New Placement

It's been busy around here since I last posted.  Oksana came home last Tuesday despite the fact that I didn't think she was ready.  We had an IEP that afternoon to decide how to handle school until we could get her into a longer term placement.  We decided on half days.  She went to school Wednesday morning.  That morning I also got a call from our second choice of placement for her that they had an opening.  They wanted to know if I could bring her Thursday morning.

This is when my mix of emotions started in.  I learned that this place is not a guaranteed long term placement...it can just turn into one.  However, just like the hospital, if insurance decides to kick her out she is out.  Our first choice placement is a state hospital and she would be put on Medicaid so they do keep their kids longer.  We struggled so much on Wednesday night about whether or not to do this.  We were so worried about putting her in this placement with the chance of getting sent back home and then being sent to another placement.  It's just too much for any kid, much less one with her history.  We called the social worker at the hospital, her therapist, and her teacher to get their input, but everyone saw the same pros and cons that we did.  We finally decided we needed to just go see it on Thursday morning and voice our concerns.  When we got there we had a good talk with the man who was admitting her.  He took us on a tour, we got to meet some of the kids and staff, and we all felt really good about the program and thought she might be a good fit there.  We started doing more paperwork while he called insurance.  If they wouldn't approve her in the first place we had nothing to worry about.  In the time that we waited for an answer from insurance Oksana started asking "Did he hear from insurance yet?" over and over again.  I finally asked her what she was hoping they said.  She said she wanted to stay there.  Insurance approved us for 6 days to start and she was thrilled so we went ahead an admitted her.   We finally decided that if she did great then she could come home and maybe wouldn't need to go to the state hospital.  If she didn't do great then she needed to be there anyway.

She has definitely shown some behaviors.  It sounds crazy but everyone is glad.  If she continues to show behaviors they should be able to convince insurance to keep her longer and they can hopefully start to help her.  We still want to try to get her into the state hospital at some point but that could be a few weeks still.  This isn't exactly how I had hoped it would go but there have been some really cool blessings in it.  There is a school at this place so Oksana went to school for the first time there and it turns out that her teacher knows her!!  He works at the respite center she goes to!  She was so excited to see a familiar face.  I couldn't believe it.  We have been happy with the staff.  They are all very nice and helpful. 

As of right now she is approved until Wednesday.  Our visits have been just OK.  She has been agitated and I don't know how to explain this exactly but I feel like she is slipping farther and farther into her illness.  She just isn't the kid we knew before.  I'm sure it is some combination of the illness and the massive amounts of medication that she is on.  It seems like nothing is working.