Patrick Hoopes

Islands of Adventure (Wish Trip Day 3)

Is this really only day 3? Seems like we have been at this for a long while.

Today we did our normal morning routine (mommy ended up spending the last few hours of the night helping Patrick sleep), and set off for Universal Studios.

I yet again had trouble spotting the handicap parking instructions. This time it was easy enough to fix. However both parks have a blue line painted on the road to guide you to the correct place. Why I can’t follow that I’m not really sure. Oh well, that is a side note.

Getting into Universal Studios was fairly easy, crowds were fairly light.

We decided that we would head to the back of Islands of Adventures and start at the Harry Potter world which included Hogwarts, and Hogsmead. There was a kids roller coaster there that Patrick really liked. I rode the Adventures of Harry Potter ride which was fun to see, but was a bit much for so early in the morning. We wandered around a bit. Emily and I read the Harry Potter series of books in preparation for this visit. Patrick didn’t really care, but it was fun to see. We tried out the Butter Beer, which was pretty good. We watched a wand pick its wizard, which almost held Patricks attention.

After Harry Potter, Patrick was bored, so we headed to the Dr. Seuss part of the park. This was the kids part of the park. It wasn’t busy. We rode all the rides, which Patrick had fun with.

We decided we would head to lunch. En route to that there was a guy in the middle of the walkway holding a “Meet Spiderman” sign. Patrick is currently big into superheros, so we decided we would stop. That was a good choice (see the pics at the bottom), Spiderman had a good chat with Patrick. He also pointed us to where Captain America (Patricks current favorite) was. When we got to Captain America he had to go, so we barely missed him.

We stopped in for lunch, Patrick was fairly grumpy because he was tired. After lunch we headed back to where Captain America was supposed to be, on the way we were stopped so all the super heros could ride there motorcycles to wherever they go. Missed Captain America yet again.

We wandered through the park looking for rides for Patrick. It started raining. Today we were prepared with umbrellas for Patrick and Emily. We ended up back in Hogsmead and decided that we would take the Hogwarts Express to the other park and see what things were like there.

Hogwarts Express was a fun ride. We had a cabin to ourselves because Patrick was in a wheelchair. Reminded me of a newer version of an Italian train, which I think is what they were after.

We checked out the newest part of the Harry Potter world which was diagon-alley. It was done very well. Outside diagon-alley was the Knight Bus, which Patrick refused to go near the wheels because they were scary. Patrick has a phobia of some wheels.

We headed down to Minion Mahem, which Patrick says he liked, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t.

We took a break and took Patricks tubes off, and decided that we were tired. So we headed back to our car, and drove back to Give Kids The World (GKTW). It poured rain on use as we drove back.

We all took a good nap. When my alarm went off I didn’t want to get up, but I did. When Emily tried to wake Patrick he wouldn’t get up, so we let him sleep a little longer. We got his TPN ready, and got ready for a special guest that would be arriving at bed time.

We finally coaxed Patrick to get up, and headed to dinner. Patrick isn’t eating much this week, which meant he got bored quickly.

Tonights activity was Mayor Clayton’s birthday party. Patrick had a great time at the party.

We also too a few minutes tonight for Patrick to turn in his start to be put on the ceiling of the Castle of Miracles. Patrick also picked up his pillow, which was grown on the pillow tree by a magical owl (makes sense to me because I was there).

We headed back to our villa to get Patrick ready for bed and ready for our special guest.

At a little after 9:00 there was a knock at the door. Mayor Clayton came to tuck Patrick into bed. Patrick hoped into bed, and Mayor Clayton tucked him in and gave him a good night kiss. Patrick thought this was great. As Emily was putting him to sleep Patrick asked if Mayor Clayton would come in the morning and help him take a bath.

Today was a fun day. Tomorrow the plan is to go back to Universal Studios. Emily is currently researching what we missed today.

We took a lot more pictures today. Here are a few.

Patrick rode on a wheel chair lift for the first time. He thought it was great. This is us boarding the train to go to breakfast.

In Dr. Seuss land, a photo prop that he didn’t even have to get up for.

Riding the Caro-Seuss-el at Islands of Adventure.

Patrick is excited to be on almost any ride.

One fish two fish – if you don’t listen to the song you are going to get wet.

Meeting Spiderman. Thanks Spiderman for taking a few extra moments with Patrick.

I couldn’t pass this Captain America doll up. Patrick loved playing with him.

Hogwarts Express. A fun ride between the two Universal Studio parks.

The Knight bus. Patrick wouldn’t go get in the picture because he didn’t like the wheels. (A strange little phobia of his)

Patrick was happy to check out what was inside the bus.

Meeting the Minions. He had fun playing with him.

Patrick declared that he wanted to run a little. Luckily there was an outdoor concert venue that Patrick could run around in.

At the end of a long day. This pic is almost required.

Mayor Clayton stopped by to tuck Patrick in. Who wouldn’t want a bunny to tuck them into bed.

Magic Kingdom (Wish Trip Day 2)

For the first time in a long time, Patrick slept the whole night in his bed without mommy while traveling. I think I can say we were all very tired after yesterday.

