Dioko --- Pressing On

I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Philippians 3:12-14

We really began this road/journey/race years ago, but our more recent course began before the Holidays. John Brady had been in a wonderful group for speech and occupational therapy. Two other boys with similar issues and needs for socialization skills spent two hours every Friday combining speech and occupational therapy. In the beginning, it was really going well for all three boys. But getting closer to the end of 2009, John Brady became very resistant even to going to the building for therapy. He became disruptive over the least little incident, and more often than not was removed from the group just to be controlled and allow the other boys to continue working. Shortly after Christmas it had escalated so that we all decided the best course of action was to stop the group setting for John Brady. At this point we also determined that we had reached a point where it was necessary to seek and receive an official diagnosis for John Brady. In the beginning, we thought we were just dealing with some simple developmental delays, so we felt that we may serve his future medical records better by keeping anything more specific off the charts. But we were at a point where we needed to know exactly what we were dealing with, how to go about treating it, and finding services that would best serve John Brady.
HA! Easier said than done.
I can remember asking for prayer because we thought our first and easiest course of action was to simply get a referral for a program in New Orleans. SCRATCH -- not the easiest thing. One of the main obstacles in January was that most programs treat children 2-5 or 6-12 --- and since John Brady was only going to be 5 for 3 more months, the 2-5 programs didn't want to waste their time; but the 6-12 programs didn't want to see him yet because he was too young. You honestly cannot imagine what it was like to be literally screaming for help for your child and have everyone just say, "Sorry. There's a black hole in the system and you fall into it." --- Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the last time we heard that either.
FINALLY, because a dear, precious friend was able to pull some strings so we could at the very least have an official evaluation, we began that process in mid-January. It took about 7 different appointments just for that evaluation. And in the end, we had an official diagnosis -- we were comfortable with it because we felt they were very thorough and took their time with us together, individually and John Brady with us and individually. And even though we had been expecting it, when Yancey received the report by fax at work and read it to me, I still felt sick to my stomach.
All those years ago when I had done all that initial research on Sensory Processing Disorder, I had become pretty familiar with Pervasive Developmental Disorders - The Autism Spectrum, and their different diagnosing criteria, etc. So I knew when he read it to me that we now had an official diagnosis of an Autism Spectrum Disorder. I remember suddenly feeling the need to be with my mom, but the best I could do at the time was call her. And then I had to collect myself, get everyone ready for church, and get out of the house (it was a Wednesday). Yancey brought the copy of the report to church and we sat and read it together. All those pieces had finally been put together, and as we sat and read, it was hard.
But we really had only reached a starting point -- and it was already mid-February.
Next, we received a phone call from the people who had done the evaluation. They wanted to meet with us. Basically to tell us that since his diagnosis was considered a developmental disability and they deal with mental health disorders, they couldn't help us.
So we were passed off, AGAIN.
Dioko - Pressing On
This time, though, we were blessed with diagnostic tests, reports, and official diagnoses. Something we hadn't had the month before.
I may not have mentioned yet that our children are on LaChip -- which is a huge blessing. John Brady's ASD isn't his only problem - he also has severely pronated and flat feet -- without his braces on he practically stands on his ankle bones. So he has to have orthotics -- which our private insurance at the time paid minimally to say the least. The one set we paid for before we signed up for LaChip was just paid off last month --- and that was 2 years ago! They're very expensive. So getting the kids on LaChip was a huge blessing even if all it ever paid for was his braces. (And if you imagine how quickly little boys' feet grow, you can imagine that one pair doesn't last a year!! We do good to get about six months out of them.)
But the down side is that Louisiana passed a law that requires private insurance companies to pay $39,000 per year for treatment related to Autism Spectrum Disorders. It's wonderful and actually progressive --- but Medicaid hasn't quite caught up. Lots of things are covered, but specific, targeted, intensive therapy isn't.
Medicaid may not provide, but God does.....and He will.....I have NO DOUBT.....so I press on to reach the end of the race He has called me to run.