Anyway, the appointment went really well and we discussed a lot of concerns we've been having. One of the things we discussed was his headaches. Dr. Friedman feels he's still having too many headaches, so we increased his medicine to help with that. Hopefully it does the trick!
Another concern that the doctor raised was the fact that he hasn't gained any weight in the past two appointments. He still was at the same weight at this one even though he grew in height. This makes over 9 months of no weight gain, and this is not something we want to hear with a heart kid - he needs the weight! In addition to increasing the headache medicine dose, we are also giving some of it in the morning now. This is the medicine that has a side effect of increased appetite and weight gain. Hopefully with the new dose and taking it in the morning it will help make him hungrier to eat throughout the day! The medicine is supposed to also cause sleepiness, so hopefully it will help with his sleep issues at night! We can hope!
We discussed his anxiety and tics that he developed. Dr. F brought up the fact that this is really common in autism and it's not really something to be too concerned with. The medicine that would help ease the anxiety and tics are not safe for heart kids. It affects the blood pressure so it is not even an option for him. I let him know that I didn't want Ethan on another medication anyway, so that's good news. He did let me know that these tics come in waves. They should ease off over time and only really return when he's overly anxious and stressed. He's already been improving with it over vacation, so hopefully it will keep improving and go away completely soon!
Dr. F also discussed Ethan seeing a psychologist to evaluate his autism. We've known that Ethan has had autistic tendencies - we've been discussing it for about two years now. However it is not severe autism. He is high functioning and mild thankfully. Even though it's not severe, we still need to address it. The psychologist will evaluate him and apparently be able to tell us where on the spectrum he is. This will help determine what kind of therapies or help he may need. Unless Ethan suddenly becomes social during the next six months, at his next appointment we'll set up the evaluation.
Other than that, we had an evaluation for OT again. We did this testing a year ago and it showed that Ethan would benefit from occupational therapy. His school did their own evaluation when I submitted the forms, and they claimed that he did not need it after all. I let the doctor know this, but he said that the school would only test for things that would affect his schoolwork. This includes things like holding a pencil and other fine motor skills. He actually excels in this so school denied the OT request. The doctor said to look into returning to outpatient therapy. He can receive therapy to help with his motor apraxia, coordination, and sensory issues.
Overall, the appointment went really well. Hopefully his new med change will really help out his headaches, weight issues, and sleep problems! Please keep him in your prayers for this! Also please pray for his anxiety as he returns to school. I know he's really nervous and stressing about going back. Once he gets back into the swing of things he'll improve, but he's gotten used to being off for so long it'll be tough in the beginning for him.
Here are a couple of pictures we took today. :) We went down to the metroparks to watch giant ice chunks going down the river. The kids (and I) were really impressed!
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