Tiapet
Old Hand
Those of you who have kids with brian injuries I have a question. Which is more of what I want to ask for, and MRI or a CAT scan? We're trying to find out if middle difficult child has any damage (suspected due to anesthesia during a surgery) that might be causing some of the issues she is having that we haven't been able to figure out and slowly started manifesting over the years since the surgery.
A little back history may or may not help. She's been through all the psychiatric testing and we know all her behaviors, although it is quite possible that some of the behaviors are also contributable to this suspected problem as well. What we see is more of cognitive issues that we can't figure out. Like things of "not getting it". You know the saying of teaching a child something a thousand times before they actually learn it? Yeah well that's just one of the things that doesn't always happen. Some of the others are connections to consequences of her actions, acting inappropriately or saying inappropriate and not even realizing that it is so (I know this might be a spectrum issue too but need to rule out if it's a cognitive thing too). There are probably many other things I'm not putting down here to. She tests out mostly on the low end of average on IQ testing but in sub tests we see weakness in particular areas. It very strange over all in that she acts like a child that may have mental retardation yet her testing doesn't show it. Hence, beyond all the other stuff, why we really need to see if there is something going on inside her brain that we are fighting and just don't know it.
The reason I have asked this question as well is because her psychiatrist sent a referral to neurologist but they won't take it from him (for the purpose of having one of these tests done). The neuro wants the referral to come from the primary doctor. Go figure. In order for that to happen it will take quite some time because she has a brand new doctor and that doctor will have to get all her old medical records which will include 11 years of orthopedic records (which is where the surgery records are that has the instances), then the primary doctor will have to search through those records to pull out exactly the information the neuro will need and send just that. A very time consuming process which means it may take up to 3 months before all is said and done before we even get in to see the neuro, let alone get the test done. So, we're thinking that if we can get the psychiatrist to just order the "test" itself (cat or mri, hence why I ask which it is I want) and work with that first then refer out if there is something detected then it would be a much quicker process.
So which test will show us what we need to know?
A little back history may or may not help. She's been through all the psychiatric testing and we know all her behaviors, although it is quite possible that some of the behaviors are also contributable to this suspected problem as well. What we see is more of cognitive issues that we can't figure out. Like things of "not getting it". You know the saying of teaching a child something a thousand times before they actually learn it? Yeah well that's just one of the things that doesn't always happen. Some of the others are connections to consequences of her actions, acting inappropriately or saying inappropriate and not even realizing that it is so (I know this might be a spectrum issue too but need to rule out if it's a cognitive thing too). There are probably many other things I'm not putting down here to. She tests out mostly on the low end of average on IQ testing but in sub tests we see weakness in particular areas. It very strange over all in that she acts like a child that may have mental retardation yet her testing doesn't show it. Hence, beyond all the other stuff, why we really need to see if there is something going on inside her brain that we are fighting and just don't know it.
The reason I have asked this question as well is because her psychiatrist sent a referral to neurologist but they won't take it from him (for the purpose of having one of these tests done). The neuro wants the referral to come from the primary doctor. Go figure. In order for that to happen it will take quite some time because she has a brand new doctor and that doctor will have to get all her old medical records which will include 11 years of orthopedic records (which is where the surgery records are that has the instances), then the primary doctor will have to search through those records to pull out exactly the information the neuro will need and send just that. A very time consuming process which means it may take up to 3 months before all is said and done before we even get in to see the neuro, let alone get the test done. So, we're thinking that if we can get the psychiatrist to just order the "test" itself (cat or mri, hence why I ask which it is I want) and work with that first then refer out if there is something detected then it would be a much quicker process.
So which test will show us what we need to know?