Philip was delayed in gross and fine motor skills but his cognitive skill seemed to progress at a normal rate for his age. Even a physical therapist consultation at 1 ½ years showed us he was gaining motor ability at a good rate just later than his peers. After learning to walk, he seemed to be on the same level as his peers. We enjoyed “normal” life for a couple of years, including the birth of our daughter, Joyanna, in April of 2012. As Philip grew, the only obvious delay was his verbal ability. At 2 ¾ , he knew most of the alphabet by sight. He knew numbers 1-9 by sight. He couldn’t speak in sentences but loved to sing songs and could get out many of the words, and almost all the hand motions. He loved to spin in circles and seemingly never got dizzy. He loved flags and fans and buses and the moon. He still loves those things.
In January of 2013, just after Philip turned 3, I decided to give potty training a concerted effort. (We had tried before twice.) This time we decided we were in for the long haul to make it happen. Although intensely frustrating I stayed on board for two months, when we finally admitted he wasn’t getting it. He knew the mechanics but not the concept of body awareness. This particular situation brought us to the point of admitting that he needed to be evaluated behaviorally and even mentally. His speech was still not progressing as we would have liked. We began the process of referrals and, more importantly, finding a psychologist that we trusted to evaluate Philip. We wanted to avoid an unnecessary diagnosis, while at the same time finding out how to help Philip. The Lord opened and closed door after door until we made the phone call to Chuck Edgington, director of Full Circle Developmental Center. We knew this was the doctor we wanted to see and this center also provided speech and occupational therapy. We set up appointments for evaluations with speech and occupational therapists. We found that a behavioral evaluation would be scheduled in October, a long time to wait but because we knew this was the doctor, we decided to wait the eight months. Evaluations for speech and occupational therapy were scheduled within a month.
At the speech therapy evaluation, the therapist kept pointing out that she thought he had a problem with his vision, possibly a cut in his peripheral field of vision. As she pointed it out, we began to notice it as well. In the days later, we began to see it in everyday life. We made an appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist. After this appointment, we found Philip would need glasses for far-sightedness. We also found that it would be hard to test Philip for any of the other visual issues we thought he was having due to his lack of verbal skills and young age. We saw the occupational therapist for evaluation a few days after that. According to her observation, Philip was delayed in skills for his age and would benefit from occupational therapy. A few days after that, Philip got his glasses and, while not overjoyed, he accepted the glasses without much fuss.
As the week progressed, I (mom) began to notice some small twitches and unusual behavior for Philip. We watched for several days as these twitches became more evident and longer in duration. We weren’t sure how to label this newest development or if it was anything more than adjustment to his new glasses. By the end of the week, I began to take a log of this activity at least to report to his neurosurgeon. On Saturday, April 6, Philip had a fever linked to a normal ear infection and, that evening, an episode that would seem like a typical seizure. We made the decision to visit the ER. Once again, almost 3 years to the day, we were admitted to the hospital. Philip had x-rays, a CAT scan, an MRI and EEG. He was diagnosed with epilepsy. When he was discharged from the hospital, we would begin the journey of regulating medication to control his seizures that we are still on to this day.
We don't have an official diagnosis for Philip's physical problems. His condition has never presented itself in a neat package that fits all the criteria for an easy diagnosis. We hope to share what we find as we continue on this journey. We ask the Lord daily for grace and strength and yes, for healing for Philip. We have good days and bad and in both, we see the Lord's hand at work. We laugh and play and especially on good days, Philip is a fun-loving boy who has silly times.