We started off the day introducing Patrick to a jetted tub. He wasn’t so sure about it until dad came into the room, and then he had to show off so he splashed, and kicked water everywhere, which made the jets ok.

We got everything together, someday we will blog about what it takes to get Patrick out the door. I’ll just say that it is a process that takes a lot of time, and preparation, and usually a few moments of “what about this” to be figured out.

Give Kids The World (GKTW) has characters come to the resort during the week. Today Goofy, Mary Poppins, and Mickey were at the resort to meet the kiddos, and take pictures. We were also instructed that if we brought the stuffed Mickey, we would be able to get it signed by Mickey. We met Goofy first, and he decided that he would sign it as well, which was fine by us. After the fact Patrick decided it was naughty, which makes us smile. Patrick liked meeting the characters, and having a little more time to spend with them than in the parks. We had a nice chat with Mary Poppins, if you ever get the chance to meet her in one of the Disney parks, take it.

We set out for Disney World. I missed the turn for handicap parking, so we had to go around. Once we got parked we headed towards the park, only to meet a long line for the ferry. We got to wait for two ferries, and finally made it on. After we got off the ferry, we got to wait in yet another line to go through security (that was a large crowd trying to get through). Then yet another line to actually enter the park. At this point, I don’t think any of us were in a very magical spirit. We had to stop and get a sticker that identified Patrick’s stroller as a wheel chair, which was another line. However this line was different, one of the cast members noticed Patricks GKTW button and took special care of us, which was appreciated.

After roughly 2.5 hours since leaving GKTW we were finally ready to see the park. Not intending to complain here, just remembering how the day went.

Patrick loves autopia in Disney Land, so we headed to the “Tomorrowland Speedway” (i.e. Autopia) for the first ride. We presented our special access pass, and hopped on the ride. Patrick did his normal, lets not steer so we bump as hard as we can into the guide rail (thanks Emily for being willing to take the abuse of these maneuvers.)

We wandered around taking in the park riding a few rides. Patrick wanted to meet Donald Duck, so we headed to where he spends his days. A cast member saw his button, and said follow me, he lead us through a store, and into a back hallway. Next thing we knew we were standing next to Goofy and Donald, he had taken us to the front of the line through the exit. Minnie and Daisy were across the room, and they also took over to meet them. Patrick was super excited to have met Donald (even remembered it in our prayer tonight). We had a similar experience meeting Tigger and Pooh Bear.

We snagged some lunch. I had mac and cheese with pot roast on top of it – don’t knock it until you have tried it. The only problem with it was that it was hot, and the day was quite hot as well. Patrick was starting to zone out, so we decided we would checkout the Wish Lounge. This is a room in the first aid building set aside for wish kids to take a break, and gives them a place to take care of medical needs. We knew that hopes of getting Patrick to nap were very low, but a rest would do him good. I set a timer, and he laid with us on a big pillow until the timer rang. He almost fell asleep a few times, but resisted it well.

We caught a few more rides, and then it started raining. At first I was smiling at all the people that were hiding under any cover they could find. It sprinkled for about 20 mins, and then the rain hit. We were drenched, and Patrick wasn’t so happy about it (he really doesn’t like having rain or snow on his face.)

Because of the rain many of the rides were closed, so we went and met Mickey again. This Mickey was different in that he talked. Patrick wasn’t so into Mickey coaching him to fly like Peter Pan, but he was super impressed that Mickey could talk. Tinker Bell was in the same building, so we took the time to meet her as well. She spent a long time talking to Patrick, he didn’t really catch what she was saying, but enjoyed meeting her anyway.

We rode It’s A Small World one more time. That ranks as a close second for favorite rides. (And in Patrick’s opinion the one in Disney Land is better). It was time to go. We caught the monorail back to parking (much faster than the ferry).

We got back to GKTW and got ready for dinner. We called a train to come pick us up (a fun way to get around the resort). We went out on our porch and waited. Patrick took my camera and started taking pictures, mainly of our car (See the photo gallery, I’ll include a few).

We had dinner then it was time for Halloween. GKTW has Halloween and Christmas every week. Since it was raining Halloween was inside which made it a little cramped, but fun none the less. Patrick ran around the room getting candy full of all kinds of things he is allergic to, but thats ok, he was having fun collecting candy. We then got his face painted. When we got done with that the party was a little too overwhelming for him, so we headed out to see what else we could find to do.

As we were walking Patrick rubbed his face, and got face paint in his eye. We detoured to the nearest rest room, to try to get his face paint off. When we finished he looked kinda like a zombie.

After wandering a bit more, we stopped in for ice cream. GKTW has soy and rice ice cream, both are safe for Patrick. We decided we would try to get him to eat rice milk ice cream. The only problem was that Patrick will only eat while bread this week. He wouldn’t go near the ice cream. After we forced him to eat a bit, he said it was good, but still wouldn’t eat it.

We made it back to our room, and did the evening preparations for Patrick (almost as much as morning preparations). Emily got Patrick to sleep while I talked to some family to make plans for the end of the week.

Today was a fun day. As Patrick was going to sleep, he was no longer Boots (from Dora the Explorer), he was now Mickey, Emily is Pluto and Minnie, I am Goofy. We’ll see how long his name will be Mickey, but that means today was a very big day for Patrick. His wishes truly were granted today.

