How it's Going.

Well, Otto’s been on medication for ADHD for almost a week now. We’ve definitely noticed a difference. In fact I took both boys to the grocery store today and did NOT put Otto in the cart, he walked alongside me. That never would have been possible before. He listens better for the most part. I still see the dramatic breakdowns (though much less often) and there is still some whining but all in all improved! So we are happy with that!

What’s next? We meet with a Geneticist on March 6 to rule out any genetic disorders. From there he will determine if we continue down the genetics testing route or if we go down the neurological testing route (to see if there’s permanent damage or reversible brain damage from his malnutrition as a baby). In the meantime, we are waiting about a month to let the medicine fully do what it’s gonna do. Then we can see what symptoms remain that we need to deal with and will begin therapy to learn how to deal. I’m looking forward to that.

Please continue to pray! ....that the brain damage is not permanent, that the medicine will help him to calm down and focus enough to take in more of the world around him and learn more and catch up, that when he is given an IQ test at age 6 in November he will score above 70 (below 70 is mentally retarded).

Also please pray for me and the boys this week....Aaron left for Mexico today until Friday, 6 days!!!!! Aaron and I are such a team with these boys, a support to one another, a break for each other, a real team! I’m so grateful for him and his humor and I miss him and his help terribly when he’s gone! Also that he comes home safely! :-) Thank you tons!

The results are in!

This picture is so characteristic of Otto. We were in a village in Mexico, playing a game of Duck, Duck, Goose (Pato, Pato, Ganso) with the children and Otto scoots right up next to this boy (Otto’s on the right), who was much younger than him and he had his arm around him but by the time I snapped the photo, his arm was down and on the ground. It was too cute! It was like Otto was making him feel comfortable b/c this boy didn’t want to come over at first and join in the game.
I posted on 12/8/07 about how we saw a specialist and she wanted a psychological evaluation done on Otto to see if he had Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) being that he was adopted, and then if not that...look into ADHD. Then I posted on 1/29/08 that we went and had the psych. eval. done and were waiting for the results. Well in the meantime things were just continuing to get worse here at home with Otto. He has been very hyperactive and has much difficulty following directions. I began to get impatient waiting to hear the results of the psych. eval. and called his regular physician to ask about an appt to look into ADHD. I was getting desperate for some help and some answers to explain, honestly, the past 3 years but even more so the past year as we’ve noticed things getting progressively worse behavior-wise. I met with the social worker at the doctor’s office yesterday (that’s their 1st step in the ADHD process, then you get an appt with the dr) and filled out a questionnaire that definitely ended up pointing right at ADHD. But we both agreed that there was definitely also something else going on to explain all the other things I described about Otto. It’s not uncommon to have ADHD paired up with something else. I was just dying to know what this something else was!!!!!!! Give me some answers!!!!!!!! In the meantime, mind you, we still were waiting on the results of the psych. eval. One of the things the social worker mentioned was Tourette’s Syndrome b/c of his tics or nervous habits we call them. I had to take a questionnaire for ADHD over to his teacher at school and she mentioned Tourette’s Syndrome and then a friend online who has a special needs child mentioned Tourette’s Syndrome and gave me a website to check out. I thought ok this is freaky that this has never been mentioned before to me but now 3 times in 1 day it got mentioned. So I checked out the site and began some research last night.
It definitely sounded like Otto’s little “things” he does. But then it said that Tourette-like tics can also be a symptom of some other things and it listed several including mental retardation. I thought, hmmmm this has been mentioned before to us (in December) so I decided to look it up and find out what it means exactly. So I did and looked at all the things that could cause it and of course there were many things including things at birth (which we have no info on) or family genetics (which we have no info on) and many other different things. Then down in the list I noticed “malnutrition” listed as one of the causes so I thought hmmmm....well we know he had that. So I went on to research that, what it means, the effects it can cause, etc. I learned that while some can fully recover from malnutrition, and some can even die, some can suffer mental retardation. In that moment, at the end of this lengthy trail of one thing leading to another as I was researching, I truly felt like this huge lightbulb went off. Otto’s malnutrition was serious enough that he was hospitalized for it, we do know that much. So how bad does it have to be to cause mental retardation? It just made so much sense and it seemed like several pieces of a puzzle fitting together. I was not convinced this was the answer yet, just found it all very interesting. I was sooooo curious now to see what the psychologist was gonna tell us from the psych. eval. b/c we had it done looking for one thing, RAD.
So this morning I called the psychologist and he finally had the report done from the psych. eval! He said that his diagnosis for Otto is mental retardation due to a severe deficiency of protein early on in his life. He said he feels that it’s a mild case and that it may be permanent or it may be reversible, some neurological tests may be able to help determine that (and of course tons of prayer for healing!). I couldn’t believe it!!!! He said exactly as was revealed to me last night in my research....mental retardation due to malnutrition!!! With the added bonus of....it’s only a MILD case of it!!!!!
It’s so crazy! I totally believe that God revealed that to me last night and I can see why He did. If I had not read all that I did and begin to put the pieces together last night, I believe I would have been devastated at his diagnosis this morning. I mean remember, I was waiting to hear if it was RAD or maybe ADHD. This would have been shocking to me to hear...mental retardation. But it wasn’t, I was totally prepared and all it did was confirm what I already strongly suspected through the research. I am in awe of how God loves me and knows me inside and out and He protects us from what we can’t handle and prepares us so that we can.
I am so utterly relieved to finally have answers. They may not be necessarily the ones I would have chosen, but they are answers nonetheless and we can finally move forward and learn how to parent this child right where he’s at. It has been such a trial the past 3 years wondering why is he still so far behind, something just doesn’t seem right in how he acts and reacts to certain things in certain situations. And now we know and now we can move forward and deal with it accordingly. I do not believe Otto is “sentenced” to this for life. Many of you who know him well may be shocked to hear this, thinking “but he is so smart?!” I believe God can heal and I believe God has a plan for Otto and maybe this is not permanent. God has Otto is His hands and I ask you with all my heart to keep Otto in your prayers and pray for healing and for God’s will in Otto’s life.

[4 years ago today, we chose Otto to be our son! ie: we contacted the adoption agency and said, “We love him, we want him!]