Sometimes you need a secretary

I love my boys' OT/PT/SLP place. For the uninitiated OT: Occupational therapy, PT: Physical therapy and SLP: speech language pathology. I love these women and think that they deserve so much more credit, rewards and acknowledgment than they get.

Today, after DW's OT and JD's OT/SLP session, the OTs came out to talk to me. Telling me that I need to start up brushing again, something that in the chaos of my life after JD was born, I'd kind of just phased out. This time I need to do it for both boys. Ideally she would like every couple of hours, which is where we were before but, as there are two of them, we homeschool and it's crazy, so she requested that it get done at least before every meal.

Ok, alright, I'm doing the schedule for the start of our upcoming school year anyway, I can work this in. Just need to remember that JD can only tolerate it over his clothes except on his feet. DW can do it bare armed, legged and back but, once you remove his braces, he has to have his socks on.....ok, mental note made.

She then said, as if it is nothing in addition to all that we've talked about (and it's not all noted here), back to joint compression for both boys, how many times a day I managed to forget to ask, though I know it is probably a few times a day as it was before. Another mental note made.

DW's OT comes out and hands me a paper. Both OTs have noticed that he was chewing on his fingers finally. Even though I have mentioned that he will chew them until they bleed. I explained that I had bought a bunch of chewies from a therapy shop online but, suddenly he's stopped using them. She tells me that this is a list of items that may help with his oral issues.

I got home and read the list and almost died laughing. Most everything on there he will not touch, use or smell! :D Out of at least 30 items on that list, it came down to pickles, lemon drops and gummy worms & bears. These are the only ones I can easily see him chewing on. Even the lemon drops are pushing it, I know he will surely suck on them but, biting into a hard thing, so far out of his comfort zone. :S

My only hope is that I've spent the better part of 2 weeks now convincing him to try bubble gum. He's still on the fence about it but, I know if I buy some and have it on hand now, he might decide to give it a go.

So, now I have calendar in every room of the house, one on my computer and have to buy a personal one now too. With notes for 3+ appts a week, therapies that need to be done daily, regular scheduled OT stuff that we do at home, like bed jumping, couch to crash pad, etc. homeschool schedule, other doc appts, etc. Notes on every calendar for things from therapies to be done at home to grocery lists - including the suggested items that came on the list, allergy free foods, etc. It might be overkill to some but, when you're life is as crazy as this one is, there is no lengths I won't go to, to be prepared! :D



I've decided that now I need a chauffeur and a secretary! :D

Hoping and Wishing and Thinking and Praying.

So tonight and tomorrow will be the tough.

Tonight they once again try him on a new medication to ease the tics and they couldn't come soon enough. When he gets upset or angry he smacks his head, HARD. Over and over and over again til he's crying but, he still cannot stop! If it's not that he'll claw at his arms and legs over and over and over again! If one more person tells me it's attention seeking behavior though, I may loose my marbles. Attention seeking behavior is behavior designed to get or maintain attention. When your child is doing it alone in his room because a toy is frustrating him, without calling for help or making a big deal out of it over and over again and doing it daily, it is not attention seeking. It is a part of the whole lovely package that goes with having TS child. So, I hope that this medication works for his level of tics and can bring them down like the last one did.


Tomorrow, is the ENT followed by the ear molds....I'm VERY worried about this. I don't know how he'll respond to the ear mold process and the feeling of something not only in his ear but, essentially blocking the hearing almost completely in one ear and then the other. I'm scared of how this will go and if he looses it, I don't know that I can calm him down enough for another ear. I really hope it goes well.

I've found a couple videos online that show him pretty much what the ear mold process is about and roughly how it will feel. Though, as I've never had one, it's not exactly easy to explain!! I wish it was done and over, that's how worried I am! I'm just praying like the dickens that this goes over well tomorrow and that if there are going to be any side effects from the meds that they do not interfere with tomorrow morning!