April: Autism Awareness Month

If you didn't already know, our son Colby was diagnosed with Autism January 2008. Most people's stories are about how they had to deal with this news and how heart wrenching it was. Our story is very different!! I started noticing Colby doing weird things at about 8 1/2 months, I would find him sitting in our dark closet banging his head on the wall. I would just tell him to stop and pick him up and give him a great big hug. I didn't think anything of it really and didn't tell anyone what he was doing because I just thought it was a kid thing. Then my sister Hollie brought more things to my attention when he was about one year old. I finally listened to what my family was telling me and decided to get Colby tested. After he was tested I soon realized how far behind and how different the things he was doing were. But I was told that he didn't have enough "red flags" to be further tested, and that he wasn't considered Autistic, "yet". As time went by it seemed that Colby's behaviors were getting worse, and I requested that he was tested again by the Regional Center. At the Regional Center we saw a new child physcologist, and she then told us that Colby showed a lot of the characteristics of Autism, but that he was too young to diagnose and that they would just say that he was "at risk of having Autism", and they would test him again when he was closer to three because he "might" change. I could not accept this in between diagnosis! I then knew I was going to have to fight for my son! So I drove my kids up to Sacramento to see a world renown neurologist that my sister found for me. This doctor spent the most time out of 5 doctors I had previously taken Colby to. He really looked at Colby watched him and told me that he was sorry that all the other people I had seen had been wrong, and that without a doubt my son was Autistic! Finally an answer of yes or no! Just not the answer we were hoping for, but it made me feel better that I wasn't crazy for thinking there was something off about my son! And now we can get more of the help we need!! Unfortunately we are still waiting for the therapy he needs!! But hopefully we can get Colby the best therapy so he can lead a normal life and be able to do everything he wants and dreams of. It has almost been a year since we've started this journey but if you know anything about Autism you know that it has seemed like an eternity! Luckily we absolutely adore and LOVE Colby so he's with us forever whether he likes it or not!!