More Appointments Scheduled

I heard from Regional this morning and they have scheduled another psychological evaluation as well as a medical evaluation. Both will take place the first week in January. The psychological evaluation is to determine whether or not they can give Raquel a diagnosis. If she is given one, then continuing care through Regional will continue. The medical evaluation is to see if they can detect any characteristics of underlying medical causes - I think. When I asked the scheduling lady why they needed to do it, she said it was because they were required to have that information on file. But I vaguely remember someone telling me that she would be seen by a pediatrician specializing in special needs kids and would be able to spot certain characteristics that a regular pediatrician wouldn't be able to. The psychological evaluation is estimated at two hours and the medical one will be approximately one hour.

I also spoke with Jan, Raquel's physical therapist, and we have decided to discontinue further sessions due to scheduling conflicts. Because the holidays are here and I've got appointments with the school district and Regional in addition to her regular therapy, there just isn't enough time. Jan was very encouraging and wished us the best.

Today my mother-in-law came down to watch Raquel so I could take Gabby to our parent/teacher conference. Unfortunately, Raquel started out by biting her in the arm - it was not behavioral, just as though she was seeking oral input - but, regardless, broke skin and left a nasty bruise. Raquel bit me on the face the other day when we were dancing. Just shows how you always need to keep your guard up, even when situations appear fine. Luckily, that was the only aggression she displayed towards her today.

I was just leaving the conference when Jennifer arrived and as soon as Raquel saw her, she started a tantrum. Jennifer doesn't know if it was because I wasn't home yet or because she just didn't want to work. But the music calmed her down, and she was perfectly calm when we got home - just very tired from it all. I didn't think she'd have much of a session, but she actually did pretty well. They even did the Visual Schedule which I really thought wasn't an option when I first got home.

On a very positive side note, Gabby did great at her conference! These aren't typical parent/teacher conferences because I homeschool Gabby, even though she goes to school 4 days per week. This is when our Education Specialist - the person who gives us and coordinates our curriculum - reviews all of the homework she's done and quizzes her on information she should have learned in all subject areas (math, science, history, literature and language arts). She's also required to read books out loud to make sure we're keeping up with it. I just get to sit there and hopefully watch her shine. And that she did. Our ES even emailed me and thanked me for the great conference and to tell Gabby how proud she is of her progress. That was really nice for this Mom to hear!