My 14 year old son was recently diagnosed with a posterior fossa arachnoid cyst (3.3 cm x 3.1 cm). We began noticing behavioral problems with him (not aggressive, just major ADD and focus) when he was around 6. We also noticed for poor control when grasping and using writing utensils. He was diagnosed with ADD and so for years we had him medicated, but nothing worked. He still displayed the exact same behaviors. As he got older we realized something more than ADD was going on. Most little kids may do something you ask them not to because their attention span is so short, but our child would repeatedly do something he was told not to or if you asked him to do the simplest of chores or tasks, he would forget. Then when he would constantly get in trouble for the same things, over and over, he would seriously stare at you and ask "why are you so mad??". He REALLY did not understand the concept of we asked, you didn't do, etc. He constantly stayed grounded, had things taken from him and would get upset, yet would repeat the same behaviors. It literally was a never ending, perpetual cycle of hell in our home.
I took him to Texas Childrens Blue Bird Clinic for Neuropsychology a few months ago. I told them the NO child possibly wanted to stay in trouble constantly and I was beginning to believe that either he had a very deep rooted psychological issue that required more treatment than the basic ADD meds or something else physically was going on with him. The Neuropsychologist was excellent and did a full days clinical evaluation. She commented about a very noticeable tremor in his left hand and noted that his motor skills were lacking. I then requested and MRI and CT. They did both and sent the results to Neurology. Sure enough, they found the cyst.
Now my question is, could the cyst account for his behavior? I will literally tell him "Don't touch that button". Two seconds later, he is touching the button and seriously confused as to what he did wrong. Or day to day he has chores. I get home and they aren't done and he says "mom, I forgot". How do you forgot to feed 5 horses, two dogs and two cats that you see daily? The litter box for the cats (they're his cats) stay in his section of the house. He walks right by the box daily. I walked into the living area near his room and almost gagged. I asked when the last time was that he cleaned it and he was like 3 days ago. I'm like how do you not smell that? He says he didn't notice. If I don't make him, he won't bathe for days. He says he's not dirty even though he's been out with the horses, riding his four wheeler and hunting. I don't know if some of this is just sheer laziness or he really doesn't remember or doesn't care.
We are scheduled to go see Neurosurgery at TCH in January. All I want is for them to recommend a safe treatment plan. I feel like my child's quality of life is terrible because of his behavior, but I don't know the cause of the behavior.
FYI... this is the same child who through the 3rd grade was in gifted and talented classes. He is now a freshman in high school and I have recently pulled him out of school to home school him. He cannot function in a normal environment. His grades suffer, he makes poor decisions which earned him 45 days in alternative school recently (took his ADD meds to school and took them in class - nurse didn't have a valid prescription for him to have them on campus), he does the same thing repeatedly when feeding horses that gets him in trouble (spills feed all over the floor, instead of one pad of hay he feeds however much he can grab and then proceeds to spill half of that from the hay storage to stalls), has used my credit card for Itunes purchases repeatedly to the tune of almost $1,000 in one year. But he has this look when he gets in trouble like he truly DOES NOT understand what he's done wrong or why we are so frustrated!
Thanks for letting me vent and please let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions.
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My 14 year old son was recently diagnosed with a posterior fossa arachnoid cyst (3.3 cm x 3.1 cm). We began noticing behavioral problems with him (not aggressive, just major ADD and focus) when he was around 6. We also noticed for poor control when grasping and using writing utensils. He was diagnosed with ADD and so for years we had him medicated, but nothing worked. He still displayed the exact same behaviors. As he got older we realized something more than ADD was going on. Most little kids may do something you ask them not to because their attention span is so short, but our child would repeatedly do something he was told not to or if you asked him to do the simplest of chores or tasks, he would forget. Then when he would constantly get in trouble for the same things, over and over, he would seriously stare at you and ask "why are you so mad??". He REALLY did not understand the concept of we asked, you didn't do, etc. He constantly stayed grounded, had things taken from him and would get upset, yet would repeat the same behaviors. It literally was a never ending, perpetual cycle of hell in our home.
I took him to Texas Childrens Blue Bird Clinic for Neuropsychology a few months ago. I told them the NO child possibly wanted to stay in trouble constantly and I was beginning to believe that either he had a very deep rooted psychological issue that required more treatment than the basic ADD meds or something else physically was going on with him. The Neuropsychologist was excellent and did a full days clinical evaluation. She commented about a very noticeable tremor in his left hand and noted that his motor skills were lacking. I then requested and MRI and CT. They did both and sent the results to Neurology. Sure enough, they found the cyst.
Now my question is, could the cyst account for his behavior? I will literally tell him "Don't touch that button". Two seconds later, he is touching the button and seriously confused as to what he did wrong. Or day to day he has chores. I get home and they aren't done and he says "mom, I forgot". How do you forgot to feed 5 horses, two dogs and two cats that you see daily? The litter box for the cats (they're his cats) stay in his section of the house. He walks right by the box daily. I walked into the living area near his room and almost gagged. I asked when the last time was that he cleaned it and he was like 3 days ago. I'm like how do you not smell that? He says he didn't notice. If I don't make him, he won't bathe for days. He says he's not dirty even though he's been out with the horses, riding his four wheeler and hunting. I don't know if some of this is just sheer laziness or he really doesn't remember or doesn't care.
We are scheduled to go see Neurosurgery at TCH in January. All I want is for them to recommend a safe treatment plan. I feel like my child's quality of life is terrible because of his behavior, but I don't know the cause of the behavior.
FYI... this is the same child who through the 3rd grade was in gifted and talented classes. He is now a freshman in high school and I have recently pulled him out of school to home school him. He cannot function in a normal environment. His grades suffer, he makes poor decisions which earned him 45 days in alternative school recently (took his ADD meds to school and took them in class - nurse didn't have a valid prescription for him to have them on campus), he does the same thing repeatedly when feeding horses that gets him in trouble (spills feed all over the floor, instead of one pad of hay he feeds however much he can grab and then proceeds to spill half of that from the hay storage to stalls), has used my credit card for Itunes purchases repeatedly to the tune of almost $1,000 in one year. But he has this look when he gets in trouble like he truly DOES NOT understand what he's done wrong or why we are so frustrated!
Thanks for letting me vent and please let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions.
December 28, 2015 - 8:46amThis Comment
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