3.28.2006

Status Report

Another thing Mali does that leelo doesn't yet do: She will come up and alert me that she's been marinating for too long, with a plaintive "Poo poo! Poo poo!"

She also divides the rest of her inside time between demanding, "Outside? Outside? Outsiiiiide?" and, "Chair? Chaaaaair?" (Meaning sit down in that rocker and give me your boobs, now!).

Leelo is having the shittiest period, behaviorally. He's hitting all the time, even at school. He's only been there five days total, and I hate that this is their introduction to him. He is usually such a sweetheart. Last night he and I had a great time copying each other's silly faces, giggling all the while. But I think he was able to engage with me that long only because it was almost bed time and he was tired.

We talked about his restlessness (he can no longer sit still even for two minutes of a favorite video unless he's exhausted) and unpredictable behavior at the team meeting yesterday. We are working on calmness, predictability, and addressing his currently significant sensory needs through deep pressure and massage, and lots of exercise.

Supervisor M also mentioned that she had showed a video of Leelo working with Therapist L and doing NLP (Natural Language Paradigm) to a class. Leelo was apparently quite the performing monkey in the video, because the students' reactions were basically, "But what about the lower functioning children? How can we use NLP to help them?"

I said that is was funny that Leelo is considered "high functioning" as he was put in the lower functioning of the two preschool classes at ALSO. Supervisor M reiterated that he was placed there because of his behaviors and restlessness, and that these are the characteristics that will make it more difficult for him to succeed in general (and let's get a meds consult already). She reminded me that in all other area's he's doing really well. He is starting to read, and his self care is pretty good. He still has trouble with longer sequences, but that too is probably related to the restlessness and inability to focus.

I do wonder if some of his behavior is rooted in the pain from the plantar wart that is not going away despite two months of home treatments. This morning we saw his doctor to consult about the wart's tenaciousness, and the doctor decided to try to freeze it off. Holding Leelo still during that process was, erm, an effort. I am grateful that the scratches weren't deep and that he let go of my hair eventually.

I also got to ask the doctor about our status re: her getting us a meds referral for the MYND Institute. She apparently did not understand that even though she had already called MYND and asked for the referral, and even though she'd been told by her organization that they could not authorize the referral and that I needed to contact my insurance's mental health services directly, which I then did, that the insurance people were wrong when they told me that I was authorized to call MYND directly, because when I did the MYND folks told me that I had to get Leelo's doctor to call them directly not for insurance but for records and consulting purposes. I ask you, how could she not instantly get that? She's on it now, though.

Because this is all so random, I will leave you with my Uncle's image of a moose walking by his house in central BC.


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