Well, after everything I wrote in my previous entry, you may be thinking, great, it's autism, they found out and got help and end of story.
I wish things were that simple.
When I suspected that Logan was having developmental problems, the first thing I did was make an appointment with our pediatrician. Whenever you have a young child that is demonstrating delayed development, you shouldn't automatically assume it's autism. There are a host of medical complications that can mimic autism and cause similar symptoms. Never assume anything when it comes to your child.
Needless to say, our pedi was very concerned. He asked if Logan was making a lot of nonsense noises. The answer was yes. He scheduled some blood work, mainly to rule out lead poisoning. That came back negative. So we moved on to the next thing, which was a referral to Cook Children's. We spent the next month or so taking our son to different tests. Was it a problem with his hearing? He had an ABR, or auditory brainstem response test. This test involves attaching electrodes to the the person's head to record brainstem activity between the auditory nerve and other parts of the brain. If Logan had had a tumor on his hearing nerve, or if it was otherwise impaired, this test would reveal that. Everything came back normal.
I have to stop here, while I'm describing these tests, and explain the strange mixture of relief and disappointment we felt. Each test that came back normal on our son was like a small victory to me. But it also filled me with dismay at the same time. It was wonderful that his hearing was normal and wonderful that he didn't have lead poisoning, but if we couldn't blame it on those things, then what was wrong with our son??
He also had an MRI without contrast. That was a little disturbing to me. He had to be sedated to get this test...how can you make a three year old lie still long enough to do what you need to do? They allowed me to stay with him until the anesthesia worked its magic. He slipped into sleep and I had to let go of his little hand and leave the room. Everything in me wanted to stay there with him the whole time. That test came back normal.
Probably the hardest test we had to watch was the EEG. An EEG measures electrical activity in the brain and it's used to diagnose epilepsy. Logan had to be asleep for this test. The problem was that Logan never...and still does not...take naps. He is like a little motor, running full speed throughout the day. My husband stayed up with him most of the night, taking him to Wal Mart at three in the morning, giving him stuff to eat. The next day, we took him for the test. He had to be restrained on a table, wrapped in blankets, and forced to look up into a bright light that would flash and strobe in his face. We stood on either side of him and he was not happy with the whole situation. I hated every minute of it. He finally got so overstimulated and stressed that he fell asleep. And, of course, that test came back normal also.
So, what this all told us was that no one could find a physical cause for what we were experiencing with our son. Is autism physical? Of course it is. But until someone unlocks the key to what actually causes it, those physical abnormalities, genetic, dietary,whatever...those will remain a mystery.
I felt like we had jumped through so many hoops in the search for what was going on with Logan, only to be told, Good dog. Now do it again.
It was time to see a developmental specialist. And that, dear friends, proved to be a whole other adventure.
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