I mentioned in my last post that we were having a difficult time finding a psychologist to assess Austin for adult ADHD and Autism. After nearly three months of phone calls with no positive results, one finally called me back earlier this week and said she could do those assessments. There were no magic words as I thought there may be, but it took full-on persistence. And my advice for you is to be persistent as well with whatever you want to accomplish. I was ready to start looking up to 100 miles away for these assessments. That was literally my next step if this doctor hadn't called me back that very day. So, I'm very grateful for her and your prayers in this matter. Three other offices gave me one other psychologist's name. As I mentioned, he didn't have very many positive reviews (overall Google rating was fewer than three stars), so I kept searching via the list on Austin's insurance company's website until I found someone to do these assessments. In all honesty, I haven't found any reviews on her at all. But I think that's because the other doctor is getting all the referrals from these other groups who don't do the assessments.
Finally, Austin went to his first speech therapy session yesterday, and he had taken a bottle of water with him to drink in case his throat got dry and the coughing started (also mentioned in the last post). The young lady commented on him being prepared, and we mentioned the water was to try to keep the cough under control during his session. I told her he had an appointment with an ENT later this month to see if he would do allergy testing and look at his throat - and that this barking cough has been around since early 2022 when we had had a severe coughing virus. She said she also deals with throat and swallowing therapy, so she would like for the ENT to send her any results he found through his testing, if he does any. She explained that there could be some inflammation because of how severe that coughing virus had been, and every cough thereafter could be keeping the throat inflamed. And she suggested that maybe he could withhold coughing from time to time if it was more like a tickle in the throat. She topped it off with how much water a person should drink each day - which is to take half of your body weight and drink that many ounces of water. And that more water would help keep his throat moist, possibly eliminating the number of times he felt the urge to cough.
She also tested him for decision making, memory, basic addition and subtraction, reading comprehension, following written and verbal details, and asked him questions about being able to find the right words when he speaks. I didn't realize a speech therapist would be involved with these other issues. So, I'm very pleased that Austin's PCP recommended speech therapy.
All of this is also teaching Austin persistence, how it feels to be outside of his comfort zone, how to cope with those feelings, learn about himself, and how to process. This and the psychology should work together to help him manage and navigate life a little more easily.
Austin is very sweet. And he also thinks he has to be perfect or he will disappoint people. These aren't bad qualities of course, but they are paralyzing and are holding him back from his full potential. Right now, we're in the discovery and confidence-building stages. So, continued prayers are welcome.
Sending prayers for all of you as well
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