ADHD Blog (and Tourette's and Asperger's)

The true story of a family trying to adapt and help.

2006-09-03 - 11:58:10

Douglas Hospital, part 2

The second appointment wasn't too far off from the first one, thankfully. Off we went, A. and I, to Douglas to meet the nice lady we had met a couple of weeks before.

I was in a dark room behind a two way mirror, sitting next to the video camera that was taping the whole thing. The test lasted about 30 minutes during which the doctor asked A. some questions, had him invent some stories, play with toys, borrow toys, etc.

As with many psychological tests, I believe, this one is also based on statistics. "Normal" children usually respond in a certain way and children with Asperger's Syndrome have a different type of reaction. Depending on how different the results vary from the established norm determines the diagnostic.

It took a long while before we got the results back. Actually, I had to call the hospital to know what was going on after having waited about three months. After a few days, we got another appointment with the two doctors we had originally met.

They apologized profusely for making us wait so long before getting the test results. They have determined that A. (also) suffers from Asperger's. Sigh...

So here we go again. Another diagnostic and another weight on poor A.'s shoulders (though he doesn't know it yet). After I asked, they told me that A. was about in the middle as far as levels of Asperger go.

We were told that the government helps (financially) parents with children that have such a condition (this might also apply to Tourette's, I'm not sure).

And that was it. Thank you and good-bye. The kind doctors sent us on our merry little way, telling us that some help might be had at our local CLSC. And once again, Sandra and I were left alone with this (new) situation.

Sandra mentioned, after this meeting, that she was very proud of her son. He suffers from ADHD, Tourette's Syndrome and Asperger's Syndrome and still, he manages to go to a regular school and have (usually) pretty decent test scores. Quite an achievement, I agree.

Still... Where do we go from here?

1 comment

2007-02-04 - 22:42:39
Shane

I too have a son with ADHD (& LD). I found you through your Technorati tag "ADHD." I'll be back often. Stop by and see me at: adhdguide.blogspot.com & shaneshares.blogspot.com

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