Hi, sorry in advance for yet another rant
It has been 9 months since that day last april when community Paed suggested for the fist time that B was on the spectrum but that he was 'mild'. (B has also been in the system with SALT since age 2.)
Since then a lot has happened most of it for the best so something to be cheerful about i suppose. Senco and EP got involved at MS nursery.
We also got in touch with Bibic who did a home outreach visit, brilliant!
In november B got a place in a language unit for 2 mornings a week.
We had 3 reviews with the paed, and finally it was agreed last november that senior paed was refering B to Cahms for asd assessment.
Finally we had our first appointment with the autism team at Cahms on tuesday for a pre-assessment interview.
We saw a paed and a psy was also there to observe and take notes.
It took not far of 2 hours, went through many questions, paed watched B play alone then interacted with him, shortly before the end she informed us that yes it was clear that B had autism and that she would put his name on the list for the full asd assessment.
So that's it, it has taking a while to get there due to waiting lists and slow long winded procedures. And i'm aware that for some families it can take much longer sadly.
This last year has been emotionally difficult, DH and i have been through the 'is he? isn't he?' rollercoaster many times, at times i have felt like pulling out of the whole dx merry go round, at other times i couldn't wait any longer, it truely has been up and down, and professionals were always cautious and foggy with their answers, always suggesting B presented with autistic traits but they weren't prepared to say it frankly, so we were left wonderind and pondering.
So when Cahms paed said B has autism, it was to finally hear someone confirming it so clearly, then when it sunk in fully, and as we are now very close to getting a dx and paed said more should be done to help him and Cahms will be contacting nursery, future school, and EP.
But it hurts as the tiny bit of hope i had left that maybe we could be wrong , that maybe the issues were due to the speech delay , well it's gone. and i feel like crying all the time, i can understand why as it wasn't sudden and inexpected that B had asd.
To top it all i had a barmy last night with my sis (who lives abroad miles away) as she is totally unsupportive and makes flippant hurtful remarks all the time, she just doesn't see how hard it has been for us and tbh she doesn't even try, so i sent her a nasty email telling her where to go. She had the nerve to say we were treating B like a lab rat with all the professionals involved with him , all the obs , all the reports,... as if it was my fault the system is so long winded.
Apparently where she lives in france, it doesn't take that long to get a full dx, help and therapy!
She said if it was her ds , she wouldn't do the dx, and she can't understand why B needs a dx as he is mild ! ...grrrr ! I told her because he struggles at nursery and we want a dx before he starts school.
She was just vile! and i will not be talking to her anymore.