As a birthday present I got a phone call from Becca telling us our next appointment had been scheduled. I was so happy! We were finally going to see a neuropediatrician. Nothing against the other professionals that had assessed Guto until this point, but since autism is a neurologic disorder, it just made sense to me that to have a accurate diagnosis he needed to be evaluated by a neurologist.
On May 12th we meet with Dr. Scott, MD. We can’t say enough how much we really liked her. She not only honestly answered all the questions we had, but she was so patient. We spent close to 3 hours with her.
Dr. Scott was able to change to July the multidisciplinary evaluation appointment that Becca had originally scheduled for September, which worked out great since we are going to Brazil for a month and the appointment will be a week after we return. She said she could not give any definite answers to us, as far as a diagnosis, until we had an evaluation with a speech therapist and a psychologist. She talked to us about treatments and programs we could start looking into just to get more informed. Some of them only would work if we got a formal diagnosis, which is why, she said, it is important to close the diagnosis as soon as possible.
After all this, that is no doubt in my heart about his diagnosis. I was already very certain, but we always have that piece of hope in us that wishes that someone will see something you are not seeing and tell you that you are wrong. I think it is kind of funny how some doctors don’t want to worry you saying “we are not diagnosing him yet” but deep down you know they already know the answer, and so do we.
One thing she said that stuck in our minds was along the lines “Are you ready to embark on a challenging and complicated journey raising an autistic child?”
The unknown is always scary, but we know we won’t be alone. So…
Ready or not, here we go!
Image Souce: Unsplash