Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Went to see the wizard and didn't even get a lousy t-shirt

So, we went to see the wizard. A "wonderful" doctor- supposedly the best neurodevelopmental specialist in Tacoma Our appointment was to get the results of Little Bug's evaluations and to also find out what was going on. It began with graphs- lots and lots of graphs. It continued on to explain how Little Bug has his own kind of autism. We shook our heads and left as we already knew these things. Unfortunately, the wizard wasn't so wonderful and also had nothing behind the curtain we hadn't already seen. He had lots of "tips and tricks" to provide us- mainly ignoring behavior we didn't want and time outs.

WOW- we hadn't thought of either option. Call us crazy, but when your kid is biting his arm so badly he breaks the skin, you get a little nervous. You get even more nervous when you realize it isn't a ploy for attention- as he does it when people aren't looking. It just feels good to him.

This Saturday, we got a letter from the wizard contradicting just about everything he had told us. As expected, much anger ensued. After calming down and getting back to our semi-happy places, DN was charged with contacting the wizard on Tuesday.

So it appears that the wizard appeared ridiculous for two reasons- a mix up of records and bad transcriptionist. REALLY??? Somehow this is supposed to give us more confidence in him, rather than further detracting from it. Yes, I realize that even doctors with tons of letters behind their names and the title of "diplomat" are human. Apparently, I thought incorrectly, that they were organized humans- who do their follow up work after the appointment rather than a week later. Humans who make sure that the information a patient and his family is getting is accurate as it will shape the therapies and education these patients will get. Nope- apparently, just run of the mill humans.

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