We have an appointment!

  Kevin's new hobby is spilling things on purpose.  Yesterday, I caught him with a can of Dr. Pepper.  He was holding it upside down with the biggest grin on his face, while a stack of important papers got soaked.  So, now we have to keep an even closer eye on him!

  After a quick breakfast of Cheerios, I headed out with my referrals in hand.  First, I went to the audiologists. While they were real friendly, they also politely informed me that they were booked for several months.  They took my number down with the words, "We'll see what we can do."  Yeah, right.

  So, after leaving that office somewhat discouraged, I drove over to the speech therapist.  I gave them the referral, and they immediately started getting things in order.  Today, they are going to request some information from the pediatrician.  Also, they told me that Kevin needs to have his hearing tested.  Well, I knew that already.  But what I didn't know was that all of the initial tests and evaluations need to be done within 30 days from yesterday.  Eeks!

  So, I proceeded to tell them about the difficulties I had at the audiologist's office.  The receptionist wrote down my name and number.  I was expecting to hear her also say, "We'll see what we can do."

  Before that happened, I mentioned that my husband is Adam, the one who cleans their office.  At that, they started gushing about Adam's work and how glad they are that he's their janitor!  Afterwards, the owner of the business herself said that she used to work in the same office with the audiologist and that she knew her personally.  She agreed to try to get Kevin in for a hearing screening.  She'd tell the audiologist that, "it was a personal favor."

  So, the upshot of everything is that on next Friday at 8:45 a.m. Kevin will have his hearing tested.  Provided that he passes that test, we can proceed with speech therapy!  Hopefully he will pass that test.  If not, we'll have to get further testing done on his ears.  I'm assuming he'll pass, though.  I guess we'll find out.

  But, finally, the ball is rolling!

Getting referrals

  Kevin's 2 year appointment was today.  I went in there knowing exactly what I wanted--2 referrals, one for a hearing test and one for speech therapy, in hand.  I want to deliver these papers myself, instead of waiting for the pediatrician's office to do it.  Well, I immediately presented my case to the doctor, and, with a little bit of insisting, got what I wanted!  I was going to bring in the papers this afternoon, but will do it tomorrow instead.  I have to cook this afternoon and finish preparing for our meeting, so tomorrow it is!  But I'm very glad to have these two papers in hand.  Hopefully, they'll be what I need to get the appointments we need.

  In the meantime, Kevin and Sarah are doing fine.  Sarah is learning not to hit and kick Kevin as much as she used to.  Now if we could just get her to share toys with him!  Kevin is always up to something destructive.  One of his favorite pastimes is taking all of the silverware out of the drawer and throwing it all over the floor.  And since our dishwasher is broken at the moment, it's not a pastime I care for too much!

Unconditional love

  One of my music student's mothers sat in on her lesson today and brought along her son, who is just a few months younger than Kevin.  His speech, which had a variety of sounds and recognizable words, made it even more obvious to me that Kevin needs help with his speech.  The mother who came today is justifiably proud of her son, who is already potty trained and is learning his colors.

  However, having a son who is going to need a boost because of a delay has made me realize something.  We are all proud of our children for their accomplishments.  We celebrate their daily lives and love them completely and unconditionally, come what may.  So, okay.  My son has a problem.  But, that doesn't change one bit my opinion of him.

  Thinking about things recently has opened my eyes to other people's situations.  I know a woman with a disabled son who has a lot of trouble communicating with others.  Yet, when her son gets up and does his best job at a Bible reading assignment at our meetings, his father and mother just glow with pride.  People are much, much more than their disabilities.  That's only a small part of who they really are.  Even people who have severe handicaps are individuals who need to be loved and recognized for their accomplishments, big and small.

  A big part of being a mother is just being there for our kids, day in and day out, and focusing, not on their weak spots, but on the so many positive qualities that they possess.

