When we last saw the developmental pediatrician for our exploration of an Autism diagnosis she left me with a seventeen point list of tasks to complete. I joke not, seventeen line items of things for me to do. She wanted for us to see the neurologist for a follow up because Ryan was starting to lag in gross motor skills.
Ryan has ALWAYS been physically ahead of the curve. He was riding a two wheeled bike at three. The early intervention folks came to my home to do his first IEP they sent the physical therapist packing in the driveway because Ryan was riding his bike down a steep hill and doing tricks at four. He swims three to four days a week, nine months of the year and now also does karate twice a week. Suddenly, since last summer Ryan has not really progressed physically. He used to be the fastest kid on the playground, then he moved to the middle of the pack, down to one of the slower runners now. Ryan’s BSC also noticed this and mentioned what I had been seeing.
Off to the Neurologist we went. After doing a ton of physical tests that included Ryan running up and down the halls of CHOP we had a conversation. Kids who have or had epilepsy sometimes develop differently. Ryan’s precocious development is normal for a kid who has had seizures and his abnormal lack of tone now is Ryan again following his own curve. He wanted Ryan to see a physical therapist and work on bringing him back to where a normally developing boy should be. For now he was staying away from more tests because unless Ryan has a seizure or we thought he was having silent seizures, given his awful history with epilepsy meds, he’d like to see if physical therapy helps first.
For the first time in forever I felt like I saw a doctor with Ryan and got a straight answer.
After the appointment, since it was lunchtime at school, I took Ryan to Clark Park in West Philly so he could enjoy the beautiful day. We then quickly met an old friend for lunch. We had Korean food which I am discovering is not Ryan’s favorite, nor is green tea ice cream, but our friend brought us muffins and he declared them his all time favorites ever. On the way to lunch Ryan brought up his own social story on how to behave in a restaurant telling me what was acceptable and not acceptable. School must be pretty bad when he announces a trip to the Neurologist created the best half a hookey day ever.
