Results Minus the Results

It's a chilly Tuesday. It's about time it felt a little more like ole man winter around these parts. (that makes me sound slightly country/ borderline heathen doesn't it? ha) Wanna know a secret? It may come as a shock, but I am developing a serious LOVE-HATE for doctors. I mean don't get me wrong, doctors are wonderful people who save lives everyday, but by golly they can't answer a phone to save their LIFE!!! Secret number two.... I have more test results for Jackson. Yep those ones we've been waiting on since ohhhh about 2 months ago. Good thing I've had Halloween, Thanksgiving and a few blog posts in between to keep my mind focused elsewhere.  

I am finding myself extremely frustrated today. Why, I don't know. Maybe it's just "one of those days". And quite frankly, who cares right? Since when is every day peaches and cream for everyone? If you are one of those people who claims to never have a bad day, stop lying to yourself, we all have a bad day. I feel like a little hamster on the wheel. Running and running, but that darn wheel isn't going anywhere. Hamsters have to be the most frustrated little creatures....

In case you are not fully on the spinning hamster wheel of Jackson's testing, I'll quickly recap. So far, we've had speech, hearing and language evaluations (more on that here) and vision testing. The second set of  OT tests includes the DP-3 (more on that here), Fine Motor Assessment and a Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) evaluation. Still to go, Psychological evaluations and testing for Asperger's (which is a form of autism), Autism (all ASD forms), and ADHD. My goal in all of this is to hopefully have some firm answers for my little superhero, by April 2013. Just in case you are wondering how long all this takes, April will make 9 months of actual testing and about a 15+ months total of waiting lists and appointments to get some answers (not to mention our previous years of wondering, but hey, who's counting right? haha). Jackson will be just a few weeks shy of 7 by then. If your are a parent out there and you think you are a similar journey, or should begin down the same path for answers, get your rechargeable batteries, you'll be on the "spinning wheel" for a while, but don't ever give up on your little person! I firmly believe that their future depends on your actions today, so whatever you do, don't let that wheel stop turning for them, no matter how long you have to keep it going.

So on to the meat and potatoes of results. 

Jack's results today are the full Occupational Therapy evaluation to include the Fine Motor Skills Assessment and Sensory Processing Disorder. Are you still with me or did I lose you at chilly Tuesday? Ha. All these tests and details and foreign language medical terms can be a bit overwhelming, trust me I KNOW.

Without going into too many details and because I don't think I need to blast Jackson's every area of concern, I'll just recap the areas of testing and results. As you read these, should you find yourself thinking internally: "what does that listed medical term mean?", well... Google it friends. Here we go...

Motor Skills Testing:

• Musculoskeletal Observations
• Fine Motor Skills
• Visual-Motor / Visual Perception Skills
• Oculomotor Skills: 
• Tracking-results: within normal limits (YAY!!!!)    
• Scanning- results: needs therapy                    
• Convergence- results: impaired 
• Accommodation- results: needs therapy 
• Divergence- results: impaired
• Additional Visual Information
• Self-Help Skills 

Sensory Processing Disorder Testing: 

• Sensation Seeking
• Auditory Processing
• Visual Processing
• Tactile Processing
• Vestibular Processing
• Oral Sensory Processing
• Cognitive Skills

And so for all those areas of testing came these results: Occupational Therapy (OT) should begin in January 2013 for Jackson, with a re-assessment scheduled at the end of the school year to observe for improvements. Jackson should also be involved in social interaction group and/or a sensory processing based play group or camp. 

The the most important line on the whole darn report, MD (medical diagnosis) and here's what it says: 

MD:____________________________________

What? Huh? Nothing? What the.....? Okay, what does blank mean? Is this a bad joke because it's definitely not funny. Does that mean there is no diagnosis, yet he needs to have OT sessions? Does that mean we can rule out Sensory Processing Disorder? Does that mean there will only be a diagnosis after more tests? How can you go through all these tests and things for the most important line to be BLANK!!!! I mean if he doesn't have a diagnosis, fine. But write something on that line to say one way or the other. All those results with no real result!?! Ugh! Maybe my frustration today is starting to make more sense. I have called at least (no joke here...) 20 times to ask about this. 

Of course we will be at therapy this week, so I plan to pin SOMEONE in a corner til' they answer me why that little line was blank, so stay tuned and hopefully I'll be able to fill in the blank! 

