She started the appointment asking a lot about Desmond's history, what we've been seeing since he turned 1 (His regression, eye contact, speech delay, ABR hearing screening, stimming, all of it!). She then started asking me about mine and Marshall's medical histories and our families histories. For example, how many brothers and sister we had, their medical histories, our parents medical histories, our nieces and nephews medical histories, are there any signs of autism in your family, cancer, genetic disorders, things like this. She was especially interested in my side of the family because my Dad was adopted. She asked if we knew anything about his biological parents or their medical histories. She was also interested in Marshall's sister McKenna. She was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 2. She wants to do some further genetic testing, but we'll come back for that.
It was great to get a geneticist view on autism and how it is linked to our genes. She then proceeded to check Desmond for things like a brain tumor and some genetic diseases that give off signs of autism. She then concluded and ruled out any kind of cancer or genetic disease and started to play with Desmond. Desmond definitely showed his colors. He didn't play with her much, didn't seem interested in the toys either, and kept going to the corner to play with the computer cords. She kept trying to get him to interact, and so did I. She then told me that she too believes that Desmond is autistic.
This kind of news gets easier and easier to hear! Which is a huge relief! She then began to ask how much therapy Des is doing since he was diagnosed in August. I told her that we were only able to do 2 hours of ABA a week because we're having to pay out of pocket for it. She looked at me so confused and expressed her concern that he wasn't getting enough therapy. I then explained to her that our insurance wouldn't cover any ABA until he was 2 and then our policy wouldn't cover any of the Speech Therapy or Occupational Therapy that he needs. She then said, "This is unacceptable! If he doesn't start having ABA every day, Speech therapy once a week, and Occupational therapy once a week this will be detrimental to his development!" She then began the process of helping us appeal our insurance so that everything Desmond needs will be covered.
I left that appointment so grateful for Dr. Arch. She was advocating for us like no one else in the medical field had. Now we're taking the steps to appeal! It was an over all amazing appointment. Of course it's disappointing to have another professional diagnose your child with autism, but this time was different. This time we had someone who cared enough about us and our son to help us get the FULL support and help that he needs.
I also recorded a little miracle for you to watch!
We've been working really hard to get this little guy to sign for "food" and here it is! He's still mostly imitating me (behind the camera I'm signing for "food" to get him to do it), but at least he's getting it! The end goal with getting Desmond to sign is to get him to do it all by himself. An example of that would be him walking up to me and signing for food, showing that he wants to eat. Little by little we're seeing the fruits of out labors! Miracles are around us everyone, we just have to be able to see them in the smallest of things.
