That parent would of course be me since I’m writing this post. I’m worried. Worried, worried, worried. I’ve already had my weepy fit this morning from guilt and worry.
My little man is now in the care of a pediatric neurologist and supposedly one of the best in the Raleigh area. I brought him to his regular pediatrician’s office a couple weeks ago after noticing severe head jerking every couple of minutes at home and his teacher’s were commenting on it as well. Not a typical neck stretch let me tell you. In fact it hurts my neck to mimic the movement. Trying to ask an 8 year old if he’s doing this on purpose or if it just happens, is not easy. I’m not sure he quite understands what we mean so it was time to take him to see a specialist.
We noticed the head movement had been going on for about a month after coincidentally getting knocked back on the football field. We were (and still hoping) it was a pinched nerve causing his need for relief in the form of neck cracking or neck muscle stretching. BUT when he’s doing it excessively and it’s so severe like, you can’t help but wonder if it’s something more.
In addition to that…he’s been eye blinking for about 2 years (but told it was likely allergies or dry eyes). This past summer they discovered he has no focus in his left eye. Pediatric Ophthalmologist said he was surprised it wasn’t caught before when he was in preschool or 1st grade because then it could have been corrected by covering his good eye to train his brain to focus. But now…his brain’s “not capable” of learning to focus. GREAT! Why wasn’t this discovered sooner? Now he has to wear the strongest prescription in his left eye (none in right) and even then he doesn’t have clear vision. So the doctor tells me we have to protect the other eye because if something happens to it, he won’t be able to see. EVEN BETTER!!
About a year ago he got a concussion after getting his head knocked into the bus window (boys will be boys, right?). After the concussion, he suffered severe headaches for a couple months (still gets them every once in awhile) and random sensitiveness to sound (we’re talking sometimes body rocking and crying from the noise…again still experiences this too).
In regards to school we noticed he’s been struggling this school year (I’ll go further into detail shortly).
As parents you don’t want to see your children struggle. Part of you thinks your kid is just being lazy and not applying them self hard enough so you push harder, then the guilty part of you starts to wonder if there really is a learning problem and you feel horrible for pushing so hard.
Back to the Neurologist…when I took Peanut (yes that’s his nickname…his sister gave it to him after seeing him wrapped up in a blanket like a peanut as a baby) to the Neurologist and told him everything I’ve ever mentioned to previous doctors, injuries, problems in school, what he’s doing, he tells me he thinks that they may all be related to a bigger picture. Right now he’s diagnosing it as a “tick” aka Tourrette syndrome which is just repetitive movement (but not the form we typically see on TV or the movies; in fact, 1 in 4 elementary kids have it). He wanted to do an MRI, EEG, start taking Topamax to prevent headaches and help with the seizure like movements, and also tells me he qualifies for a psych evaluation in regards to his school issue.
Two Saturdays ago he had an MRI done and last Tuesday an EEG to measure his brain activity. We’re still waiting on the radiology results and his follow up with the Neurologist is next week when he gets back into town. I’m hoping the results come back normal but of course as a parent I can’t help but be worried about the worst possible scenario.
Here’s my little man at his EEG appointment…
This morning I had a meeting with his teacher, his special reading teacher, and the school special education teacher to discuss what’s going on with Christopher and what we can do to help him achieve educational success. Something we’ve noticed is that he makes us read first and then he can either do it without problems or reads it smoothly. Tell him to read first and he cries that he can’t. It almost seems as if he’s trying to memorize everything. That kid has a super memory bank when it comes to details after hearing something but spacey other times. We spend a VERY LONG time doing homework (this is why I scream how much I hate homework time) most nights and in tears. Today his teacher said it’s probably because he truly cannot do it and is having a hard time trying to please us. That does make sense because he’s always wanting to do his absolute best to please us. In fact, the more I think about it, he’s always been the one to strive at being perfect at whatever it is he was doing whether it was a sport, game or some art project/drawing. If he doesn’t get it right he struggles with imperfection and continues to perfection (or I tell him to stop).
Today they told me he has regressed 1 year academically from the end of last school year. 1 YEAR! They spoke with his previous teacher and she was shocked because he was in advanced math, reading on the level of expectation (19/20) for a 1st grader and this year he came back on the 5/6 reading level and now only on 7/8. Basic frequency words he’s not remembering and I mean BASIC like “my”, “can”; words he should know. He’s struggling with making out the sounds to create the word, mixing up letters, omitting letters when reading a word, etc.. I’m baffled, they’re baffled, we’re all baffled…he didn’t do this last year…
So what’s the plan of action? The school says they need copy of his vision/hearing results, neurology results & recommendation after we see the Neurologist next week, as well as a letter from me asking for a psych evaluation to get him special help. Then the special help falls into 2 categories. Category 1 is what’s considered the typical “special ed” class to help him. This is mainly for those with medical issues (mental retardation for example). Category 2 is what they call 504. 504 is for those who don’t have what they deem as a major issue like Autism, Asperger’s, and those with different kinds of learning disabilities. In this category they would work with him one on one, do simple things like sit him closer to the front and teacher, give him oral exams instead of written, etc.. I’m thinking 504 being the more likely case for him. They told me just from speaking with me that he pretty much already qualifies for the 504 but we just have to get all the paperwork together to give the school psychologist who’ll evaluate him.
They also mentioned to me that the other kids are starting to notice his movements which makes him more aware of it. He’s also not being consistent with his glasses at school because he thinks the kids will make fun of him for having 1 more magnified eye. Socially he’s well liked in class, funny, typically chipper, and easy going. So it definitely has the school and I a bit baffled as to what is going on with him.
So as you can see, I’m worried about my little man. Perhaps the current reasoning behind another brain fart in my regular article department. I can’t seem to do my research and write-ups as quickly this past week or so because he’s just been on my mind…
TODAY’S MOOD…Worried & Weepy
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