Thursday August 12, 2004

Life, Life, Life...... It has been mad crazy around here the last couple of weeks. We have been running to band practice for M everyday this week and will again next week. We had a successful garage sale and was able to donate everything we didnt sell. But we have also been struggling with L and K who are having medical issues.

L has been suffering from headaches for the last 3 months. It's so hard looking back that it has been that long, yet it has. He received his glasses back in October, so we thought when this started that he needed a new glasses prescription. At his first eye appointment the doc mentioned that his eyes were tracking a bit slowly, but with continued reading it should correct itself. Then when he started having headaches we took him in to see if his prescription had changed. No change and this new doc. also noticed his slow tracking eye movement and suggested that we go to a vision therapist and see what they had to say. Now, I had read about vision therapy before and believe that it can help. But they kept trying to shove L into a category that didn't fit him. They kept telling me his eye tracking abilities were very, very poor and thus this was causing his headaches. Okay, I buy that. But then they kept telling us that he must be a poor student (actually, he's at the head of his class), he must be a poor reader (no, he just got done reading the Lord of the Ring trilogy), he must be bad at sports (Ah, again, No, he is very good at sports, he just isn't interested in them). Every time we contradicted this woman, she would wiggle it around to their point of view. By the end of it, it felt like we were in a used car shop and were getting hit with the heavy sell. Let's just say it left a bad taste in my mouth when we were done. Oh! and the fact that everyone, every single kid has the doctor recommend 40 weeks of therapy. 40 weeks! Which costs us roughly $7,000! To say the least, we will not be going to that clinic. We called his ped. (who had a CAT scan done of Liam's head to rule out a tumor the week before) and told him what their diagnosis were and asked where else we could go. So, now, next week we will be going to a ped. eye doctor - the kind that does surgery if necessary. I'm hoping that they will be able to help. L's headaches are getting worse as the weeks go by - to the point that he won't play or read. I'm hoping that we can help him.

K. K. K. K has Encopresis . This is a physical problem caused by constipation - basically, to make a long story short, the kid can't control when she poops. Not fun. We have gone to see a ped GI who has put her on increased fiber (we use Juice plus fiber )every day and a laxative twice a week. The problem is that K is supposed to start first grade this Sept. Unfortunatly, she is still having problems and Hubby and I have decided that we will not be sending her to school. It's not fair to the teacher or to her - I refuse to put her in a situation where she will be teased and humiliated. So, I will be home schooling her until this situation is resolved, which could be years. I was very, very torn about this. I know that I will have great support from family and friends (actually, my best friend home schools) it isn't that. It's the fact that I hope I can do a good job with her, that I can meet her needs. She loves, loves, loves school so for her not to go will be very difficult and hard for her. But, I sat down and talked to her about it and I think she understands. It will defiantly be an adventure - at least that's what I keep telling myself! ( Aug 12 2004, 08:37:00 AM CDT ) Permalink Comments [2]