Today began as the last several days have,getting the kids ready for school and trying my best to push through some early morning problems i am used to.With my pain issues the morning is tough because of the current dosage of my medicine is still on a 12 hour dosage schedule that just does not work.I addressed this with my pain clinic doctors and they made a mistake on the change that forced the pharmacist to revert to the prior dosage after an unsuccessful attemp to explain to the pain clinic doctors the problem with the new presciption.What they had done was wrote the script for an unavailable dosage,and for some reason were unable to come up with a solution with current available dosages,so they reverted it to the prior months dosage to simplify it for themselves.The problem i have is the reason they had changed it to a different dosage in the first place was the 12 hour dosage does not work,it wears off after around 8 or 9 hours and the last 3 hours or so are so difficult to endure it is hard to explain.twice a day the medicine wears off to the point where i am actually crying out in pain and sobbing.I try my best to control it with heat and rest,but it is becoming very hard to put up with.The nice N.P.at the pain clinic actually said to the doctor right in front of me that she has never known the 12 hour dosage to work for anyone.So i am very frustrated that they just continue to leave it the same 12 hour dosage for another two months until i have another office visit to again explain,probably to another new resident doctor who has never seen my file,that i need the dosage changed to an 8 hour interval to maintain pain control to a level that i can at least function at some level.These pain control meds are strictly controlled substances and the pain clinic is under tremendous pressure due to risks of abuse involved with the large amounts their office prescibes to their clients.We as patients are closely monitored and screened to weed out people who have track records of diversion of meds for criminal intent and still they are subject to high malpractice insurance coverage and intense scrutiny by Federal DEA officials.The problem with this is patients with real issues like mine sometimes get sidelined temporarily to ensure all other avenues have been persued prior to any increase in dosage.I am confident the problem will eventually be addressed and solved,but in the months it takes to get there i am allowed to,in my humble opinion,"swing in the breeze "so to speak.Anyways,i will move on to other subjects as i am sure readers are bored of me speaking about personal medical issues.
In other family news i had a parent teacher conferance yesterday with Jeromy's 6th grade team of teachers,and i must say it went much better than the last meeting which i spoke of in a prior post.There was alot to address due to the fact they are trying to get a proccess going to test Jeromy for learning delays that may be caused by some kind of a undiagnosed learning disability or impairment he may have.The process has steps in place they are required to follow which include an 8 week period in which they employ different interventions to try to address the issues they see as his major impairments.His reading and writing skills are way behind grade level,and his comprehension of science,social studies and math are also behind.The team brought some great ideas on how to move forward,but the one thing i was sad to hear is that retention may be unavoidable at this point.He is failing four subjects and two or more means automatic retention.Our only option to at this point to avoid this is to get him labeled learning disabled by the end of the year and get services started.This would allow him to move ahead with his class and recieved support services at the same time.This is my hope as the best option for Jeromy,as i believe social interaction with his peers is important and he would be embarassed if retained.I will support him and advocate for him with the district to ensure he recieves all available recources to be a successful student.We arte very lucky to live in one of the first cities with the "say yes to education" program which allows students who maintain an 82 average to go to college for four years at any institution they enroll in and are accepted.This includes all students in the district regardless of income,and is privately funded.
Matthews current situation is unchanged at this point,i am awaiting the letter from the district for his next hearing in front of the district panel in charge of IEPs.An IEP (individual education plan)is for learning disabled children like Matthew who have diagnosed medical disabilities that affect their learning,in Matthews case a diagnosis in the autism spectrum,specifically PDD-NOS.This means pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified,and is one of the higher functioning autism diagnosis from what i in my limited capacity as a parent and not a professional, understand it to be.I get my information through experiences as a parent with a child with this diagnosis,not through educational degree and job choice,which can be restrictive in scope as i am only focused on my child,while someone with a degree and a wider group of people and experiences to gather their information from may not agree with my opinion.They intend at this next meeting to declassify Matthew and mainstream him into regular student status with no support services at all.I am not in agreement with this,as i believe his current success is related directly with the services he recieves. If those services are removed his academic and social abilities will suffer and he may really be subject to poor progress if not maybe even regression of his acedemic and social abilities.I will provide all the tools for his success that he needs,and will bring all information and recources at my disposal to this meeting to show not only is it neccesary to continue support services for him,but it is absolutely essential to his success as a student.
The pictures i am posting today are of me in my trout fishing gear,before i went out for a few hours to stream fish on a friends 14 private acres on one of the best trout streams in the state.The trip ended up being much shorter unfortunately,as my back issues forced me to cancel and return home before i even wet a line.I will post pics of my catch when i do get to fish,which i hope will be very soon.The other picture is a necklace that a friend of mine from the deadnet chatroom that she made using my favorite stone,a bloodstone.Her excellent work is a privlige to wear and i appreciate it very much.Let me say a public thank you to my friend and fellow deadhead "Geeky Mcsquare"a very kind and talented sister who generously made this for me after hearing me casually mention it was my favorite in a routine conversation.I thought this was very kind and i am grateful for the very cool gift,and will wear it with pride.Thank you again for this handcrafted piece of quality work geeky!
The national spotlight politically today is the historic treaty signed yesterday by Russia and the United Stated reducing the collective nuclear stockpiles by one third.Many conservatives are decrying this as a dangerous and foolish move on the part of President Obama,and are using it as yet another thing to portray him as week on national defense.Even though he has the full support of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs the conservatives are saying this will endanger the nation.As the next election draws nearer by the day,the atmosphere in Washington remains sour and no cooperation on any legislation is possible in the near term.After the healthcare debate sucked the oxygen out of the room it is very unlikely anything will get acomplished before the elections in November.Another Supreme Court Justice anounced his pending retirement,Justice John Paul Stevens,the leader of the Liberal wing of the court.This will probably have no affect on the outcomes of cases as the sharply divided court will still remain slanted to the conservative side for the forseeable future.There is,coming up very soon,a decision coming related to incorporation of the second amendment under the fourteenth amendment,applying it to the states.It is widely expected to come down in favor of incorporation due to the conservative dominance of the court.This is not the outcome that progressives or liberals want,and i imagine they will decry it as bad juriceprudence as they did with the last decision related to the second amendment,the Heller decision.This decision established an individual right to bear arms,a horrible developement in the eyes of progressive liberals.When the decision related to the incorporation argument is cemented by the court,frivilous infringments on possesion of personal firearms for individual defense by State and Local Governments will be unconstitutional and therefore illegal under the law.The Supreme Court has for decades practiced what is called "selective incorporation"of the bill of rights to control its effects on,in my humble opinion,the power of the Federal Government.This coming decision,if it falls in favor of incorporation,will be a huge victory to individual liberty in an era of huge growth of the size of government,and also very sweeping changes in our governments power over individual citizens rights to privacy and a free press.I will end here for now,until next time thank you for reading. spacewalker
