An Update on Tom...

I am sorry I have been so neglectful at updating this blog. It seems that for a long time I had been putting off an update because I was always waiting for one more test to come back or one more appointment to pass so that I could give a more complete picture of what is going on with Tom. I am starting to think there may never be a perfect point so I decided now is as good a time as any to provide you an update. Things with Tom have escalated a lot in the past few months. He was formerly diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome and his tics have actually gotten pretty bad. His behavior seemed to get worse right along with the tics. Things seemed to be quickly getting out of control for us. We had a visit to the PINT clinic at Froedert to have some Neuro-Psychology testing done. We received a lot of information about Tom and also some ideas about where to go from here. We were referred to a psychologist and met with her to discuss what we could do to make our lives more manageable. She felt that we needed a lot of help fast and referred us to a day treatment program at Roger's Memorial Hospital. Tom now goes to school in the morning and Roger's Memorial in the afternoon. He spends every afternoon working in both one on one therapy and group therapy. We will have family sessions once a week for as long as he continues. We have started to see some positive changes in him and have also been given a lot of information that allows us to better understand Tom and what he needs. Tom also has a doctor that meets with him and overseas things while he is at Roger's. Since Tom has been at Roger's they have confirmed the diagnosis of PDD-NOS and Tourette's Syndrome and also diagnosed him with ADHD and Anxiety Disorder. These terms had been thrown around a lot in the past and we expected the formal diagnosis. We started a medication last night that actually could treat all of Tom's ailments even the migraines and cyclical vomiting. If this works Tom should only have to be on one type of medication on a regular basis. It will take a month or so to see any results. If Tom has no major side effects from the medication and his EKG looks fine we will start some medication specifically for the tics next week. He will take this medication until we can get up to the full dosage of the other medication and until it begins to work. Treating the tics is a big priority right now because they are causing him a lot of problems at school and at times it is hard for him to feed himself because his head moves so much and he struggles to get to sleep every night.