We are so thankful for all that do so much for Patrick. The volunteers here at GKTW, and the countless people that help us so much back at home.

By the time I sleep I will have taken 25,000 steps according to my fitbit. That is roughly 12 miles walked today, it is time for bed.

PS – Sorry for the rambling of this post, I’m trying to record memories that we can reflect on.

We have taken some pictures, but all of the pictures taken with the characters will come at the end of the trip. Here are some pictures from our cameras taken today:

“Driving” at Tomorrowland Speedway. Patrick calls this ride “bumper cars”

Yeah – it rained. Can you see the annoyance in Patrick’s eyes?

Patrick doing his favorite hobby – photography.

Getting his tubes on while watching Dora.

Off to Orlando (Wish Trip Day 1)

Today we set out for Patrick’s wish trip. We woke early. Patrick was very excited. When we got through security at the airport (always amazes me what security comes up with as the official policy – different every time – and we aren’t allowed to tell them what the policy is, even though we know it.) Patrick excitedly waited for our airplane to arrive at the gate. Once it did, he watched all the bags come off, and all the happening around the plane. Then we boarded the airplane.

The flight was fairly uneventful. Patrick played, and kicked the seat in front of him, wanted to un-latch the tray table, and play with the video screen in front of him. And when we tried to get him to nap – he screamed, and kicked. This is normal behavior for flights.

When we arrived in Orlando we were met by a nice man named Bill, from Give Kids The World. He helped us find our luggage, and then we sat down with him to get a brief orientation of how to get to Give Kids The World (GKTW), and what to expect when we got there. He then helped us to our car, and made sure we departed safely.

When we arrived at GKTW we had a very personal checkin with yet more information. They also presented Patrick with a stuffed Mickey, he immediately hugged him.

Emily and Patrick rode in a golf cart and I followed in our van to our villa. Larry the GKTW volunteer showed us around our villa. I have never seen a place that has a kids sized jetted bath tub, and yet the grown-ups have a shower.

We headed off to dinner – I was hungry and no-nap Patrick was running wild. We had dinner at the Ginger Bread House (sponsored by Perkins) that was staffed by a bunch of very helpful volunteers.

I got done with dinner before Emily, so while she was having desert, we snuck over to the Carousel (free, and ride as many times as you want). Patrick happily rode, when we finished Emily met us at the gates. Mayor Clayton and Ms. Mary (they were married a while back by Mother Nature) were greeting guests, Patrick was excited to see them.

We hopped on a GKTW trolley, we dropped Emily and Patrick off at the Candy Land party, and I headed to orientation.

From what I hear Patrick had a great time at the party, he gathered a bunch of candy (which he probably shouldn’t eat), and a prize.

I got officially oriented on our tickets to Disney World, Universal Studios, and Sea World. If anyone is like me and searching to find out if GKTW gives you disability access passes, the answer is yes. We have everything we need to make our time at the attractions magical and wonderful.

When I arrived back at the villa, Patrick was ready for bed. He is now asleep. Tomorrow Mickey and some of his friends come to GKTW, and then we will go visit them at the Magic Kingdom.

Been a busy day, looking forward to fun tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures from todays adventures:

We pack light. If you look closely you might spot the kitchen sink.

Patrick watching all the happenings going on around our plane.

He stole our airport greeters hat, who of course didn’t mind.

Following Emily and Patrick in a golf cart to our villa at GKTW.

Our own personal welcome sign for the next week.

Funny think that liked eating paper, so of course we had to feed it all the paper I had in my pocket.

What do you do when you have had a long day, and it is hot and humid? Take off your clothes and cool off.

Granting a wish.

Patrick has been learning about Disney World. For a time when asked where he lived he said Disney World. Patricks wish granters would send a package every once in a while to let him know that it was still happening.

A few months ago we got the dates for the trip. There was a lot that needed to happen between then and the trip, so it got put off in our minds. We had a trip to Omaha, I had a business trip, Patrick started Kindergarten, and we had an attempt at camping (gee most of those should be blog posts, I’ll see what I can do about that). A few weeks ago we got a call from one of Patricks wish granters Beth, she told us that they were working on planning a wish granting party. Something to tell Patrick that his wish had been granted, and he was on his way.

About a week ago we got details of his wish granting party. And started inviting family, and close friends (sorry to those that didn’t get invited, the group was fairly large and we didn’t think it would be right to go larger, we still love and appreciate you).

We had coordinated the details with Beth. We would send Patrick to the neighbors, the guests would come, and then we would surprise him, and then an ice cream truck would come as the cherry on top.

As with all things in our life, things change. Emily started exploring some new therapy for Patrick yesterday. They said great would it be possible to come tomorrow afternoon. This caused our plans to change a bit. The new plan was that I would come home early and meet everyone, help Beth and Natasha setup and then Emily and Patrick would arrive home from therapy to a group of friends. With the contingency that if they got back too early they would play at the neighbors.

I got home from work early thinking I needed to help clean the house. Cleaning the house with Patrick around is sometimes an effort in insanity. When I arrived home Emily had the house in great shape. I sat down and read for a while. Then I decided to grab some chairs.

