It’s Been Too Long

By Sandy on October 15, 2015

It has been 9 weeks since Josiah has been in the hospital. That’s 63 days. I’m ready for him to be home. I’m done with this fun. On Saturday, we were told Josiah would be discharged November 5th. I didn’t take that well. How can three and a half more weeks be justified? What goals does Josiah have to meet to be considered healthy enough to leave?

To me, he seems so much better. He’s calmer. He’s sleeping through the night most nights. He’s eating great. There is still some minor aggression but quite honestly I don’t think we will ever eliminate that completely. So how can they warrant keeping him til November?

Wordless Wednesday

By Sandy on October 14, 2015

On Wednesdays all over the internet, bloggers post a photograph with no words to explain it on their blog. Hence the ‘wordless’ title. The idea is that the photo itself says so much that it doesn’t need any description.

Starting today, I’m joining in on the fun. But, since I chose to preface my picture my explaining Wordless Wednesday, I guess this first one will be Wordy Wednesday. Only this time. From here on out, Wednesdays will be wordless. Maybe. You never can tell with me.

He’s Learning

By Sandy on October 13, 2015

Josiah apparently has me fooled. I’ve been watching his ‘home bound’ teacher work with him at the hospital the past couple of days and this woman is a master. She is definitely calling the shots and he is responding. She makes me look like a novice.

Josiah threw flashcards on the floor. Quite a few of them. He was instructed to pick them up, but of course he didn’t. Immediately, his teacher withdrew her attention from him. She stopped talking, stepped back a few feet and refused to continue working with him until he picked up the cards.

Perseverance

By Sandy on October 12, 2015

The other day, my sister told me to watch a Ted Talk: Martin Pistorius: How my mind came back to life – and no one knew. If you’ve never seen it, stop reading this and watch it. Here’s the link: https://www.ted.com/talks/martin_pistorius_how_my_mind_came_back_to_life_and_no_one_knew

Amazing isn’t it? Shortly after watching it I googled, ‘how to teach a non verbal teenager to communicate’ and stumbled upon this website: I Love ABA. The author, an ABA provider wrote: The behavioral piece of communication is HUGE. It can’t be stated enough: Children who cannot communicate or are non-verbal have some of the most persistent and challenging problem behaviors. Why? Well, just imagine that you are placed in an environment where no one speaks your language. If you speak English, everyone else speaks French. If you speak Arabic, everyone else speaks German. Now imagine that you are hungry and must convince these people to feed you. How long would you try pointing and gesturing, before you started pushing people and throwing things?

Every Minute Accounted For

By Sandy on October 11, 2015

After weeks in the hospital and plenty of unplanned time, we asked for a schedule for Josiah. We asked for one because it was apparent there was no clear cut plan for his time. All day, every day, he was permitted to lay in bed.

It was fine with me initially. When they were tweaking medications Josiah clearly was not ‘himself’. He would not have willingly complied with much of anything at that point. But once we started seeing glimpses of our boy back, it seemed appropriate to change things up a bit.

We talked to the psychologist at the hospital and reminded her their website states each patient has 6-8 hours of individualized, scheduled activities and therapies per day.