A Time for Change

It is a season of change in our lives right now and we are excited about it.  There are two main areas that we have recently looked at and said "Something has GOT to change." 

The first area is Oksana's care.  I mentioned in a recent blog that we are finding a new psychiatrist for Oksana but that has only been the beginning of the doctor overhaul we are doing.  I'm going to make a very long story short here.  Oksana is regressing physically and she is getting all new doctors and a bunch of new therapists too.  We are keeping her school therapist since she is fine for what school therapy offers (which isn't much) and we are keeping her pediatrician who I absolutely ADORE.  Everyone else is getting the boot and we are bringing in a whole new team.  We are leaving Shriners.  No one there is forward thinking when it comes to Oksana's care.  Once every 6 months they watch her walk up and down a hall and send her home.  I've just been unimpressed really since day one there and I've hung on thinking maybe I was crazy since they are supposed to be great.  I did love their orthotists, her neurologist is awesome, and did I mention that everything is free?  Well there are other good orthotists, I can see her neurologist out of his office, and nothing for free is worth the physical regression I am seeing in Oksana. 

I am so excited about her new team.  We are just starting to put them together.  She now gets 3 extra hours of therapy a week at a pediatric specialty hospital called Ranken Jordan.  She gets an hour each of OT, PT, and speech and her OT and PT are interested in seeing her twice a week.  This Thursday she is seeing a Physiatrist for the first time that came highly recommended to us and she is seeing a new orthotist.  Both are seeing her with her PT at Ranken Jordan.  The ideas and techniques they are planning on using with her are things that I keep saying "Why hasn't anyone at Shriners recommended this?"  I'm so excited to have a team who wants to be pushing forward and making wise choices for Oksana so that we don't see any more regression.

The second area of change is homeschooling.  Back when Clayton was in Kindergarten through 2nd grade he went to a homeschool program that was the perfect combination of school and homeschool.  He went to school there 2 days a week and then they sent home a schedule for us to do at home the other three days.  When we moved to Little Rock we obviously had to let that go.  When we moved back I looked into it again but the one thing about a program like that is you have to use their curriclum.  We had some great curriculum that I wasn't willing to give up so we decided against it.  For a number of reason we have decided that the next school year is the perfect time to get back into that program.  It will be a great program for the boys to take on more responsibility for their schooling, prevent laziness, keep us all accountable to someone else,  take the slack off of me for awhile, and prepare Clayton for college as he enters high school.  The boys feel ready for this and next week they are both shadowing for a day in the program to meet some of the kids and get a better feel for what next year will look like.  I'm very excited about this and with Anya going to school in the fall with Oksana I will have 2 whole days to myself!  I guess that means it's time for another child, right?! :) 

I'm not a big fan of change but this is good change for all of us!