RE: again, can't swing a dead cat........

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From: julieobradovic@...Reply-EOHarm To: EOHarm Subject: Better Diagnosis, My ArseDate: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 23:09:23 +0000

So, Saturday afternoon I come in the house after a trip to the store to find my husband on the phone with a panicked look on his face.

"You have to take this, Jul", he says slowly as he covers the mouth of the phone and passes it to me with two hands.

"What's wrong?" I ask panicked. "Is someone dead?"

"No, just take it. It's Debbie. They think has Autism."

Debbie is my 9 year old son's best friend's mother. We've been friends for several years. , her youngest, is 17 months old.

He's not talking, he's not walking. He shakes his head back and forth, back and forth. He just recently started crawling in a circle over and over, like he's a dog chasing his tail.

"I just don't understand it," she says near tears. "None of this stuff happened until recently. I mean he's been slow, but he's been fine. I can't believe this. It took everything in me not to drive over to your house and show up on your door step in tears."

"How recently?", I asked cautiously. "Before or after the high pitched screaming episode you told me about following his most recent shots?"

Apparently a few weeks ago, after the MMR, DTaP and Polio in one visit, had a high fever (accompanied by lumps at the injection sites) that had him up the whole night crying and screaming.

Silence.

"Oh, my God. It was right after. Oh, my God."

Silence.

Debbie is an emergency room nurse at one of the top hospitals in Chicago.

We finished the conversation. They are going for a hearing test, an EEG, and a developmental exam next week.

If is diagnosed with Autism, then the following will be true for my 9 year old son:

His sister has PDD-NOS(recovering nicely).

His other good friend, Mikey's 11 year old brother has Asperger's.

And his best friend 's baby brother now may have Autism.

These children live within 2 blocks of one another.

The same neighborhood where I grew up, where I knew no one with autism.

3 friends with 3 siblings who have Autism in 2 blocks.

Better diagnosis, my ass...