Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was so nervous I had to leave the room to get sick in the middle of my sons first eval. Totally normal.

Thought I was the only one who did this!

That plus crying on the way there, during the eval, and on the way back. that was 6 years ago. I think I suffered permanent PTSD because of it, not kidding.

Me too! Just curious, how did things progress for your dc over those 6 years?

Things have improved with DS. He was only 6 when he had his first evaluation - which honestly was way too young. We had him re-evaluated a few months ago and walked away with a much clearer idea of his challenges and how to properly manage them. At his first eval, because he was so young the evaluators were not able to get a really clear read on what might be going on with him. So we walked away with: Preliminary diagnosis ADHD, At Risk for Reading disability, At Risk for Math disability and possible PDD. We were told that he would "never make it in a mainstream school, that he would always need us, most likely not be able to live alone...etc.

At that time I didn't even know what to do next. There were days when I could barely get my head off the pillow in the morning. It was very hard. lots of pity parties.

I have learned SO much over the last 6 years about what I should have and should not have done when we first suspected something wasn't "right" with DS. For starters, I wouldn't have chosen a "doctor" out of the yellow pages for my DS' evaluation. This is literally what I did He got a lot of "it wrong. Caused me/us a lot of stress and sadness. A lot of unnecessary therapies. He was just terrible and to make matters worse, he didn't even do ANY of the testing or evaluation of the results. It was all done by a Masters -level clinician. $4K for that!

I promised myself back then that when it came time to update his testing I would be extremely careful about which doctor I hired.

Fast forward 6 years - his updated testing was very interesting, uplifting, hopeful etc. We chose a doctor that was highly qualified and did all of her own testing (unlike the first doctor and so many of the practices). The results showed No LDs and No PDD, just fairly severe ADHD. Again, I would have done so many things differently and am so angry with myself for not believing in my son more than I have over the years. Its a classic case of "self fulfilling prophecy".

I felt a lot of relief when we finally got a diagnosis. It was 2.5 years of waiting, wondering, and being told I was an anxious mother.

[quote=Anonymous]OP here! Thanks for sharing your experiences.