Its been awhile.....

Well I am sorry, it has been awhile but a LOT has happened since my last post. We have been very busy with Carsons testing and treatment. So I will start at the beginning, first we went to see a pshychiatrist in order to decide if starting Carson on medication for his anxiety was really the best choice. We went to see a Dr at Primary Childrens Mental Health. Basically after a lot of paperwork and a 2 hour appointment she said that Carson most definitely needed to start on medication before starting counseling. She basically explained it like this. How do you teach a child who is in constant fight or flight from anxiety how to cope? We first need to bring him to normal then teach him the coping skills and then take him slowly off the medication and implement those skills. When I asked about the side effects or long term effects she said that him being in constant stress releases cortisol, this constant release of cortisol will scar the hipocampus portion of the brain (the fight or flight reponse) causing it to work innapropriately. Well I finally decided to do it, I felt as though I had no other options. We started him on Zoloft about 2 months ago now and it has been incredible. His schooling has improved a hundred fold, no more meltdowns, panic attacs, freak outs, he does not break into tears in school when he is asked to fix something or try something again. I am so happy with the decision! We also start him in counseling next week. Now that he is calm he can learn how to control the anxiety. He even tells me how much better he feels, he tells me he does not feel so upset anymore and that is WONDERFUL! The pshychiatrist also informed us that in her opinion he does NOT have Aspbergers, so I have about 5 different opinions on that subject but she said he was far to engaged in the social aspect of the visit and very appropriate with the social expectations.

After that we went to the Allergist, he has had a lot of upper respiratory tract infections in his life and proloneged coughing. He did a breathing test (which took a lot of motor skill) and we found out he has Asthma. Not really related to the SPD but part of the last couple months of medical information we have learned.

We also were assessed by a speech therapist for overstuffing his mouth. He will see them for a while to help him self regulate eating and eat appropriately. On his second apointment we also found that he does not chew with his left side and seems to have an immature eating pattern. We are now working on left side strength and just getting used to moving food to that side to chew.

Our last visit was to a Neurologist. We were sent to the Neurologist to evaluate weakness in his hands. He struggles with prolonged use of his hands while coloring or cutting, he has micrographia which means his first letters are wonderful but he longer he writes the smaller and worse the writing gets. Also when he uses his arms alot during play he will start to tremor in his hands. So we set up an appointment for the end of April but got a call on Tuesday that they had a cancellation for Thursday and we got in at the end of January!! Well I have to be honest that I half expected them to say he just had weak muscles and that we didnt need to see them anymore however, that was far from what we got. Basically, and much simpler than the report states, he has weakness in his fingers, wrists, biceps, triceps, shoulders, and deltoids. The doctor is sending him for an EMG and nerve conduct study. Basically its measuring the nerve impluses, the speed, the length and the strength. Unfortunately they have to use needles in the muscle and so he will need sedation. Due to his anxiety we have opted for the full sedation rather than partial. This will tell us if this weakness is muscular caused, nerve caused and what exactly is happening. The Neurologist said he believed he has a nerve damaged in the upper thoracic region of his spine possibly caused by a lesion however they are not ruling out genetic or inherited neuromuscular conditions. So depending on the result of the testing he will have genetic testing or an MRI. So we are now waiting for the testing to be scheduled. It is pretty scary to not know exactly what is going on or if its something that will get better or worse. We are already planning physical and occupational therapy after the testing is completed to strengthen those muscles.

So we have ben very very very busy just trying to keep up with the appointments and the testing. I hope that everything turns out fine and whatever the results are it is something we can treat! We now just wait for that testing.

There is always good news though, his parent teacher conference went very well and he is right on target intelectually. We are looking more and more at regular ed first grade! We will have to wait and see how the rest of the school year goes but the most important this is that he is improving, we are making progress, we are seeing benefits and results to all the hard work and all the effort!!!!!!