Tuesday, February 6, 2018

The First Round: An Update

We survived yesterday and it was a good day.  Long and exhausting, but good.

After the intake session I had a meeting at Maggie's therapy center and Tessie was with me and got to go and bounce around (she has not one but three therapists requesting to work with her as little Miss Popularity), and even played in the playroom for a little while with Maggie before we headed home to make dinner.  

I don't think I realized how nervous I was (I mean I knew that I was nervous, obviously) until I was editing the twenty seconds of video I shot in the car before going in to the appointment to make this vlog.  

I was this nervous.



Because the update was so simple (Basically yes, we made it!  Next step!  We'll know more soon.  The box has been checked off!), I answered one of the most common questions I've heard over the years that people have, only this time focusing on what we noticed was different about Tess that caused us to seek out testing, first when she was only 1-3 months old, for early intervention, and then as she's gotten bigger.

She couldn't be diagnosed until she was 18 months old, but there were definitely signs that we were seeing, much, much earlier (because I knew what to look for) and I've written about that here but I wanted to talk about it a bit more because knowing what to look for was something that I remember looking for five years ago when I first began to have questions about Maggie's development and whether it was normal.

And that's the update for today.  Now I'll be counting down to February 26th!

1 comment:

  1. Just to add to what you are saying for anyone else's benefit....My child, HB, was the opposite. He was an extremely fussy baby. He'd get fussy regardless. The only thing that seemed to help was compression. He liked being wrapped tightly in a blanket. He did look at people and not away from them. So every baby is going to be different. It wasn't until he was a toddler that we saw some classic signs. He liked to and still does like to carry small objects with him in his hands. He fidgets or fiddles with them more than he does imaginative play, but he can imaginative play. That didn't start for him until he was 4. He did speak on time, but looking back at old video it was repetitive words (vocal stemming). In retrospect it wasn't as much responsive as I thought it was at the time. What also set him apart was his inability to transition from a preferred activity to an unpreferred activity. He'd flip out a lot and had over the top aggression which was super scary. This happened when he was 3 and because of everything going on at the time it was difficult to parse out as being autism.

    So if you see these signs, don't fret. Many many parents realize things in hindsight. I have a friend right now who's daughter is on the spectrum and she is just now going through the diagnosis process. Her daughter is 9. She too is stumbling over the questionnaires because some autistics don't fit neatly into the classic signs. I just noticed the other signs most don't discuss and a doctor said that he believes she's on the spectrum too. Things like she looks like she's not paying attention to a conversation but really she is. She also delays looking for facial/body language confirmation from people. These are things people would say are ADHD or ADD.

    Cammie, I too understand the nerves. I know that Knee, HB's brother, doesn't have autism but he has some other delays. I worry that the tests won't show enough of a margin that he'll not get help. I think that's the problem. We want the help but we know how difficult it is to get it. We know that they need it to thrive and waiting until it's late makes it that much harder for them in the long run. Hang in there. Please pray for me and I'll keep you in my prayers too.

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