Alayna
We had originally been told that it would take about 2 months to get Alayna into the gait lab at Shriner's and to get her first set of casts. We were expecting that we'd be able to start PT and work on stretching and then to the casts. Well, last week, the day after our appointment actually, Shriner's called and set up ALL of Alayna's appointments.
Alayna goes in on the 7th to do the 2 hour gait lab, then she'll get molds done of her feet for the AFOs (ankle foot orthotics), lastly they'll stretch her feet and ankles and put the first set of casts on. She goes in the following week to get those casts removed and another set put on. A week later she goes in again to get the second set of casts off and new ones put on. A week later she goes in again to get the final set of casts off and get her AFOs. I'm really hoping for the best with all of this. I'd like to avoid surgery at all costs.
I also found a product called de-rotation straps. http://www.360oandp.com/products/186/SureStep-De-Rotation-Straps.aspx They're supposed to work very well, much like AFOs, and can hide well under clothing. Speak of that, I'm hoping that Alayna's jeans will fit over her casts, but I'm not sure how far up the casts will go and how thick they'll be. I've never had a cast before.
Brooklyn
I'm beginning to think that coming off of all of the medication may not have been the best choice, and that makes me ridiculously sad. I DESPISE giving my daughter medication, but based on the behavior of the last week, I think that some type of medication for the afternoons might be necessary. She's more out of control, even with the OT activities. Joe's taking an extra long lunch on Monday so that he can come to Brooklyn's behavior therapy with me so that we can talk to her therapist. We're also going to see her doctor next Thursday to discuss if maybe a low dose medication might help her out of control behavior at home after school and on weekends.
We did have a break through at therapy this last week. Brooklyn told her behavior therapist that she really misses me when she's at school, that she only gets to be with me all day long on the weekends and everyday used to be like the weekends :( My poor girl. Tomorrow I'm going to start volunteering in all of the kids' classrooms, so hopefully it'll help her get through the school day.
Brooklyn's OT suggested that we may want to look into martial arts lessons for her. The hope here is that it will give her body the proprioception it craves in an environment where she and others are safe; and also hopefully teach her that her aggression is wrong in a way that may work better. One of the biggest rules of martial arts is that you aren't allowed to use the skills to hurt others. So, we've been looking into martial arts studios in the area for her. But now both Aiden and Alayna want to do martial arts as well, LOL. We've found a place that offers one lesson a week for $45 a month or two lessons a week for $85 a month. I'd prefer to do one lesson a week for right now as we currently have enough weekly and bi-weekly appointments right now.
I'd REALLY like to get her into teakwon-do at the community center, but she has to be 7 to go there. The price is great though, $92 for 8 weeks of lessons 2 days a week.
I've also found another program that teacher jujitsu and karate, but it's $77 every 4 weeks. But, she can't go here until she's 6 (which is only a month and 10 days away, EEEKK!) and it's two days a week.
We're going to contact all the programs we've found and talk to them about Brooklyn. We need to be sure that where ever she's going can handle her special needs.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Feet and legs and school conferences
Today was Alayna's appointment at Shriner's Children's Hospital in Portland, OR. We saw a great orthopedic surgeon who used to be the Chief of Staff at the Honolulu, Hawaii Shriner's hospital. It was a LONG visit. It started with checking in, I of course thought, "I'm not driving, I don't need my purse." Um... Yea, our insurance cards are in my purse. (Joe has fax the cards into the hospital tomorrow.) Thankfully they were really great about that. Joe had to fill out a limited power of attorney form for me to be able to bring Alayna in for any other appointments.
They called us back a bit early, which was great because we arrived a good 30 minutes before our appointment time. They took Alayna's height and weight and all of our papers. The first doctor who came in to see Alayna was a doctor who was studying here in the US from Australia. He was really nice. He asked us about Alayna's life, from birth to now. He pushed, pulled, and prodded her arms and legs checking her range of motion and reflexes. She has little to no reflexes in her arms. After all of that he had Alayna walked up and down the hallway to watch how she walks. She does walk with a heel-toe gait on her right foot most of the time, but her left foot is almost always flat. He also noticed our concerns with her hips.
