I've Become That Mom

The Boys are 14 Months Old

I have become one of those parents. You know, the kind that rushes their kid from doctor to doctor, trying to get some sort of answer or explanation or diagnosis. The kind of parent who will see any doctor to find out just one more tidbit of information.

When my mom was little, she didn’t talk until she was 5. My grandmother took her to every expert that she could get an appointment with. I just chalked it up to how utterly neurotic my grandmother was, but now I’ve become her.

I’ll talk to anyone about G-Dawg in hopes of finding similar stories where everything worked out okay. My mom and the rest of my family are fully aware of my concerns and my mom has enlisted her neighbor to take a look at G-Dawg since she works with kids with special needs. We’ll see her in a few weeks hopefully…bring her on, the more opinions, the better.

This past Monday, the developmental pediatrician’s office called first thing in the morning with a last-minute opening. I had just dropped the boys off at day care an hour earlier and rushed back to pick up G-Dawg to whisk him away to the children’s hospital for an evaluation.

There G-Dawg went through a series of simple tests: grabbing objects behind a clear screen, following the sound of a bell, picking up objects with both hands, testing for object permanence. From the checklist that the doctor completed, G-Dawg’s cognitive skills are on track and the only thing that he really need to do now is to try to sort shapes. Apparently that’s a 12 month skill although J-Man’s been attempted to short shapes for a while now.

I guess that the one thing that the developmental pediatrician mentioned that was different from the others is that she thinks that G-Dawg’s hypotonia is severe rather than mild. She demonstrated how flexible his joints are. It was a relief, however, when she talked about finding the cause of the hypotonia. She’s the first one to acknowledge that there really may be something behind it.

Our next step is to go to the genetics department to do a full workup for all potential genetic abnormalities. One blood sample should do it. This will be our fifth time trying to get a blood sample, but at least it’s just one draw. I can’t wait to get it over with. We’ll also test for PKU. In addition, G-Dawg needs to have a speech evaluation. Looking back, I’m not sure if it was recommended because he tested at a 9 month level by the EI questionnaire or because it’s becoming clear that he has some feeding issues when it comes to solids.

The doctor joked lightly that we’ve seen a number of different doctors there, so now it looks like we’ve seen almost everyone – with the exception of the pediatric oncologist thank God. In about 4 months, G-Dawg will go back to the developmental pediatrician for a follow-up. She said that she has seen autistic kids that babble like G-Dawg (he’s taken to saying “we” or “oui” in French as well as some other mixed non-syllable sounds). However, it’s encouraging that he’s not in his own world.

I liked the doctor. She acknowledged how frustrating it is not to have any answers. I, of course, cried on the way home and pigged out on McDs.

Later that day, Hubby took G-Dawg to his first outpatient PT appointment. If the day care workers think that we are crazy taking him to all different doctors, they don’t say anything. G-Dawg’s appointment was with a different PT than the one that evaluated him last week. I’m asking Hubby to give a rundown of the appointment since he describes it so well.

The overall prognosis was actually very positive. The PT was impressed with what Gavin has learned to do and can tell that he’s come very far. She noted how encouraging it is that he is teachable.

Both the PT and developmental pediatrician have seen “a few kids” like G-Dawg that have grown out of hypotonia and gone on to be relatively normal. Somehow, I don’t find a “few” encouraging. “Many” would be much better, but for now, I hold out hope that everything will be okay and will tote G-Dawg around like a lab experiment until he catches up or we have a diagnosis.