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Dear All. I am sooooo excited!!! I spent an hour on the telephone last night with the rather wonderful Ian Jordan, the leading clinician in the field of Orthoscopics, based in Ayr near Glasgow, Scotland. We discussed Daniel in great depth. I only found out about Ian and his work because he contacted me to ask if he could be a regular contributor to The LIME Magazine. Of course I jumped at the chance and said yes, and the first article authored by Ian is in the June Issue of The LIME http://www.limemag.co.uk The article is so interesting. I had never heard of visual dyspraxia until I read this article. But all that he says makes perfect sense. And it reads like Daniel’s own little life story. It seems that Daniel has every symptom of this condition. In fact, it was Daniel’s vision that first led us to the door of the Consultant Paediatrician when Daniel was 12 months old. He seemed to have difficulty seeing the transition between doorways and any other differences in levels or the edge of rugs etc. He used to feel with his feet as though he couldn’t see, and Daniel still won’t walk outside and stumbles and falls a lot and loses his balance. So I had a wonderfully long and in depth conversation with Ian last night about Daniel. He thinks he can help. His practice is an awful long way for us. It is at least 8 hours by car, each way, so we are opting to fly. But we still have to drive 2 hours to north London to get to the departing airport, before we can fly. But it will half the amount of travel time so it is worth it. I am so excited that we may be able to make a real difference to Daniel’s perception, and therefore to his quality of life. He may currently see a terrifyingly odd picture, compared to what we are used to seeing, and if we can improve the way he sees and assimilates the world of images, then he will hopefully increase his confidence levels and be less scared of things and be more relaxed and less on high alert. It is what any mother would want for their child. The journey is going to be awful, with two children under 3 years of age, and one with special needs, but I feel that one terrible and disrupted day will soon be forgotten and will all be worth it and be far outweighed by the benefits.

So I have booked the flights with RyanAir. I rang them in advance to ask about carrying liquid on board. As, of course, airlines don’t allow fluid on board anymore due to security risks. They say that I need a letter from a Doctor saying why Daniel needs his Fortini drinks prescribed, and that he is fit to fly, and has no other means of taking on board food, so must have the drinks with him. Because of course, we will be gone for a full day, so we will need to take at least five little 200ml bottles of Fortini for Daniel to have during the day for his food. You have to think of all these things in advance don’t you so that you don’t get caught on the day.

Apparently, the orthoscopics works on the useage of coloured and prism lenses. So for example, it may be that Daniel will need glasses with a blue lens, or a green lens etc. We will find out when we see Ian. And then, if he is able to diagnose with confidence, then we come home, and they make the glasses for Daniel and post them on to us, as they are not made on the day. I just hope that Daniel is able to comply enough for them to be able to assess what they need. Being as he is not yet 3 years old, and he has Autism. But then Ian and his team are used to this type of scenario so I am sure they will be able to get the best out of the day. I am very excited. But also nervous about the flight. I hope the boys aren’t too scared. To be honest it is years since I have flown myself too, so it will be an experience for all of us!!

Anyway, my boys are safely tucked up in bed and I hope that Daniel will sleep well tonight, as he has been in nursery today, and often has difficulties in sleeping when he has had a stimulating day such as going to nursery. So we shall see how he goes. Fingers crossed. I think he is tired. He is still doing well on his Probiotics & Enzymes too. So that is going brilliantly. No constipation now for at least a week. That’s brilliant.

Well I am going to sign off now.

Sally

www.limemag.co.uk www.digbyandsprout.co.uk www.ict4autism.org