So, it's been a while. Hi y'all. March has been particularly crazy, yet there's been nothing really interesting enough to warrant its own blog. Here's the Cliff's Notes version.
♦ Lent started. It's going better than normal.
♦ Got a toothache/started Spring Break
♦ Went to Houston, presumably to help Jim unpack, except he was already finished.
♦ Came home for one day, then took the boys to The Folk's for a few days.
♦ Came home and had a 5 1/2 hour root canal.
♦ Got a back spasm yesterday morning which made church rather stiff.
♦ Had our first Easter ensemble practice. Only minor flatulant elephant noises.
♦ Came home just in time to watch Mark's car roll down the driveway and into neighbor's tree.
♦ Watched this morning as repair guy took away our TV. I'm not sure who's missing it more, Mark or CME.
♦ And now I'm procrastinating mopping the floor after Matty dumped out an entire jug of OJ.
♦ Still procrastinating.
♦ Wait, now I'm multi-tasking because I'm ALSO procrastinating folding the boys' laundry which has been in the hallway for a week.
♦ Still procrastinating, but feeling very smug and content with myself for my super amazing DOUBLE procrastination skills.
♦ Crap. Now Mark is home from the grocery store and I can procrastinate no longer. See ya!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
St. Paddy's Day in Houston
Greetings from sunny and muddy Houston!
Jim has a gorgeous new house. 2,400 sq. ft. of newness. I have house envy. 4 bedrooms all with walkin closets, a huge living room, plus a game room upstairs. Lots of space for all of Jim's stuff.
The Hubs and I are down here, supposedly helping bro-in-law Jim with the unpacking in his new house. The problem is, Jim is already 99% unpacked. So far, Mark has helped him to hang a light in the garage, we've been to Walmart for supplies, and laid some stepping stones in the back yard. Now, I'm just sitting here. Technically, we're helping by doing nothing right now, because the Comcast guy is here fixing the cable. Yea, us! Go team!
I'm feeling a bit duped about being here, since I thought the whole point was to be helpful. But, when the cable guy is finished we're going to hit a local yarn store and a disc golf course.
Mom is home with the boys. We video chatted over xBox Live last night. Kids seem fine. Mom is either fine or shellshocked. Hard to tell.
Mark has a cold. It started Sunday before we left.
I have a toothache and an appointment for a root canal next week. So thrilled about that.
Not much else. We'll be heading home early tomorrow for 7 more hours on the road. The good news is, since I don't have anything else to do here, I've gotten my iPod and iTunes running again. It took a few uninstalls and re-installs, plus a reset of the iPod, but we'll be able to listen to Melinda Doolittle's album on the way home!
Guess I'm done. See y'all soon! Happy St. Paddy's Day!
Jim has a gorgeous new house. 2,400 sq. ft. of newness. I have house envy. 4 bedrooms all with walkin closets, a huge living room, plus a game room upstairs. Lots of space for all of Jim's stuff.
The Hubs and I are down here, supposedly helping bro-in-law Jim with the unpacking in his new house. The problem is, Jim is already 99% unpacked. So far, Mark has helped him to hang a light in the garage, we've been to Walmart for supplies, and laid some stepping stones in the back yard. Now, I'm just sitting here. Technically, we're helping by doing nothing right now, because the Comcast guy is here fixing the cable. Yea, us! Go team!
I'm feeling a bit duped about being here, since I thought the whole point was to be helpful. But, when the cable guy is finished we're going to hit a local yarn store and a disc golf course.
Mom is home with the boys. We video chatted over xBox Live last night. Kids seem fine. Mom is either fine or shellshocked. Hard to tell.
Mark has a cold. It started Sunday before we left.
I have a toothache and an appointment for a root canal next week. So thrilled about that.
Not much else. We'll be heading home early tomorrow for 7 more hours on the road. The good news is, since I don't have anything else to do here, I've gotten my iPod and iTunes running again. It took a few uninstalls and re-installs, plus a reset of the iPod, but we'll be able to listen to Melinda Doolittle's album on the way home!
Guess I'm done. See y'all soon! Happy St. Paddy's Day!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Sorting through some thoughts
This is just me rambling. I need to type some things out. You might want to ignore this.
I had an appointment for CME with a developmental pediatrician on Monday. We've known about his sensory processing disorder and dyspraxia for some time, but there's been something else going on, that we haven't been able to put our finger on. It's obvious he's going to need more help to succeed in first grade, so this trip to the Dev. Ped. was the first step in finding out what we need to know.
CME has "red flags" for so many things, but so far, there's no ONE disorder that fully "fits" him. And all these disorders are inter-related. The more I dig into this, the more symptoms I find match him, and the more confused I get.
