The "If this, then that" questions....

Playing the "what if" game is quite common. Apparently my son's pediatric Neurologist doesn't play that game ever. At least not with us. Perhaps I sounded like I was looking for someone to blame, to sue, to shake my finger at. I was not. I want answers. I want to know what happened to my son. I want to spread the word so that others may learn. The "what if's" are running rampant and I hoped that the latest appointment would squelch some of them.  I wanted to know all about the latest research they have done linking Autism to the immune system. I know they are pretty confident that the two are connected and have read some interesting articles regarding this subject. I just wondered IF say my son was on an immune suppressing medication at one month old would this possibly have been the trigger? The answer I recieved as the very busy doctor fled the room was no more than, "It's complicated."
This could mean a few things. One- I don't think you are intelligent enough to understand what we know.
Two- I don't think this applies to your son.
Three- I don't have time to go over this with you now.
All of these would have been better explanations than the one I got, or didn't get....
Where does that lead me? Well for one, I do still have a lot of respect for this Doctor. In all fairness, this was just scheduled as a re-check. Yet still I would have liked it if he showed a little more interest in hearing about the things we have seen in our son since stopping his medication. I tried to tell the doctor about the good things we have seen emerge in my son. He stated that they were not opposed to stopping medication with "these kids" however he would have liked it if I had called him to discuss how to tapper him off the medication. I really think he was offended that I left him out of this process. I understand that. I really do, however I just wanted to stop the madness. I wanted to change things. I was afraid that if I had called I would have heard a lot of arguments to keep giving the medicine to my son. I was too angry.
Once we passed over the few things I was allowed to say durring the quick appointment, he asked if there were any problems with going off the medications. I admited that my son now seems to have the attention span of a gnat on crack. He immediatley prescribed Concerta. His reasoning was that we haven't tried that one yet.
Ok. I had been prepared for this. My son may need some kind of medication to help him. I am not opposed to medicine per se....just worried about the side effects.
Durring this appointment we also recieved the results of the MEG scan. This test was done about a month before and the results showed no sezuire activity. I knew that. I just wanted to see all the other results from the tests that were done on his speech and language. Well, those were not in yet. He did give me the printed report of what he had so far. I waited until the next day to look it over since I thought I knew all it said. Well here is yet another example of why YOU should always lay your own eyes on your medical reports. Right there in the body of the results was the comment that my son had an irregular heart beat durring the exam which left a prominant artifact on the scan.
Hmmmm.....I wonder if the Doctor read this part? If he did, then why on earth would he have prescribed Concerta? Guess what the package insert says? Go ahead.....think about it. What would be the one reason NOT to prescribe this medication, or why you should discontinue this medication......
Irregular Heart Beat.
Are you kidding me?
Well of course we did not start the medication, and we are waiting to have an EKG and rhythm strip to check out my son's heart beat.  This was ordered by our local pediatrician. I think I drive him crazy, but he does what I ask. That is important.
So if our pediatric Neurologist had actually listened to my concerns about my son's reactions to medications and if he had actually read the report that he handed me, perhaps we wouldn't have had this problem. I am not saying he wouldn't have still prescribed the medication, and perhaps it is what my son needs. I just think some reassurance that he knew about the irregular heart beat, but he felt it was okay because.....(not sure why it would be okay at this point...) But just communicating this with us would have been helpful.