At the beginning of last week, I noticed my daughter was coming home with work that wasn't finished or had a note on it that said she needed alot of help. I e-mailed the teacher to ask if Cami was doing her work and using her time wisely or if so items needed to be finished at home. The result was a several e-mails long conversation that included my husband, myself, the teacher and the reading specialist (who is also Cami's tutor and former kindergarten teacher). A couple phrases were said that raised a few red flags with me and I Googled.
The result was this website on WebMD. The last four bullet points stood out:
Feels inadequate. Self-critical comments like "I'm dumb" or "I'm not good at reading or math" can indicate low self-esteem that accompanies ADHD, particularly in girls.
Expresses anxiety about school or social situations, such as not making or keeping friends. For girls, that might mean bossy or just socially inappropriate behavior.
Looks to you for significant homework help and needs a lot of one-on-one guidance to stay focused.
Gets reports from teachers that she is not participating in class, requires constant reminders to stay on task , or has trouble completing or forgets to hand in assignments.
Huh. Well, alot of that sounds like my daughter. We had similar concerns in January and the doctor said to come back if her teacher had concerns again. I called our family practice doctor and they had an appointment open for us that day (which also happened to be George's birthday!). I took her in and received paper work for her teacher to fill out.
I left the paperwork in the teacher's mailbox and sent her an e-mail asking her to fill it out. She sent home forms for me to sign, giving the school permission to talk to the doctor. I also got an e-mail stating that the school specialists were meeting about my daughter.
Well. THAT was new as I had been informed that since Cami was making progress (slow progress) the specialists would not meet about her. I was getting antsy about this, as we had been helping Camille for 18 months with tutors, after school tutors, homework and so on and nothing much was changing. I guess dragging her to the doctor lit a fire under someone's butt. Or they realized I was serious about her work and the fact that she is not on grade level. Huh. Whatever it was, the job is getting done.
The next day, George had his well child exam. I mentioned that he has been having severe stomach pains and we don't know why. The result was an x-ray (that he screamed through) which showed severe constipation. As in, "Congratulations! You get to give your son nine days of suppositories and enemas!" We also had to go to the children's hospital for blood work. After reassuring him that they would NOT cut his arm open to get blood ("It is a little needle with a hole. It will pinch when they put the needle in your arm but the blood goes up the needle and into one of the vials that are right there") I got to hold him down for blood work. They are testing for a variety of food allergies and celiac.
I am so, so thankful my sister was in town so she could watch the kids while I had to have this done.
How do I feel about this? Pretty sh!tty. (Poop jokes abound now!) The way 2013 has gone, I am fully expecting that my son is allergic to everything including AIR. I need to begin prepping for Thanksgiving but I am waiting for them to call me back so I know if I need to get gluten/egg/dairy/whatever free items for him. And with my luck, it will be GLUTEN. (We've tried gluten free food before. It is expensive and gross. Don't tell me there are items you like better gluten-free. THIS IS A PITY PARTY PEOPLE!)
Sigh. So, we wait. We wait to see what other testing my daughter needs. We wait to see if our son needs to stop eating certain foods. We wait... and hold out hope 2014 holds less drama.
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