I guess I can add this to the "speed bump count" on Jackson's journey. But don't worry, I'll get my answers. In the meantime, the plan is to start OT for Jackson at the beginning of the year and hopefully get scheduled for the psych testing next. 

Since that all important line was blank and I'm rather frustrated today; I'll just fill it in for them... 

MD: Milford Done

~EM

You Can't Have That

Ever heard the words "you can't have that"? It's like finding the perfect pair of heels only to flip them over and see just how many 00000's are behind the $ sign on the tag. Shattered dreams.....

So okay, you recover and your on to the next thing. What about repeatedly being told "you can't have that"? That's a whole other story. It's hard enough to process things you can't have (for whatever reason), let alone when you process things a little differently and are told those 4 yucky words. Which leads me to my point. Yes, there is a point here. Ha! I know there are tons of allergies out there with our kids, our own allergies, etc but do you live with one? Do you stare at food labels and read them like a hawk? Well, I do. 

Jackson is allergic to tree nuts. What are those.... well anything like your pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, cashews (especially those little half moon suckers!) and others. But he can have peanuts (for now). Anything that can potentially contain tree nuts, he cannot have. If you have ever been to an allergist you know that little porcupine looking gadget that poke your back with?? Yeah, it has traces of the elements on it when they are testing you for an allergy. Jackson blew up like a balloon before the nurse could even get finished and get out of the room. Cue the epi pen epidemic!!! We have SIX of those suckers! One at school, one at home, one in my purse (always), two back ups, and one that travels in an overnight bathroom bag in case he spends the night anywhere without me and John. 

We figured out this lovely "allergy" a couple of years ago, thankfully at a graduation party for our friend Patrick who just so happened to be graduating as a NURSE! So lots of medical people were on hand at the time we tasted the lovely cashew that caused Jackson to blow up like a balloon. He didn't even look like himself he was so swollen. Long story short here....luckily, with the medical folks there, a police officer and a whole heck of a lot of benadryl, we had him under control pretty quickly actually. (Mr. Cop was trying to pull me over for speeding down Poplar in Germantown, until I rolled down the window and he saw Jackson's face and became our escort instead, hehhehehe I won that one Mr. Po-Po!). But seriously, whew! 

Looking back on that night, it was really scary to see him so swollen! But now we check everything. I had no idea how many foods are made with tree nuts or manufactured in places that touch tree nuts. RIDICULOUS. Especially the good stuff like cookies, muffins, cakes, etc. So last night we were ready to make some cookies from our cookie dough I ordered as part of a school fundraiser. Then I read the label. Yep, you guessed it.... so I delivered the news to Jackson that we can't make those cookies because they have tree nuts in them. Commence breakdown. Hurry Mom, plan B, you need a plan B. Ok, other cookies. No other cookies in the house (of course not, that would be way to easy). So with my crying little man, I offered for us to make muffins. Which I'll insert here, DARN you Hostess! They were pretty much the only ones with the mini muffins pre-packaged without tree nuts! So, I got some other muffin mix sans tree nuts so we could make our own. I offered to let Jackson do all the mixing and make his own. Problem starting to divert! We are working with him on his adaptive behavior skills (you can read about that  here). So I thought if he could try to make these on his own he would feel a great sense of accomplishment, have something sweet to eat, and it's even better for you than cookies! I've lost count on my win win's with this one. LOL

To most kids making cupcakes, etc is cool when you are little but as they get older they are just more interested in eating them, than the whole baking/kitchen labor part. But Jackson was so excited to make his muffins last night and I let him do the majority of the work on his own! He only got upset once or twice with the mix "missing" the mini cup on the pan. (he likes things neat, not outside the lines, so muffin mix on top of the pan will not do for him) But I gave him a napkin and showed him how to clean it up and try to move on and not "obsess" over a little spill. He did pretty good with it! He even set the timer on the oven (he's obsessed with the "countdown" of timers) and then put his hand in the oven mit with mine so we could take out the muffins together. I gave him a toothpick to "stab" the muffins so he could get them out of the pan without burning himself and put them on a cooling rack. 

