TEAM BEN!!

We are receiving so much love and support, not only from family and friends, but from Dr's, Speech Pathologists (both private and Chatterbugs), etc. that I have decided to title our brood of supporters - Team Ben!

Ben's appointment at CHEO yesterday went well all things considered. We were there for over an hour. At first, Ben did NOT want to be there and began his usual routine of screaming while we tried to talk to the Dr. The screaming turned into a full-on snotty, flailing, tearful tantrum.

As an aside: I was wearing a black sweater yesterday and I was so preoccupied with distracting Ben and talking to the Dr that I didn't not notice until we were leaving that I was COVERED with white snotty smears all over the front and back of my sweater. Sexy!!

After about 15 minutes I was able to get Ben sufficiently distracted so that I could speak to the Dr too (Fred had done most of the talking up to that point). The silver lining about the freak-out was the Dr was able to see Ben's behaviour at it's worst, and by the end of the appointment Ben was at his best, so he saw both sides of our little angel/demon. :)

The Dr, like me and Ben's private speech pathologist, was as on the fence about whether there is more wrong than just a severe speech/language delay. He said that Ben does exhibit a few red flags that could be indicators of a verbal spectrum of autism, but that Ben was not an obvious case. He did recommended that Ben be evaluated by the Occupational Therapy Clinic (referred to as OCTC) - better safe than sorry, as he put it. I am in love with this Doctor. He is so caring, so patient, so helpful... I feel completely at ease with this man, and he is able to give me perspective on everything Ben is going through in a way that no one else can. I am so pleased that he wants to continue to monitor Ben throughout all of this. In addition to OCTC, he has also referred Ben to have his vision checked too. Hearing is good, not let's see if he is already as myopic as both his parents!

There is still have no end in sight for the appointments for Ben, but really, this is absolutely for the best. He's not yet 3, and we already have intervened and have TONS of support networks for him. The Dr felt that Ben could be caught-up by Grade 1 if all goes well.

GO TEAM BEN!!