As I got outside Beth pulled up with balloons. We tied balloons around our front yard. Guests started arriving. Natasha arrived with more balloons, which made things look all the more festive.

The majority of the guests arrived, and I texted Emily to let her know we were ready.

Patrick was taking in all his guests at his surprise wish granting party.

A few minutes later Emily pulled into the drive way. Patrick looking out his window noticed we were all there, and started grinning. Emily reports that Patrick saw everyone and yelled, “Hey! Why everyone here?” Then, grinning ear to ear and climbing out of his seat before we were even parked, “I want talk to them!”

Patrick got out of the car as fast as Emily could get his door open. Ran to the driveway and just grinned.

He saw the present that was waiting for him on the porch and ran to it. Beth cut him off, and presented him with a certificate stating that his wish was granted. Then he resumed his quest for the gift.

He pulled all the things out of the gift bag, and around the corner comes music from and ice cream truck. It stops at

"You are officially granted your wish" — “You are officially granted your wish”

our house and Beth leads him over to the truck. Emily got there just in time with Patrick safe (soy) ice cream. Patrick was more fascinated with the van than the ice cream, but none the less it was a hit.

The rest of the evening was spent with everyone getting ice cream, and Patrick running from person to person hugging and saying hi to them.

Then Beth let him play with her car (big points from him). And she led him up and down the street naming all the car makes, which is one of Patricks favorite games.

I pulled Patrick aside and told him we were going on a trip on Sunday, and that we were going to go to Mickey’s

other house (he’s been to Disney Land a few times).

The night was great. Big thanks to those who came. Even bigger thanks to our wish granters Beth (and her husband Tim who accompanied her tonight), and Natasha.

We are super excited to go on our adventure.

The ice cream truck came just for Patrick.

The left overs of the balloons. Each child took one home as well.

Wishing a wish.

So its been a long while. Happily we can say that Patrick continues to grow and progress. It is an understatement to say that he keeps us busy. I guess in this case you can say no news is good news. I’m going to try to pick up the blogging duties for a bit. We’ll see how that goes. You will soon find out that Emily is the writer in the family.

To understand this post we need to go back a year. A year ago about this time we were in Omaha hoping and praying that the docs there would be able to place a new central line. The docs here did their best but we unable to place a central line that would work for transplant (still love and trust the docs here). Every once in a while we have moments that remind us just how fragile the balance we have found with Patrick is, this was one of those moments. The docs in Omaha were able to place a new line, but were quick to remind us that he is more or less out of central line access, and line placements were only going to be harder.

We decided that it was time to explore Make-A-Wish for Patrick. This is something that we discussed off and on since Patrick was very little. We had decided that he wouldn’t understand how special his wish is and wanted to wait as long as we could. The opposite of that is if something were to happen to Patrick we would regret not giving him the experience. The experience told us that it was time to explore things.

We we got home from Omaha, it was the start of the school year, and there was a lot going on. Emily got in touch with Make-A-Wish early this year. We followed the process, and waited to hear. In early March we were notified that Patrick would be able to make his wish. We were to bring Patrick and a small group to the wishing room to make his wish. Small group was interpreted to grandparents.

We received a key to the wishing room in the mail. Patrick was (and still is) fascinated with keys and cars. We ended up hanging the key on the wall so he knew it was there but could wander around with it (and probably lose it).

Finally the day came. We took the key down from the wall. We met his wish granters for the first time. Wish granters are volunteers whose priority is to make sure that we wisher is completely spoiled. They are also our interface with Make-A-Wish. Our wish granters are Beth and Natasha. Who succeeded in making the day special for Patrick.

Patrick throwing his wishing token in the fountain at Make-A-Wish.

We gathered as Make-A-WIsh and got to know our wish granters a little, and then we went on a tour of the building and the grounds. They have gardens that are open to all wish families, kinda as a place to go to remember the memories made (jut the thought of this has my heart heavy). We threw a token into the wishing fountain. At least Patrick did. Emily and I kept our tokens, we’ll go wish when the time is right.

Patrick took the opportunity to run around the gardens, over the bridges, and any where else he could think of to go. I tried to reign him in, as I’m usually the strict one. The wish granters didn’t bat an eye about letting him be out of control for a while.

Our tour took us upstairs. They showed us where the wishing room was, but before that each member of the group was given a little slip of paper. We were asked to write a wish on it for Patrick.

We also got to help Patrick decide what his wish was. We had to push him in a direction, but we were pretty sure that he would love the experience at Give Kids The World (http://www.gktw.org/index.php) and the attractions in Orlando. We have heard magical things from other wish families about GKTW. I must admit that it was hard to not have him know exactly what he wanted, maybe that means we have spoiled him too much.

Finally the time came to go into the wishing room. We got out his key and went to the door. I helped him open it. It opened into a circular room with glass floor. In the middle was a waterfall that went from floor to ceiling. Quite the awe inspiring room.

When we all got into the room we each read our wish for Patrick. What a touching intimate thing. To have his parents and grand parents each share a special wish for him. Tears were shed, but it was a great experience. We have those sheets of paper, they will be memories for a life time.

