Boys.

I had a clinical interview today with a highly recommended pediatric psychologist. I was referred to her because I've been waiting for an appointment with another place for about a year. Yes, a year.

Let me backup a bit.

If you know me or have been reading about my son JP you know that he was given a provisional diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. His history and my past year and a half of venting are well documented in the old blog. In February of this year he and Seth were booted from their daycare center and we somehow lucked out and they were placed in a small, family daycare here in town. And when I say "lucked out" I really, really mean it. The difference was huge in my boys, but the issues of course didn't magically disappear. In fact, after the dust settled around JP and his behaviors weren't quite as intense (sort of like saying instead of a tornado we got a hurricane) we were able to see Seth a bit more. And what we have been seeing is a little boy who has a whole world of issues of his own.

Early last month both boys were seen by an OT and she did a sensory profile on them. While I knew that JP had some serious sensory issues (this is what led us to the ASD diagnosis), I didn't think Seth did too. Well, let me re-phrase that. I knew something was off, but sensory wasn't on my radar. I can tell you that Seth is either hot or cold, always - always- always into something. He is totally destructive and if you take your eyes off of him for a second he will have taken something apart, torn it to pieces or if you are a cat he will have dragged you across the floor by your tail. Tonight Seth pushed his tv off of his bureau and then jumped onto my computer. He smashed th display and I'm typing this using about a quarter of the screen. My beautiful Macbook. They take about 2 hours every night to fall asleep.

I'm tired. Damn tired. I do this every sinlgle night of my life on my own. I cannot tell you how tiring it is to constantly be "on". by the time they fall asleep its 10pm and I'm so exhausted I just crawl into my bed and crash. The only down time I have is at lunch. Just running down to switch laundry means when I get back upstairs the boys will have climbed on something, broken something, spilled soomething, escaped into the yard or anything else your mind can think of.

If this sounds like complaining, I apologize. I am. I need a moment to vent I guess.

Anyhow, this apointment today was as scary as it was comforting. The doc took a book down from her shelf and pointed to a paragraph written by a mom. It was Seth. It was like we had the same kid. And the chapter was on ADHD. He's freaking textbook. And he also has major red flags for Aspberger's. Which is where we went next - she finsihed my sentences when I started talking about JP.

I have to fight my insurance company tomorrow to get psych testing approved. Apparently Tufts doesn't pay for behavioral diagnosis testing. do they think if they don't pay for it it will go away? And what really pisses me off is that if I had Medicaid/Masshealth this would be covered 100%. If I could pay for it out of pocket the 3 sessions for testing would run me about $4500. Per kid. That would be $9000 for you English majors. For 6 visits. No wonder Tufts is running for cover.

So, coming down to reality after my great Sunday is sucking hardcore.

Here's to a better Wednesday.