The number one thing I have learned through my years as a mom is to "trust your gut!" If it doesn't feel right, it's probably not. Tyson was 4 before he was finally diagnosed with Autism. We"knew" at 18 months. With Charlie we were told he is "typically developing, don't worry so much", we took him anyways. He was officially diagnosed at 18 months. Trust your gut! I am going to tell a long, frustrating story, but if it helps one person keep fighting it is all worth it. Sorry!
Our newest challenge has been with Tyson and his ADHD. He has been struggling all year. We have seen a whole different side to our happy go lucky little guy. We have had numerous conversations with his teachers, doctors, therapist, etc to try to figure out the problem. Nothing we seemed to be doing was working. His anxiety and behavior had gotten so bad that it was drastically interfering with his learning. We were at a dead-end. We met with his doctor and were told that it wasn't his medicine making the difference. Dead-end. We were then told by an autism professional to go see a neurologist. The neurologist needed a referral. Our doctor didn't want to write a referral. Another dead-end. We then scheduled an appointment at KU Med to see if we could get anywhere there. That doctor was ready to figure things out. She changed his medicine immediately. Tyson turned right back into his happy go lucky self. His dimples were back! While waiting for the KU appointment the wonderful autism specialist called in a favor and we got an appointment with the neurologist. One week after our KU appointment we met with the neurologist. She said this dose wasn't strong enough so she increased it. Our previous experience was to give it 30 days, she did not feel that was necessary. Amazing! Two weeks later we met with her again. Tyson was doing much better but still pretty active. She increased it again. Amazing!! In three weeks we accomplished more than we had so far the entire school year. Never give up! Trust your gut!
Today I talked with his teacher again. She is absolutley amazed at the difference this has made on him. He is working independently more than ever before! He is not throwing his fights, pouting, spitting, crying, none of it! He smiles all day and is loving life the way he used to! It has been a VERY hard year for all of us. It feels like we finally are moving forward again.