  Kevin's 2 year checkup is tomorrow.  I'm nervous about it, since I'm going to need to be very direct with his doctor.  I need to be firm enough with her so that I leave getting what I want.  And what I want is 2 reference papers to specialists.  Actually, I'm going to see if I can't get a paper copy of them in my hand, in order to deliver them personally to the specialist's offices.  Obviously, I should not wait around for the pediatrician's office to send them off themselves.  I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Frustrated

So I called back the audiologist today and no, they still haven't received the referral for Kevin.  The head nurse at the pediatrician's office claims that she has now faxed them the information two times.  Rather than aggravate the nurse any more, I'm going to wait until Wednesday.

  On Wednesday, Kevin will have his two year checkup.  I'll be insisting on getting referred to speech therapy.  (Haha--we know how they like to send referrals!)  Also, I'm going to mention this problem I'm having with the referral to the audiologist.  My idea is to offer to bring a paper copy of the referral down to the audiologist's office myself, since it appears that the office can't figure out how to get it to them themselves.

What a mess!  I'll just be glad when all this beginning paperwork is done and we can finally get Kevin the help he needs.

Trying to get appointments

It appears that getting referrals to specialists is not as easy as you might think.

  It turns out that we're going to have to wait until his 2 year well-child checkup in order to get referred to a speech therapist.  This is because of insurance purposes.  His well-child checkup was scheduled for March 5, but I was able to move it forward to next Wednesday.  At that checkup, I will be talking to his pediatrician and convincing her that he needs to be referred to a speech therapist.

  As for the hearing test, the insurance does not require us to wait until his 2 year checkup.  So, the pediatrician was supposed to be sending over the referral two days ago.  Well, that didn't happen.  So, after checking with the hearing specialist and finding out that nothing had been sent to them, I made repeated calls and left several messages at the pediatrician's office.  Finally, I got a phone call telling me that the information had been faxed over.

  So at this point, we're just waiting for the hearing specialist to call and set up an appointment with me.  Also, we're having to wait until his checkup next Wednesday in order to get a referral to the speech therapist.  

  All of this is going to work.  My son will get these appointments because I'm going to make it happen, even if it involves getting on the phone to bug the doctors daily!

The Waiting Place....

I'm still waiting to get in touch in the audiologist and the speech pathologist.  I called the speech therapist today and Kevin has still not been referred to their office.  Also, I tried calling my pediatrician to find out what's going on, but the office was closed for President's day.  I'll try calling tomorrow morning.  It would be nice to be able to finally get this show on the road.  It's frustrating to me that the pediatrician still has not called in the referral.  Hopefully this delay is not indicative of the long journey that's ahead of us.  I'm thankful for the fact that, since Kevin is so young, he's completely unaware of the fact that his speech is delayed.  He's a beautiful, happy little boy that lights up the room the moment he steps into it!

It's a place to start...

As I'm writing this, I keep asking myself, "Why am I even thinking about starting a blog?"  There are several reasons, I suppose.  One would be so that I can have a way of tracking my son's progress.  Also, I've been encouraged myself by so many websites and blogs, that I would love to be of encouragement to someone else one day.  The third reason is in order to keep my family and friends up-to-date on what's going on with Kevin.

My son Kevin just turned 2 years old.  For about 6 months now, I've been concerned about his speech.  For one thing, he uses only one vowel sound, "AH."  He uses only 4 or 5 consonant sounds.  Additionally, it seems as if his speech is not really progressing.  If I watch videos from several months ago, his speech has not improved.

Six months ago, I started mentioning my concerns to his pediatrician.  She seemed very unconcerned, and told me that all children develop at different rates.  Although I've brought up Kevin's speech problems at almost every appointment, her answer has been to wait until he turns two to address the issue.

Well, the other day, we were able to see a different pediatrician.  Right away, she referred us to an audiologist and a speech pathologist.  They are supposed to be calling us sometime this week.  I'm on pins and needles waiting for the call!  I've done a lot of research, and keep coming across the disorder "speech apraxia."  I'm hoping that he doesn't have this disorder, but I wouldn't be surprised.