Owen update

Time for another medicalish update on Owen.

He went to the ped today to recheck his ears. They are mostly clear (but not completely clear after 10 days of antibiotics), so that's good (and bad, at least they cleared up some). We got a referral to an ENT. His ped thinks he should get tubes because of how many infections he's gotten and also because he NEVER tells us that his ears hurt when he does have ear infections. Often I take him to the doctor for something else and that's when I find out he has ear infections. The doctor is concerned that, even with the high number of infections we know he's had, he's probably had more that we don't even know about. So that sucks. He sees the ENT on March 13th.

His ped also gave us an order to get blood drawn. He's going to test for immune deficiencies and also do a blood count. His doctor is concerned that Owen may have an immune deficiency (specifically IgA deficiency) given how many ear infections, throat infections, upper respiratory infections, etc he's had in the last 4 years (starting with croup at 3 months). Since we hadn't gotten around to doing the blood draw for the genetic testing yet then we'll do it all together so we only have to do one poke. We're going to try for this week, but I'm not positive yet.

On Friday Owen sees the developmental/behavioral team here for another autism evaluation. We've been waiting like 6 months for this appointment! Very big appointment. I've already told myself that this will be his last autism evaluation. Whatever the outcome, I'll take it and work with it (his first one he was diagnosed with autism, the second one they said he had many autistic tendencies but they didn't want to label him as autistic until he was in school.... basically so they didn't have to provide him with any services for the next 3 years. This evaluation is being done in a large hospital setting so they have nothing to lose/gain by giving/denying a diagnosis, unlike the school district). He goes through spurts where I totally believe he has autism. Then there are good days where I'm not so convinced. Unfortunately, the good days are always followed by another bad one (or two, or 30).

Just for kicks, I just did this pdd assessment for Owen again (I've done it randomly over the last couple years). Of course this is not a diagnostic tool to be used by parents at home. It's more or less something for me to fool around with. Today he scored a 127 when I did it for him ;( That is right smack in the middle of "moderate PDD" :( :( Of course, that means nothing in reality other than it's time for mama to worry some more.

I also printed out a bunch of questions for Owen's teachers at daycare to answer so that I had something to give to the doctors on Friday so they can get a quick look at how Owen does at daycare (I know they'll probably ask the teachers to fill out more forms, and that's fine, I just wanted him to get an idea on Friday). Some of the answers are shocking. As I'm getting these questions back (I've gotten some back, others I'll get back next week) I'm starting to think I don't really want to know and should just seal them in an envelope to give to the doctor without reading them. It seems to be the general consensus that Owen doesn't have any friends, he doesn't interact with the other kids at all (except to run into them or roll on them), he doesn't interact with the teachers at all- he may answer his name sometimes and the only questions he'll answer is "what is your name" (he answers with "Owen") and "what is your favorite food" (which he randomly answers with whatever food is in his sight- he doesn't *get* "favorite" yet). He doesn't really play with the toys appropriately (he may move them around but not purposefully)- he usually chews on them or throws/kicks them and he's obsessed with the tv and computer. I'm definately a little shocked by some of it. I had no idea he was that "different". I don't work much in the big kid room, but when I do I see what the other teachers do. I have to agree with what they've written, it's just hard to hear that other people are seeing these things too.

Anyway, that's the update for Owen for now.

Oh- he's also meeting one on one with his OT on Tuesday. She's going to try to give me some ideas on what to do about Owen's oral stuff. Wednesday I went into his classroom and found his sleeve on his sweatshirt SOAKED up to his elbow! Apparently he forgot about his chewy necklace and chewed up his sleeve. Doh! Fortuantely we have a dryer there so I could dry it before we went outside.