Sunday, August 29, 2010
School Update
I bought Meg a new harness to walk with Hope. The video is the first time the two of them used it. They are doing so great! We have a leather one but it is quite a contraption and so big that it would be annoying in the school setting. Plus it is leather and would give Meg heat rash right now. This one is light weight, padded and vinyl, I think. So much easier for Hope to put on her too!
School for Hope is going better. I think she is adjusted to the 13 new people in her daily life! She finally went all of last week without crying when I put her on the bus. I bought a guitar pick necklace with a picture of her & I laser printed on it. She wears that and it helps her not miss me. Best $10 I ever spent, thank you EBAY! Her homework is pretty crazy and they have her writing so much. She seems to be adjusting to it so I don't think I am going to fight it with the school.
Crops of Luv brought our Make A Wish scrapbook to us the other night. They have 2 great pages of our wonderful wish maker taking Hope up in his plane and the whole Disney and village experience. It is such an amazing book! If you are local, you should stop in and see it. Hope loves showing people and it puts such a big smile on her face! They were so creative with the book and I don't even know how to explain how wonderful it is! They are such great people!
I survived 6 finals in 4 days! I passed 3 of my classes. 2 B's and a C. Sad that an 84 is a C! I'm very grateful I passed Mental Health though! I still have no idea how I pulled a B in Growth & Development and Anatomy and Physiology but I'll take it! I start my next 4 month stretch tomorrow and still have no idea what grade I received in 2 of my classes. No one called me so I'm assuming I am still in the program! I had a great week off and back to reality tomorrow! This semester is suppose to be more practical and hands on. I hope so! I'm sick of sitting in a classroom 4 hours a day!
It is August in Arizona and we had hail yesterday. Yes, ice was falling from the sky during one of our hottest months. It caused collisions involving 69 cars on one of our freeways. Crazy! I loved it!
I hope all is well with everyone! Thank you for your continued support and prayers!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
School has started!
What a fun couple of weeks! The first day Meg & I did a visit and show & tell of Hope's equipment and some things that Meg can do for Hope. The rest of that week Meg rode the bus to school and I met them there. Then I brought Meg home when I went to school. Things went pretty well. Meg wasn't willing to help Hope in the new environment yet, but she was adjusting quickly. Last week Meg went with Hope all day to school, alone! We all tried the lunchroom together and that was a nightmare! Hope has the last lunch period and they close up the tables along with over 200 kids in one room, a little over stimulating! They now have lunch in the nurses office and a kid from class accompanies them each day. I took in a nice bucket of fun stuff to do during lunch. Silly me has been sending lunch to school with Hope. She admitted today that if she doesn't like it she just throws it in the garbage and eats the cookies! At least I am raising an honest kid! I think she is adjusting to her 2 teachers, teacher's aide, 2 therapists, the nurse, bus driver, bus aide & 3 extra curricular instructors! And some say she isn't social! She doesn't have a choice! There have been a couple mishaps with Meg. Apparently a Chihuahua accompanied a parent after school to pick up a kid and Meg wanted to play, despite the fact that she was suppose to be getting on the bus! I guess it happened with a stray cat too. The trainer went to school the following day and of course, no animals in sight. The trainer is going back next week to work with the aide and Meg at school again. I'm a very pleased that they are helping with the transition. The school is bending over backwards to make Hope & Meg successful at school. It is very nice to see!
We went to Dr. Shafron (neurosurgeon) 2 weeks ago. He said there is another strain of Botox that we can try. It has some pretty bad side effects if the dosage isn't right. He hasn't used it in a few years and is researching current dosage amounts. He feels confident in giving it to Hope since she is still on a small dose. Now to get insurance to approve it. Meanwhile, she is still growing and tightening back up. Her Botox has definitely worn off. We go back to Shriner's in September and will have hip x-rays done again.
One of the joys of being back in public school, Hope had strep over the weekend. She missed school yesterday but went back today. She's been sick once in 3 years and within the first 2 weeks of school she gets strep. Go figure! We had her ankle checked out too. She did something to it and it was huge and purple. The ankle bone on the outside protrudes too. The doctor was not the greatest and didn't do any x-rays. She poked around her ankle and said, well, it doesn't hurt her so she probably just bruised it. This was after I got done explaining that she broke her big toe in 2 places and got up and did 2 hours of Physical Therapy. Oh well! I will ask Shriners about it when we go next month. I really don't think she broke it, but you never know with her!
Hope also had her last counseling session this past week. She was still going once a month to help identify feelings and cope with all she has been through. They cut counseling services from the state unless it is done by an intern. I passed on the intern thing. She's good! We will continue to work on feelings at home and she doesn't really remember anything other than the fact that she has scars on her belly. Since she can't see her back, she doesn't remember they are there.
I also decided to close her mental health professional while we were there. We are going to start seeing a neurologist and either her or the pediatrician can prescribe ADHD meds if I chose to put her back on them. Studies show that psychotropic stimulants given before the age of 21 can alter the frontal lobe of the brain permanently. It may be good or it may be bad. There is no way of knowing ahead of time. I asked the teachers for their input on if she is a disruption and how bad the ADHD is affecting her classwork compared to the typical kids. If she is still staying on track, I am not putting her back on the meds. I do need to get her on new sleeping pills though. These ones aren't working anymore. It's bad when mom is up until 1am studying and Hope falls asleep when I do!
