School, Appointments and Misc.

Ben seems to be doing much better at school. His school nurses, aids, and teacher all seem to be getting to know him better and his likes/dislikes. Ben is definitely a fan of the muscle room (a room inside that has a trampoline, swing and ball pit), recess and painting time. He still has trouble when he leaves the muscle room and recess and has a meltdown when he goes back to his room. His teacher is thinking of adding an additional gross motor activity for him during his day since he is such a huge fan of them. We now have all days at school staffed. Monday was just filled with a new nurse and although it will take a lot of time for her to learn about Ben and all his little quirks... I think she is up for the job. I'll probably just continue to go to school with her and be in the observation room for a few more times.

Ben has yet to put on his cochlear implant at school. He is very controlling about his implant and will listen to ONLY what he wants to. It is selective listening at its best. Right now Ben will put his implant on for a few toys, his own voice when he is wearing his Passy Muir Valve and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (he is OBSESSED with this show and I'm not exaggerating. He does his sign for wanting TV and when I sign, "No TV, you have to wait", Ben throws a fit. Once he calms down, he asks again and the cycle repeats itself the entire time we are in the house. At least he is in school M-Th in the morning so that cuts down on his TV requesting time). I think school is still very overwhelming to Ben and the addition of his implant is just too much right now. And if Ben doesn't want to wear it, even holding both his hands won't keep it on... he knows how to rub his head on us and pop it off. Hopefully in due time he will start wearing it. He is making the speech therapist that works with him at school be very creative in finding things to do with him. He is wearing his implant for his speech therapist at Childrens though. Ben, Ben, Ben, what are we going to do with you!

Ben had a renal ultrasound and a VCUG (barium is inserted into his bladder via a catheter and they fill him up and watch to see if he refluxes). He did reflux up to both kidneys, but it was very minor... only a grade one. Ben use to have grade four on both sides but he had a defulx injection to help correct this problem. We are meeting with his Urologist on Friday to discuss the results. Hopefully Ben can get another defulx injection when he goes under in October to try and open his nasal passages again. Ben's ultrasound looked good, we were just told that they found a cyst on his spleen. His primary doctor didn't seem too concerned but told us to ask his Urologist about this too and probably have a repeat ultrasound in 3-4 months.

Here are some pictures of my little artist and his wonderful aid (Mason Schools call them Parapro's) Helga. Poor Helga gets more paint on her than Ben puts on the paper. She tries to wear a smock to protect herself, but Ben is good at finding the uncovered spots. And after Ben is done painting, he needs a car wash as his teacher would say.