Tuesday, March 24, 2015

holy cow- it's been too long!

Whoops- sometimes I forget to push publish, this has been sitting around for awhile :)

Well, it's over. The educational autism evaluation. It holds zero weight when it comes to a medical diagnosis, but according to our evaluator, our boy shows enough autism tendencies that he qualifies for "services". I use that term incredibly lightly. In our state early intervention is a joke. With his multiple learning delays our only "services" are two 45 minute sessions per month with an early intervention specialist. Now, after the evaluation, we are granted a 30-45 minute session with a autism specailist ONCE per quarter. Which means we will likely see her only one time before he ages out of EI at 3. At that point he'll be transitioned over to early childhood special education (ECSE). It's unfortunate to go through all of this, with very little coming of it. He will be evaluated again just before his third birhday because it's required for the transition, but we don't expect the results will be significantly different.

On a positive note, our insurance does cover some autism related therapies-- but only with a medical diagnosis, which is very likely to be 9-12 months away because the waiting lists for appointments with developmental pediatricians for assessment are miles long. So we're in a season of waiting.... Again.

While it's somewhat upsetting to think about the things he may not do, or may do differently we are really taking it all in stride. He's our boy, no matter what.

So that's the update. Otherwise, things just keep pressing on- we have a few fun things on the calendar for this summer and a possible disney vacation in the works for the fall. We've had a crazy nice late winter/early spring so we've been enjoyed so many super fun weekends with the boys! They are at such a fun age right now!! An update on IVF: we are waiting--  the very soonest would be the end of the year, but I think it's more likely we'll wait until late 2016 or early 2017. I Know three people who've recently transferred ONE embryo and had it split to identicles. Holy crap- one baby I could handle right now- but TWO.... I can't even imagine!

3 comments:

Liz said...

Sounds like in this situation, getting the diagnosis is the best thing for your little guy. It will guarantee a whole bunch of services as it seems you are really lacking there. I'm sure it's been a lot to process. Also, we checked out some of the signing time dvd's from the library and the girls love them.

Amber said...

Wow. I cannot imagine how much you are all going through right now. EI is a joke here as well. We are doing speech through EI currently and I have been highly disappointed with their services overall. I loved what you said about loving your little guy no matter what. I'm hoping for the best. Seeing a specialist will get so many questions answered. I can't believe how long of a wait it is!! Do you mind telling me what was going on that made you think he needed to be evaluated? I am just curious. Hoping for the best for you all!

Michele said...

I hope that the services result in some progress, and I hope that the diagnosis to come results in receiving any needed services.

Hey wait...don't you already have twins? Isn't it a bit of a been there, don't that kind of thing?