Well, PT has been going well, I guess. I've got a lot more movement in my arm, and can even reach a little behind my back. Not much behind, but still an improvement. I still have the really bad pain when I lift up, out or behind, but it isn't constant. The lesser pain has pretty much disappeared, like the constant throbbing. (I think that had more to do with the increase in arthritis drugs than PT, though, but I could be wrong.) I've got the use of my left arm back, which is very good. Before, I felt like it was a useless appendage, but now I can use it somewhat. So that helped. I must admit, however, that I'm a little disappointed that I haven't seen more significant improvement. Maybe it's just a matter of more time and therapy. Or maybe it's not going to get much better. I'm not sure which. I go back to the orthopedic doc this week, so maybe I'll get a better idea after that.
Nathan has had a meltdown at school. For some reason, they didn't see fit to call me, and called Dh instead. Later, I found out from Nathan that he had been playing a card game in class with some kids at his table, and they started to make fun of him for losing. He got frustrated and lost it. The teacher asked Dh to find out what he got so upset about - they had no idea. I had to wonder why they didn't know. The teacher said that she was with another student, and the para was not present either. Hm. How come? That para is his one-on-one aide. Perhaps she would have been able to stop the other kids from making fun of him and prevented the melt. She was not around when the game was being played. She should have been. I didn't bother reporting back to the teacher why the melt occurred. They usually come to their own conclusions anyway, and don't accept what I tell them. And when there was only a couple days left in school, explaining a meltdown seems a little useless anyway. Hell, if they haven't figured out by now that he has a hard time with perfectionism and comptetition, they aren't going to figure out. Sigh.
Nathan has been SO helpful around the house lately. He comes up and offers to help me do dishes, or put away laundry, or whatever. He's even been doing yard work; weeding, trimming trees, mowing, etc. It's been an enormous help to me, when I struggle with the shoulder pain. And it's really neat to see him show empathy and concern for others. That's a huge step up for him! I'm really proud of him.
He's also been doing better in school. He is showing a lot more creativity when writing! I was so excited to see that. I knew he had it in him, because I've helped him to do creative writing assignments before. I usually had to help him get his ideas together or come up with a topic, or to help him get "unstuck" from writer's block. He had great ideas, but he just didn't seem to know what to do with them, to get them on the paper. So I'd ask him basic questions. (What kind of story do you want to tell? Oh, that sounds interesting! What do you want to happen? Okay, what's going to happen first? How will you finish it? This is a really neat story; what do you want to call it?) He just needed a little confidence, I think. Some nudging. In his head, he thought he couldn't write a story, or an essay. But once he found out that all he had to do is come up with an idea, and put it in some kind of order, he realized it wasn't so hard after all.
He used to melt down when they gave him a writing assignment. Then he'd come home and we'd have the assignment done in no time. I wondered why the school had so much trouble with this? Couldn't they see he was just scared? Lacking confidence? He just needed a little bit of guidance. Not even a lot. And here, we'd have FUN writing stories. Sometimes he was disappointed when I said it sounded like he had a good stopping point, and should end the story there. He wanted to just keep going. (Maybe Mom's love of storytelling has gotten into his bones?) :) The teacher thought he was just being lazy, and trying to get out of work. But I knew better. Nathan is far from lazy when it comes to learning. He's just kind of shy about some things. And that gets him frustrated. He wants to do it, but he doesn't think he can, and this gets him very upset. Too bad this was lost on his teacher. She might have enjoyed the results as much as I do.
Nathan had a particularly bad day at school. His teacher said he wasn't productive, and also refused to do a writing assignment, which she was sending home. When I read this in her email, I knew that when I got home from work, I'd be working with Nathan on that assignment. I can't tell you how thrilled I was to get home and find out that he not only did the assignment (all by himself!), but it was a really cute story about what he would do if he was only an inch tall. It was all done, it was done independently, and it was entertaining. And he ENJOYED doing it! Now why couldn't that have happened at school???
Thursday was the last full day of school. They go back on Monday for a couple hours, and then he is done for the year! HOORAY!!
I am so relieved to have him out of there for the summer. I try to be optimistic about next year, but it's hard. I haven't been impressed with the way the school deals with autism, that's for sure. I hope he at least gets a patient teacher next year. Not one who rushes to (negative) judgement. That would help a lot.
I'm also not looking forward to the daycare situation for the summer. Next week will be stress free, with Grandma & Grandpa caring for him, and Dh taking time off of work for a couple days, too. But after that, back to public daycare. Yikes. I sure hope that goes well. Last year, it was up and down. He had a great one-on-one aide, that seemed to have a real good feel for when Nathan gets upset and how to combat that. No meltdowns! But they often weren't very attentive, and Nathan got bullied a lot, and ignored by the staff at times. At one point, he decided enough was enough and tried to walk home. He nearly got to an incredibly busy street before the staff discovered that he was missing and went after him. I sure hope this new arrangement will be better than that. But I've lost my blind optimism when it comes to daycare.
But I'm still in a celebratory mood. No judgemental teachers for the summer! YIPPEEEE! No homework supervision! No IEP meetings! No threats of felony arrest for digital notetaking! Ahhhhhh, peace! At least for the next week. :)
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