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Maria B.
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Joined: Jan 16 2006
Location: Virginia
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| Posted: Jan 10 2007 at 12:53pm | IP Logged
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I would love to hear from moms who have children with medical issues involving constant MD appts. and how they fit school into the mix of coming and going more than one would like. I have two daughters with scoliosis, my oldest is in weekly therapy, my baby gets PT once a week, and two of my boys need speech therapy. It takes so much time to "regroup" once we get home, not to mention my exhaustion.
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Maria in VA
Proud Mom to 10 Great kids!
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KC in TX
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| Posted: Jan 10 2007 at 11:24pm | IP Logged
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Maria,
I was planning on starting this topic, but my MIL is visiting so my computer time is really limited. I'm taking tonight to catch up.
My oldest is autistic and has therapy 2 times a week for a total of two hours each day. It makes for a very long day. He has speech, OT, and PT from 10-12 on Mondays and Wednesdays. So, we do an easy day on those days in the afternoons. I'm learning though that I need to do more otherwise Tuesdays and Thursdays are too heavy. I only have the 4 and school only the oldest two though.
One thing I'm trying to do is to bring along some school stuff for Michaela (she attends speech for articulation problems at the same time her brother does speech), but I'm not organized enough to get it ready.
No advice, but that's what we do so far. I'm still working things out. We have to do therapy at home too and I'm always leaving things out due to time contraints. And, also, trying to get housework in too. Dh is back from Iraq now, but his traveling schedule is starting to get heavy again. He will be TDY (temporary duty--another word for business trip) often starting the end of this month culminating in a 5 week trip to Hawaii in May. So, our schedules always get mixed up and out of whack.
Sorry to ramble. I'm having a frustrating week and I'm feeling overwhelmed. I look forward to other people's responses.
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KC,
wife to Ben (10/94),
Mama to LB ('98)
Michaela ('01)
Emma ('03)
Jordan ('05)
And, my 2 angels, Rose ('08) and Mark ('09)
The Cabbage Patch
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Willa
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| Posted: Jan 12 2007 at 6:53am | IP Logged
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Maria B. wrote:
| I would love to hear from moms who have children with medical issues involving constant MD appts. and how they fit school into the mix of coming and going more than one would like. I have two daughters with scoliosis, my oldest is in weekly therapy, my baby gets PT once a week, and two of my boys need speech therapy. It takes so much time to "regroup" once we get home, not to mention my exhaustion. |
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I am not there anymore, but I used to be. Appointments almost every day, some of them extended and most of them a long car trip away. There was one absolutely insane time in our lives where I was in the hospital twice every week for the better part of the day (pregnancy interventions) plus my toddler had twice weekly bloodwork and several kinds of weekly therapy and a range of medical treatments going on. These all involved travel time plus waiting room time -- I'm sure you know how that goes! I had a highschooler and 2 middle schoolers and a couple of grade schoolers. Looking back, I'm not sure how we managed. But we did.
Now we are down to speech and OT once a week(and they are local), and other appointments in town (50 miles each way) about weekly or even less, which makes life a lot easier.
(I see that last sentence did not make sense -- our medically fragile one presently has PT in town once a month, bloodwork monthly and a range of specialist appointments that can't usually be consolidated. But nowadays it adds up to one trip every week or so, which is way more do-able)
We had to revise our expectations. Once I knew that some things just weren't going to happen or would work differently than in other families, it went a bit easier. For instance, we could not plan very many extra-curricular activities besides the medical and therapy.
I did try to consolidate appointments to one or two days. Often it was not possible because specialists are scheduled so far ahead. But it is something I kept in mind as a possibility.
Also, there is sometimes the possibility of homebound visits. Sometimes that can't be worked out but it can be a blessing. Our OT comes here and that really saves time, plus motivates us to clean the house that morning.
I also planned a transition time. I get carsick  and it takes me some time to recover. Acknowledging that I wouldn't be much good for a while after returning to the house, I would do puttering tasks around the house for a few minutes after we got home. The kids learned to pitch in.... unloading and putting away groceries, special equipment etc.
I assigned independent work. It is not my favorite way to run our homeschool but I learned to have a few seatwork type assignments that they could do on their own. ... vocabulary, minimal Latin, grammar, a few things like that. That gave us all a sense that we were progressing, and a stability that we needed.
The older kids stayed home if they weren't the ones having the appointments.
We learned to fit learning into small corners of the day. Sometimes I'd discuss the teens' schoolwork in the evening. We had more time then to really dig in.
I feel there was more but I can't remember all the details
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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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4Real Forums : Special Blessings
Topic: Frequent MD Appointments