We went back into the room and waited some more. The nurse who works with the doctor we'll be seeing came in to check on us and explain how everything will work. Since Shriner's in Portland is a teaching hospital we'll end up seeing LOTS of doctors. Around this time we also discovered that Shriner's has a little table with snacks out in the hallway. Coffee, hot water for cocoa and tea, ice water, goldfish crackers, fruit roll ups, crackers, raisins, etc. Bella had all sorts of snacks while we waited, LOL
Finally the doctor came in and did some of the same stretches as the first doctor. She also watched Alayna walk up and down the hallway. She ordered x-rays of Alayna's hips. At that time I took Bella up to the third floor to the Halloween party they were having for the kids at the hospital. Bella got to paint a pumpkin, eat cookies, pick a toy, and play. We headed back down to check on Alayna and walked in on the tail end of a VERY important conversation between the doctors, the physical therapists they brought in, and the nurse.
As far as Alayna's hips are concerned they ARE turned out, at this point the doctors think it would be best to leave them alone though as it's something that Alayna can live with. With her muscles, ankles, and feet we have three options; treatment depends on our goals. Prior to any treatment they want Alayna to go in for a gait lab, which basically means they're going to record her walking and running to determine how to best help her. On to the options.
Option 1. Leave them alone and find a way to help Alayna work around it; however people who have the same problems as Alayna tend to have a lot of problems with walking, running, and tiring quickly (which Alayna does have trouble with).
Option 2. Is to do casting. Alayna will go in for casts to be placed on both feet and ankles. They will stretch Alayna's muscles out and then put the casts on. Alayna will have the walking boot over the casts. The goal of the casts is to stretch her muscles little by little. She will wear the set of casts for 10-14 days at which point we'll go back up to the hospital and get the casts off. They'll stretch her ankles and feet again and then put on new casts. We'll do this for about 6 weeks. At which point Alayna will get braces to continue the stretching.
Option 3 (which no one is really fond of) is surgery. The surgery to loosen her muscles to allow her to walk flat on her feet would take about an hour and she'd go home later that day. The surgery to turn her feet in the way they should be would be about 3-4 hours. It would require a 3-4 day hospital stay, and Alayna would leave the hospital using a walker.
In the event that option 2 doesn't work, we may still end up with option 3.
Joe and I have decided that we're going to go with option 2. Obviously we're working our tails off to meet Alayna's needs so we don't really like option 1 at all, and option 3 seems to be REALLY invasive, especially considering that we have another option.
Shriner's is going to call us to schedule the gait lab. That'll be a good 2 hours, after the gait lab Alayna will get her first set of casts. We aren't sure how far out that will be scheduled, but the doctor said it could be up to 2 months. The plus side to that is we'll have established physical therapy at that point and it'll give us a couple months to see how regular PT and follow through of exercises will work in helping Alayna.
OK, onto school conferences.
Brooklyn:
OK, so Brooklyn did NOT tell anyone about what happened to her face. I've spoken with everyone possible about it. Miss Karla said she does talk to Brooklyn almost every day, but that Brooklyn did not come to her.
Brooklyn still rarely speaks in class. She has show some GREAT reading skills and excellent math skills. Her writing skills... Not so hot. She can write ALL of her letters upper and lower case. When it's writing time the kids draw pictures and then write a bit about what their pictures are about. Brooklyn just writes her alphabet (upper and lower case) along the bottom of her picture. We discussed how Brooklyn can write words at home, but generally asks us what words she should spell first. So, her teacher said she could start doing that with Brooklyn when she draws.
I feel better about Brooklyn's teacher after today's meeting. I'm still not 100% about her, but I definitely feel better about her. We're still working towards an IEP for Brooklyn. I'm a bit frustrated that it's taken so long, especially after they have been so great at getting Alayna's done so quickly.
Aiden:
Aiden is doing great. His teacher had a LOT of great things to say about him :) He has EXCELLENT math skills, although he still needs to focus on memorizing his multiplication facts (which is where he and his class are right now). His teacher said that she's confident that she can put anything possible in front of Aiden to read and she knows that he could read it and understand it. His writing is still a struggle, but we're working on that both at home and at school. He's going to start speech therapy at school with the speech therapist for the stuttering. He hasn't out grown it and it's getting in his way of reading aloud.
Alayna:
There's never anything bad to say about Alayna :) Her teacher had each of the kids make their own goals with math, reading, and other. Alayna's goals are: to get better at geometry, have better fluency in reading, and to get better at making friends. We decided to keep those goals, but just amend the friend one to "make at least one good friend". We also agreed on how we would help Alayna meet those goals both in the classroom and at home.
Alayna's mom also showed up at the conference, so that was great. We were able to talk to her about the options we were given at Shriner's and the contacts that Alayna's eye doctor prescribed. She agrees with us that casts would be the best option and that we should try the contacts.
We are FINALLY home, dinner is done, homework is done, and I am ready to crash!
