Hey all, we had an uber busy week. Had lots of people in and out of the house....kinda strange...kind ok.
On Tuesday some people from the school district came to the house to meet me. There were 3 of them, but only one had an iPhone with cool app's...so you can guess who became a quick a friend. She's the OT for the schools, and she was nice...her phone was nicer. While I played with her....by her, I really mean that cool phone....the two other ladies asked mom a bunch of questions about me. For a second I thought, "finally, my own E! True Hollywood Story!!!", until I remembered that I live in podunk Tulare. A girl can dream. Anyways, it was ok. I have a tendency to get a little nervous around a lot of people and Tuesday was no exception, but I handled it extremely well.
Because the school district people thought I was so cool and special, they hammered out all of my new therapy details with mom right then and there. That was really good because I now mom was really prepared to battle in the IEP. So, they are gonna give me 40 minute speech and OT sessions, twice a week...ideticle to what I'm getting now. But the HUGE victory is that mom got them to stipulate that my sessions would be provided only by licensed speech and OT professionals, rather than assistants or aides. Now, the school district only has 1 speech pathologist and 1 OT for 5 special needs pre-k classrooms. See why its such a big deal! Yey for me!
Mom also toured the preschool class I'll build up to attending and she said it was awesome. The class I'll be in has a maximum of 9 kids, with 1 teacher and 2 teacher's aides. Kids in the class have a range of disabilities, like cochlear implants, deafness, speech apraxia, down syndrome, and autism. In this particular class, my future class, there's 2 twins with cochlear implants and one of everything else. Sounds like a good mix to me. I'm not quite ready to jump right in, so I'll start gradually building up to it bits and pieces at a time. Either way, I'm super excited to start this new 3 year old chapter of my life. I'm so over being a toddler!
Thursday night was a strange one. From time to time, I have these sort of "spells" where I get disoriented, out of sorts, and spacey. That's why I had the EEG last year. -- Autism Factoid: A little over 50% of people with autism develop seizure disorders by the time they're teenagers.-- I have what's called a seizure profile, meaning that the neurologist believes that I likely have petit mal seizures. So, when I have these spacey episodes I usually come out of it feeling pretty cruddy. Indeed, since then I have been really up and down. I can go from laughing to crying in a second and I have a hard time deciding what I want to do, where I want to be, etc. Its been a rough few days. I'm also about due for a down swing. See, people with autism do something called cycling. For me, I cycle about every 3-4 months. Usually that means I have a week or two that are really rough for me. Everything just seems harder and confusing, and I'm sad most of the time. So, not sure if its the "spell" or cycling, but whatever the reason...I'm struggling. At least I know its probably only temporary.
Friday mom met with Regional Center and the ABA guy to talk about services after my birthday. Now, remember, this is the guy mom had the great meeting with about altering my services to better meet my needs like a month or so ago. Well, he came in here and said that if I don't go up to a 30 hour week, they wont provide me with anything. That's 6 hrs of ABA a day! Remember, I wasn't tolerating 2 hrs a day before. Is this guy on drugs??? The Regional Center people have strongly encouraged him to continue my services as is until the end of April....after mom tore him a new you know what. They want me to be evaluated by their medical director becuase they are concerned about my seizure profile, apraxia, and motor dyspraxia. They feel like there may be a pressing neurological issue that is even more primary than the autism. Hey, don't matter to me...and mom and dad are always eager to have someone tell them more about me than they already know. I'll also be evlautated by a psychologist for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Anxiety disorders. I even get to see a nutrionalist. At the end of the day, they assured mom that the ABA program I've been in isn't the only program they vendor...so there will be no all or nothing ultimatums. All good stuff.
My poor kid sister is SICK SICK SICK! She was looking a little off on Thursday, and by last night she developed a full blown cold. I tell you, between the copious amounts of drool, runny nose, and watering eyes.......that kid is Typhoid Mary! Super gross. Really though, I hope she feels better soon.
Not only do we have Easter to look forward to this week, but its also dad's birthday on Sunday. We want to wish the best daddy ever the best birthday ever. You're our hero. You're one of the good guys. We love you more than you could ever possibly know!
So, hope you all have an amazing Easter filled with so many chocolate bunnies and yummy peeps that you have no option but to hurl! More next week.
xoxo
Saf
Whoever says watching TV is a sedentary activity obviously isn't doing it right!
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