Evelio started walking well around 18 months. He still had strange behaviors, but like I said, I didn't see what was really wrong with them. He was a happy child in my eyes. I did notice that he was becoming easily agitated, but I came to associate this behavior with "terrible twos".
Evelio had been in and out of the doctor pretty much every month since he was about 5 months for ear infections. I was scared that he had lost his hearing ability.
Thus, the road to diagnosis started with an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Evelio failed his first hearing screening that year. The doctor was not sure if it was because of his hearing or the fact that he didn't really want to participate. At that time, I was very worried that my child wasn't hearing well, and maybe that was why he had become aggressive. A few more hearing screenings came and went, all failed due to non-cooperation.
Then, one day, my mom told me that she had done some research and she thought that he may be Autistic. I didn't really know exactly what Autism was at that time, so I did my own research online. I found a checklist that made me suspect he did indeed have Autism. I decided to make an appointment with a different doctor and have them test him. The doctor he had before always came in the examination room and acted as though she had no idea who he was and like she didn't know him, which made me feel uncomfortable. A new clinic had just been built here in Duncan, and I decided to take him there.
The wait in the waiting room was agonizing. Evelio did not want to be still. He didn't want me to hold him. He didn't want to sit down. He squealed and screamed until the nurse called us back.
His doctor gave me a questionnaire that took a million years to fill out. While I filled this out, she observed Evelio, who was pretty agitated by this time. He thought we were leaving when the nurse called us, but to his disappointment, were led to a smaller room with a closed door. At that time, any sound of a door closing would set Evelio off into a meltdown. Anyhow, the appointment lasted almost 2 hours. At the end of it, his doctor took my hand and said, "He'll need to go for testing by (a facility in Oklahoma City) before you can apply for disability, but I can say I am 99% sure your son has Autism."
Silence.
She filled the silence with, "You're not alone. There is a long road ahead of you, but I will do everything in my power to help you. We're going to do this together." That same day she put in four referrals to various therapists and that facility in Oklahoma City.
So then, I was a single 18 year old with a 2 year old son with Autism. The long road I was starting to travel on suddenly looked 100 times worse.
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