They called us back a bit early, which was great because we arrived a good 30 minutes before our appointment time. They took Alayna's height and weight and all of our papers. The first doctor who came in to see Alayna was a doctor who was studying here in the US from Australia. He was really nice. He asked us about Alayna's life, from birth to now. He pushed, pulled, and prodded her arms and legs checking her range of motion and reflexes. She has little to no reflexes in her arms. After all of that he had Alayna walked up and down the hallway to watch how she walks. She does walk with a heel-toe gait on her right foot most of the time, but her left foot is almost always flat. He also noticed our concerns with her hips.
We went back into the room and waited some more. The nurse who works with the doctor we'll be seeing came in to check on us and explain how everything will work. Since Shriner's in Portland is a teaching hospital we'll end up seeing LOTS of doctors. Around this time we also discovered that Shriner's has a little table with snacks out in the hallway. Coffee, hot water for cocoa and tea, ice water, goldfish crackers, fruit roll ups, crackers, raisins, etc. Bella had all sorts of snacks while we waited, LOL
Finally the doctor came in and did some of the same stretches as the first doctor. She also watched Alayna walk up and down the hallway. She ordered x-rays of Alayna's hips. At that time I took Bella up to the third floor to the Halloween party they were having for the kids at the hospital. Bella got to paint a pumpkin, eat cookies, pick a toy, and play. We headed back down to check on Alayna and walked in on the tail end of a VERY important conversation between the doctors, the physical therapists they brought in, and the nurse.
As far as Alayna's hips are concerned they ARE turned out, at this point the doctors think it would be best to leave them alone though as it's something that Alayna can live with. With her muscles, ankles, and feet we have three options; treatment depends on our goals. Prior to any treatment they want Alayna to go in for a gait lab, which basically means they're going to record her walking and running to determine how to best help her. On to the options.
Option 1. Leave them alone and find a way to help Alayna work around it; however people who have the same problems as Alayna tend to have a lot of problems with walking, running, and tiring quickly (which Alayna does have trouble with).
Option 2. Is to do casting. Alayna will go in for casts to be placed on both feet and ankles. They will stretch Alayna's muscles out and then put the casts on. Alayna will have the walking boot over the casts. The goal of the casts is to stretch her muscles little by little. She will wear the set of casts for 10-14 days at which point we'll go back up to the hospital and get the casts off. They'll stretch her ankles and feet again and then put on new casts. We'll do this for about 6 weeks. At which point Alayna will get braces to continue the stretching.
Option 3 (which no one is really fond of) is surgery. The surgery to loosen her muscles to allow her to walk flat on her feet would take about an hour and she'd go home later that day. The surgery to turn her feet in the way they should be would be about 3-4 hours. It would require a 3-4 day hospital stay, and Alayna would leave the hospital using a walker.
In the event that option 2 doesn't work, we may still end up with option 3.
Joe and I have decided that we're going to go with option 2. Obviously we're working our tails off to meet Alayna's needs so we don't really like option 1 at all, and option 3 seems to be REALLY invasive, especially considering that we have another option.
Shriner's is going to call us to schedule the gait lab. That'll be a good 2 hours, after the gait lab Alayna will get her first set of casts. We aren't sure how far out that will be scheduled, but the doctor said it could be up to 2 months. The plus side to that is we'll have established physical therapy at that point and it'll give us a couple months to see how regular PT and follow through of exercises will work in helping Alayna.
OK, onto school conferences.
Brooklyn:
OK, so Brooklyn did NOT tell anyone about what happened to her face. I've spoken with everyone possible about it. Miss Karla said she does talk to Brooklyn almost every day, but that Brooklyn did not come to her.
Brooklyn still rarely speaks in class. She has show some GREAT reading skills and excellent math skills. Her writing skills... Not so hot. She can write ALL of her letters upper and lower case. When it's writing time the kids draw pictures and then write a bit about what their pictures are about. Brooklyn just writes her alphabet (upper and lower case) along the bottom of her picture. We discussed how Brooklyn can write words at home, but generally asks us what words she should spell first. So, her teacher said she could start doing that with Brooklyn when she draws.
I feel better about Brooklyn's teacher after today's meeting. I'm still not 100% about her, but I definitely feel better about her. We're still working towards an IEP for Brooklyn. I'm a bit frustrated that it's taken so long, especially after they have been so great at getting Alayna's done so quickly.
