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November 15, 2002
Good afternoon everyone! I hope this finds you all well and ready for the weekend. Just counting down the minutes left here at work....
So, we had our dismissal meeting this morning, the purpose of which was to get Aiken out of the special ed program in our district. I went in braced for a fight, due to the phone calls and the therapist's attitude regarding things. Adam calls this attitude of mine the "momma bear" syndrome, because I protect Aiken in so many situations now. (making sure he gets the right therapy, right diagnosis, fighting with insurance, etc.) So I got in there, and the principal and a kindergarten teacher were there. I still haven't figured out why they require these people to be there, other than to be witness to the proceedings should I decide to sue later. (Which I'm not, but if they needed to cover their backside) Well the therapist, we'll call her Jeanie, really started things off on the wrong foot: the first thing she said was "Will you reconsider leaving him with me?" Well, let me think, um NO!!! That's why we're having this meeting and it irritated me to no end that she would ask that. She continued her little tirade by talking to the principal as if I wasn't there about how she didn't know if progress was made, I was pulling him out too early, etc. The whole meeting only lasted about 10 mins after they saw I was firm in my resolve to not have him there. I will say this meeting only strengthened it. The principal was very nice and the teacher never said a word. I walked out of there not only with Aiken's records, but also feeling I had "won" for the first time in a while in this battle for therapy for him.
The next appt we had was with the private speech at an outpatient clinic. We did have to go through the red tape as far as actually admitting him to this hospital to receive services, and there is still a fight with insurance regarding coverage. But that won't change our decision to get him services there. We then met with "Brandy" who will be our pathologist, and I was very impressed, both with her manner working with him as well as her credentials. She sat down with him for a short eval, and even though we've been through a gazillion of these, they are still somewhat disheartening at times. It became very obvious during the eval that Aiken's speech has regressed somewhat further. The documents we had brought her from the district said he had a delay of about 6 mos; I'm wondering if it's closer to 12 at this point. It can be emotionally draining for me as a parent, because I know we all want the best for our kiddos. I know this place will be great for Aiken, and I'm excited to watch him catch up to an age-appropriate level. It is a grueling schedule though, therapy there alone is 2x a week. Couple that with the focused play group we will start at the first of next year, as well as the hippotherapy we want to get him in...that's 4 appts a week! Can't say I won't be bored after graduation though... :)
I hope you all have a great weekend! My alma mater is playing the Univ of Texas this weekend, so I must say GO RAIDERS!!! :) If it's okay with everyone else, I'd like to take a poll to see how many appts a week everyone's child has. Not that any more or less is better for anybody (you know what your child needs) but just to see how we compare with others. I think this is one of the greatest blessings from this website: to be able to compare notes with other parents out there, not necessarily in my same situation, but who know what we're going through.
Love,
Amanda :)
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