The Journey with the Pediatric Team

So, here we are, June 2006, meeting with the Pediatric Team for the first time. William is 2 and a half. There's a room full of specialists... Occupational Therapist, Speech Therapist, Physiotherapist, Psychologist and a Social Worker. They all observe William playing around with toys and trying to communicate with them without being able to say one world clearly, etc. etc.

In the matter of one single hour, they are ready to tell us what they want to do with our son. Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy and a Psychological Assessment (sp?).

They all agree in saying he has a development disability of "some sort" but they don't know what it is. They don't even think of transferring us to someone else for a better diagnostic. They just decide on 2 different therapies and "it should be okay". What???

So... since my husband and I don't know much about anything in the medical field, we just go with the prescription and go ahead with the 2 therapies. (In the meanwhile, the psychological assessment was never done!)

Well, well, well.... doesn't work! William doesn't want to participate, doesn't make any improvements, nothing. Still, we go on with the therapies, one hour once a week, with no results. My husband and I are just so sick and tired of everything and we're so sad to see William struggling and crying all the time at the therapies that we give up.

We thought that giving up was a huge mistake because we were letting our son down... but it turned out to be the best decision we ever made!!

More to come...