Following the path to make his wish in the wishing room.

Finally the time came to make his wish. The room went dark, and spots on the floor lit up to show Patrick the way. I helped him go from colored spot on the floor to colored spot on the floor. We finally made it to the wishing spot. Patrick put his wish in a tube, and then put it in the wishing stand. His wish was made.

Then we went and had doughnuts and cupcakes. Two things Patrick was into at the time. Emily and I got to fill out paperwork. And Patrick had fun with the personal attention he was getting. Because Patrick runs a high risk of dehydration in the summer heat we asked that his trip be scheduled for the fall.

His wish was made, now we just had to wait until it was time to go.

Summer vacation

Tomorrow marks 3 weeks since Patrick’s last day of school. For most people, summer vacation is in full swing. For us, we’re finally starting to get our bearings. It’s been an unusual start to summer.

Things seemed smooth enough. I spent that first weekend after school ended gathering myself to start a tradition Patrick and I are calling “Mommy School.” Between therapies, Patrick has a LOT of “homework”. He’s supposed to spend 10 minutes every day doing eye exercises. He’s supposed to be practicing writing and cutting and and gluing and using a keyboard. We’re supposed to be strengthening his core, working on activities that use both sides of his body evenly, and encouraging him to cross midline. He’s supposed to be practicing telling me stories in various verb tenses, using articles, and correcting his use of pronouns. Plus working on vocabulary building, sorting skills, categorization skills, social skills, attention skills and on and on. All of this to help keep him progressing on his current trajectory which, discouraging as I may find it, is approximately two years behind most of his peers.

Except, it seems, when it comes to the alphabet. Patrick has the alphabet down pat and tested in the top 25% of his preschool class.

Our first day of Mommy School. Learning the shapes of letters by building them from playdough.

A practical life mommy school lesson on how to sweep.

And so, this summer we introduced “Mommy School.” We’re doing an abbreviated letter of the day curriculum, since letters are what Patrick loves. Every week is assigned two letters and every day a word that starts with that letter. Then I go out and scrounge up books, worksheets, crafts, activities and field trips on that theme.

Teddy Bears — B is for Bears, and a teddy bear picnic.

The first day of Mommy School went GREAT! Until, that is, Patrick developed a fever. The next day of summer break was spent cuddling a sick, feverish kid in a chair. He had a cold and we were grateful to be able to stay home sick like other children. By Thursday, Patrick had mustered the energy to play on his own again. But, by then, I was sick.

Patrick sees 3 therapists on a regular basis in the summer. It's hard work, but fun too. Patrick's reward for a good hour of work in physical therapy is the chance to climb the rock wall. — Patrick sees 3 therapists on a regular basis in the summer. It’s hard work, but fun too. Patrick’s reward for a good hour of work in physical therapy is the chance to climb the rock wall.

In occupational therapy, Patrick gets to take sensory breaks in the gym. Diving in the ball pool is a favorite exercise.

Our second week of summer break, Patrick and I were finally starting to be healthy again. But Brian wasn’t. And it didn’t matter if we were healthy or not because on Saturday of that week, my little sister was getting married in my backyard. So, I declared “C is for Camping” and we pitched a tent in the living room. Amazingly, this both occupied Patrick and kept the room clean while he binged on movies and we scrambled to finish last minute details on the house and yard.

I meant to pitch a tent outdoors, but it rained all that day, so we brought it inside. It worked so well we kept it a second day, too.

We also sneaked in a couple of outings.. a family night at Red Butte Garden and a field trip with friends to the Natural History Museum. (I picked up a free month-long museum pass at the local library just so we wouldn’t have excuses to just stay home and work.) Besides, in order to get Patrick to let us work, we let him watch his birthday movies on endless loop, which left us all craving some family adventures.

Patrick loved the children's garden best, especially hopping on stepping stones across the fish pond. — Patrick loved the children’s garden best, especially hopping on stepping stones across the fish pond.

The best part of our trip to the Natural History Museum was not the dinosaur bones. It was the chance to be there with other friends who know exactly what living with Short Gut is like.

The wedding went smoother than expected, though playing hostess and trying to keep Patrick from completely melting down about how his house was filled with children who were not sharing his toys with him kept me busy enough that I didn’t manage to take a single picture.

I was too busy to take pictures, but there were lots of cameras there. I snagged this one off my mom's Facebook page. — I was too busy to take pictures, but there were lots of cameras there. I snagged this one off my mom’s Facebook page.

My sister was a beautiful bride and the happy couple truly looked happy and in love. Patrick eventually settled down with Grandma who let him fetch endless cups of water from the refreshment table and pour them all over himself and her and all went well enough.

Except that it turns out that maybe the bug that had Brian sick isn’t the one that had Patrick sick as I ran a fever all night.

So, Sunday we took a sick day and we stayed and home and did absolutely nothing except that Brian cooked us a delicious roast. The day was delightful and refreshing. Perfect after two frantic weeks.

