Asperger’s Syndrome or whatever the hell it is…..

In a nutshell, the last two weeks have been hell. It seems so silly that a 5 year old can bring me to tears but there have been a lot of tears shed over the last few weeks. Mostly by me. 
I think I have posted about Owen’s issues here before but for those who aren’t sure what I am talking about here goes: something is wrong with my son. Period. I have been trying to get him evaluated by anyone over the past few years and finally we have an appointment with Children’s Hospital in JUNE and the second appointment in SEPTEMBER.  I actually set these appointment up in December of 2009 so you can see my frustrations in how long this is taking. I hear from other moms who are dealing with similar issues with their own children and the school steps in or the pediatrician helps out. But not here. Basically it’s been ME fighting for my son.
At school the kids have a behavior chart. They start off on green and have to work at keeping their green position. If they act out or whatever it’s moved to yellow…. or red. Think stop light here. Pretty simple. Green means good, red is bad. Well over the last two weeks Owen has had more red and yellows then greens. Today I wanted to speak to his teacher to find out what was going on. She seemed near tears when I first approached her. His behavior has been off to say it nicely. He has a hard time listening, he gets easily upset over almost nothing. Apparently it’s something to him but for the outsider it’s not obvious what set him off.
Today he had a full blown fit and was sent to the principal’s office. He’s been sent to the office 4 or 5 times now. What Kindergartener gets in trouble and has to be sent to the office?  I am so frustrated! His problems are at their worst when the teacher is out and has a substitute teacher filling in. They never seem to know how to handle Owen. Another time that causes his anxiety and issues is during transition time from one activity to another or being moved from one classroom to another. How is he suppose to go to first grade next year when he can barely contain his emotions. Kids are going to be so mean. I already see it.
I am at my wits end. With him, with his school, with the doctors, with everything right now. My back is against the wall and until he gets an evaluation and we know what his issues are the school can’t (or won’t) step in. His teacher is awesome but as she told me today, she’s not trained to understand what he’s going through….  and the only thing I can do is keep reading and researching his behavior and hope for the best. Each day he tells me he’s going to get a green and at the end of the day when I pick him up I can see it in his face that today wasn’t his day. It’s breaking my heart to see him so disappointed in himself.
As for the title, we honestly believe that Owen has Asperger’s Syndrome which is considered part of the Autism Spectrum Disorder or Pervasive Developmental Disorders. All the signs and behavior point to AS. I’ve looked up ADD, ADHD, and just about anything that can cause a kid to behave outside the “norm” and nothing makes more sense to me than AS.  His last pediatrician agreed with our concerns after a long appointment and told us that it is expensive to be evaluated and like I said he believed that Owen has AS. I was happy with that, it’s not that I WANT or NEED a diagnosis to make ME happy but once I knew for sure that I am not nuts and yes my son has AS I can go about getting him the help he needs both in school and at home. Then the inlaws, in complete denial, stepped in. The same ones who see him maybe twice a year and when they do they spend very limited time with him. Geez, thanks for the family support through what has been my most challenging issues as a mom!

Anyhow, thanks for reading if you actually made it this far. Hubby is taking us out for ice cream. G’night.

Posted in: Health,Motherhood,Wild Things