Diagnosis?

After the 9 days in the hospital my son came out on a new medication and with a diagnosis. My son was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I about fell out of the chair when they told me that. PTSD is for soldier's returning from war, rape victims, or people who lived through or witnessed horrible acts of crime...Not a 7 year old child. They explained to me that he already had an existing anxiety problem prior to being stabbed and the act of one child turned my son's world upside down. The more I thought about PTSD and the more I learned I could see how this diagnosis was true for him.

Suddenly small things that I was noticing with him started to make sense. I thought it was weird that a simple trip shopping was so difficult for him. I thought that he just didn't want to go shopping. Heck, I remember groaning and moaning when my Mom would even mention grocery shopping. Researching PTSD explained why he would act out when I would talk about going shopping. PTSD explained the tears in the morning when the school bus would show up. PTSD explained why my son was constantly looking over his shoulder and I'd have problems getting his attention when we were out in public. PTSD seemed to explain alot of the little "quirks" my son seemed to have developed.

A plan was in place prior to my son's release from the hospital. His pediatrician agreed to handle the pill my son was given. Appointments were set up with a therapist and the hospital psychologist filled out paperwork to place my son on the school's "Homebound" program until such time that an IEP could be written (No, I still didn't have an IEP for Danny a year later). I will add here an explanation of the Homebound Program. This is a program that every school system in the nation has. It is through your district's special education main office. If your child for any reason is either physically or emotionally disabled to the point he/she can not function in school, you can request this program. The special education office assigned a teacher to my son and for one hour a day she came to my home to teach him. The psychologist and therapist agreed that Danny shouldn't be placed back into school without a plan in place to help him while he was there....As I said above I STILL didn't have an IEP for my son and it had been a year since the request!!