Ben = The child that keeps it interesting.

One morning this summer Ben woke up unable to articulate his words as well as he had in the past. I noticed it right away. I couldn't even understand what he was saying when I asked him what he wanted for breakfast that morning. We chalked it up to a loose tooth.

A couple days later he went to Shaun's parents for a few nights, and when he came home..it wasn't better. And he didn't have a loose tooth.

I had found a tick on the back of his head a week or so before this happened and it wasn't until then (a couple weeks later) that it hit me that this might be a sign of Lyme disease. I goggled...sure enough. Sudden speech impediment, absolutely could be a sign of Lyme disease. Off to the peds we were the very next morning.

Blood tests and a through look over by our (amazing) ped and off to the hospital for a catscan we were. I've never been more scared. It was like time was standing still. Something was wrong...and we might be on the edge of a life changing thing here. I was sick. We were all sick. Then everything came back fine. Everything! His blood tests were all good and his scan was clear. *WHEW*

But there was still the issue of the speech impediment and it's sudden appearance. Not normal by any means. So we were referred to a neurologist. Again, everything checked out fine. His balance, muscle tone, everything was normal. So we waiting a month to see if anything changed and nope. Nothing. Still normal. Thank God, but he was still not able to pronounce words that were effortless to him a couple months ago.

So we're (hopefully) on the final leg of this journey and heading tomorrow bright and early for an EEG. To rule out seizures while he sleeps before we are cleared from the neurologist. He talks different still...but I've grown use to it. We all have. I have trouble understanding him at times, that is frustrating for us both, but we'll work on it. He'll be in speech therapy to try and regain the skills he had and everything will be okay. One last hurdle and we're back to our new normal.

I had to keep him up late, and we have to wake him up early tomorrow and keep him awake until he gets there. Poor sweetie was sooooo tired at 10pm (3hrs past his usual bedtime).