School

So, today I completely blew my cool at Tristan's ARD meeting.  We had a meeting in December where the school requested to do some psychological testing because Tristan cries in the classroom and they were concerned about anxiety and depression.  We agreed to do the testing.  Well, last week while I was in New Mexico helping my sister and brother-in-law, Jason attended the meeting where the psychologist INTERN reviewed her findings.  Apparently they just sat and talked and eventually stated that they feel that Tristan has "emotional disturbance disorder" and they want to put that in his records and create a new IEP for him based on that diagnosis.  Jason just listened to them, asked some questions, and (found this out today) told them that they needed to be careful with how they brought this up with me because it was not going to go over well.  Anyway, on Thursday of last week I got all the paperwork from the meeting with the psychologist.  Going over all of this info there were observations of Tristan doing things at school that we have NEVER seen him do at home.  (talking to inanimate objects, sticking food up his nose, arm flapping, seeing flashes, ears buzzing, etc, etc.)  Today was the ARD where we got to discuss Tristan's plan.  Well, they started the meeting and reviewed the confidentiality clause and then the principal says...The evaluation shows that Tristan has an emotional disturbance and we will add that to his plan and adjust his IEP accordingly, all in favor???  As everyone around me (other than Jason) said "Yes" I clearly stated "NO!"  so then the principal decided we should immediately go into parent concerns (ya think????)  Anyway, when I get mad I generally don't scream and shout...I just cry.  Well, today I cried, I got very loud, and (oops) I pounded on the table.  I just refuse to have my child be labelled with something I believe is incorrect.  After I had my tantrum say, I calmed down a little...until they started trying to tell me everything that they felt was wrong with Tristan.  Then I just cried through the rest of the meeting.  We requested that the ARD be tabled until we did further outside testing...they can only table it for 10 days...after those 10 days we either have to agree to the ARD or they will stop his current accomodations (because apparently this "diagnosis" bumps the PT/OT diagnosis that gave him his accomodations).  We told them that we have an appt with a developmental pediatrician that we want to have evaluate Tristan for a second opinion.  They said that they would REVIEW what the doctor said but that they wouldn't accept or reject it...essentially their diagnosis was more important than what an actual doctor has to say.  Eventually, we ended up just leaving the meeting without discussing any of the other routine recommendations for Tristan.  I'm sure they thought I was a b..witch.  I've got to try to move up the appt with the developmental pedi (since it is 12 school days from now).  I feel bad because today was Jason's birthday and I've kinda been cranky and b..witchy all day. Oh well, I'm glad he loves me :-)  He's a pretty good guy!

today

good day today...long one at work since I ended up taking most of last week off to help Tasha go pick up Phil from New Mexico after his skiing accident.  I enjoyed the time off but would have enjoyed it better without 24 hours of driving out of approximately 46 hours.  Still I enjoyed the time spent with my sister...it would only have been better if we were going on vacation :-)

Got most of my work stuff caught up...of course...once I catch up on one thing I end up with 3 other things to take it's place :-)

I'm done with funerals

Went to another funeral today...my friend's son passed away on Tuesday.  He was 3 months younger than Tristan.  With his history of cardiac issues this little guy had a massive heart attack that he couldn't survive.  I keep thinking about his mom and how hard this has to be. And at the funeral today I kept thinking about what I would be like if it was one of my kids...I don't think I'd be doing well.  I'm done with funerals this year. 2 funerals in 2 months for a 2 day old and a 8 year old is enough for the year.  Today, the daddy of the 2 day old was at the funeral for the 8 year old...it was nice to see him but so very hard too. 

So, done with funerals and done with dying...hopefully my next post will be more upbeat :-)  we can only hope right???

friends

I have a friend whose son is in ICU and has been there since Friday.  He has a history of Cardiac issues...he's currently on 11 different IV meds, is in a medically induced coma, on a ventilator, etc.  He and his mom are heavy on my heart lately.

Another friend's mother is in the hospital after possibly having another stroke or having an infection in her brain.  She's pretty sick too.

This year has been kind of yucky with "bad things happening to good people" it seems.  There has to be a reason for this but it's pretty hard to see right now.

It will get better...it HAS too.

Prayers are always needed and appreciated :-)