....Autism.
Not Aspergers. Not PDD-NOS. Autism. Both Rachel and Simon meet the DSM-IV criteria for Autism.
Not that this is a surprise exactly. But hearing it from the psychologist, and seeing it in black and white in her reports......it seems to give it a sense of finality. She informed us during our meeting this afternoon that it's not a lifetime diagnosis -- she gave us this after observing both of them on 2 separate occasions, and on reports provided by both me and their teachers. Others may not concur with her findings. Even so, it's still hard to take.
We have the actual medical appointment at Kennedy Krieger next week, which will hopefully give us more answers, but it's more likely to create more questions. They will probably perform genetic testing (given that as twins they are both affected) and will probably give us their diagnosis (which will probably match the psychologist's).
But now I'm left to figure out why this happened (like I haven't been doing this for the last 5 months). A possibility I hadn't thought of before was a medication I took during their pregnancy in order to ensure I didn't have a Crohn's flare. It's a category D medication -- I was warned that risks during pregnancy were unknown. But it was believed to be safe -- certainly safer than me having a flare during the pregnancy. Now I'm not so sure.....
i know that pdd-nos isn't one clear cut form of "autism" specifically, but a blurring, and we are learning about aspergers with james (he's formally pdd-nos because of a mood disorder, however it's been stated as asperger's very likely)..however, how does "true" autism differ from aspergers and the others? i know with aspergers there is a "focus" on the social aspects...do you think genetic testing will help? i think that there are many factors with autism and other asd's and you start out with a "pre-disposition" for them, similar to alcoholism and then multiple factors play a role in how it develops...prayers and blessings...i know having an "answer" doesn't always bring about the peace you had been hoping for...
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'm not really sure what the differences are -- doing my research now and will be at KKI next week and will probably be asking a lot of questions based on what I find over the weekend. The biggest thing I know is that "Severe Autism" which is on both Rachel's and Simon's reports, is not considered "high functional". Research coming......
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