My name is Patty and my son Dylan was diagnosed with ASD last year. We have been wanting to have our son assessed for the last 12 years, he is now 17 going on 18. We were in and out of doctor's offices, psychologists, pediatricians and clinicians with MCFD, but no one seemed to listen. Dylan had all the classic signs that goes with warranting an assessment , finger twitching and hand flapping with humming noises, walking on his toes, being scared of the vacuum cleaner.
He had an obsession with Thomas the Tank Engine, trains and water fountains; he rarely slept and had night terrors, and screamed all the time . He was and still is a very fussy eater and had stomach issues up the ying yang. With all these signs you would have thought that someone would have suggested that he should have have further testing done to rule out Autism.
We tried and tried and we were told " he is a willful child, he'll out grow his inappropriate behavior, he is raised in an overindulgent household. Every time we would mention "do you think may be he has Asperger's", and the clinician who we were dealing with would say " you know, we all have somethings that we obsess about". We all have things that we obsesses about right!!! The thing is there were all these other things that accompanied Dylan's behaviors.
My son was a very anxious child and is still a very anxious teenager. He has horrible mood swings and a temper that would drive anyone to drink...Well, when he was 14 years old after being with another pediatrician and seeing another pycharitist for almost a year. My son son had the mother of all melts downs, at that point we decided to give MCFD another shot!
Thank god we did because Lynn bless her heart listened to me and said " how could no one see this" she convinced Dr. Prior to refer Dylan to Queen Alexandra's to be assessed for Autism. It took almost two years from the time that we first went to see Lynn, to the time that we got him into The Child Development Centre. Hearing the news I thought I would be relieved, but I wasn't. I felt like someone had punch me in the stomach repeatedly, you see for all these years that I was saying my son has Asperger's my family was telling me and my son it was my fault he is the way he is.
I felt anger, sadness and loneliness, it was a pain that broke my heart into a million little pieces. I would suggest if you are going to hear test results like this, please take someone with you do not go alone... That was really hard. The second part was telling my son and again my heart broke for him, he was confused. He couldn't understand why I was so sad and crying all the time, and I tried to explain as best I could what was going on with him.
So, my son is 17 and he never had the opportunity to have to exposure to Early Intervention Therapy. He has lived his life with this condition and has done remarkable well considering. Yes he was bullied and yes he wasn't great in school and yes we putted heads, but in the end we never gave up. Dylan never gave up!
I am so proud of my son and he now has the help that he so desperately deserved all those many years ago. It has been a real struggle for everyone involved; my family and I are not on speaking terms and I am ok with that. My ex-husband and I do everything we can to help and support Dylan and his younger brother Mackenzie who is 15 is the most understanding kid you would ever meet. It's pretty stressful, but I often think at how much worse it could have been and I am thankful that I can talk and hang out with my son. There is way more to this story, but I'll just leave it the way it is for now. I love my son to the ends of the earth!!! :). Today was a good day.
Patty Biritg