Yesterday, I put together a week’s worth of Mommy School worksheets, made a chore chart, got Patrick’s TPN labs drawn and kind of regrouped. Then, in the late afternoon, I changed Patrick’s central line dressing and discovered that, much to my dismay, what had once been a tiny little hole in the clotted side of the line had grown big enough that I was worried it would pull off. But it was after hours and I wanted the head of the IV team to be involved in choices about the repair.

So today, we spent our kind of restart to summer day exactly as summer days seem to go for us.

Over breakfast, I made a bunch of phone calls to people at the hospital trying to find the best way to get the line repaired. Eventually, I sat down and had a little cry because I wasn’t getting in touch with the people I wanted and I knew we’d have to go to the E.R.

Then, Howie gave me a pep talk and a hug and a kiss. Then he talked to Patrick and helped him to gather the courage to get his line repaired. (He was terrified that it was going to hurt when they cut the broken part off of his line.) We headed up to the E.R. where our timing really was perfect. We didn’t wait at all for them to start working. Patrick’s line is a different brand than our hospital stocks because it was placed in Nebraska, so that complicated things and the repair took about an hour and looks a bit sloppy. But it will do for a clotted line.

And then, when all was done, we headed off to the Children’s Museum for a couple of hours. We managed to get there at a nice slow time on a nice slow day. Patrick actually got to enjoy exploring the museum and would have happily stayed there all day. His favorite spots were the Bob the Builder exhibit, the gas station, and the pretend E.R.

I didn't know they'd built on a pretend E.R. with the life flight display. Patrick found a little girl willing to play the patient and had a great time — I didn’t know they’d built on a pretend E.R. with the life flight display. Patrick found a little girl willing to play the patient and had a great time

Eventually, we had to go because I was parked in a 2 hour parking space and, honestly, we both needed a rest. So we stopped in at daddy’s office to pick up the leftovers from a lunch he’d cooked for them today. And then we came home and convinced Patrick to nap by 4.

Which brings us to right now. Brian just walked in the door to a quiet, clean house and me blogging and said, “Now that’s a sight I don’t see very often.” Here’s to maybe a little bit more of this? Perhaps a few prayers for this line to hold out through the summer and grant us a little bit of peace ..and maybe even health?

The end of another school year

Patrick woke up crying this morning at 6. Not just a little “I’m sleepy” cry. Out and out sobbing. When I asked him what was wrong, he replied “Push!!” “Push what?” I asked. “Push TAMMY!” He answered.

And I understood exactly what he meant.

“Push Tammy” is code for “I fought with my classmates at school again.” This time it was a dream. But it hits on a really real fear and a very big problem that I’ve been so baffled and busy with that it’s kept me away from this blog for quite some time.

This has been a hard school year for Patrick. My sweet, friendly, optimistic little boy has felt stressed and discouraged and just plain rejected. It was bound to happen one day that his medical issues and his developmental delays and his just-plain-awkwardness would catch up to him and cuteness wouldn’t carry him anymore. At least it started in his last year of preschool with a teacher who knows him and is OH SO patient and willing to adapt and help.

Patrick’s frustrations have manifested themselves in a lot of hitting, pushing, and kicking. Usually it’s subtle and small. Sometimes it’s angry. Some would say we’re lucky that he’s perfecting the art of the tantrum this late in life. The problem is that at age 5, it’s a whole lot more frowned upon. And it certainly is costing him friendships.

So, if you’re wondering what I’ve been doing since I wrote about the IEP meeting last fall.. I’ve been volunteering in Patrick’s classroom, advocating for a behavior plan and better support for him at school, trying to find a good psychologist and then trying to implement what she’s trying to teach me to do.

I’ve also been being humbled a lot as I realize how far I need to go still in developing patience, self-control, long-suffering, flexibility.. and on and on…

Oh, and watching a lot of Mister Rogers and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Because they teach lessons both Patrick and I need to learn.

Now – why am I telling you this? Well, because I am really hoping that I can spend the summer blogging about how Patrick and I are having wonderfully fun adventures together as we explore the alphabet. Patrick’s got just a few days left in preschool.

So if I tell you now about this struggle, maybe I’ll stop worrying about how to tell you about this struggle and can get on with writing about our lives, imperfections and all.

The rest of today didn’t exactly pan out much better. Patrick’s nap got delayed because of our kitchen remodel (subject for another post soon).. and then I had to wake him early for speech therapy. And he was so tired that he fell asleep in the car for the first time in a year. And the he wouldn’t talk to his speech therapist and threw the flash cards she was using on the floor again. And when that was done, we took him to the zoo to see the new lions. And I’m not sure if he had a good time or not, because he was so sleepy he only cared about pushing the stroller (a tendency his psychologist calls a perseveration, which means something he gets stuck on obsessively). And when we would take it away, it just plain made him mad. And he tried tantrums, and we tried not to give in to tantrums… But when I reminded him he needed to calm down, he took a breath and counted to 4, then asked again in a nice voice. That is actually really good progress for him, and for me.

Another IEP meeting behind us.

I feel like a huge weight has been taken off of my chest. Although we have always been very blessed with a caring and cooperative IEP time, hammering out an IEP that meets Patrick’s many needs is no small feat. And this year, with everyone on the IEP team, except the classroom teacher, being brand new to us, I was especially worried.

