than anything ASD related with Pip.

How are you and ys doing?