Aiden:
Aiden is doing great. His teacher had a LOT of great things to say about him :) He has EXCELLENT math skills, although he still needs to focus on memorizing his multiplication facts (which is where he and his class are right now). His teacher said that she's confident that she can put anything possible in front of Aiden to read and she knows that he could read it and understand it. His writing is still a struggle, but we're working on that both at home and at school. He's going to start speech therapy at school with the speech therapist for the stuttering. He hasn't out grown it and it's getting in his way of reading aloud.
Alayna:
There's never anything bad to say about Alayna :) Her teacher had each of the kids make their own goals with math, reading, and other. Alayna's goals are: to get better at geometry, have better fluency in reading, and to get better at making friends. We decided to keep those goals, but just amend the friend one to "make at least one good friend". We also agreed on how we would help Alayna meet those goals both in the classroom and at home.
Alayna's mom also showed up at the conference, so that was great. We were able to talk to her about the options we were given at Shriner's and the contacts that Alayna's eye doctor prescribed. She agrees with us that casts would be the best option and that we should try the contacts.
We are FINALLY home, dinner is done, homework is done, and I am ready to crash!
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Timing is everything
We have a problem at our house, getting Alayna to complete anything in a decent time frame. It takes her an hour to shower and get dressed. It takes her 20 minutes to use the bathroom. Everything she does is VERY slow and methodical. I don't know how much of the issue is just her, how much is laziness, how much of it is learned behavior, or how much of it is cognitive abilities.
We've been working on a good routine for everything (a morning routine, a homework routine, a bathing routine, a bedtime routine, etc) in the hopes that it'll help her get things done in a timely manner since she officially moved home. It doesn't seem to be working.
Here's the biggest issue: not only does she do everything very slowly, she also doesn't do them very well. Again, how much of that is learned behavior versus ability versus laziness I don't know. I'm not comfortable punishing her for something that may be out of her control. So, we are continuing to try to find a way to help her.
Right now we have check lists up of what she needs to do and how she needs to do it. They don't seem to be working on their own though. She does well if she's being monitored throughout the process, but if it's left up to her, she doesn't do well.
So, how to find a way to help without having to walk around behind her 24/7. The OT that evaluated her suggested a count down timer/clock thingy. This to be exact: http://www.amazon.com/Time-Timer-LLC-TT2-Audible/dp/B0019FHX6Y/ref=pd_sim_k_2 But, I wanted something different, so I was looking at this:
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-LER6900-Programmable-Electronic/dp/B0007DHU0S/ref=pd_sbs_t_8
The second one looks AWESOME and perfect, however, 80% of the reviews are horrible :( So, I was looking for other similar options. None offer both a color change, noise, AND visual count down timer. Back to option number 1 I guess.
The clock timer (which was the exact one that the OT suggested) DOES have a beep at the end, not sure how loud it is though. I've found another one that I like, it makes noise and flashes different colors (green, yellow, and red) and beeps at the end, BUT that one doesn't have a visual timer. Unfortunately it's also made by the same company that makes the one above that has so many horrible reviews :( This is the link to that one: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Time-Tracker-Mini/dp/B004DJ373G/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
I'm also going to make a more strict schedule and routine. Alayna does really well if she has a routine, but we still need to monitor her. So, that's the plan.
Also, I LOVE our OT. The same OT that seems Brooklyn twice a month evaluated Alayna. Hopefully here soon we'll get the letter from the insurance saying they approve OT and we'll be able to schedule Alayna's visits (we're also waiting on them to approve PT). I've already talked to our OT about wanting to schedule Alayna with her as well. Today we talked a bit about Alayna and she said that she's already thinking of some ideas to help her :) LOVE our OT!!
We've been working on a good routine for everything (a morning routine, a homework routine, a bathing routine, a bedtime routine, etc) in the hopes that it'll help her get things done in a timely manner since she officially moved home. It doesn't seem to be working.
Here's the biggest issue: not only does she do everything very slowly, she also doesn't do them very well. Again, how much of that is learned behavior versus ability versus laziness I don't know. I'm not comfortable punishing her for something that may be out of her control. So, we are continuing to try to find a way to help her.
Right now we have check lists up of what she needs to do and how she needs to do it. They don't seem to be working on their own though. She does well if she's being monitored throughout the process, but if it's left up to her, she doesn't do well.
So, how to find a way to help without having to walk around behind her 24/7. The OT that evaluated her suggested a count down timer/clock thingy. This to be exact: http://www.amazon.com/Time-Timer-LLC-TT2-Audible/dp/B0019FHX6Y/ref=pd_sim_k_2 But, I wanted something different, so I was looking at this:
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-LER6900-Programmable-Electronic/dp/B0007DHU0S/ref=pd_sbs_t_8
The second one looks AWESOME and perfect, however, 80% of the reviews are horrible :( So, I was looking for other similar options. None offer both a color change, noise, AND visual count down timer. Back to option number 1 I guess.
