Meeting with the Psychologist....

I met with Nick's psychologist today at his school for the first time, as well as two others from his 'team'. Nick has a 'team' of people involved in his daily activities at the school. This meeting was to 'officially' place him in the partial hospitalization program at the school. We meet with them every 15 days to go over progress, behaviors, or any restraints that they have had to use, medications, etc. We will be kept much more in the loop with things to make sure that everyone is on the same page. He is using PECS and words to communicate (YAY!) and they are going to provide us with his PECS notebook so that we can use them at home as well. His behavioral therapist informed me that he has transitioned really well (much better than they thought he would) and his average for massive meltdowns at the school over the last month has only been two a week! Mini meltdowns averaged from 4-10 a day. They have only had to restrain him twice since he has been there! Other times they get him to sit in a chair and one person stands behind him while the others kind of create a circle around him to prevent aggression. It has been working! He sits and calms down. Their goal for him in the coming months is to decrease these episodes by 10%. Wonderful! His meltdowns at home have also decreased dramatically! He now only has maybe 1-2 a week vs every hour! I can't begin to tell you how good this is for him! No change in medications for now, as the psychologist really wants to investigate him further before anything is changed. The risperidone is a good med, but we are at the max dose we can get him to without any adverse side effects like movement tics.

Nick however has apparently come down with a bug that is going around. Mike has been sick all week with this thing, and Nick threw up this afternoon in school and had a messy diaper. Ugh. He has to stay home for 24 hours since he had the runs, so I had to call transportation this afternoon and tell them he would not be on the bus tomorrow. PA has a rule that if the kids miss the bus three times without an excuse, then transportation gets canceled for them. So I called transportation, told them his bus # and our address, and said he would not be on the bus tomorrow because he is sick.I am hoping that with all the probiotics he gets this won't be a very big deal. He has kept everything down so far, and is now sleeping. I will keep checking on him tonight to make sure he did not throw up while asleep. He has done that before. I went into his room and he was laying in a pile of vomit, he did not wake up or anything. Scary to think about the fact he could have choked on it during the night.

Our not-so-busy week has turned into a busy one. I start training for my new job on Friday, Saturday Michael has a hockey try out for a local school team, and Sunday he has his first games for Spring hockey. On top of all that, we are hoping this 'flu' does not go through the whole house. I am hoping the rest of us can escape this crud with only minimal effects. Only time will tell. We are like ticking time bombs up here :( Going to check on my baby boy now.....