Hi all, sorry i've been MIA...life has been crazy and busy busy busy!

my big news is that we finally got a diagnosis for Ethan! I am so relieved and truth be told a little sad as well because i guess it makes it real IYKWIM..but mostly relieved.
Well the the appointment started off bad...we only moved here 3 weeks ago so i got lost on the way to the dr.s office...i was nearly in tears, we'd waited so long to have the appointment and i was freaking out that we'd miss it...not to worry though the receptionist was lovely and we ended up getting there a little late. I took along a huge folder full of OT, speechy and dr. reports on ethan as well as info on all his quirks, milsetones and the ones he didnt reach, etc etc dating from birth till now and the effort paid off because the paed read through it, watched ethan for a while (who was bouncing of the walls, destroying my wallet etc etc) and gave us a diagnosis on the spot he said in most cases he gets a second opinion but not in our case... apparently Ethan was pretty text book autistic if there is such a thing. I even asked him where on the scale he thinks ethan sits and he told me not to call it a 'spectrum' as that leaves doubt in the mind...he looked me in the eyes and said 'Celeste, your son is autistic' its funny because i went into the appointment expecting to have to push for the diagnosis but apparently Ethan is so text book i didn't need to...its a little sad you know, i guess there's that part of me that wanted the paed to say 'oh he's autistic but he's really high functioning and he'll be fine..' but then i guess i don't need him to say that, i know what Ethan is capable of and i know he's making small improvements all the time. I don't know what the future hold but i have faith and i have so much hope for my little man

Anyway so now i'm trying to get my head around all the funding and stuff... the paed is sending me a copy of the diagnosis so i can fill out the paper work for the advisory program but what do i do about centrelink?? Apparently there is a carers payment? I had a look on the centrelink website and it says that the paed who diagnosed Ethan needs to fill out a Carer Allowance – Medical Report (For a child under 16 years) so do i have to ask him to do that? If someone can shine some light on that it would be very much appreciate

how is everyone coping with the silly season?