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Thursday, May 7, 2015

Joseph's Appointment

Today was Joseph's long anticipated CHOP appointment. We went to the King Of Prussia office which is closer to our house than the hospital. After we checked in they got Joseph's weight, height, head circumference and took his blood pressure. Then it was back to the waiting room until an exam room was available. 
 While Joseph was performing the tasks under the watchful eye of Miss A, I spent time with the psychologist and Doctor. I am so familiar with Braden's story, I had a difficult time remembering this is Joseph we are here to discuss, thus a whole different story. 
    I neglected to bring Joseph's prior neuro/psych evaluations with me so they did not give him any diagnosis while I was there. They did give me a list of interventions he will need and the list looks  rather daunting to say the least. 
   Joseph did well but the tests they did showed that there are quite a few area's he is behind in, some significantly so, thus all the interventions. I don't know if he will receive an FASD diagnosis because he doesn't have any facial abnormalities and he is above average in height/weight for his age. Bradens FASD doctor told us that in order to have the facial abnormalities birth mom must consume alcohol while those features are developing. Most criteria for the FASD diagnosis include facial abnormalities as one of the necessary factors. However according to Bradens doctor, they are now realizing this is not always the case and so they no longer require them to be present to receive the diagnosis. 
   The doctor did say Joseph suffers damage to the frontal lobe and that happens via trauma, neglect or it can happen in utero. Long story short, he meets all criteria for FASD except for the facial abnormalities and his height/weight so I don't know much more than I did before. :) 



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