(Pumpkin carving last night. Dan drew Andrew's "phantom" for him by request. Andrew didn't want to do it ...he said, "I'll ruin it.")
We had Andrew's OT appointment today. His therapist seemed knowledgeable (our Psych called her "The OT's OT). She worked well with Andrew and he had a lot of fun. My head is swimming with things that she said...so I'll try to get this down in a way that makes sense. This is a greatly simplified version of what she said. I'm sorry it's so detailed ~ but I want to be able to recall all of this and I know there are those invested in Andrew who are interested.
First, she isn't concerned that he uses both sides of his body ("cross dominance"). However, she did say that "neither of his hands are very capable." I could see in the testing that he struggled a lot. It's amazing how the testing brings it out so clearly. He has trouble with "fine sequencing" (shown through things like trying to touch each finger to his thumb in a row & things like skipping, which he can do for a bit but then his body gets mixed up). The effects are displayed in many ways but is most obvious (in his day to day life) in the extra movement that he has to do things (everything from running to writing) because he's using more muscle groups to try to accomplish what others can do with few. She said that this will also impact his use of a keyboard, so the idea of hanging in there with his writing until he can use a computer doesn't really fly. He'll struggle with that too. She said ADHD kids often have trouble with these things, but for Andrew there is also a sensory integration issue as well which adds another element to deal with. We were already aware of that but it's always nice to have a second opinion as I tend to be skeptical. She said this is all compounded by the ADHD because these things require more concentration for him (like writing) than the average child but the ADHD prohibits it.
He also doesn't have proper sense of where his body is...he can't do things like close his eyes and touch his nose. And I've seen that in little ways, like one day in class he was sitting on the ground and I saw him go to grab his foot while watching the teacher and he grabbed his neighbor's foot instead. And while of course we don't need to touch our nose with our eyes shut (though he'd probably fail a sobriety test sober) :) it translates to problems in other areas.
She also said his muscles are "loose" which you could see when he did things like the wheelbarrow ~ his shoulders would woble and offer little stability. It's amazing as his little body looks so healthy and muscular ~ it speaks to the fact that this is neurological. He's always be "floppy" and would fall out of the chair often at dinner.
She's going to do more testing that will give more specific information but she is going to try to work it during other sessions as it's hard for Andrew and she knew she couldn't push him much farther. I liked her perspective though as she said that you could pull anyone off the street and find things that they need to work on. The idea here is to work on things that are relevant to Andrew's life and functioning in the world. She used the example of school and how for other kids when they are doing spelling, they are thinking about how to spell the word. Andrew has to think about how to get his hands to work right to write the word on top of how to spell the word, so it creates barriers for him. The goal is to get his body to work for him so his mind can be free to learn.
She is also going to help me write the 504 plan for school and help identify what is an appropriate expectation for him because he needs his workload to be modified. I am grateful for this as I don't know where to start.
We are unfortunately going to have to make the trip weekly. It's a 45 min (one way) drive without traffic and we get out at 5:00 which is the peak of things....Tonight we went and had dinner, got his hair cut and stopped off at the grocery for a couple things (trying to do some necessary things there to avoid traffic) then headed up. We still had traffic for some strange reason though better than it would have been. We also got his new prescription filled and made it home at 8:20...6 hours after we left today.
Oh ~ the other short update is that he had a reaction to his other medicine, so we discontinued it. We're starting a new one tomorrow. That is a process in itself. But hopefully this one will be better...
This is a journey....and I know it's far, far less than what many others have to deal with. So we give thanks for the many, many ways that Andrew is perfectly healthy. We will find ways to overcome these challenges. I really, truly am so grateful to be blessed with this boy. I feel lucky every day, even the hard ones, to get to be his Mom. We are perfectly matched.
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