The clock timer (which was the exact one that the OT suggested) DOES have a beep at the end, not sure how loud it is though. I've found another one that I like, it makes noise and flashes different colors (green, yellow, and red) and beeps at the end, BUT that one doesn't have a visual timer. Unfortunately it's also made by the same company that makes the one above that has so many horrible reviews :( This is the link to that one: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Time-Tracker-Mini/dp/B004DJ373G/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
I'm also going to make a more strict schedule and routine. Alayna does really well if she has a routine, but we still need to monitor her. So, that's the plan.
Also, I LOVE our OT. The same OT that seems Brooklyn twice a month evaluated Alayna. Hopefully here soon we'll get the letter from the insurance saying they approve OT and we'll be able to schedule Alayna's visits (we're also waiting on them to approve PT). I've already talked to our OT about wanting to schedule Alayna with her as well. Today we talked a bit about Alayna and she said that she's already thinking of some ideas to help her :) LOVE our OT!!
School and Brooklyn
Yesterday my girl came home from school with what looked like a scratch from a fork on her face. It was 3 lines one on top of the other, each about an inch long across her face. I instantly ask her what happened to her face, she says, "I don't know." I keep asking leading questions: Did you get hurt at school? Did someone scratch you with a fork? Did you get hurt in the classroom? Did you get hurt at recess? Every answer was "I don't know". I kept coming back to the questions and I finally got it out of her that it happened at recess. A couple hours later I find out she got hit in the face with a stick at recess. An hour or so after that I find out that Lincoln, a kid in another classroom, hit her in the face with a stick at recess and that she told the recess duty and that Lincoln was sent in from recess.
I ask her if she told HER teacher, and she says, "Yes, I told Mrs. Lind." OK great. The teacher knows. I think, "Duh, why didn't I think of it earlier! They probably sent a note home!" I usually only check Brooklyn's backpack on Fridays, as that is the only day they send anything home with her. I look, NOTHING! Well, now I'm starting to get a bit mad. My girl was hit in the face with a stick, the marks are VERY obvious to anyone looking AT her, and there's no note.
See, a couple weeks into school Brooklyn accidentally scratched another kid with her pencil. Brooklyn likes to swing things around and was swinging her pencil around (not the safest activity) and scratched a boy on the leg. The teacher asked Brooklyn and the boy what happened, Brooklyn clammed up and refused to talk (this is pretty typical). Because the teacher couldn't find out if it was on purpose or an accident Brooklyn lost half of her recess. I had gone into school to volunteer at the book fair, and when I went in the teacher saw me and told me about it. BUT, she did it in front of other parents who could hear every word, and I then had to wait an hour (until the end of the day) to talk to Brooklyn about it.
After school I got her from class and we were waiting for the other kids, so I was talking to her about what happened. I was also there when the teacher told the boy's mom what happened, obviously Brooklyn could ALSO hear this as she was standing right next to me. It didn't break the skin, but they cleaned it up and put a bandaid over it. Brooklyn finally said it was an accident, but not she's scared of her teacher because she thinks she's going to be in trouble again. I went up to the teacher with Brooklyn and told her that, the teacher tried to make Brooklyn feel better and said that Brooklyn wasn't in trouble and that tomorrow was a new day.
OK, well, that's kind of a LOT for a simple pencil scratch on the leg. My girl got HIT IN THE FREAKING FACE WITH A STICK AND THIS MORNING THE MARK WAS STILL THERE!! It's reasonable to assume that anyone LOOKING at her would notice THREE 1 inch long raised scratch marks across her face!
Obviously I'm really pissed. I do not tend to think rationally when I'm angry, especially when it's about my children. So, I waited for Joe to get home and we discussed it, I'm still really pissed, and now he's mad too. Again, this isn't because Brooklyn got hurt at school, it happens. Heck, Aiden ran into a pole at school splitting his forehead open requiring a good 8 stitches to put it back together. The issue here is that we should have been contacted in some way to let us know our child was hurt at school. I mean, look at everything the teacher went through to make sure both parents knew about the pencil scratch that didn't even break the skin? It seems pretty obvious to me that it's reasonable to assume that MY child would get the same treatment. Apparently not. I shouldn't have had to ask leading questions for a good 3-4 hours to find out what happened to my child.