Our newest supporter: North Star Bridge project. Thanks to a friend at Raising Special Kids, I found them. I was offered a full time job and almost left school to pursue it. I am struggling to pay my bills while attending school and wasn't sure how I was going to finish the school year. I met with financial aide and was able to take out some additional money. I won't see it until the end of November and it still isn't quite enough. I applied with North Star and they are helping by paying some of my bills! Their mission is to help students faced with leaving school due to financial reasons. They liked me and are helping me! After dealing with so many idiots and mean people in my life, I am so glad there are still some good, kind hearted people out there helping others! I still have a gap between my bills and income, but not as big of a gap! Something will work out, it always does!
We had our first SOTA meeting. I guess in being the VP I don't actually have a whole lot of responsibilities other than helping with decision making. We get to delegate A LOT! I think I chose the right position on the executive board! :) We are organizing a back pack awareness day at our school and a table at the upcoming AZ OT conference. Should be interesting. We don't have a lot of time to work with!
I have 6 finals in 4 days next week. Thankfully, I have a week off after that! Wish it was more but oh well! I am officially 1 year and 1 week away from graduating! It doesn't seem possible! Our class is amazing! We are all pretty close and encourage each other. Even though we all have different backgrounds and desires in our career path, we all seem to have the same values and our personalities blend really well. That comes in very handy when we are having so many issues with faculty! They gave us an anonymous survey today. I feel bad for the person that has to review them! Oh well, we are all helping each other pass and get through it. I think we are definitely forming some life long bonds! I can't imagine moving into the work force without some of them. I guess they will just be a text away though!
Thank you everyone for your continued support and prayers! You will never know how much it means to me!
We went to Dr. Shafron (neurosurgeon) 2 weeks ago. He said there is another strain of Botox that we can try. It has some pretty bad side effects if the dosage isn't right. He hasn't used it in a few years and is researching current dosage amounts. He feels confident in giving it to Hope since she is still on a small dose. Now to get insurance to approve it. Meanwhile, she is still growing and tightening back up. Her Botox has definitely worn off. We go back to Shriner's in September and will have hip x-rays done again.
One of the joys of being back in public school, Hope had strep over the weekend. She missed school yesterday but went back today. She's been sick once in 3 years and within the first 2 weeks of school she gets strep. Go figure! We had her ankle checked out too. She did something to it and it was huge and purple. The ankle bone on the outside protrudes too. The doctor was not the greatest and didn't do any x-rays. She poked around her ankle and said, well, it doesn't hurt her so she probably just bruised it. This was after I got done explaining that she broke her big toe in 2 places and got up and did 2 hours of Physical Therapy. Oh well! I will ask Shriners about it when we go next month. I really don't think she broke it, but you never know with her!
Hope also had her last counseling session this past week. She was still going once a month to help identify feelings and cope with all she has been through. They cut counseling services from the state unless it is done by an intern. I passed on the intern thing. She's good! We will continue to work on feelings at home and she doesn't really remember anything other than the fact that she has scars on her belly. Since she can't see her back, she doesn't remember they are there.
I also decided to close her mental health professional while we were there. We are going to start seeing a neurologist and either her or the pediatrician can prescribe ADHD meds if I chose to put her back on them. Studies show that psychotropic stimulants given before the age of 21 can alter the frontal lobe of the brain permanently. It may be good or it may be bad. There is no way of knowing ahead of time. I asked the teachers for their input on if she is a disruption and how bad the ADHD is affecting her classwork compared to the typical kids. If she is still staying on track, I am not putting her back on the meds. I do need to get her on new sleeping pills though. These ones aren't working anymore. It's bad when mom is up until 1am studying and Hope falls asleep when I do!
Our newest supporter: North Star Bridge project. Thanks to a friend at Raising Special Kids, I found them. I was offered a full time job and almost left school to pursue it. I am struggling to pay my bills while attending school and wasn't sure how I was going to finish the school year. I met with financial aide and was able to take out some additional money. I won't see it until the end of November and it still isn't quite enough. I applied with North Star and they are helping by paying some of my bills! Their mission is to help students faced with leaving school due to financial reasons. They liked me and are helping me! After dealing with so many idiots and mean people in my life, I am so glad there are still some good, kind hearted people out there helping others! I still have a gap between my bills and income, but not as big of a gap! Something will work out, it always does!
We had our first SOTA meeting. I guess in being the VP I don't actually have a whole lot of responsibilities other than helping with decision making. We get to delegate A LOT! I think I chose the right position on the executive board! :) We are organizing a back pack awareness day at our school and a table at the upcoming AZ OT conference. Should be interesting. We don't have a lot of time to work with!
I have 6 finals in 4 days next week. Thankfully, I have a week off after that! Wish it was more but oh well! I am officially 1 year and 1 week away from graduating! It doesn't seem possible! Our class is amazing! We are all pretty close and encourage each other. Even though we all have different backgrounds and desires in our career path, we all seem to have the same values and our personalities blend really well. That comes in very handy when we are having so many issues with faculty! They gave us an anonymous survey today. I feel bad for the person that has to review them! Oh well, we are all helping each other pass and get through it. I think we are definitely forming some life long bonds! I can't imagine moving into the work force without some of them. I guess they will just be a text away though!
Thank you everyone for your continued support and prayers! You will never know how much it means to me!
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