It has been a while since I have
posted. Things have not been going well.
Micah did get her diagnosis of PTSD. Her medication has been increased but it
hasn’t been helping. Her doctor also
recommended art therapy for her. (Since I started writing this post, we have
seen the doctor again and decreased the medication to what it was originally
and added a different one. The new one
seems to help a bit.)
Micah wants to do riding therapy but there
is only one place around here that I know of and we left there after having
taken regular riding lessons. She will
have to make do with regular riding lessons as we have been doing.
She has started music therapy at Blue
Balloon and has had three sessions so far.
Now she suddenly doesn’t want to go.
They are starting to get past the getting to know you phase! I also met with the art therapist at The
Trauma Centre and she will start her sessions there tomorrow.
It is going to be very expensive for
therapy but we want her to get better and to be able to do all the things she
used to do, like going to school regularly.
At this point, Micah has missed more than a
month of school. She has sometimes gone
for a few hours, mainly around break and lunchtime- going in later to avoid
math. She hasn’t been going every day
though, just one or two part days a week.
My own anxiety has been terrible from having to
deal with everything- finding and setting up therapy, calls to the school every
day, doctor’s appointments, Micah’s refusals to go places, not being able to
leave her home alone and therefore having to miss my riding lessons when she can’t
leave the house.
It has been about a month since Micah’s
diagnosis and because she hasn’t been going to school much, I asked her doctor
to sign the medical forms for home instruction.
Once approved by the school, she will get two to three months of home
instruction by a teacher. This will give
her time away from the school building, time for medication to start working,
and time for the therapy to start taking effect.
Throughout all that has happened, the
school has been very understanding and supportive of her. They have been willing to put math on hold
due to her math phobia (she has always had trouble with it but the lack of
support at the old school caused a lot of problems and she was failing it).
The school has also been fine with her
coming in for short periods of time.
There is a grade 7/8 trip coming up in a
week which the principal was questioning whether Micah should still be going on
since she is having trouble attending school.
I originally wasn’t worried about her participating in the trip but
because she is having such trouble leaving the house even to go to the barn
(which she loves) for my riding lessons, I don’t think it is a good idea
anymore. I don’t want to have to drive
up north to pick her up if she can’t manage it anymore! I also don’t think she will be allowed to go
if she is receiving home instruction.
At the beginning of the month, we got a
call from Micah’s teacher telling us where her placement will be for her high
school ASD class. We thought it would be
her home school or we were allowed one other choice on the form. We had a big surprise and disappointment when
it turned out to be neither. It will be
a new class in a school across town. We are
not happy with the placement but to keep her in the ASD class, we have to
accept it while making sure they are regularly reminded of our desire for one
of the other two classes.
Things have not been good the past couple
of months, but with home instruction, medication, therapy, and most of all,
patience and understanding, she will get through it.
