Dr. Hudson Visit

In April 2007 Haiden went to see Dr. Bryan Hudson, neuropsychologist. After several hours of interviews, observations, and testing Dr. Hudson felt he knew exactly what was happening with Haiden. I'll never forget that visit. Dr. Hudson said he believed that PDD-NOS was a trash term. He said that diagnoses is being used when nothing else seems to fit. He went on to say that he didn't feel like Haiden had PDD-NOS. (I just started at him, stunned.) He believed Haiden had ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder), Sensory Integration Disorder, and Apraxia. I thought ADHD? I can deal with that. I'm definitely a candidate for ADHD myself. Sensory Integration Disorder? Yeah, I knew that and we were on are way to helping Haiden use strategies to help himself. Apraxia? What in the world is that? He explained to me that Apraxia is when the brain knows what it wants to say but the mouth isn't able to make the correct movements to say the words. I could see that. But what about the echoing? Dr. Hudson explained that Haiden repeats things when he doesn't fully understand the question. What about the lack of socialization? He explained that Haiden doesn't always know how to talk to kids since he can't get all of his thoughts out, so he avoids them. I was feeling pretty good. Dr. Hudson seemed to have an explanation for some of Haiden's "autistic" behaviors. There were just a few things he couldn't explain like why couldn't Haiden transition from one activity to the next smoothly and why was Haiden sick all the time? Why did Haiden get random fevers with no other symptoms? Why did Haiden have wicked rashes that would come and go? Why couldn't Haiden sleep? Why did Haiden have dark circles under his eyes? Why did he seem so lost? I left Dr. Hudson's office with a new attitude. My son is not autistic, my son is not autistic, my son is not autistic. (Although he continued to display several autistic symptoms, and I went to yet another specialist who said, "Yes, Haiden is autistic.") But why did it matter? It didn't? Autistic or not I still loved and cared for Haiden the same. I was still determined to help him. I realized that it didn't matter what his diagnoses was. It mattered how we were going to treat his symptoms and that became my number 1 priority.