Back in December we got the results of Faith's genetic testing, for those of you who've been wondering and I hadn't shared the information with yet. It ruled out everything we were concerned about at this point. In fact all of her "levels" for everything seemed normal. The only one that was only (very) slightly off was Glutaric acidemia type1, in layman's terms, genetically speaking it looks like she *may* have Cerebral Palsy but physically speaking she does not have any issues related to Cerebral Palsy.
She needs a urine test to know for sure, but since she isn't potty trained it's hard to get one of those. The
doctor wasn't terribly concerned about it and told us to come back in a couple
of years to test for it. Also if it is that it would be on the very,
very, VERY mild end. He did also recommend (and we are now waiting for a referral) that we take her to see a Pediatric Neurologist. I visited with a lady today about a neuropsychologist. Apparently they have some kind of machines where they can look at the speech pathways of the brain. She's supposed to tell me more about it later (as she knows more). Since Faith doesn't speak, but makes lots of noises this may be an avenue to look into too.
We have Angelus in a different school. He has been going there about three weeks and is doing really well there. I visited with his teacher this morning and she commented that he just fell right into there, like he'd been going to that school all along. Not like he was a "new" kid. He apparently needs to work on his multiplication, and they gave me this cool game for him to work with and get better. It's called Soft Seven.
Since he was about two years old I thought he had more energy than any other kid I had ever been around, but then I thought...maybe it's just because he's a boy and boys tend to have more energy and being around mostly girls I wasn't very good at gauging the activity level of a boy. He went on to school and every single parent-teacher conference to date the teachers have always said "he's incredibly bright and he's exhausting"...but whenever I asked them if they thought there might be something else going on they were reluctant to say and Faith came along and has severe learning disabilities, so we focused on that. As terrible as this sounds, I didn't want to be "one of those parents" who thought something needed to be going on with all of her kids. This school year, has brought about him having to see the principal/superintendent/teacher (and me too) having counseling because he can not sit still to save his life and for saying crazy impulsive stuff. It's also become increasingly apparent that he has major issues with focusing....I mean apparent to more people than just me.
So, before I switched schools with him I visited with the principal and told her everything we were going through with him. She said, he may have genuine ADHD, at least that's exactly what it sounds like to me. She gave me a packet to fill out for a full evaluation of him. After the first week of school I talked to his new teacher and told her that we were wondering if there might be something to the ADHD thing, at the time she wasn't so sure, but she said she also didn't think she'd had him in class long enough to have any idea. Yesterday (after being with him for three weeks) she approached the principal and said..."ya know, I think he may have ADD/ADHD". The principal discussed this with me this morning. So, I went in to see the teacher 'cause she has to do an evaluation of him. He is 0 or 100 miles an hour. There is no in between. She too said he was very bright and exhausting and can not sit in his seat for the life of him. He's also a talker so he got put in between two girls that just don't say much. I'd be shocked if he doesn't figure out how to pull at least one of the little girls outta it. 'Cause he's also been notorious for being the kid that likes everybody enough to just keep on talking to them. Which I think is pretty awesome. I love that about him.
There's more that goes into an ADHD evaluation that I ever knew. Hearing test, eye exam (the school is gonna give him those on Monday), Copies of his Achievement Tests, 1-2 samples of his homework from each subject, I had to fill out an assessment thing and so did the teacher, also an Electrocardiogram --if there's a family history of heart disease and there is in my family, on both my mom and dad's sides. I don't think there is on Tommy's side, though. Then after all of that is done it'll be about two months before he is seen by someone.
I'd also be lying if I said I knew there was this much to it. I've heard stories before about how a kid went to see the doctor, doctor left the office for a second, came back and depending on where the kid was standing (or sitting) they came back with a diagnosis. Although that doesn't sound like a very accurate tool...and I also know that someone with genuine ADHD and bipolar literally have brains that look different in a brain scan (and I also think those two are often misdiagnosed and really should be more PTSD stuff, but that's a whole other story).
Oh! Just to clear up any confusion, I don't want him medicated at all. The only reason I'm even attempting the evaluation, is because every single school year (prior to the first part of this one), he's been able to tell his teachers what he needs to be the most successful he can be in class and (within reason) they were able to accommodate him. It's generally something as simple as, he needs less distractions when taking tests. One of them, put up some poster board around his desk for him and that worked. It blocked out the stuff that was distracting him. Also, wearing ear-buds to block out noise during those times too. The first part of this school year, he told his teacher what he needed and she wouldn't help accommodate him at all.. His grades suffered incredibly because of it. My hope is, if this is in place....since Angelus appears to have great self awareness (especially for a 3rd grader) and he is able to articulate very well what he needs, that this won't ever happen again. All I really want is just for the teacher to listen to him when he tells them what he needs to be successful.
All that being said, things are going really well now. We at least have all of the school people on the same page which will help him with some of the stuff he's been struggling with, and apparently Faith has all of those syndromes that could limit her life ruled out.