Super excited and so proud of himself he asked to call Grams (aka my mom) and tell her all about them. (He rarely asks to call people on the phone and usually has to be prompted or helped with his phone conversations on how to respond, so the fact that he wanted to call was so awesome!) He was so happy that he had done it. You wanna know what making muffins really means in Jackson language? That means with a lot of practice and help, he has the will to do better. That means he understands what it feels like to succeed. That means my little monkey can improve in everything he does and there is no limit to what he can do. Of course it takes an entire post about allergies, muffins and yelling at Hostess to get me to the "read between the lines" message here, but my point is just because "you can't have that" doesn't mean you can't have something else that's even better that what you wanted to begin with.

Hanging my hat on a HUGE hanger of success for this one. And my little superhero being super proud of himself... I can't do  much better than that. 

~EM

The Dirty 30...

Welp. You only turn 30 once right? Not that I need ANY excuse to have a few libations, (hehe) but turning 30 warrants well....libations! Soooooo I was led to believe by my hubby that we were going out for a MUCH NEEDED date night and that he had already lined up for the kids to spend the night at Grandpa and Nona's. (that should have been my first hint that he was plotting, he's no Martha Stewart when it comes to party planning) But little did I know that he had been on the sneaky sneaky with one of my best friends for over a month! 

Skipping to last night, we were headed out to the restaurant Local in mid-town (or so I thought). Pause... since when has mid-town become a booming metropolis in our city? Or am I really just that behind and sheltered? Maybe I should get out more??? After ten minutes of circling like a shark for a parking spot, we finally found one and were headed in. We got to the door and all of a sudden J says, "Ok, change of plans." Uhhh, ok? He said he didn't want to hurt my feelings, but Local was booked so we were going to Bosco's instead. Well ok, that sounds good to me. So we get in, bypass the hostess and he tells me to just keep going straight to the back. (ok this is starting to get a little "weird") I turn the corner and out comes the loud squeal... "SURPRISE"!!! There was an entire group of people at a big table all there to help me celebrate being one year closer to geriatric-hood! Ha! We had a great time at dinner with some of my best friends and the rest of the night was up to "wherever the wind blows us" aka wherever the cab drove us lol. 

Kelly, McKenleigh, Ashley and me at Bosco's 

After dinner we headed over to Local, for real this time haha to hang out and have a couple of drinks. Of course we tend to take pictures like there's no tomorrow, so here's a few pics of us attempting to "act our age" (like we ever do that).

Typical..... 

   

      

Wifey swap! LOL

My mini-me....  (just act like you don't see this pic Mom ha!)

After a while we headed downtown to continue the party. Side note, last night was "dress like Santa pub crawl downtown" that one of the local bars hosts every year and we saw some pretty funny attempts to look like the the big guy who comes down the chimney, ha! I WISH I would have taken some nonchalant, potentially embarrassing pics of the Santa's but ask me if that crossed my mind at ONE O'CLOCK in the morning? NOPE. Oh well, on to more shenanigans...

           

         


              
          Holly and Kyle.... oh these two...aren't they cute?? I'm sure he thinks our family is NUTS!
                                                                                   

Me and Holls! (We missed our other sissy, Auburn... don't worry Aubs, we drank one or two for you)
Sad and scary my youngest sissy is old enough to even go to a bar!
I feel like she should be at home playing barbies! Guess I'm starting to show my "age" LOL

Me and Kelly! So many fun nights and memories with this sweet girl! LOVE YOU!

We had such a fun night and got home around...hmmm, yeah it was late. Ha. I am so thankful and blessed to have a sweet hubby and friends who came out to celebrate me turning the DIRTY 30 as I have been hearing from everyone for a while! Don't worry though, just wait til' they all turn 30...hehehe. So getting sentimental here for a minute, from the bottom of my HEART, a HUGE thank you to everyone that came out and helped celebrate my birthday. Really, it meant the world to me! I feel like such a lucky girl to have such wonderful friends and family that love and care about me! 

In other breaking news... Jackson is back to 100% Whooooo, FINALLY! The kids had a great weekend and now that I'm getting closer to "old fart" status, I'll gladly share all my AARP discounts with my YOUNGER friends! (yes, I'm admitting that one of those came in the mail for me the other day) Hahahaha! I mean good grief! I'm only 30 AARP! That's about the equivalent of someone making a phone call and asking for someone who is no longer alive! Can you say awkward!?! GEEZ! I hope your weekend was as fun and blessed with love as mine was! 

Here's to the DIRTY 30! Til next time friends!

~EM