Fighting for Answers | Author Archives | Page 6carl, Author at Fighting for Answers

About that quilt…

“About that quilt.” I know, the title is rather cryptic. It is not at all descriptive. And that’s okay. Last Spring, I wrote about the unfinished quilt. Remember? I wrote about how in a situation like ours, we were constantly removing pieces of the quilt and trying different things in their place. Since we moved last summer, we have made incredible changes. Our family dynamic has changed. We owe this simply to the move into the city from our small community. Jobs changed. Stress levels are reduced. We now have four kids in college. So what is different? Simply put – Everything. This time when David is discharged, he will be coming home to a new house he has never lived in. He will be starting a new school. He will have access to activities that weren’t available in our small town. He should have access to a greater range

and then we get a phone call….

that says “your son has had a seizure, and is on the the way to the emergency room via ambulance.” It was nearly two hours before I noticed the message on my cell phone, which tells me a number of things. They didn’t attempt all of the communications methods that we listed in the paperwork for his admission. They didn’t call both home and cell phone for dad. UPDATE they did leave a message on our home phone. They didn’t call both work and cell phone for mom. They didn’t call the third party emergency contact. They didn’t email me until after I had sent a message arranging for our Sunday visit. And by this time, it was more of an “Don’t know if you got my message or not, but David had a seizure today around 1:45…” In the end, preliminary indications are that he had an allergic reaction

Parent Teacher Conferences – A joy for David

Mom and I went to Parent Teacher Conferences at the PRTF where David lives last night. To say that we were surprised in what we heard would be an understatement. By all accounts, David is doing well. Compared to last year, when he couldn’t be kept in the classroom, now, he does the work. Not without redirects, but hey, this is a kid with severe mental illness, just keeping him in the classroom is a start. He has a difficult time staying on task, but with a teacher that was reminiscent of Bonnie Franklin from One Day at a Time, he is making headway this year. Even the keyboarding teacher had positive things to say about David, and he is doing very poorly in her class. This is in stark contrast from what we hear in the monthly staffing that we attend where we go over his treatment plan. All