Suburban Subversive

After two and a half years of not knowing for sure exactly what we are dealing with in regards to the boy, two years of school hell, seven months on the wait list to be seen, and a subsequent six weeks of paperwork and evaluations, we have an official, final, and complete diagnosis for him. No “inconclusive” or “ranges of normal” or whatever. It’s definite. Allegedly he is a classic case.

Autism. High functioning autism. There’s no doubt. We had a two hour meeting with the experts from the University of Washington autism center who did an extensive eval. They gave us lots of information, insight, and intervention strategies. It was very informative and positive.

To be truthful, I was more scared that we wouldn’t get any concrete information today. To get a clear, definite diagnosis is a huge relief. But I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some feelings of grief, even if I have known the truth in my gut for a long time. On the long drive home this afternoon to pick up the boy after the meeting, there were some tears. I know the husband and I have got a long journey ahead of us, dealing with this. There’s so much to learn, organize, teach, put into place. But for now, I’m going to spend some time digesting, accepting, and working through all of this.

But I wanted to share with all my friends. I finally know. And I think it’s going to be ok.

I’m feeling nervous, about what’s going to happen at tomorrow’s meeting. But I’m feeling resolute to get through this and plod on. The lingering feeling of dread haunts me, but maybe it’s just the hot weather we’re having.

More information later!

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I even got two new readers who had some great things to say about parenting an autistic child. Bonus!

The first weekend of summer. It’s hot and humid outside, it feels like we could get some thunder this weekend. I hope so. The boy had a birthday party to go to this afternoon, and afterwards we did some grocery shopping, and now we’re just relaxing around the house. Things have been so crazy lately, it’s just heavenly to watch tv and relax.

Still feeling nervous about the meeting with the autism center next week, as they will give us their diagnosis at that time. But I figure it’s 5 days away, and I’m not going to ruin a long holiday weekend getting worked up about it.