Hrm...

Visit with Sissy was good. No. It was great. It was the first time all five of us were together in a "normal" setting. We took Sissy off campus for a trip to McDonald's and to open her Christmas gifts from us. I had a slight twinge of guilt about her presents, only one toy in the mix BUT my careful shopping meant that everything we gave her was permissable at the RTC. New clothes, lots of hygeine items, a book, some markers, that kind of stuff. She has a small locker to keep extra things and is allowed 5 personal items at a time in her room so we were really limited by what we could give her. The no batteries, no hard plastics, no metals rule is harder to follow than you might think!

Before our TL (therapeutic leave) we had a therapy session to talk about coping skills. Sissy brought some coping skill tools with her on our outing - her anger ball, some markers and a coloring book and a small lovvie. She had a few moments when her anger got the better of her but overall, she managed very well. I can definitely see that it will take lots of practice before she will be able to function in the normal home environment, especially since she'll have to come to terms with the fact that Wonder Girl is techinically emotionally and mentally more mature than her at this point and that Aspie Boy will never be anything other than what he is (most of Sissy's trouble spots yesterday revolved around Aspie Boy and her inability to process HIS needs). The Dad and I have said it a thousand times, we'd gladly take 1000 more of Aspie Boy over Sissy's unique mental health issues. Aspie Boy is that much easier to manage but Sissy apparently doesn't understand that his special needs are not an issue, we just keep rolling along.

So the Hrm...
The therapist told me that they did and EKG and will be doing another EEG (gosh, I REALLY thought those things were the same ... must do some wiki searching later) because the staff are puzzled about Sissy's very flat affect and lack of emotional processing. I still say HELLO!!! RADs YOU NINNY'S!!! but they are still thinking spectral disorder. I just can't see it.

Aspie Boy's needs are so very, very different than Sissy's. I can't possibly imagine that Sissy is on the spectrum. I've taught spectral kids. I have friends with spectral kids. We've tested Sissy for spectral disorders. I just can't see it. Still, the RTC staff wants to test her and rule it out. I'll be helping the cause a little by providing the results of Sissy's sleep-deprived EEG that we did in September (results were inconclusive showing one diffuse spike of uncertain significance - possible seizure type activity from the Wellbutrin???? we don't know) I'm hoping the EEG results i provide will serve as a baseline for diagnostics. Seriously. If they diagnose Sissy as a spectral child I will instantly become one of those Lifetime Movie moms that "lives in denial" about her child's diagnosis. I just can't see it. To me, it's RADs. Furthermore, Aspie Boy never needed an EEG to prove his spectral disorder (neither have any of the other spectral kids I know/have known) so that's just a weird diagnostic tool to me. Argh.

OK. Enough angst. I am saving my energy for fun for the holidays.
xxoo to everyone and Merry Christmas!