Say what?

The boy child had his monthly visit with Dr. H yesterday (the OTHER Dr. H) and we agreed that he's in a really good place right now. So far he's having a great, low-key summer. We try to go swimming at least once a week and taekwondo is three times per week (and occupational therapy is once a week) but the rest of the time is mostly free time for him to build with Legos or invent stuff or experiment with stuff or teach himself Java programming, which is his latest thing. He seems very relaxed and un-stressed, which is very nice to see.

Dr. H noticed something that DH and I have also noticed lately however: the boy child's speech has become really unclear. He's always had a bit of a problem with sliding his "s" sound but it's never been really severe. Lately he's really slurring a lot, though, and we're not sure why that is. We had him evaluated by a private speech pathologist a couple of years ago, and she said he had a lot of muscle laxity around his jaw and could probably benefit from oral-motor therapy, but our insurance nixed the idea and we couldn't afford to pay out of pocket. And then when the school's speech pathologist evaluated him as part of his FIE last fall, she said his speech was within the normal range. It seems to have gotten worse since then, though, so we're going to ask for a speech re-eval when he gets his overall re-evaluation this fall.

I showed Dr. H our provider list for a child psychiatrist for the girl child and he was able to give me another name of someone who might possibly be good, so I've turned that over to DH for followup. Maybe we can finally get her an appointment THIS YEAR sometime. Sheesh. She's doing well right now too, though, which is good. It's interesting to see, now that we know what we're dealing with, how her manic and depressive states are so different from her simple "happy" and "sad" moods. There really is a big difference in behavior between simply being happy and being manic. I feel like I need to do a lot more reading/research on this whole bipolar thing, but just simply observing her has been so enlightening.

Today we had our followup with the allergist about the girl child's skin tests, and it turns out she's allergic to pretty much everything too. VERY allergic to dogs, grass and certain trees, and she did have a reaction to soy. We've decided to stick with oral medication for the time being rather than doing shots, for pretty much the same reasons we've decided to skip shots for the boy child.

So the bad news is, we can't get a dog. But the good news is: no tofu, ever!

Ouch!

Well, the girl child had her allergy skin tests today. The boy had such an easy time of it that I had been telling her there was nothing to worry about, it wouldn't hurt, it would be really easy, etc. Unfortunately, we got a different nurse this time and she was not nearly as gentle with the needles. It DID hurt, and most of the girl child's 30 scratches bled at least a little. Grrr! I felt so bad for her. We asked the woman to lighten up a bit, and she kind of did, but that was after she'd done more than half of the scratches.

The girl child did NOT take this well, and I can't blame her. She cried quite a bit when the nurse was out of the room. I was really proud of her for speaking up and letting the nurse know it was hurting, though. Poor kid. Like with the boy child, it took about two hours altogether. They had a TV/VCR in the room with an Ice Age video, so we watched that (the whole thing! with time left over!) and I think it helped distract her just a little bit. But it still hurt. I bought her a little toy and some potato chips afterwards as a reward.

Judging by the reactions I saw, I'm guessing she's allergic to planet earth just like her brother. But we'll find out for sure on Tuesday.

He's allergic to life, apparently

Last month DH and I decided to let the allergy/asthma specialist that both of us have been seeing for a while manage the kids' allergy/asthma issues as well, instead of the pediatrician. We just weren't sure she was 100% on top of things, and we really didn't like the idea of having to take them into a waiting room full of sick kids if they were just having really bad seasonal allergy symptoms.

So we took them in to see him (he's another Dr. H, not to be confused with the OTHER Dr. H) and it was determined that the kids needed allergy skin tests so we would know exactly what we were dealing with. The boy child was VERY upset at the thought of having the tests done, but when it came time to do it he did great! It was almost weird how calm he was during the whole process. They do the thing where they put a drop of solution on the skin and then nick it with a sewing needle (as opposed to those weird panels whatever it is that some doctors use). He got pricked 31 times, all over the insides and outsides of both forearms, and only said "ouch" three times. The rest of the time, he didn't even flinch! I think the fact that they marked him up with a Sharpie distracted him a little bit from what was going on. I told him it was the one time he could have marker all over his arms without getting yelled at, which he thought was pretty cool.

