Khalif's behavior

Well, it was a rough summer as far as behavior goes and after we went to Lummi, Ryan was adamant about getting him some help through medication.  My quest to get neurofeedback approved was denied, but through that process it was clear we should be seeing a psychiatrist for medication, instead of his pediatrician.  There is only one in the area that takes his insurance, so that is where we had to go.  It was a disaster from the get go.  She was an hour late to our first appointment and then went on leave.  I was in a bit of a rush because I didn't want his teacher to have the same struggles as the one from last year, but it was not meant to be.  She wanted us to start the IEP process to see if that might make it clear if it was anxiety or ADHD driving the behaviors.  She also recommended getting a genetic test for psych drugs which could guide us in how his body metabolized certain medications.  It took forever, but I finally met with her to discuss the results and she was higher than a kite. It was pretty clear at that point why she went on leave and now that I look back, I think she was altered at one of our other appointments, but I have never been around someone whose mind was so disfunctional.  I can't tell you how many times I sat there wondering how to respond to her without offending her, but then I realized she wouldn't likely remember anything.  Part of me thought the Candid cameras were going to come out because it was so CRAZY.  Once I accepted that there was no hope in her helping me, I made up and excuse to get out of there and told the front desk that she was extremely confused and probably should not see any other patients.  I think they saw it coming because they had already hired someone, but he is relocating from the east coast, so won't be seeing patients for a couple weeks.  So, it was a total bust, but the good news is he is holding it together in class.  The IEP meeting happened and his teacher checked every box within the normal category.  The written report made it sound like everything was great, but then we got in the meeting and they admitted his ADHD behaviors, so it was a bit confusing.  The bottom line is that his behavior right now is not inhibiting his learning, so we settled on a 504.  There were a couple concerning things that came out of the meeting....his pencil lifts (totally weird, but indicative of a problem).  He was so advanced in the academic part, but was in the 2nd percentile for executive functioning.  That is the ability to organize and follow a set of instructions and when asked what we could do to help him, the school psychologist said we'd just have to work around the issues that result from low executive functioning.  We have a lot of tricks already, but he will have to find others to manage as school gets more challenging. 
We went to a foster care training and they were talking about the connection between being born drug positive and low executive function and she said that part of the brain could never repair itself.  But, we had a trial session with the neurofeedback therapist and she said that is not true.  We are on the waitlist for treatment and I'm hopeful she can get him regulated.  There was a lot of "white" on his color scan and that means his brain is functioning in the fight or flight mode and all he was doing was watching a fun movie, comfy in a chair with a blanket on.  It was a little eye opening to say the least and we will keep trying to find ways to help his brain rewire, so that he has the best shot at life.

Respite Foster Babies

We had a couple foster babies this fall.  The first one we had was 10 months old and she looked just like a doll.  We had her a couple times and she was very quiet and easy, peasy.  The kids loved her!  I shouldn't really post all the adorable pictures we have because of privacy :(.  Its fun to see the kids interested in something other than gaming or their phones.  Even Reggie offered to go get her after her nap!

The other one was much younger (3 months) and a bit of a stretch for me...she was medically fragile.  The foster mom is a good friend of mine, so I agreed to take her for a long weekend.  She was also very easy during the day, but the nights were a little rough.  She ate like a champ and thankfully, we had no medical emergencies.  Since she left, she moved in with an aunt and has had her open heart surgery and everything went perfectly!