09/03/2024
Here is Liam's story.
This precious boy has been through a lot. We started to notice delays when he was a baby. At the age of 2, he was diagnosed with autism. We immediately got him into Birth to 3, and tried to catch up on his delays with very little success. Then he went to Early Childhood Education for one year. Then the pandemic hit and missed a whole year of Early Childhood Education. After the schools reopened, he was enrolled into P4J. We started to notice signs of ADHD, but was told his behavior was normal for that age when it was not. The aggression started, he couldn't focus on class and very defiant. He was still very delayed and had an IEP in place for speech, OT and physical therapy. Then he went to Kindergarten. That's when the chronic vomiting began and was very ill most of that school year. His behaviors continued to worsen. I finally decided to get him into therapy, a pediatric GI specialist and a psychiatrist. By the first grade, he was diagnosed with autism, ADHD, ODD, and anxiety. His vomiting continued to get worse and lost so much weight that he was skin and bones. He was already a very picky eater so getting him to eat was a very hard task. He was prescribed medication for the vomiting and psychiatric conditions. He also suffered from chronic constipation as well. The GI doctor did an upper GI study which was normal. But the vomiting didn't stop so an endoscopy had to be done where they found inflammation at the end of his esophagus. We did constant clean outs for the constipation and missed even more school due to being sick. In December 2022, we hit a breaking point with his violence and aggression and he was feeling suicidal so he got admitted to Rogers for inpatient treatment. His meds were switched and was enrolled into day treatment but only lasted one day and was kicked out with the therapist saying there's nothing they could do for him there. Meds weren't working and constantly being changed. Beginning of 2nd grade, I started to pay attention to his sleep. He was snoring and coughing and gagging in his sleep and would just sit up and start bouncing while asleep. Got him into a sleep specialist where he was diagnosed with a sleep movement disorder and sleep apnea. He was referred to a pediatric ENT specialist and it was decided that he needed surgery to remove his tonsils, adenoids and reduce nasal turbinates. He suffered major complications after surgery and was hospitalized for a few days at Children's hospital in Madison. He recovered and his sleep apnea was resolved but the vomiting continued. Saw another GI specialist who requested a MRI of his brain to look for abnormalities but that was normal. In May 2024, he went back into inpatient treatment at Meriter due to suicidal thoughts and aggression towards others and had great doctors! Meds were changed again and a treatment protocol was put into place but his doctors refused to follow it. So many meds and diagnoses have been thrown around with no definitive answers. He now has caseworkers through our county and just got back into therapy and a psychiatrist where he's currently undergoing more med changes. Fought for a neuropsych testing to be done but was denied. So here we are still dealing with vomiting and the horrible aggression and major delays. Doctors are just scratching their heads. So I started to research Mayo with it being the best medical facility in the country! We waited months and his case was finally accepted! We are hoping to get answers and better help on how to treat him going forward. This trip can possibly be life changing for him, and we can't watch him suffer any longer.
