Thursday, April 12, 2012

It's Been A While

It's been over a week since I last posted. Since then, I've survived Spring Break (well, most of spring break), check-ups, and a birthday. Yup....Big Brother turned 7 yesterday. Now I'm trying to get my head back on straight (and have been for a few days) and get things back to "normal".

I think I'm going to talk about Ballerina this post. We started her on a new medication during the break. We learned recently that she has another condition known as POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). We learned this a while ago when, while during a doctor's visit, her heart rate jumped from 88 when sitting to 140 when standing. Additionally, this may also explain some of her other medical issues that we've been seeing since she was an infant.

So, while she was on break, we began this new medicine, hoping that we would see some changes in her behavior (after all, how compliant can you be when you're dizzy every time you stand up, right)? Well, we didn't see much there. We also restarted the Focalin on Monday (the day before she returned to school) so we could see how the two interacted. It seems like the two don't interfere with one another (something we were told to watch for) which is a good thing. But we (unfortunately) haven't seen any positive behavior effects as we were hoping would happen.

I signed her up for Kindergarten Orientation to take place at the beginning on May. Originally, I was told that she didn't have to attend, but we have since learned that if she is going to be placed in a typical classroom, this would be beneficial for both her and the teachers. Since we won't know her placement result until after orientation, I felt signing her up would be a wise choice. I'm actually hoping that it doesn't go well. The Learning Center teacher will also be present evaluating the students. I'm hoping that they will see that she belongs in the Learning Center and not in a typical classroom. Is it wrong to be wishing for such a "failure"?

You see, I still believe that most people in that room (her IEP Meeting to determine her placement at the end of May) believe that she should be placed in a typical classroom. But we are still seeing so many behaviors from her. And she typically regresses during the summer (not major regressions, but enough to qualify as one). If she is placed in the Learning Center, she can adjust to the new school and we can take our time acclimating her to a typical classroom. Additionally, she will have the resources of the Learning Center at her disposal should things go badly on any given day. If she behaves badly during Kindergarten Orientation, I think that I will have an easier time getting the other participants to agree with me.

But I won't do anything to help ensure such a result.

Am I wrong to hope for this for her? Am I holding her back?

No comments:

Post a Comment