So, Joe sent an email, explaining all of this in a much nicer, more appropriate way, and asked for a response from the teacher. This morning we got one. Would you like to read it? Here it is, all ONE sentence: "I was not informed about the incident but will look into it today." Yep, that's ALL she had to say about it. I'm sorry, did you not SEE the mark on her face? Silly me, I assumed that the teacher would LOOK at my child. Plus, Brooklyn says she told her teacher (although I can't know for sure, but it's not very Brooklyn like to lie and when she does it's to try getting out of trouble, not anything like this). The marks are about an inch long and about an inch to an inch and half tall ON HER FACE!!
Here's my problem, I feel like Brooklyn's been written off already by this teacher. She heard she has a kid coming into her classroom with ADHD and made a pre-judgement about her. The teacher has been a teacher for 32 years, she has a LOT of experience teaching and I'm not knocking that. But, every step of the way I've had issues. I try talking to her about Brooklyn, I get brushed off. I try talking to her again about Brooklyn's academic skill sets at home verses what she's doing at school, I get brushed off again AFTER I'm told that it's impossible for Brooklyn to be doing the level of work she's doing at home. Now this?
I'm SERIOUSLY supposed to trust this woman with my child, 6 hours a day, 5 days a week??
OK, so I'm very emotional right now, which really doesn't help. I don't know if I'm over reacting or not. To be honest, I do tend to over react, especially when it comes to my kids. I get into "angry momma bear" mode and kinda get stuck there. Call me crazy, but I expected that the teacher would treat an injury to my child as just as important as an injury to another child. This, coupled with the above mentioned issues of being brushed off by the teacher and I'm LIVID!
We're supposed to have parent teacher conferences tomorrow and I'd like nothing more than to go into the school and DEMAND that my child be moved to another classroom. I don't want to be THAT parent. I'd like to be able to calmly and rationally discuss things... However, that's not generally how I work. I imagine that Joe's going to have to take lead on most of the talking with Brooklyn's teacher. If I don't feel as if my questions and concerns are answered tomorrow, I'm making an appointment to speak with the principal or assistant principal about getting a different teacher.
I ask her if she told HER teacher, and she says, "Yes, I told Mrs. Lind." OK great. The teacher knows. I think, "Duh, why didn't I think of it earlier! They probably sent a note home!" I usually only check Brooklyn's backpack on Fridays, as that is the only day they send anything home with her. I look, NOTHING! Well, now I'm starting to get a bit mad. My girl was hit in the face with a stick, the marks are VERY obvious to anyone looking AT her, and there's no note.
See, a couple weeks into school Brooklyn accidentally scratched another kid with her pencil. Brooklyn likes to swing things around and was swinging her pencil around (not the safest activity) and scratched a boy on the leg. The teacher asked Brooklyn and the boy what happened, Brooklyn clammed up and refused to talk (this is pretty typical). Because the teacher couldn't find out if it was on purpose or an accident Brooklyn lost half of her recess. I had gone into school to volunteer at the book fair, and when I went in the teacher saw me and told me about it. BUT, she did it in front of other parents who could hear every word, and I then had to wait an hour (until the end of the day) to talk to Brooklyn about it.
After school I got her from class and we were waiting for the other kids, so I was talking to her about what happened. I was also there when the teacher told the boy's mom what happened, obviously Brooklyn could ALSO hear this as she was standing right next to me. It didn't break the skin, but they cleaned it up and put a bandaid over it. Brooklyn finally said it was an accident, but not she's scared of her teacher because she thinks she's going to be in trouble again. I went up to the teacher with Brooklyn and told her that, the teacher tried to make Brooklyn feel better and said that Brooklyn wasn't in trouble and that tomorrow was a new day.
OK, well, that's kind of a LOT for a simple pencil scratch on the leg. My girl got HIT IN THE FREAKING FACE WITH A STICK AND THIS MORNING THE MARK WAS STILL THERE!! It's reasonable to assume that anyone LOOKING at her would notice THREE 1 inch long raised scratch marks across her face!
Obviously I'm really pissed. I do not tend to think rationally when I'm angry, especially when it's about my children. So, I waited for Joe to get home and we discussed it, I'm still really pissed, and now he's mad too. Again, this isn't because Brooklyn got hurt at school, it happens. Heck, Aiden ran into a pole at school splitting his forehead open requiring a good 8 stitches to put it back together. The issue here is that we should have been contacted in some way to let us know our child was hurt at school. I mean, look at everything the teacher went through to make sure both parents knew about the pencil scratch that didn't even break the skin? It seems pretty obvious to me that it's reasonable to assume that MY child would get the same treatment. Apparently not. I shouldn't have had to ask leading questions for a good 3-4 hours to find out what happened to my child.
