The bruises are back!

The bruises on Jackson's arms were back this week, if you can believe that! Lee called the principal again. He called back and said that the PT thinks the bruises have been matching up to the days where she is standing him.

I spoke with her and asked her about how she is standing him (ie: what stander is she using) and she says she was just putting his braces (headmaster, AFOs, and TLSO)and just holding him up by herself to stand. This lady is pretty old and not in the best shape...why would she even think that she would be able to do this with a kid his size and with his complete lack of tone?! I certainly would never think to try this myself, he is just too big! Even his private therapists (who are young and in great shape) do OT/PT co-treats because he is too big and too floppy for only one person to move around and hold up alone. DUH!

Anyway, I told her not to do that anymore and the principal said that she would have help when she is working with him from now on. It makes me really mad that she is supposedly trained on the proper way to handle disabled children, and that this happened on 3 separate occasions before she figured out that it was her causing his injuries. Lee said he would like to go grab her by the arms hard enough to leave big bruises 3 different times so she can see how it feels...I totally agree.

Lee asked our lawyer friend about what we should do (this was before they figured out it was the PT) and she said we should make a police report. She also called the ombudsman to report it and they gave her the number for the area one office. She called the area one office and they suggested we speak to the principal about it. Ya think?! I guess the head of area one will call her back on it.

Wow!!!

Jackson was really sleepy when he got off the bus from school this afternoon. The baby was crying so I was trying to get his jacket off as I was holding her. It wasn't working so I set Zoe down on his lap (still crying) so I could pull off his jacket sleeves. As his arm came out of his sleeve he used that momentum to get his arm over to the center and he wrapped his arm right around her in a hug! It was really amazing to see, it isn't something he would normally be able to do. I so wish I could have taken a picture, I could hardly believe it.

Of course Zoe was not so impressed. All she wanted was milk!

Shriners appointment today + a cute picture

Jackson saw his orthopedic surgeon at Shriners today. His spine looks the same which is great. His left hip looks the same which is great. His right hip looks worse, but the doctor says it could have just been the way it looked on that one x-ray. And even if it is worse, it is not something that we need to do anything about at this time, just a wait and see type of thing. We go back in 8 months or so for more x-rays.

And here is a very cute picture of my kids. Zoe was wearing mittens because it was pretty cold that day and her little bony fingers get so cold quickly. Isn't it adorable how they are both touching each others head!?

For the first time...

I wish we had a suction machine for Jackson. We were supposed to have gotten one before he was discharged from the hospital but it got overlooked and honestly 99.99% of the time he does not need one anyway.

He was sick last week and we kept him out of school a couple days which I hate to do since he loves it so much. He is feeling better now, but he has lingering mucous which he keeps coughing up...and then swallowing back down, yuck! Besides just the breathing issues this causes, it makes him way more likely to vomit which has its own set of problems. It's heartbreaking to see him trying to clear his throat when it really gets bad. Yesterday I had a choking 5 year old on one side of me and a wailing 2.5 week old on the other side. Yikes!!

He has an especially rough time in the mornings when he first wakes up. It makes it really hard to decide if he is ok to go to school or not since he only has an hour or so from the time we get him up to the time we go wait for the bus. I almost kept him home today, but I am glad I didn't because he did fine once he got done choking up the AM phlegm.

The school PT called today and said that she did not want to stand him up because of all the trouble he has been having. I think that was the first time I actually agreed with her on something. He definitely hasn't been standing at home, partially because he has been gaggier than normal and partially because I am technically not supposed to be lifting him until I get cleared by the doctor (and our loaner lift doesn't work with our stander).

A first...me and two kids running errands!

We did pretty well, I was impressed with myself. Just getting out of the house with 2 non mobile kids is tricky. I first put Zoe in her car seat and put her by the front door. Then I got Jackson in his chair and wheeled him out the back door (where the ramp is) and around to the front door, where I parked him and went in to grab Zoe. I took Zoe to the car and got her in and then came back for Jackson.

First we went to the pet store to get an aquarium filter. (We are downsizing our aquarium to make more room.) I brought our Beco Butterfly Baby carrier and that worked out really well, although I also had the New Native Sling (old faithful!) in the diaper bag just in case. Otherwise I would be stuck pulling a cart with the baby seat in it while pushing Jackson's wheelchair at the same time and have to worry about watching both kids at once...this way one is always stuck to me which is less to worry about.

Then we went to the baby store to get a few more warm one-piece sleepers for Zoe and to look at baby swings because Jackson's old swing doesn't quite work right after all this time in storage. (Didn't buy one though, I didn't like what they had.) It went a little less smoothly than the pet store but it was still fine. Luckily the weather was nice, if it had been raining it would have been hard.

By the time we got home I had 2 sleeping kids. Yay!

What I really want is a way to snap Zoe's car seat onto Jackson's wheelchair somehow. If there are any genius fabricators out there who would like to invent this for us, we would be really grateful! ; )