Week 152- The Neuropsychologist

It was an up and down week with Ryan.  On Friday, Ryan was very excited to come home and show us his 100 on his spelling quiz.  Now that he is being pulled out again with the special education teacher his grades have gone up.  If you recall, they stopped taking him out of the class to take his tests and we noticed a sharp drop in his grades.

On the behavior front, it was OK.  His behavior was manageable at home and he did not have as many of the huge meltdowns that he was previously having.  However, on Thursday we found out that Ryan had punched two different boys in the face at two different times throughout the school day.  The first one was because Ryan and another boy had an argument in the hallway.  The argument was about if the other boy said a bad word or not.  They argued back and forth and Ryan hit him in the face.  The second time was in the cafeteria and a different boy took money from Ryan (his lucky coin) and would not give it back.  So instead of telling a teacher, he hit the boy in the face.  We are trying to get through to Ryan that you cannot break a rule to enforce another rule.

With all of the phones calls that Dawn has been making to different doctors, we were supposed to have our first one on Friday afternoon with the psychologist that Ryan's school social worker recommended.  We prepped Ryan, sent notes into school about getting out early, we put in to get the time off from work to bring him and what happens?  She cancels at the last minute!  I wonder it we should charge her the 75 dollar fee for not cancelling within 24 hours?  It was probably for the best anyway.  Dawn did not get the best feeling from this person during their phone conversation and it took forever for this person to call us back to get this appointment in the first place.  And even after hearing the urgency of the situation, the earliest she could fit us in was two weeks away.  We found a different psychologist (Dr. Field) that was recommended to us by one of Dawn's former student's mother.  Dawn called him and was able to get an appointment within 2 days.  Ryan met him on Saturday, had a good time in his office and when the session was over gave him a hug good bye.  We are going to stay with Dr. Field for now and Ryan is going to see him once a week. Dr. Field gave Ryan some interesting homework.  He told him that once a day he is to have a planned meltdown and to make it as close to a real meltdown as possible. Ryan did so on Saturday and Sunday (with reminders and prompting from us).  He found it very silly.  Maybe that is the point, to make Ryan realize how silly he looks and feels spinning on the floor kicking his legs. 

Another one of Dawn's former student's mother who reads our blog thought it would be nice to make us dinner. This is someone who has followed Ryan's ups and downs for years and has become a close friend to our family.  Below is the picture of what she made for us that evening and the menu that she made.  We are still eating the leftovers!  This is someone that has really reached out to us and has been a good friend to Dawn.  I cannot thank her enough for all of the support and encouragement that you have given to Dawn over these past few months.  It has meant a great deal to our family.

Our feast.

The Menu

We are in the process of filling out paperwork for OPWDD (Office for People With Developmental Disabilities).  Dawn has been making calls to our regional office and with a great deal of help from several friends on Facebook, we are on our way.  It is mountains of paper work and we have been extremely fortunate to have people willing to email us and spend over an hour on the phone walking us through the system.  For those of you that have reached out to answer our questions or to just say that you were thinking of us, we cannot thank you enough.  We will keep everyone posted on whether Ryan qualifies for services.  It may take a while to get the paperwork submitted since we have to wait for updated doctor's notes as well as new behavior form results that the school needs to complete and process.  Dawn is trying to devote time each day to work on all of this, but being back at work has made it difficult to have a free moment to do so.


Another reader of the blog, (another mother of one of Dawn's former students) sent Dawn several messages of encouragement.  Here is part of one of the messages:

"...was at a a training at work the other evening and the agenda was on a documentary "Different is the New Normal." It was about a young boy who lived with Tourettes and the struggles not only he went through but his entire family. It was a very long journey....very difficult at times but in the end he developed into an amazing young man. At the end of the documentary his Mom explained how if she could just have been able to know from when he was little what an amazing young man he would grow up to be, it would have been so much easier for her. As parents it is our fear of the unknown that panics us. Keep your faith. It will get you through."

So true!  We constantly worry about Ryan's future, and it is the fear of the unknown that panics us, but also keeps us working hard to help him.


Since today is St. Patrick's Day, here is a picture of Jack all dressed in green.

Jack's First St. Patrick's Day!

Ryan has his first appointment with the psychiatrist on Tuesday.  We're hoping that the upcoming storm does not change these plans. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


PC