So, Joe sent an email, explaining all of this in a much nicer, more appropriate way, and asked for a response from the teacher. This morning we got one. Would you like to read it? Here it is, all ONE sentence: "I was not informed about the incident but will look into it today." Yep, that's ALL she had to say about it. I'm sorry, did you not SEE the mark on her face? Silly me, I assumed that the teacher would LOOK at my child. Plus, Brooklyn says she told her teacher (although I can't know for sure, but it's not very Brooklyn like to lie and when she does it's to try getting out of trouble, not anything like this). The marks are about an inch long and about an inch to an inch and half tall ON HER FACE!!
Here's my problem, I feel like Brooklyn's been written off already by this teacher. She heard she has a kid coming into her classroom with ADHD and made a pre-judgement about her. The teacher has been a teacher for 32 years, she has a LOT of experience teaching and I'm not knocking that. But, every step of the way I've had issues. I try talking to her about Brooklyn, I get brushed off. I try talking to her again about Brooklyn's academic skill sets at home verses what she's doing at school, I get brushed off again AFTER I'm told that it's impossible for Brooklyn to be doing the level of work she's doing at home. Now this?
I'm SERIOUSLY supposed to trust this woman with my child, 6 hours a day, 5 days a week??
OK, so I'm very emotional right now, which really doesn't help. I don't know if I'm over reacting or not. To be honest, I do tend to over react, especially when it comes to my kids. I get into "angry momma bear" mode and kinda get stuck there. Call me crazy, but I expected that the teacher would treat an injury to my child as just as important as an injury to another child. This, coupled with the above mentioned issues of being brushed off by the teacher and I'm LIVID!
We're supposed to have parent teacher conferences tomorrow and I'd like nothing more than to go into the school and DEMAND that my child be moved to another classroom. I don't want to be THAT parent. I'd like to be able to calmly and rationally discuss things... However, that's not generally how I work. I imagine that Joe's going to have to take lead on most of the talking with Brooklyn's teacher. If I don't feel as if my questions and concerns are answered tomorrow, I'm making an appointment to speak with the principal or assistant principal about getting a different teacher.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
I have seriously been slacking
So many changes, and no blog updates. OK, here we go.
As of last Thursday October 18th Brooklyn is no longer on ANY ADHD medications. It's been interesting to say the least. It doesn't seem that her school behavior is effected much at all. We have had very little communication with her teacher, and that's VERY upsetting. The school psychologist is GREAT, she's working on collecting information (from her teacher regarding the classroom environment, from the PE teacher regarding that environment, from the music teacher regarding that environment, and the school psychologist is going to observe Brooklyn on the playground). We're hoping to have an initial IEP meeting scheduled soon.
Last Friday we took the kids to a Portland Trailblazers basketball game. That was intense to say the least. Day 2 of no medication and a SUPER stimulating environment. Overall Brooklyn did really well. We had to remind her a LOT to calm down and respect the people around us. Thankfully there was no one in the row behind us (which also happened to be the top row in the entire arena, LOL) so we were able to let her get her wiggles out there. Leaving was the hardest part, we basically had to drag her kicking and screaming the entire way to the car.
The dragging and kicking and screaming seems to be a common way to end things. Every day when she gets off of the bus I have to drag her home kicking and screaming. She wants to be able to swing her backpack and jacket around (not caring about whether or not she hits people) and run in front of everyone. However, there are a LOT of kids getting off of the bus, there's ONE bus for our entire apartment complex. Plus, we live near the back of the complex and the bus stop is at the front of the complex, that leaves a decent walk back to our apartment where she can't just be running around acting however she wants.
I've seen an upswing in aggression at home (she seems more prone to hitting when she gets mad), but we've also been able to find ways to help calm her down. The most commonly used solution? Climbing the walls :)
She also had behavior therapy yesterday, she seemed to do really well there as well. Her new therapist is growing on me, although I still prefer her old therapist. I WISH Cindy hadn't moved, she was amazing, and Brooklyn really bonded with her quickly. Her new therapist isn't bad by any means, but it's taking Brooklyn longer to establish any type of bond. Amanda (her therapist) says that Brooklyn does interact with her when they're in the room together, but when I'm there Brooklyn does very little interaction with Amanda.
