OK well its not really a full answer but it will have to do! After the 3 hour testing the Dr. came in and says I think she DOES have Autism but I CAN NOT diagnose her with it because of her seizure history! Now let me explain in more detail. For those who are not familiar with the testing they do let me try to describe what they did with her.
Me and Jason where in a small room with Cami with a Dr and an assistant, the main Dr observed through the window. Anyhow it consisted of lots of paper work for Jason and I questions from her eating habits, playing skills, fits, social skills and so forth. While we filled out paper work they did what seems like a simple enough test to kids but for Cami it was not so. First problem they ran into was just getting her to sit still in the chair it was unsuccessful she would not sit longer than 5 SECONDS tops, which for her is not unusual!!! After that fight they just decided to sit her in the floor and have her try to point to a picture. They had 4 different pics on a page and they would ask Cami where the ball was hoping she would point to it, well that was a no, and of course we knew she wouldn't and couldn't do it. Cameran at this time was highly frustrated just 15 minutes into the test she was already screaming at, kicking and hitting the women. So they moved on trying to get her to stack 2 blocks, we know she can do this but she refused to do it for them she picked up the blocks and threw them at the wall this went on for 5 minutes till they moved on. Next came pretend play and of course me and Jason was snickering because we knew what was fixing to happen. Well the woman took the lid off the big Tupperware box and of course Cami wanted to play with the lid but then got her looking in the box. They pulled out different Ziploc bags at a time....The 1st one was a car, airplane, frog and a cup. Cami look what I can do Vroom vrooom on the floor with the car your turn, well Cami took it in hand and ran it across the floor....Yay Cami good girl. Next this is a frog(bouncing it on the floor) boing boing....Camis turn Cami takes it and taps it to the floor a few times and then throws it...Good girl Cami. Next was the airplane.....she flys it in the air...Cami watches then she hands it to her and Cami just throws it(does that count... she made it fly...LOL) and last was a cup. She says look mmmmmmmmm that was a good drink, Does Cami want to try well Cami takes the cup and places it up to her ear she did this over and over.
Next bag she wanted her to pretend play a birthday party, with a baby, napkins, forks, straws for candles. The woman pretends to pass out plates Cami is just throwing them as she gets them and then the woman acts like she strikes a match and lights the candles and Cami reaches for it and she says that's hot don't touch...But Cameran continually tried to pull them out and place them in her mouth. She through Many fits in that session.
Next they just gave her a dump truck, blocks and a hard page book. Cami did put a few things in the truck and push it and then sat down and was looking at the little book flipping through the thick hard pages but while doing this she would keep situating herself until she was no longer facing us but she kept doing it in circles.
They tried many other things where she continued to throw a fit and hit, scream and kick so they just let her be and watch how she played. They just watched her move constantly about the room not playing with anything in particular just moving and destructing everything in sight. While she played alone they asked us another 100 question survey and they went out of the room for about 30 minutes. Then he came back in and gave us the above answers but also mentioned Sensory Disorders. We have been questioning this and after reading some notes from her OT we found out that they say Cameran stays in a constant Sensory seeking mode making it hard for her to concentrate. He definitely thinks she has Sensory issues and as of right now Autism but again cant diagnose her because he is wondering if things will change the more she is seizure free. So he wants to retest her in 1 year to give her time to make the changes if any. So we will just watch her and take in any info given and learn all we can to keep her ahead.
In a little over a month Cami will be turning 3 and will be entering in the Special Needs Preschool here in town, we are to observe another classroom to see how it goes and hopefully it goes well so she can receive all those great services!!!!
Reminders:
She has an upcoming MRI on Jan 3rd checking the lesion in her cerebellum and in April they have set up her Sleep Study! Uggghhhh....That's a long ways away but they said they are BOOKED! Guess we will have to figure out something to make this girl sleep better at night....Mommy and Daddy need their rest.
