Update from Ryan's Autism Eval

Well, unfortunately, we don't really have any more answers then we did going into the appointment. Ryan did great throughout the whole appointment. In fact, he was an angel. He interacted with all of the doctors and therapists and played games. He threw the ball, showed them how he could run and played blocks. Now this is all wonderful but for those of you that see Ryan on a day to day basis, know that this isn't always the case with him. I am happy that he did so well but I wish he would have shown them just a bit more of his "true colors".

The doctors were wonderful. They were in there with us for well over an hour talking about Ryan's past history and where he is now and what we are doing to get him to where he needs to be developmentally. The whole time we were talking they were listening but also keeping a close eye on Ryan. One of the aides came and got Ryan and Greg and did some play therapy and testing in another room so they I could talk with the developmental pediatrician and psychologist. They said we are doing all of the right things: attending occupational therapy, speech therapy and home therapies through MRDD and trying to get into a center. There are a couple of options for the summer that we can try to get into.

After getting all of our thoughts, they met just to the two of them along with the aide and came to a conclusion. From what they saw today, they are leaning more towards Ryan not being on the Autism spectrum. In order to be diagnosed with Autism you must be delayed in 3 places: speech, socially and have some sort of repetitive behavior. Today, they only saw Ryan having a speech delay. He socialized wonderfully with all of them. Of course, this is good news, but we feel our questions are still not really answered. We go again on Tuesday for more testing like today and we should know for sure. Greg and I are going to sit down and talk some more and I am going to be sure we write down all of our questions to be sure we walk out of there feeling we really know what we can do to help Ryan.

Friday is the day....

Ryan's first Autism evaluation is tomorrow. We have waited so long (not near as long as some families) but I also can't believe it is already here. I am very anxious and nervous to see how it will go. I just know I won't sleep tonight. We will go again next Tuesday to go over the results. I think Greg and I will be pretty shocked if it isn't, so we are prepared. We are also hoping to get some guidance on where to go next or to just continue with what we are already doing. I know this will not be a fun process for Ryan so I am dreading hearing him tantrum the whole time.

Please send good thoughts to Ryan!!

I knew I wasn't crazy.

So Ryan is feeling better and when he is feeling better, Mommy seems to have a constant headache. He has more meltdowns, is constantly throws things, bangs his head on the floor and just can't seem to be able to tell us what he needs or wants. When he had the high fevers, he was quite the mellow guy to be around. He was trying to talk to us and just all around communicated better with signing or pointing. He brought cars to Ethan so that he would come and play with him. He let me read him a book.....an entire book. Granted, it was a Little Einsteins book but we have never gotten through the whole thing before. He saw geese in the sky, pointed and said "GEESE". And even though the thermometer under his arm said he was very sick, he seemed happy....very, very happy.

A couple of nights ago, I mentioned to Greg how Ryan seemed to have a turned a corner and just seemed to be trying harder, instead of tantruming. Little did I know, that it was all because of the fever. I found this article and found it very interesting.

It's been a long week.

It's been a while so I have lots of updates:

Sickness--I am feeling tons better. My cough is finally starting to break up. Ryan, on the other hand, seems to be going in the wrong direction. I took him to the doctor on Wednesday for his 2 year check up. He still had a cough but for the most part was feeling better. He had 2 shots that day. Wednesday morning, he woke up with a fever but I just associated it with his shots. I gave him some Tylenol and he was up and playing and seemed to be feeling fine. By 1:30, his fever was 104. I know they say fevers in kids are different than in adults but they still scare me. I gave him some Mortrin and sent him to bed for his nap. When he woke up, his fever magically disappeared. But I knew we weren't out of the woods yet. Bedtime came around and it spiked again. 104.5 Great. More Motrin and bedtime. He woke up this morning and it is up again so we will be heading to the doctor this morning.

Ethan--We got the blood test results from the hematologist. He does have the blood clotting disorder called von Willebrand disease. We have to go back in a couple of weeks to go over medication and she will tell us more about it. I am dreading this day. Ethan has to have 3 blood draws in 3 hours. Since he is hypothyroid, he has to have his blood drawn several times a year so he knows what it is and that it hurts. Getting his blood drawn is like wrestling with a lion. Noone likes to get it done so I can't blame him. The nurse did say we could try an IV so that he won't have to be poked so much so we might try that but I have a feeling that won't be much better. He will have the blood drawn when we first get there, they will administer the meds, wait about 30 minutes, draw it again, wait an hour and then do the last draw. They have to make sure that his blood will react to the meds. The good news is that the medication is a nasal spray. Once we get this under control, we will go back to the ENT to have a blood vessel in his nose cauterized.

Ryan got into speech therapy. We were supposed to start today but with him being so sick, we are obviously not going. We will start 2/15. His teacher with MRDD will also start this day.

I think that is everything for now.

UPDATE: Got back from taking Ry to the doctor and she thinks he has another virus. Ears, throat & chest were all clear so we just have to wait it out....again.

I thought Mommys weren't supposed to get sick!

Ryan, so lovingly, passed on whatever bug he had last week. I knew someone else would get it, I just didn't think it would be me. I spent Sunday & Monday in bed and today has been trying to make it to the next hour and counting down until bedtime. Greg is working late tonight, in preparation for when he gets it.

Ethan is in the clear so far. Ryan still has the nasty cough but at least it isn't keeping him up at night anymore. He does have his 2 year check up tomorrow so I am hoping she doesn't hear anything in his lungs.

Is it spring yet?

Ryan's teacher came for a visit today.

She was so nice and seems very calm and sweet. I think Ryan will really click with her. Ry was napping during her visit so we could get through the mounds of paperwork.
The bad news is that Ryan is pretty far behind for his age. It was very difficult to keep answering no to her questions only to realize how many things he doesn't know. The good news is that she will be able to come twice a month instead of the normal once a month and will be able to bring a speech therapist as well. I am very anxious to get started. She has to submit all of our paperwork and then we need to work out the scheduling. Luckily, she doesn't mind when the other kids are here and actually encourages it since they can be used as good peer models but she said we can see how Ryan does and if he is better one on one then we can work something out while Ethan is at school.
We are also on the waiting list for a early childhood education school. There is a huge waiting list though (surprise, surprise) and it doesn't sound promising that we will get in before fall. I am on the list for first opening, no matter where it is. I will drive him to Canada every day if I have to. There are a couple of summer programs that we might be able to do but we would have to pay for those out of pocket. Once he gets into one during the school year, that is all covered through the county.
So that is it. Now we wait....again.

We made it back from San Francisco...

It took 12 very long hours in airports and on a plane but we finally made it to Columbus around midnight. It was the longest day and we are so glad to be home.
We had a great time and saw so much of the city. We drove through Sonoma and toured wine country (and visited/tasted as many wineries as we could!), drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and watched the sunset on top of a hill (mountain maybe?) overlooking the ocean, hiked in the Redwood forest, went to lunch with a friend at Pier 39, went to a comedy club, drove down Lombard Street, shopped and ate great food! It's a great place to visit. (Read that last sentence again, Greg.)

But as I am writing this, I am listening to Ryan on the monitor hack up what sounds to be a lung. My poor guy is sick. I took him to the doctor today and we were immediately sent to x-ray to rule out pneumonia. Luckily the preliminary report came back already and it seems he is in the clear and just has a virus. A very, very icky virus. Before I put him to bed his fever was back up to 102. I gave him some Motrin and am hoping he sleeps.....please let us all get some sleep!