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My 12 year old son finally got to see a neurologist for his migraines. The neurologist also confirmed that his hypotonia is most likely caused by the SPD because there was nothing in the blood test to indicate that the problem was muscle based.
The good news is that my son's dyspraxia seems to have almost disappeared in some ways. He auditioned and got the part of Mr. Mayor in Seussical. His timing and balance have improved to the point that I can't tell there was ever a problem. I think the dancing he has to do in musical theater helped with that. I watched a video of him dancing from several years ago and I could see that he was more "loosey-goosey" as a friend of mine called it. Since he hit puberty he looks stronger but the arches in his feet still collapse when he stands so he has pain from that and has to wear orthotics which don't help much. The scoliosis brace has been difficult for him. This is a kid who had trouble with clothing tags and had sock problems when he was younger. Now he has to wear a Boston brace underneath his clothes for all of his rehearsals so when the other kids are hot, he is even hotter and heat sometimes causes migraines. He has pain in his feet while at rehearsals and leg pain sometimes at night which keeps him from sleeping. When he can't sleep, I can't sleep. It just about killed me when he told me he was in pain almost every day. I think the doctors my son saw should have been able to help him, but as my son once said they just gave him cliche advice that might work for most people but didn't help him.
The neurologist, unlike the other doctors my son saw, actually listens to him. The neurologist is putting him on a medication to prevent the migraines because he has so many (barometric pressure changes and heat are his triggers) and he says it will help him with the pain at night so it should also help him sleep. It sounds like a wonder drug, but my son told the neurologist that he has learned to not get his hopes up because he has been to so many doctors that did not help him.
The neurologist even seemed interested in the article on sciencedaily.com that I printed out for him that talked about increasing evidence that the processing and perception of sensory stimuli is abnormal even outside of migraine attacks. I have always said that I get something like SPD hours before and then during migraines and I know this is true for my son also. The neuropsychologist tested my son last year when he was getting a migraine. When I questioned the results of the test and mentioned the headache she said she didn't think a headache would make any difference in the testing results, but I know from personal experience that it does. The test confirmed the verbal giftedness but I think his performance scores were lower than they would have been if he hadn't been tested all day (when he has endurance issues to begin with) and when he was getting a migraine. Even though we take headache medicine, it doesn't totally knock out the pain and it does affect our sensory processing, especially visual processing.
