Raising Chickens and Special Needs Kids

[Blooie]

Blooie you asked about Richard, that boy is back and at em. Whew.
He has a lot of infection in his lower abdomen that they can ..never..clear up. He isn't even on anti-biotics. Just keeps it as clean as he can. We went through surgery after surgery when he was younger. Nothing..nothing, ever worked to keep that area closed. This worries me more than anything with him. :/

That little Kendra really does look happy for her first day of school! She looks really good.

Richard never ceases to amaze me!!

 

[Blooie]

I recorded one of the caths using the Mitrofanoff because so many have had good questions about how it works, how we find the stoma in the bottom of her belly button, etc. I shared it on another forum, and it's totally "G-rated", but since it's so hard to visualize just typing it out I wondered if seeing it might help. I know one of our visitors, @sdubski is contemplating having it done for her Sweet Grace, and I'm thinking it might help her to see how easy and painless it is for Kendra to have her cathing done. But I won't post it unless I know someone might be interested. Nothing gross or gory about it, although Kendra gives a little tiny gasp when I first put the cath in. Totally my fault, I forgot that sometimes she gets a mucous plug in it overnight and it was her first cath of the morning. I know to twist it a tiny bit to get past the plug, but didn't do it.

Edited to add: I posted this earlier today...in the wrong thread! I'm sure the folks over on the Mama Heating Pad thread had NO idea what I was talking about!!

 

[sdubski]

That's fantastic, Sara!  Are you still planning a Mitrofanoff in Grace's future?  After our initial difficulties, we are now so glad we did it!!

Thanks! We were very happy with the oncology appointment. The enlarged pelvic lymph nodes they've been watching forever are finally getting smaller

The Mitrofanoff will be summer of 2018 or 2019, before she starts kindergarten.

Her chronic kidney disease has progressed a bit in the past year despite the low pressure system she has right now with the cutaneous vesicostomy, so we're more likely to delay kindergarten a year and see where we stand with nephrology. She's an August birthday, so right on the age cutoff.

 

[Blooie]

Copying and pasting from another thread, but I'm sure you'll forgive me:

Big day for Kendra at school today! So far all the kids have accepted her just as she is. She is the first one out the door at dismissal and Ken and I are waiting as Miss Pam pushes her out in her wheelchair. Then the other kids are right behind her, we have to stop, turn and face them, and everyone of them says, "Bye Kendra" as they walk past her. She just giggles and waves "bye" at each one. They bring her toys, help push her chair from circle time to story corner, and so on. She's just part of their class and they don't care that she doesn't speak to them - she interacts with them as she can and that's plenty good enough for them.

This morning she took her black wallet with her "Go Fish" cards inside it. She loves those cards because they are for toddlers so the numbers are bright and clear, and instead of clubs, diamonds, etc they have different sea critters on them. (8 crabs, 1 Octopus, etc) So when it was her turn for Show and Tell, she got her wallet out of her backpack and opened it up. Then she started taking out the cards, saying the number on the card and naming what critter was on it. The kids were astounded! They were jumping up and down and saying, "Kendra can talk, she can talk!!" After that class got a more than a little disrupted because kids kept leaving what they were doing, running up to her, pointing at themselves and telling her, "Say Kate" or "Say Connor"! They all wanted her to say their names and were encouraging her like crazy, and cheering for her when she got one! I guess it was incredible! Wish I'd have been there! And God bless those teachers for realizing this was a moment of learning for both Kendra and the other kids and, aside from trying to keep it orderly, they just let it all unfold naturally! Oh, what a moment for all of them.

 

[N F C]

What a wonderful moment for everyone Blooie! Go Kendra!

 

[FridayYet]

That's awesome Blooie! So glad Kendra is doing great at school.

 

[TexasLisa]

WAY TO GO KENDRA!

I pray the children's hearts never change!

 

[NotAFarm]

What a great teacher and classmates! Kendra will go far with their help and the other students will learn so much from her.

Go, Kendra!!

 

[Blooie]

Kendra and I have been working for weeks on a little surprise for everyone. I showed this to her speech therapist this morning and she was flabbergasted! This is a prime example of Kendra's learning processes.....and the kind of thing I wish those dopey psychologists with all their fancy tests could see! Kendra is so smart, she just has "fragmented learning" which means she learns things in bits and pieces rather than in a smooth, milestone type manner. I know the video is a little long, but I hope you'll watch it all the way through.....it's long so that I could better show her speech and language therapist that she actually recognizes these words.....I always do them with her in several different ways and in different orders so I know she KNOWS the words.

 

[WVduckchick]

Kendra