So I got dressed in my best “I’m competent” clothes, a change from my usual “I’m a special needs mom and you’re lucky I am dressed” wardrobe. I even put on makeup and did my hair. I packed a bag of toys for Patrick and brought along a stack of supporting documents for me. I stopped at the store and picked up some new puzzles for Patrick, even. Then went to Dunkin’ Donuts for goodies since the meeting was at lunch time and I wondered how at least the classroom teacher was going to manage to eat.

Then, as I was sitting waiting for Brian to meet me, I noticed that I’d mixed up my brand new jeans with an old pair of jeans with a hole in the crotch that I’d worn gardening last week. And I crossed my legs and shook it off because I couldn’t let that throw me today.

It seemed like this year’s IEP was all the more important than years past. Before, we were just making goals to help move forward his academic and developmental progress. This time we were dealing with new and worsening behavior problems as Patrick has become aware of his limitations. He wants with all his heart to fit in and make friends, and he just doesn’t have the skills and savvy to do it right. And so he’s taken to hitting, kicking, and pulling hair when he feels frustrated instead.

I had a feeling stress was building. But, I’ll be honest, I’ve been surprised and quite devastated that things got this hard this fast.

As the school year ended last year, I knew that impulsivity was getting to be more of a problem the more Patrick could do things for himself, but still couldn’t be independent. I asked his neurologist for help and he referred me to an amazing program designed to help children with developmental delays and behavioral issues.

But when I started down that path, insurance informed me that the program was through a non-contracted provider. They are a non-profit and we could maybe have made things work, but it was going to cost us more out of pocket than I expected. And, to make matters worse, their wait list was months long… all summer long in fact… just to get an evaluation.

My sweet insurance case manager felt so bad delivering this news that within a day, she’d called around and found a neuropsychologist who they contracted with who could squeeze Patrick in for some developmental testing. I had to fill out a mountain of paperwork. The questionnaire was over 50 pages long. Plus provide a medical/developmental history. (Another 50 pages at least). Then, Brian and I went in for an interview where we talked about all of the things that concerned us about Patrick’s development and behavior. Then it was Patrick’s turn. 4 hours of alternating standardized testing and play therapy and observation. In the end, we got a 25 page write up describing our child. His strengths. His weaknesses. His learning style.

In the end, Patrick was diagnosed as having many physical and cognitive delays stemming from his brain injury. (No surprise there.) And with ADHD. (Also no surprise, though really nice to give it a name we can work with.) The evaluation also included testing for autism and the doctor and Patrick’s therapists and I had a long drawn out series of conversations in which we discussed the way that Patrick’s brain injury sometimes makes him act like he is autistic (sensory processing disorder, social difficulty, quirky little obsessions).. but in the end decided that that diagnosis would only cloud and confuse things for him as it doesn’t exactly fit.

Armed with new diagnoses and 25 pages about how to help Patrick learn (with very specific examples of areas to teach him in), we supposedly had all the makings of a rockstar IEP.

Hence my anxiety over the past month in trying to get things just right. I’ve been e-mailing and talking to Patrick’s new special education teacher (this is an extra teacher who works with him in a regular classroom). I have felt like the super duper stubborn bad guy with my list of unreasonable demands. I really wondered if they were starting to hate me.

But today’s meeting was yet another IEP success. I feel like Patrick’s got a group of very astute and caring team of people working with him. And, in the end, they found a way to give Patrick just about everything we were asking for for him. In fact, a little bit more, even. Like a motor aid to help him in PE. And picture schedule cards for each type of activity in the class. And a more supportive chair for work table time. The occupational therapist offered to work with him on a sensory diet (meaning physical activities to meet his sensory needs throughout the day), which is virtually unheard of in IEP’s in Utah. And the speech therapist offered to build Patrick social stories with him as the main character on her iPad. And, as icing on the cake, they have a written behavioral plan in place for Patrick and are calling in a psychologist to consult and help Patrick learn to control his temper in class.

Of course, the trick now is finding practical ways to make it all work together.. But it is such a relief to feel like we’ve got our feet pointed in the right direction again.

And a big relief to be done with a crazy month of trying to see all the doctors and all the therapists and gather recommendations and write firm but kind “parent advocate” style e-mails that say what they need to, but then have to be trimmed down because, face it, I’m verbose. It will be a relief to be done rehearsing arguments about the IEP in my head all the time.

At least till next fall. Or maybe spring. Or maybe earlier, if things aren’t going quite as they should.

The Orange Rhino Challenge and a whole lot of stars

Patrick loves school! He is so happy to be back. He is making new friends at a record pace, as well as happily meeting and playing with his old friends before and after school.

But, he’s also been really struggling since school started. At first, the reports were a few here and there coming from the classroom. Then one day, the special education came out to meet me and talk about the problem. Patrick has been growing increasingly aggressive. He’s not picking fights per say, but when he gets mad or feels ignored, he has been using his hands and feet to express his anger. And it’s been getting worse, spilling over into therapy and playdates and church and home.

