I'm excited to say that Alex is going to be repeating the second grade! (Ok, how many parents would actually say they are excited that their child is going to be held back in school?!? Just another perk to being a special needs parent!!)
I met with Alex's teacher and principal two weeks ago and we discussed what their concerns were for keeping her back a year - and then I had a chance to tell them why I thought it would be beneficial to keep her back. This has been a huge year for Alex cognitively. She is sitting for up to 20 minutes unassisted, she's taking steps in her walker, she's completely eating all of her meals by mouth, she's learning to drink from a straw, she's using an eye gaze communication system - that is A LOT of stuff for one little girl who has never made any progress in any of those areas to adapt to. I truly feel like she needs this extra year to hone in on those skills and to work on mastering them 100%. In the third grade Alex will subjected to VAPP testing which is the equivalent of SOL testing for special needs children. I want her to actually have a chance to get comfortable with all of her new skills before adding additional stresses. Plus, it doesn't hurt that I LOVE Alex's classroom and this just means that she will get to spend an additional year in her school. It dawned on me last week that by keeping her back, she and Zach will only be a year apart when it comes to Middle School. It's kind of comforting for me to know that they will be in the same school and that she'll have him there.
Alex was supposed to have her upper GI series done this past Friday. It turns out though that I have to eat my words from an earlier post about her g-tube site. I had said how I highly doubted anything would come back from the culture that they ran because her g-tube site always looks amazing. Welllllll - I got a call from the GI doctor and she said the culture did show some things growing, especially some yeast. She said our bodies grow organisms all the time, so she's not saying with 100% certainty that there is a problem with her site, but it was a possibility. That night Aaron and I changed out her g-tube and replaced it with a new one and, viola, no more stomach issues. I waited till the day before the test to cancel, just in case, and the GI nurse tried to talk me out of cancelling but I certainly did not want to put her through any extra radiation, or filling her up with barium (which causes a WHOLE NEW set of issues) if I didn't have to. So I'm happy to say, knock on wood, that our stomach issues seemed to be resolved - for now!!
I met with Alex's teacher and principal two weeks ago and we discussed what their concerns were for keeping her back a year - and then I had a chance to tell them why I thought it would be beneficial to keep her back. This has been a huge year for Alex cognitively. She is sitting for up to 20 minutes unassisted, she's taking steps in her walker, she's completely eating all of her meals by mouth, she's learning to drink from a straw, she's using an eye gaze communication system - that is A LOT of stuff for one little girl who has never made any progress in any of those areas to adapt to. I truly feel like she needs this extra year to hone in on those skills and to work on mastering them 100%. In the third grade Alex will subjected to VAPP testing which is the equivalent of SOL testing for special needs children. I want her to actually have a chance to get comfortable with all of her new skills before adding additional stresses. Plus, it doesn't hurt that I LOVE Alex's classroom and this just means that she will get to spend an additional year in her school. It dawned on me last week that by keeping her back, she and Zach will only be a year apart when it comes to Middle School. It's kind of comforting for me to know that they will be in the same school and that she'll have him there.
Alex was supposed to have her upper GI series done this past Friday. It turns out though that I have to eat my words from an earlier post about her g-tube site. I had said how I highly doubted anything would come back from the culture that they ran because her g-tube site always looks amazing. Welllllll - I got a call from the GI doctor and she said the culture did show some things growing, especially some yeast. She said our bodies grow organisms all the time, so she's not saying with 100% certainty that there is a problem with her site, but it was a possibility. That night Aaron and I changed out her g-tube and replaced it with a new one and, viola, no more stomach issues. I waited till the day before the test to cancel, just in case, and the GI nurse tried to talk me out of cancelling but I certainly did not want to put her through any extra radiation, or filling her up with barium (which causes a WHOLE NEW set of issues) if I didn't have to. So I'm happy to say, knock on wood, that our stomach issues seemed to be resolved - for now!!
1 comment:
I'm glad it worked out the way you wanted it to. I can't believe all she is doing now! Sitting up UNassisted???? Wow! Taking steps?? You both have worked so hard for all this progress. You are one amazing Mama!
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