Rambling Vindication

What a past couple of days! I am so amazed at how things have progressed and how God provides...He never fails to amaze me.

First, I want to share my personal praise report.

Alex had his first Occupational Therapy appointment on Thursday morning. That was a most amazing experience - I wanted to bring his therapist home with me and just keep her for everything! Of course, we cannot do that because she blesses so many people in the position she holds.

Let me begin by explaining how God has set this up. I started looking into something called "Sensory Intergration Dysfunction" in regards for Alex awhile back. The principle of his school brought this to my attention during one of our meetings. She had been thinking about what was going on with Alex and over one particular weekend while her and her husband were away she had seen an article in a magazine that made her think of Alex so she shared it with me. In my research about SID, I really felt like it described a lot of things that were going on with him. Never had I been able to figure out why the seams of his socks irritated him so badly, why his bed was "bumpy" to him, why he doesn't eat with a fork/spoon until I read up on this. In order to get this diagnosis, you have to see a certified OT that specializes in this area. So I brought this up to his pediatrician and the doc set in motion the referrals needed from the insurance company to get him evaluated.

The OT's office is called Integrity Rehab. They have a website, and so when the referral came through, I pulled up their website....WOW. They base their practice on Biblical teaching and on the healing of Jesus Christ. Out of all the places we could have ended up here, this is the one that was chosen for us. That is God for you! To top it all off, his OT specializes in sensory disorders. Praise God!

Alex goes in for his evaluation, and let me tell you - she was able to get him to sit still in the seat for 20 minutes! No wiggles, no tapping toes, no jerky arms AND she actually got him to do work! She recommended we purchase something called a CoreDisk Beanbag - it is a seat pad that is filled with plastic pellets that will provide sensory feedback to him.

Her official opinion, he most certainly has sensory issues and she is fully pushing us to continue to go for an evaluation for autism. Her opinion is that he is displaying the telltale markers of autism. I trust her opinion, because for one, they work with autistic children daily. A good deal of autistic children benefit from OT.

Well, needless to say, I came home excited! So I decide to take a leap of faith and call the developmental pediatric office that we have been trying to get him into to see if the appointment books were open yet....We have been trying to get him in there since February, and those books have been closed for MONTHS. The receptionist puts me on hold, and when she comes back she tells me that we have an appointment for September 10th! FINALLY! Can you say shout from the rooftops the glory of our God???

I know September seems like a world away right now, but keep in mind, there are children out there right now who have to wait a year or longer to get into a developmental ped office or do not have the ability to be seen at all.

The lady at the insurance company told me that she doesn't like it when people call from SC because they don't even have a developmental ped there to see children. How sad is that??? Yes, we have very good insurance, being a military family many of our medical/behavioral needs are met at little or no cost to our family, however, we have to find doctors that are already in our insurance network. For the most part that is pretty easy, but when you start getting into the specialty fields, it becomes a little more hazy.

At any rate, God has provided. We are one step closer to discovering what exactly is going on with Alex.

To top it all off, he had is his best day ever at school on Friday. No, it wasn't considered a successful day, he didn't get the 30 points he needed to have a successful day, but it was still a success for him in my eyes. He came home with a 26 - the highest amount of points he's gotten since being placed into DEAP.

Over the next few weeks he will be receiving OT services. They are going to work on his sensory issues (most of which are in the tactile area) and they are going to be doing ABA therapy with him (Applied Behavior Analysis) which will work on his social skills, trying to get him to come out of that world that he is locked into.

Thank you Father God, thank You for coming through for us, thank You for seeing us more precious than the birds of the air, and thank You for wrapping us in Your loving arms of grace and mercy!