News on the Homefront

Jack has just been bumped up the Level One waiver list, due to his behavior this year. I'm told by his Service Coordinator that she has never worked on a case that the County approved without having Behavior Home Support already in place (and she has mentioned it to us, but frankly, I'm not interested in that right now). This seems to be a special case, considering the fact that Jack has already been accepted as a patient at the university's Dual Diagnosis clinic. This means a number of things for Jack, though he probably wont get the waiver until July.

I'm not really familiar with the County waivers. I know of the Level One, and then the I-O waiver. Knowing what they cover is a different matter, though I am currently interested in setting Jack up with either an aide over the summer (preferably a male in his college years), or a summer camp. The waiver would pay up to a certain amount for either, among other things. In the meantime, I have at least the annual pool membership in place, so we can use that. (Jack thinks that because he is nearly 11, I should be able to let him go on his own. LOL Yeah, ok, dude).

As part of the process for getting the waiver bumped up, I had to have Jack's pediatrician send in a list of his diagnoses (including date of onset) and current meds. This is exactly what his pediatrician wrote down:

Asthma: 9-14-2009
Autism: 1-29-2007
ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder: 11-15-2011
Mood Disorder: 10-12-2012


He missed the Sensory Processing Disorder, but as most would just say this is part of his Autism, I'm not going to worry. Looks like we already have quite a lot on our plate as it is.

Jack is still seeing the doctor at the university. He's still on .5mg of Risperdal, but in the last week, she upped his dose of Elavil from 40mg to 75mg. WHY on earth do these doctors want to push meds so much?! He wasn't actually doing that bad before switching. However, his last lab work showed that his Elavil levels were still "low", meaning she had some wiggle room to up the meds. But why not 2 of the 25mg pills, instead of 3 a day now? I don't know if it's related to the dose or what, but I'm seeing a lot more movement- he's moving his head around more, for one thing. I just hate that. I don't know if he cares much for it either.

Then we have puberty making me completely uncomfortable. No mom wants to walk in on their son having a "handle" on his situation, if you get my drift. We had another chat about closing doors, etc. He is only still 10, so I'm hoping it's not a frequent thing quite yet. Having a boy is NOT what it's cracked up to be.. at least a lot of the time. :P Savannah is going through her own deal, though Shaving under her arms. Woo hoo! :(

I can still say that since being on the Risperdal, he has not had any incidents of physical aggression- that is, no hitting any students or teachers. He has gotten very upset, though. Disrespectful when other kids were testing. (They had state testing last week). Yelling in the IS's ear, throwing items, etc.. The Intervention Specialist has to make a contract with Jack every time she needs to be out for the day, and he has a sub. He gets a schedule for the time she'll be gone, and expectations for behavior.. as well as what will happen if he needs to be removed from her room. So far so good. He still absolutely hates school, however. :( Guess that probably has nothing to do with Autism, though. *sigh*