Anyway, we got the results yesterday and it turns out he's allergic to EVERYTHING. Seriously, he reacted to every single thing they tested. They didn't test food, because we haven't noticed any issues there, but dogs, cats, molds, pollens, grasses, trees, dust mites -- you name it. If it exists on planet earth, he's allergic to it, pretty much. Poor kid!

We've decided against allergy shots for now. He may WANT to take them someday, when he's a bit older, but right now it would be super traumatic for him, and also there's just no way we could get down there every week for him to get the shots, especially during the school year. So for now we're sticking with Singulair, which seems to be working well for him (recently switched from Zyrtec, which had stopped working).

The girl child gets her skin tests on Thursday. She's REALLY nervous about it. I know she'll be fine once we get in there; she's just getting herself all worked up. I've pointed out to her several times, NOT within the boy child's hearing, that she is WAY tougher than he is so if he could handle it, it can't be that bad. But she's not buying it. Sigh. We'll see what happens. She does have a lot of food issues, so I'm going to have them test her for that, which means she'll probably get even more arm-pricks than the boy did. I'm sure she'll react to dogs and grass and probably some trees, because we've noticed symptoms with all those things, but it'll be interesting to see if there's anything else she's allergic to.

On the diagnosis front for the girl, we finally got in touch with the one child psychiatrist that was on both our provider list and the list of recommendations we got from Dr. H (the OTHER Dr. H). So she has an appointment -- in JANUARY. That was the earliest he could see her. We're on the cancellation list, and in the meantime we'll be running our provider list by Dr. H again, just to see if he's heard anything good or bad about any of the other doctors on it. But geez! Here's hoping she doesn't become suicidal or anything in the next seven months, eh?

Stupid US healthcare system.

Summertime

Wow, I am doing a horrible job of keeping this thing up to date. Sorry about that! We got busy with end-of-school stuff, and then beginning-of-summer stuff, and since then I've been more or less asleep or doped up on allergy meds the whole time.

Anyway, the boy child is doing really well so far this summer. We haven't had any bug problems since school ended (knock wood) so that has made things MUCH less stressful around here. We're finished with swimming lessons and the boy is now swimming like a fish with no hesitation whatsoever! He still doesn't want to go in the deep end or go down the slide (which is IN the deep end) at our neighborhood pool, but he's swimming underwater and generally having a fine old time WITHOUT floaties, which is huge progress for him.

Several weeks ago he became a recommended black belt in taekwondo, and he is so proud of himself, as he rightly should be. I have to admit, I got a little teary at the ceremony when I thought of how far he had come and how this represented so much more to him than just getting a cool belt to wear with his uniform. I couldn't believe how well he did with his sparring considering he has had so many problems with that due to his sensory defensiveness. You never would have known to see him sparring at his belt graduation! He was aggressive as all get-out, which I have NEVER seen with him before. Yay, boy child! He's going to have to work pretty hard to turn his recommended black belt into a "decided" black belt, but he can do it. When the instructor put his new belt on him, she asked him what his next goal was and he said, "Grandmaster!" That's my boy!

The girl child is also having a good summer so far. She had a lot of social problems at school this year so that particular anxiety has been eliminated, at least temporarily. We are seeing definite manic and depressive stages with her, along with mixed-state rages and plenty of rapid cycling, but she has been on a MOSTLY even keel for the past several days. I've noticed she does much better when she gets lots of extra attention, so I've been trying to give that to her as best I can. She has become really helpful around the house and has taken to calling herself "mini-mom" as she helps me fold laundry or unload the dishwasher or whatever. Hey, if being my free child labor makes her happy, I am all for it! (Kidding!)(But only a little!)

We're still in the process of trying to get a second opinion/confirmation on her diagnosis in order to come up with some sort of treatment plan, but it hasn't been easy. DH has done quite a bit of legwork trying to get it all pre-approved by our insurance and comparing our provider list with recommendations we received from Dr. H. There was only ONE name on both lists, and we called to get on the waiting list to see him but it's a complicated process (we had to call on the 1st of the month to get on a call-back list, and we're still waiting for the call back, which is supposed to come this week). Apparently there's a shortage of child psychiatrists here in town. Thank God she's not actually in crisis right now, huh? It's beginning to look like the only way to actually get her on medication, if/when that's what we decide to do, is to get her admitted through the ER or something. Yeah, don't get me started.

Well, I'm going to stop at that brief/incomplete update for now. I will TRY TRY TRY to update more often. Like I always say.