We have been seeing a behavioral counselor for about 6 months now, and well, while she has gotten a bit more calm in certain situations, she has plateaued in most areas. She also has developed more difficulties over the summer. We now struggle with school work due to intense, immediate anxiety, and she has developed a sleep disorder. (To be fair, this could have been going on longer than I realized but we are very aware of it now.) She either takes hours to fall asleep and/or she wakes up for no apparent reason and takes 1-3 hours to fall back asleep.
I talked to her doctor and his nurses and he prescribed her an anti-anxiety medication (the one he recommended back in March) and we started her on it a few weeks ago. Since then we have seen minimal progress with general behavior and her sleep issues had zero change. The doctor said to try Melatonin or Benadryl to help her get to sleep. While this helped her get to sleep quickly, she was still waking up almost every single night for hours at a time. This past Thursday we saw her doctor and discussed her difficulties, her behavior, her progress with the meds (and lack thereof), and general observations and concerns. Ever the prepared student, I had compiled another list of all these things (along with a sleep log I did not take).
After talking with him, after he consulted with her counselor, after reading my list, after interacting with Lorelai, he has altered her diagnosis. While she does suffer from high anxiety (her previous diagnosis) and she has OCD (also her first diagnosis) we now see she deals with a lot of sensory processing issues, of course the sleep disturbances, and possibly dyslexia...all these things are pointing to a more cohesive diagnosis, one that falls on the spectrum. For those who wonder what that means, it means the Autism Spectrum. He was very quick to point out just high-functioning she is, and I had no doubt about that; this makes her fall into the Asperger side of the spectrum. He asked if I was surprised to hear that, and the answer was: No.
Ever since I started noticing her "quirks" and difficulties (some track since age 2) I wondered. As the years went on and the traits started piling up, I had a pretty solid feeling there was something more to it. While she does deal with a lot of anxiety and OCD, it is not in typical, traditional ways. Her initial diagnosis was a starting point, but I had it on pretty good authority that we would end up here; in the Aspie world.
A few people have asked "how do you feel" about her new diagnosis, and honestly, I feel very much the same as I did before Thursday. There is a slight difference I suppose...I feel confident that all my research and reading has prepared me to help my child and get her the assistance she needs. I feel relieved that I was not over-analyzing her; my instincts were correct. I feel a bit overwhelmed at the longevity of her confusing and bumpy path, but I also feel this is more than manageable, this will all work out the way she needs it to. Everyone is in her corner. Her doctor, her counselor, her family, our friends...plus, she is stubborn as hell, she won't quit until she's good and happy. (I mean that in the best possible sense...most of the time.) ;-)
Her doctor expressed his confidence that even though we won't figure out what works for her over night, he feels strongly he can help her. We all need to be patient and persistent with her meds, her counseling, her schooling, and with her precious little spirit.
She is quirky, sure; but more importantly she is smart, loving, inventive, and one of my very favorite people to be around. Asperger's just got a whole lot cooler. I would expect so, they just got a "Fairy-Robot-Pirate-Princess." ♥
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| Age 4, a costume concept all her own...and one of my favorite things she's ever done. |
