That mom

You know the one. You can hear her child coming a mile away and you roll your eyes. "Why would anyone buy those shoes for their toddler?!!!" you ask to the person standing beside you. "Don't they realize how annoying that is!!!"

Well, I used to be that mom who indignantly rolled her eyes and scoffed at the other mom who had decided to wear squeaky shoes on their child. Now I am the mom that has decided that squeaky shoes are well worth the annoyance factor, particularly if they encourage my little boy to walk heel-to-toe, instead of on his tip-toes all of the time. After Jesse spent 5 weeks in a cast last summer, after he was cut with dirty casting scissors, after he went through three rounds of bloodwork to make sure he had not contracted HIV or Hepatitis B from the dirty casting scissors, I would endure squeaking day-in and day-out to prevent that from happening again.

If you're that mom, the one rolling her eyes at me (like I used to do to others), then thank your lucky stars that you don't need to resort to such measures. It's the whole, "until you've walked a mile in someone elses shoes" sort-of-thing. No pun intended.

And now what you've all been waiting for:




As you can probably see, they're working! The squeaker is in the heel, so every time Jesse squeaks, it means he's walking flat-footed, instead of on his toes. I'm a happy mama!

Many thanks to Amy, who suggested this to me! Any thoughts of becoming an occupational therapist Amy?

What a breakthrough!

I feel like the big brick wall I've been bashing my head against for so long has started to crumble. We had Jesse's weekly speech therapy appointment this morning. Jesse's SLP, M., was THRILLED with his progress! I took my Flip video camera with the video of Jesse talking in the bathtub from last night and showed her. So right away she tossed her plan for incorporating signs into his therapy and wants to dive right into increasing his vocabulary and getting him saying things spontaneously. 

During the appointment she got him to say "eat" and "bus." He's also now saying "bye." I can hardly keep up! She gave me some tips for how to play with him and encourage spontaneous talking and new words. Such a productive 1/2 hour!

In other news:

We had our follow-up with the physiotherapist. She gave me some more information sheets on how to deal with the sensory issues. We have some proprioception work to do with him. She's pleased with his range of motion in his ankles, but thinks that he could tighten up if he continues to toe walk so much. She advised me to do some stretches with him and keep an eye on his range of motion. She'll keep his file open, so that if I need to, I can call her up and make an appointment and we can get Jesse right back in to see her without the
wait. She did think Occupational Therapy would be a good idea though, to help with the sensory issues, and I will be asking for a referral to OT at our appointment with Dr. C on Wednesday.

I also spoke with the social worker, J., this morning. We still don't know when we'll be assigned a senior therapist. It was supposed to be a 2-3 week wait. It's now been 4 weeks. And J. said that she "hopes" it'll only be "another week or so." So frustrating! I told her that this makes it REALLY difficult in terms of hiring a home therapist. They want someone hired by the next ABA training session (April 6-8). But how am I supposed to hire someone when I have no idea how many hours I'll be hiring someone for? I don't know if it'll be 15 hours, 20 hours, 30 hours? Something in between? Who would even be willing to take a job if they have no clue what kind of hours I can offer them? So I'm sort of at a loss as to what to do about that right now. I guess I just have to keep my fingers crossed that someone will get the lead out get moving on this.

I have to focus on the positive though, right? And I am. I'm going to work on Jesse's speech with him and do as much as I can. He's already come SO FAR in just the last couple of weeks. It's actually really exciting!

Sinking in

Is it sinking in yet? Maybe. Or maybe I'm just too numb to deny it. I think this whole thing is complicated by the fact that Jesse seems so happy and normal. I mean, to anyone who is unaware of Jesse's diagnosis, Jesse is just a normal little boy. Sure, they'd probably pick up on the language issue, but other than that....clueless. I mean, that was ME prior to yesterday. And now I'm noticing things. Things that should have made this less of a shock. The toe walking is happening a lot more than I noticed. The echolalia.

And then there's the fact that this diagnosis explains almost everything we've been through with Jesse since he was 6 months old. The food intolerances (not explained by allergies) and gastrointestinal issues, the sleep issues, the heel cord contracture (which the physiotherapist felt was related to a sensory issue), and the speech problems (delay and regression). Why did I not put this all together before?

I guess it's all moot anyways. The past doesn't exactly matter very much now. We have to figure out where to go from here. I guess we'll be getting a call from the social worker soon. And I placed a $150 Amazon.ca order today for around 10 different books on autism. Maybe by the time they get here I'll be prepared to start reading them.