So we finally had Loo's first paed appointment today. We've had paed appointments there a number of times with Shmoo and, yet again, it was a new paed. We've never had the same paed twice!
It went okay. Quickly did an overview the issues - the behavioural stuff; his permanently blocked nose; possibility of an ASD; and possibility of him having a chromosomal translocation. After running through the behavioural stuff, the paed mentioned the possibility of ADHD (which is one of the things we have suspected for some time). The paed immediately mentioned Ritalin and I'm afraid my defences shot up straight away. I'm not a fan of medicating unnecessarily, especially with such a controversial drug, and he doesn't even have a diagnosis yet. The paed said they generally prescribe a trial of Ritalin when the ADHD is affecting learning. He then mentioned that they only gave him half hour slots to see patients so I guess that's why he was trying to cram in as much info as possible. He gave us a Conners' Parent Rating Scale to fill out and bring back to the next appointment. I filled it out tonight and scored it on a separate piece of paper. Loo scores highly in all subsets, between 70 and 82.
Loo's not having any marked learning difficulties at the moment, although I have no doubt that in a mainstream school setting he would struggle. He just does not do well at sitting down quietly and focussing on a set topic. Of course, we couldn't go past the 'learning' issue without the paed getting
that look and saying "Yes, well the only problem with homeschooling is that they don't get to interact with their peers...". The OH and I then began to reel off all the things Loo does: play dates, swimming classes, ECIS sessions, performing arts classes, homeschooling group... "Oh. I guess I'd better take that back then. Obviously it's something you've already thought about" says the paed. Yes,
obviously. /:) 8-| I mean, honestly, do people really think that homeschoolers are all airy-fairy, let's not send our kids to school tra-la-la-la-la...?! We do actually
think about the various aspects of our children's education!
Moving on. The paed diagnosed Loo with hayfever. No wonder he always seems to have a blocked nose. His nasal passages are so inflamed and swollen that the sides are pushed right up against each other leaving only a tiny space for him to breathe through. Going to trial a couple of things to see if we can make breathing a bit easier for him.
The paed also gave us a pathology form for a blood test to check if Loo's inherited the translocation. Loo will be pleased. He's been so envious of Shmoo getting to have 2 blood tests (and getting 2 little teddy bears!) LOL. Must remember to add GP's name to the 'additional copies to' section of the form so that I can find out the results sooner ;)
Next appointment in 3 months. Again, I feel relieved that we're finally
doing something. It's been so frustrating feeling that something's not quite right and being told not to worry, he's normal, or kids like that just need discipline. It's not about the diagnosis, about having another acronym tagged onto our child. It's about finding the best strategies to help
him; it's about knowing whether or not we're on the right track to helping him grow and fulfill his potential.