We're pretty sure we're looking at some sort of Pervasive Developmental Disorder. PDD isn't a diagnosis, just an "umbrella term under which specific diagnosis are defined." Isn't that clear as mud? Under that you've got the autism spectrum, and within that spectrum, you've got dozens of other things. Some things are IN the spectrum, and others are not. They all overlap.
CME matches some of the "red flags" for Asperger's, Sensory Integration disorder, Hyperlexia, semantic-pragmatic disorder, OCD and ADD. He doesn't fit neatly into any ONE catagory, though. And a lot of his symptoms fall under several of these disorders.
It's like if you drew a giant circle on the wall, and labeled it "Autism." Within that circle there would be a few smaller circles with his symptoms listed inside. There would also be a ton of circles half-on and half-off the larger circle, with some of the symptoms in and some out of the larger "Autism" circle. Kids with autism tend to have some or most of these things, but not all kids who have these things have autism. But, how the hell do you know the difference, and does it even matter?!
I know I'm not making any sense, and that's okay. I told you to ignore me.
CME's main issues:
1. Sensory processing. (Fits all these disorders.)
2. Social difficulties, eye contact, conversations. (Same as above)
3. Rigidity/inflexibility. (Same as above)
4. Super reading skills. (Falls under Asperger's and hyperlexia.)
5. Poor communication skills (Asperger's, Hyperlexia, semantic-pragmatic)
6. Subject obsessions (Asperger's)
7. Inattention (All)
8. Poor motor skills (All)
9. Poor receptive language skills (semantic-pragmatic, hyperlexia)
OK, so I've typed a lot and havent figured anything out.
We're working on improving his diet, and adding more sensory diet to his day. We go back in six weeks for another appointment. In the meantime, we need to do a full speech evaluation, and a vision screening.
The speech eval was a surprise to me. He reads so well, and has a great vocabulary, but it's obvious to me now that his speech patterns are not normal. He doesn't partake in normal conversations, with "give and take." He talks AT you, usually about one of the subjects that he's "obsessed" with, and tends to make up gibberish to fill in for things he doesn't know. And it turns out, he's unable to understand three-step directions or answer more complex verbal questions. So there seems to be some sort of receptive communication problem.
Sigh. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.
I had an appointment for CME with a developmental pediatrician on Monday. We've known about his sensory processing disorder and dyspraxia for some time, but there's been something else going on, that we haven't been able to put our finger on. It's obvious he's going to need more help to succeed in first grade, so this trip to the Dev. Ped. was the first step in finding out what we need to know.
CME has "red flags" for so many things, but so far, there's no ONE disorder that fully "fits" him. And all these disorders are inter-related. The more I dig into this, the more symptoms I find match him, and the more confused I get.
We're pretty sure we're looking at some sort of Pervasive Developmental Disorder. PDD isn't a diagnosis, just an "umbrella term under which specific diagnosis are defined." Isn't that clear as mud? Under that you've got the autism spectrum, and within that spectrum, you've got dozens of other things. Some things are IN the spectrum, and others are not. They all overlap.
CME matches some of the "red flags" for Asperger's, Sensory Integration disorder, Hyperlexia, semantic-pragmatic disorder, OCD and ADD. He doesn't fit neatly into any ONE catagory, though. And a lot of his symptoms fall under several of these disorders.
It's like if you drew a giant circle on the wall, and labeled it "Autism." Within that circle there would be a few smaller circles with his symptoms listed inside. There would also be a ton of circles half-on and half-off the larger circle, with some of the symptoms in and some out of the larger "Autism" circle. Kids with autism tend to have some or most of these things, but not all kids who have these things have autism. But, how the hell do you know the difference, and does it even matter?!
I know I'm not making any sense, and that's okay. I told you to ignore me.
CME's main issues:
1. Sensory processing. (Fits all these disorders.)
2. Social difficulties, eye contact, conversations. (Same as above)
3. Rigidity/inflexibility. (Same as above)
4. Super reading skills. (Falls under Asperger's and hyperlexia.)
5. Poor communication skills (Asperger's, Hyperlexia, semantic-pragmatic)
6. Subject obsessions (Asperger's)
7. Inattention (All)
8. Poor motor skills (All)
9. Poor receptive language skills (semantic-pragmatic, hyperlexia)
OK, so I've typed a lot and havent figured anything out.
We're working on improving his diet, and adding more sensory diet to his day. We go back in six weeks for another appointment. In the meantime, we need to do a full speech evaluation, and a vision screening.
The speech eval was a surprise to me. He reads so well, and has a great vocabulary, but it's obvious to me now that his speech patterns are not normal. He doesn't partake in normal conversations, with "give and take." He talks AT you, usually about one of the subjects that he's "obsessed" with, and tends to make up gibberish to fill in for things he doesn't know. And it turns out, he's unable to understand three-step directions or answer more complex verbal questions. So there seems to be some sort of receptive communication problem.
Sigh. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.
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