Tomorrow is our 2nd OT visit. I'm excited about that. I need to write up my list of questions/concerns/ideas for the OT. I also need to remember to ask the clinic about whether or not they've heard from our insurance about approving PT and OT for Alayna.
I feel confident in saying that I don't think Brooklyn ever had ADHD and that I was right all along when I approached our regular pediatrician about Sensory Processing Disorder. However, I'm not going to remove the ADHD label from Brooklyn just yet. You see, schools here don't consider SPD as a reason to give an IEP or make special accommodations. So as far as the school is concerned she has ADHD and SPD. Hopefully after the IEP meeting we'll be able to push our insurance to give us the Autism evaluation.
As of last Thursday October 18th Brooklyn is no longer on ANY ADHD medications. It's been interesting to say the least. It doesn't seem that her school behavior is effected much at all. We have had very little communication with her teacher, and that's VERY upsetting. The school psychologist is GREAT, she's working on collecting information (from her teacher regarding the classroom environment, from the PE teacher regarding that environment, from the music teacher regarding that environment, and the school psychologist is going to observe Brooklyn on the playground). We're hoping to have an initial IEP meeting scheduled soon.
Last Friday we took the kids to a Portland Trailblazers basketball game. That was intense to say the least. Day 2 of no medication and a SUPER stimulating environment. Overall Brooklyn did really well. We had to remind her a LOT to calm down and respect the people around us. Thankfully there was no one in the row behind us (which also happened to be the top row in the entire arena, LOL) so we were able to let her get her wiggles out there. Leaving was the hardest part, we basically had to drag her kicking and screaming the entire way to the car.
The dragging and kicking and screaming seems to be a common way to end things. Every day when she gets off of the bus I have to drag her home kicking and screaming. She wants to be able to swing her backpack and jacket around (not caring about whether or not she hits people) and run in front of everyone. However, there are a LOT of kids getting off of the bus, there's ONE bus for our entire apartment complex. Plus, we live near the back of the complex and the bus stop is at the front of the complex, that leaves a decent walk back to our apartment where she can't just be running around acting however she wants.
I've seen an upswing in aggression at home (she seems more prone to hitting when she gets mad), but we've also been able to find ways to help calm her down. The most commonly used solution? Climbing the walls :)
This is our entry way, it's just wide enough that Brooklyn is able to "hang" like a bridge between the walls
When she doesn't quite feel like "hanging" between the walls, she does this, she loves being upside down :)
Yesterday (Monday October 22) was Brooklyn's field trip to the pumpkin patch. I was really worried about how she would be, especially with me volunteering to go along. She did AMAZINGLY well. I did my best to watch her interact with her classmates... She really doesn't do that much at all. She preferred to talk to me or no one at all. She did run around and giggle with the other kids, but she didn't actual SPEAK to any of them. It wasn't like she was playing WITH the kids, just NEAR them.
She also had behavior therapy yesterday, she seemed to do really well there as well. Her new therapist is growing on me, although I still prefer her old therapist. I WISH Cindy hadn't moved, she was amazing, and Brooklyn really bonded with her quickly. Her new therapist isn't bad by any means, but it's taking Brooklyn longer to establish any type of bond. Amanda (her therapist) says that Brooklyn does interact with her when they're in the room together, but when I'm there Brooklyn does very little interaction with Amanda.
Tomorrow is our 2nd OT visit. I'm excited about that. I need to write up my list of questions/concerns/ideas for the OT. I also need to remember to ask the clinic about whether or not they've heard from our insurance about approving PT and OT for Alayna.
I feel confident in saying that I don't think Brooklyn ever had ADHD and that I was right all along when I approached our regular pediatrician about Sensory Processing Disorder. However, I'm not going to remove the ADHD label from Brooklyn just yet. You see, schools here don't consider SPD as a reason to give an IEP or make special accommodations. So as far as the school is concerned she has ADHD and SPD. Hopefully after the IEP meeting we'll be able to push our insurance to give us the Autism evaluation.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Brooklyn at the pumpkin patch
Brooklyn had an excellent field trip to the pumpkin patch. It was interesting watching her in that environment. I didn't observe her speaking more than one word at a time to anyone.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
In the nosebleed section
Some pics from our first family Blazer game, courtesy of Dream Big Community Center here in Vancouver, WA. We needed the family time. Brooklyn was way over stimulated, Aiden couldn't focus on the game with his friend Keelen along, and Bella nearly fell asleep at the beginning. But it was all worth it to hear the roar of the crowd, the lights and music. It was even worth our first game being another loss for Oregon's great basketball project.
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