The new doc

We spent over two hours waiting in the waiting room for the doctor yesterday, but after meeting him, I see why. He actually came in the room and spent an HOUR with us.  I have NEVER had a doctor do that before.  He was kind, funny, and he has a child of his own who has autism.  We talked about J for an hour.  He wanted to get to know him.  It was incredible.

We talked about each med that J is on or has ever been on.  We talked about his history, what he does, and how he does it.  I am very careful about what I say in front of J, and the doc was sensitive to that.  J took to him.  Even C did.  They were rolling around on the floor, and the doc told them to wax it for them with their shirts, so they rolled around and were loud and crazy, and he didn't seem to care at all.  Grinned about it, even.

Our sons were so similar.  They had SO many things in common that it was crazy.  The doc was so positive about what a bright future that my J can have.  Every time someone tells me that, I hold it in my heart like a glowing little candle.

At one point, J was sitting in the floor, and I saw his shoulders shaking.  He had his head in his hands.  I asked him what was wrong, and he raised up a red, tear streaked face.  He looked at me, heaved another sob, and said, "I don't want to be this way anymore."  It completely shattered me.  He's really starting to realize the differences between him and everyone else.  The doc immediately jumped in and talked about how it wasn't cool to be "just like everyone else" and that his differences were awesome and were something to be celebrated.  He said that "we don't know why God has this plan for us, but he does, and we work with it."  Wow.  Just wow.

The doc talked about how J is full of poop again.  He felt around on his tummy, and could feel that it was bad again.  He said that he thinks if we can get him going daily, his appetite will improve, and that this will help a lot of things.  His son does the same thing.  So, we are going to work on that and we are also going to work on the sleep.  Sleep is so important to a functioning little mind.  The doctor said that those are our two most important things to attack right now.  We go back in three weeks, and he gave me his card and all his numbers, even if I need to call him after hours.

It was refreshing to have not only a doctor who cared to spend the time, but someone who understood exactly what we were going through.  We swapped "war" stories.  :)