Well... interesting day...

[Guest guest]

After being a VERY squeaky wheel, I had managed to move up the

ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) test

to TODAY, instead of waiting until JANUARY. So… after a good breakfast,

(who’s 9, just to remind you) and I drove to the children’s

hospital, and waited for the Child Development Pediatrician to call us. We went

down the hall, to a room where a panel of people were watching from behind a two

way mirror (Psychologist, Child Development Pediatrician, Occupational

Therapist, Physical Therapist, etc etc). There was one lady and the Speech

Language Therapist in the room with us.

Well first of all, I couldn’t get him INTO the room. He

buried his face in my stomach when the pediatrician (who we’d seen

before, and quite LIKED) was introducing us to the other ladies (who

were also very nice). Then he wouldn’t go IN the room. Tried to run out

the door, hid in the corner, hung himself, FULL WEIGHT from my arms. It took

every ounce of my strength to even get him into the room, and then he tried to

run from the room, and I had to put my chair in front of the door to keep him

from bolting. (Originally, they wanted him in the room and me watching from the

other side, talking with the panel of observers. No such luck when he was

terrified to go in the room, even with the knowledge that I’d be there.)

So then they tried to get him to play. He took another chair,

and barred himself in the corner, under/behind the chair. He would NOT come

out. He didn’t want to answer questions. She tried to get his interest in

some of the MANY toys she had there, and he would NOT talk to her. He hid his

face, and stayed behind or under the chair the entire time. Then he told me he

had to go to the bathroom. I said I’d take him, only if he’d agree

to come right back to the room, and we’d finish what we needed to do. We

all reminded him that the faster we got the testing done, the faster we could

LEAVE. He agreed, and even left his PUPPY in the room (which was HUGE! I am

shocked he did that!).

Yeah… til he tried to RUN out of the hospital. I had to

literally run, FULL TILT, to keep him from leaving. He was up the stairs…

finally I caught him, and he INSISTED on going to the same bathroom (by the

entrance) that we’d just been to. I told him there was a bathroom

downstairs, that we’d been in before (the last time we came to see the

asthma specialist). So he begrudgingly agreed, and we went to that bathroom. I

was able to calm him some while we were in there, and he seemed better going

back. He went in and sat down at the table. I was hopeful!

Then she asked him if he’d play table soccer with her. And

he wanted nothing to do with it. Then she asked him to do the puzzle. He did do

that… then she asked him to pretend with her. He said he would. She asked

him to pretend she was an alien, and had just arrived on earth today. People

were telling her how to brush her teeth, but she didn’t know how. So she “drew”

an imaginary sink, taps, toothpaste and toothbrush on the table, and asked

if he’d show her how to do it. He would not participate. He hung

himself upside down from the chair, hid his face, and that was that. So, came a

knock on the door. The child development ped. Wanted to talk to me.

CLUNG To my leg, and I literally had to peel him off to get out of the room for

a moment. He CRIED and cried, and they tried to engage him about his Nintendo

DS (his obsession, his “escape”), and he had already shut down. All

he did was scream and cry.

They told me they couldn’t score any of it if he couldn’t

do the tests. They felt bad for him, and didn’t want him to suffer for

another hour, just to get nowhere. The psychologist told her to commend me for

my patience, and that it was “obvious” to her that I was used to

this type of behavior, because my “feathers weren’t rattled a bit”.

That some parents lose it. I told her I *WAS* used to it… and didn’t

get “ruffled” anymore, because it just doesn’t help. SO, they

pulled the plug on the test, and sent us on our way.

I now will get a phone call from a lady in the child development

department sometime in the next week, and her and I will conduct an hour-hour

and a half –over the phone- EXTENSIVE interview. A VERY involved “how

was he then, how is he now?” type interview, which she can “score”,

and share with the Child Development Ped, and we’ll go from there.

YOIKES! I’ll keep you all posted.

Wow, what an exhausting day for us both. And I barely slept last

night as it was !! We treated ourselves to lunch together, ice cream for him,

and a Starbucks coffee for me. LOL I think we deserved it

Just had to share/vent/etc.

=)