Our Journey

Our Beautiful Boy

Our son, will soon be, diagnosed with Autism. I would like to say this will start our journey; but our journey started 2 years earlier. Around 18 months to 2 years Dregon stop talking and went back to babbling. He also stopped making eye contact and answering to his name. We would call his name, clap, stomp on the floor, trying to decipher if he had a problem with his ears. He also flapped his arms, jump up and down for hours at a time, and walked all the time on his tippy toes. I immediately took my concerns to our son's pediatrician.

The visit was also for our son Snow, who is 11 months older then Dregon, 3rd birthday well check. During this visit I was given a questionnaire for Autism from our state. I filled it out for our son Snow, but also for Dregon. Snow passed and Dregon did not. I still have the answers I wrote that day. I immediately informed the doctor when he entered the room. Dregon was sitting in the stroller waiting his turn and he was fumbling with the doctors shirt sleeve.

The pediatrician listened, half heartily, to my concerns and said; "First, those test give more false positives, then ever positives. To me they are worthless; but we have to give them. If he was Autistic he would not be touching my shirt. He is not Autistic and you need to stop being such an anxious Mother. If you treated your anxiety your child would start talking again." Now I take my children to the pediatrician maybe 3 times per year and one of them is a well check. My children are rarely sick and I do not make up diseases or reasons for visits. If I did, I would have understood his reaction and prescription for me. However, this was not the case.

At that point I insisted on a hearing evaluation for him and went home. I researched online and we already had one child who had delayed speech, but she did not talk at all until 3. However, she did all the same things Dregon was doing, hand flapping, tip toe walking, lack of eye contact, ignoring their name being called. Once she started talking she was fine. So, I began to believe that was what this was, just another delay.

Six months later, there was still no consistent speech. The other symptoms were also increasing. I decided to change pediatricians and I researched quite a few. I wanted to find one that listen to the parents and not just his own voice. I found a pediatrician and took Dregon. It took me four months to get in.

You had to have your child's previous records before they would schedule an appointment and well lets just say that was not a quick process. Once in with the new doctor, she listened to me, did a psychical on him, and immediately agreed he needed to be evaluated. She would get me a referral.

I was very confused. "Can't you diagnose him?""No, I cannot, I am not trained or licensed to do an Autism diagnoses. No pediatricians in our state are, only a specialist can." "Well then how could his previous pediatrician tell us he was not?" No answer to that question, yet! That began our next journey.

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That day I left the pediatrician's office with Dregon and so much information, to vast, to fully grasp. Dregon would be referred to the specialist; but the waiting time is 6 months to a year. Until then we will send him to speech therapy and occupational therapy. We were told the wait would be long, until we had any concrete information. This was when Dregon was 3 and now he is 4 and we are still waiting.....

I have wanted to have a forum where I could write, share, and help other's through our story. More importantly learn more about Autism from others on the same journey. I am happy I have found this forum.

My next post will be about the fun I had finding a speech therapist and our first specialist appointment.

Thank you for reading and if you have any questions please post in comments.

I would love to hear your stories :)