Medical update

Today we met the new neurologist.

When we were in Texas, we had a loose team of doctors who had followed R2 since he was born, but in recent years we had seen some turnover, and met some new docs and such. When we moved here, the pediatrician who is AWESOME sent referrals for all the services we would need, and everything was just lined up for us. That has been really nice, and we really like the Children's Hospital here a lot.

If you don't live my life, or one similar (as a parent of a special-needs kid) then the thought of liking a hospital may be a little weird to you. But if you know, you know. Children's Mercy here in Kansas City is pretty amazing. If we are going to spend time in the hospital or multiple clinics, this is where we would want to be.

Anyways, we met the first neurologist (brain doctor) in May, it was basically an intro visit. During that appointment, I laid out my concerns about Richy's behavior, and the seizure medication he's on. I am used to doctors figuring out that I know my stuff, and then genuinely listening. Dr. F was a bit distant, felt committed to sticking with this drug, and was unconcerned about the behavior issues (rages, self-hitting, tics). So off we went with our increased prescription and I decided to give it a few weeks and see if things stayed the same. They actually got worse, so I called back and basically got blown off. Which is SO not cool.
So I went to the head and arranged for a second opinion, which is what today was.

The new doctor is named Jean Baptiste LePichon. (echoes of little mermaid: lePichon, lePichon, how I love LePichon)
He is an extremely thorough guy. Not particularly warm, but he took pages of notes and really heard me out. I could tell at first he was a little peeved about me not liking Dr. F, but after a little he seemed to get over that and figure us out.

So we don't have a specific plan of action yet, he's leaving that up to me. But I can either a)change drugs entirely or b) add a drug to help with the behavioral issues, which might be a side effect from the current medication. I don't know which one I'm going to do yet, there are pros and cons for every option.

And we got some language, a potential diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder... one part of me shrinks from putting another label on Richy, and the other part is like, please, call it something so I can get some idea of how to work with him. I don't know a lot about PDD yet, about to do some mad Googling. I do know it's similar or connected to autism, which is no surprise. I've read enough over the years to see the similarities.

Anyway, maybe this is too heavy or medical for you guys... just processing the visit and putting it in words. Please pray for wisdom for us as we make decisions for Richy.