I loved the conversation with the special ed teacher. (Note, this isn’t the regular classroom teacher. This is a teacher who visits the class a few times a week and, like everyone else, is new this year.) She said she’d heard that Patrick hadn’t had these problems last year in school and asked me if he’d been under any stress at home. I explained that during the first week of school, Patrick had had major, life-threatening medical issues and had needed to travel out of state for surgery. She said, “Well, I know about that. But other than that….” Yeah. She didn’t get it.

Then she asked me what helps at home. I tried to explain sensory processing disorder and how he needs a physical outlet for his energy or he can’t sit still, gets in trouble, gets embarrassed, gets mad, and hits. She told me he gets a regular sensory time once a day. Yeah. She didn’t get that either.

I left the conversation with two clear impressions. 1) Patrick was struggling at school and 2) I was going to need to come up with some answers to help him and/or a better way to communicate with the plan-makers at school because we weren’t going to make much progress otherwise.

I put a lot of thinking and reading and talking and praying into the problem over the next couple of weeks. And I watched as things got worse and worse. It was pretty clear to me that Patrick has been responding to the stress of having his life turned completely upside down… and then having to start school. Not only that, but school twice as many days a week as usual, and in a class that is much younger and more chaotic than last year. He’s feeling overwhelmed and he doesn’t have the words to express his feelings or stand up for himself. So, he’s doing the only thing he can figure out to do. He’s fighting back physically.

And then I remembered something I encountered a while back. An amazing woman who made a goal not to yell at her kids for a whole year, 365 days.. She blogged about the experience and is still blogging and running a Facebook support group to help other parent learn to discipline without yelling, too.

She calls the project The Orange Rhino challenge.

And I realized that I can’t expect Patrick to learn to deal with and express his anger and frustration and overall exhaustion with his situation in healthy ways if I haven’t learned to control my own temper.

But I just couldn’t seem to get there.

And then, a few days ago, I took Patrick to a checkup with his neurologist. We discussed the results of his recent neuropsychological evaluation (a topic that I swear one day I’ll tell you more about, but in a nutshell Patrick was diagnosed with several learning challenges, as well as ADHD) and how to help him learn to work through his attention issues at school, and he offered to have me talk to the department social worker about resources.

That conversation was a lot about how to create a behavioral plan in Patrick’s upcoming IEP. But one thing that stood out was that he suggested using a reward system to encourage the behavior we wanted instead of just punishing “naughty” behavior.

And I just couldn’t get the thought out of my head. Finally, it came to me. And yesterday, Patrick and I had a talk and made a deal. We both need to learn to be gentle when we feel angry. So, any time one of us is going through a hard time and feels mad and chooses to use soft hands and soft words instead, we get a sticker.

I stuck a sheet of foil star stickers in my pocket and away we went.

It was a rough start, with a tantrum first thing in the morning when he failed to earn a sticker by hitting when he didn’t want to take a bath. I thought maybe I was in over my head. But soon, we had our groove.

I took him to school with 3 stars on his head, gave a sheet of stickers to his teachers, and hoped for the best. I picked him up after school to find a dozen more stickers on his head. He was so proud of himself! His teachers reported an improvement, too.

So why am I telling you all this? Well, part of the plan of success with the Orange Rhino challenge is to tell people what you’re doing so that, if you’re feeling weak, you can call out for help. I’m two days in… we’ve had a few almost tantrums from both of us, but we’ve made it so far. It’s easier because we’re doing it together.

My goal isn’t necessarily a year of no yelling. But it is to earn as many sparkly star stickers as I possibly can each and every day.

To know more about the Orange Rhino Challenge, here’s a website: http://theorangerhino.com/

My little photographer

This weekend, we took a short family getaway. My smart husband saw a deal on a cabin in the woods right as he went to leave for the Ukraine a couple of months ago. (You know, before everything hit the fan) and tasked me to pick a weekend.

Little did I know when I booked that the Uinta Mountains would be hit with an unseasonably early snowfall. Still, we trusted in the warm cabin, and packed and went.

Getting there was a bit crazy, as we squeezed in an eye exam and speech therapy before we left town. But the trip up was peaceful, despite falling snow. We met one of our favorite Short Gut families for dinner on our way through Evanston, Wyoming and then arrived and settled into our cabin just on time for bedtime.

It was so peaceful to sit by the fire, snuggled by my husband, watching the snow fall and the end of a football game. And then, well, the rest of the night wasn’t as peaceful. Patrick didn’t sleep well and was up early, early in the morning.

The snow meant we had to cancel our plans to explore the mountains by ATV and we had to settle for a drive in the car instead. Still, despite the rough start to the day, we had a really nice day out. The mix of autumn leaves and nearly a foot of snow made for stunning scenery. The free range cows preferring to move along roads to avoid snow broke up the drive. And we enjoyed some yummy pizza for lunch before heading back to the cabin. (They even made Patrick a crust-only pizza that, once convinced to try it, Patrick sat and ate for half an hour.)

But for me, one of the highlights of the trip was Patrick discovering my camera. Brian loves photography and with the amazing fall/winter scene, we stopped to take pictures along the way. To keep Patrick entertained in the car, I offered him my camera when we stopped. Before long, I was following along behind him as he sought out the perfect picture. (Just like his Daddy.) It made his day and I find it quite entertaining to see the world from his point of view.