Hospital Appointments

Is there anyone else like me and when your child has an appointment with their doctor, in my son's case his paediatrician, get excited at the prospect of what might happen?  Maybe excited is not the right word, hopeful might be a better word.  Hopeful for answers and solutions.  As a mother I pin so much hope on these appointments and they can be a major let down.  That's not to say our paediatrician is not great, he is amazing and I am super glad my son is under him, he just gets him and it's wonderful.

There have been many an appointment where not much has happened but like most things it is a journey and a long one.  Some might say a battle and I would agree.  Everything is a battle and you can't sit back and wait for things to happen.  We as a family are so guilty of doing this and it gets you nowhere.  We would never do that if we had a complaint about a large company, we wouldn't sit back, wait and see what happens, we would be knocking down doors and making ourselves heard.  So why do we not do this for our son?  Our own flesh and blood who we want to give the world to?  We decided a few months ago that we are going to start knocking on doors and fighting for our son, because let's face it, if we don't, who will?  

Back to these wonderful hospital visits, we think that things are going to change as a result of one appointment but that is not the case, like I have already said it is a journey and a long one.  Test's take time, referrals take time and assessments take time.  It can be so frustrating but it has to be done, you have to think of the end goal.  Now what is the end goal you might ask?  That is a question I ask myself daily, what do I want for my son and the answer would be: to be happy, it's as simple as that.  You would be forgiven to think "is he not already happy?  How can a five year old boy not be happy?"  Many ways, many indeed and for those who have an understating of children with additional needs will know that the smallest of things can make a big impact on the daily life of a child.  The wrong colour cup, a bad smell, that sound is just not right, a forgotten coat or water bottle and it send's them on a whirlwind of emotions.  Each child reacts differently and that far from a comprehensive list.

So on the eve of another appointment I am willing myself not to get my hopes up that I will have answers.  I will settle for a plan of action, rather than a we should just wait and see.  The time for waiting has passed and my son needs answers and support now.  He has just embarked on a new school year and as each day passes he falls further and further behind his peers and his walls are going up and I want to rip them down and have my happy, smiley baby boy back with me.

Lisa x

My Back to School Disaster

So I will be honest, back in July before the kids had even broken up I had the majority of their uniform all sorted, with just a few bits left to get, I was feeling pretty smug.  I thought I'd sort it all out the penultimate weekend of the summer break and get it all washed and labelled up, yes I left this a little late, but I was too busy having fun with my mini-me's!  I wanted to check and make sure everything was an okay fit and adjust anything that needed it.

Can you guess what happened?  Both my kids have shot up over the summer break, I mean seriously had a growth spurt, I don't know what I have been feeding them.  You'd be forgiven in thinking I have been making them go to sleep in compost.  Well it's not the end of the world for my daughter, her items still fit for now.  My lad on the other hand, the trousers do not fit.  It would be seen as child cruelty if I made him wear those trousers.  They are the kind of tight where you have to do a dance to get them on and suck it in, in an attempt to do them up.  Perfect I thought, that wiped the smugness right off my face.

I was now one of those parents scrambling around the shops discovering that every man and his dog wanted grey trousers in my son's size.  Finally found some black one's in Tesco and actually discovered grey in Morrison's, which I was not expecting in all honesty.  Got my little miss a few items as well (not that she needed them, I mean who needs 4 school dresses and 5 skirts).  Crisis averted thankfully, at least he can go to school in uniform for the first few days. 

Moral of the story, don't be smug.  Well you can be smug, just make sure you dot the i's and cross the t's so to speak.

I hope your back to school adventure was smooth sailing.

Lisa x