The Mayo Clinic

Samantha - Dressed and ready to go this morning.

As this blog chronicles Samantha’s life and many challenges, it is only right to include the details of our visit to the Mayo Clinic. We left this morning and are now in Rochester, Minnesota for four days of tests and evaluation.

Why the Mayo Clinic you ask.

Several reasons. First, during the second half of the 2008-2009 school year, Sam’s teachers told me that she was regressing. Not plateauing, but regressing. This is over the course of about four months. It is one thing for a child to plateau and is to be expected occasionally. But to regress is another story entirely. Samantha’s teachers strongly advised we see a medical professional to determine what is going on in her head.

Please note, Sam is in the very best school available to her in the US. It is amazing that it is here in Dallas, Texas. Divine Intervention is more like it. This school is her best chance at a productive future. But the school has a policy whereby they will not keep students who are not making progress. If Sam were to continue her regression, it is very likely they would not allow her to return next year. That alone would be devastating.

In order to prevent expulsion, I did some research on specialist. The first one I contacted in South Carolina was no longer seeing patients. So I sought the advice of our pediatrician. She told me I would be hard pressed to get a comprehensive evaluation of Samantha here in Dallas. She told me to take her to a facility specialized in the treatment of the whole child. She suggested places like Johns Hopkins and The Mayo Clinic. I started calling around and decided on the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

After applying, the Mayo Clinic accepted Sam as a patient. She will see a developmental pediatrician, a psychologist, a psychiatrist and a neurologist and anyone else they deem appropriate after we get there. They will evaluate and treat the WHOLE child – Sam. As it is so far, and through no fault of their own, we have been going to numerous doctors to treat this symptom and that problem. No one doctor, other than our pediatrician, has seen the whole child. So collaboration is a key component of this trip.

Some of our goals for this trip are: Do we have the correct diagnosis? Are we using the right medications at the proper dosages? What kind of treatments should we seek going forward? What might have caused Sam’s regression? And the million dollar question – which no one will likely answer – what is Sam’s prognosis? What can we expect in 10 years? 20 years?

It should be a good week. I’ll keep you in the loop as best I can.

THANK YOU to our friends and family that have sent love and good wishes. It is your support and encouragement that keep us going. Please continue to pray, light candles, chant, meditate – whatever it is you do to put good karma out there for Sam. As usual, we’ll take all the help we can get!