More CAPD

Two was diagnosed with CAPD today by an audiologist.

Back in October when Three was diagnosed, as the doctor educated me about CAPD, I kept thinking to myself, 'This sounds so much like Two!!!'  Based on that thought, I scheduled an appointment with an audiologist at our Children's Hospital in the NeuroSciences department.  I did not do the full neuropsychologist route because, frankly, we do not have a money tree.  Because I really strongly felt that this was a struggle of Two's, I knew that I could have an audiologist test for this specific disorder.  I did get a little nervous, as it was still a significant expense, thinking 'What if I'm imagining things?!', or 'What if it's not CAPD but something else and I miss it by only testing this one thing?!', etc.

The appointment went well and I really liked this doctor.  She is an audiologist and an SLP (speech language pathologist).  She told me that Two had perfect hearing, they always test this first.  Next, she did a 'preliminary' test to find out if a more in depth CAPD test was necessary.  Two failed the preliminary test, so the doctor proceeded to test for CAPD.  She concluded that Two has CAPD.  Two did really well during the long testing.

Interestingly, the doctor recommended that I get Two a neuropsychologist evaluation because she suspects that there are some difficulties with her working memory.  She asked if she had ever had a traumatic brain injury or concussion.  When I replied that she had, she strongly encouraged me to seek a neuropsych eval and even said that perhaps our insurance would cover part of the evaluation because of medical necessity (the concussion).  She explained that a person can suffer a head injury but not see the affects of it until years later because the part of the brain that becomes injured may not be used or developed until later on in life and therefore does not become evident until later on.  While she cannot diagnose this, she 'strongly suspected' it.  She offered me several resources and helped me to feel good about the direction we are headed in.

I am grateful to know how I can better help my children.  I am so grateful that they have good health.  I am grateful that the Lord opened this door for me to be able to know how to help them and to better understand their struggles.  I'm grateful for our elementary principal who rode the bus home with BoyTwo to help him behave, get off at the right stop, and be sure that BoyOne was there to walk him home (he's never ridden the bus home before because I'm scared that he could cause a huge problem.  He has a hard time in our car, for Pete's sake) because I couldn't be there to pick him up from school as I do every day.  (I know.  We are so blessed!  What a stark contrast from our initial experience here...)  I am sad as I recall different times over their little lives where I may have misunderstood them and not been as compassionate as I should have been, as understanding, or when I may have disciplined them when I shouldn't have (think 'Two/Three I told you four times to _____' when each time she likely heard a different thing that sounded like gibberish each time, and then was given a consequence.).  Sad.

It's all good and we're moving forward.