Speech Breakthrough, an unexpected IEP, Funky Breathing, and Mama Gut

The exciting and most wonderful new!

I’ve been waiting 8 years to hear my daughter say those 3 little words.  Words I was never sure that I’d hear.  Using her CHAT device, Ellie Bear said “I love Mama”.  There, may have been a few tears.  Okay, a lot of tears, happy tears were shed.

Speech therapist on Ellie quarterly report: we need to meet ASAP for her IEP revision!

A few weeks ago, we received Ellie's quarterly report card.  For those of you who do not have kiddos with special needs, the "grades" are based off of Individualized Education Plan (IEP)'s goals.  You have things like met, continued progress, regression, and N/A.

I was scrolling along beaming with pride because most of her goals were close to being met already.  Then I get to the speech section - no "grades" typed in at all.  Instead, a note to meet with her ASAP.  My heart plummeted as well as the thought  of "if we need to meet ASAP, why didn't she call?".

Panicked, I approached the meeting room with the teacher and SLP with a wicked fast heart rate and mild tremors.  I apparently freaked out for nothing.  We have a new SLP this year and her goals were written by the old SLP at the end of last year.  The new SLP, Mrs. A ,said that these goals are not really appropriate - not that she couldn't maybe meet them, but not the types of things they want to her to accomplish in the Functional Communication Classroom. 

Ellie's teacher wants her annual ARD (the big IEP meeting with all teachers, therapists, vice principal, etc) because her goals are also inappropriate and pretty much met.  She based Ellie's goals off of what her FAC teacher said she could do last year.  For instance, he couldn't tell her exactly how many sight words Ellie knew and said "just a few" or something along those lines.  The FCC teacher, Ms. L, thought a good goal would be 27 sight words.  Well, when she started working with Ellie, she discovered that Ellie already knew over 500 words!  She calculated the new words she has learned since the beginning of the school year and it is already over the 27.  With the introduction of the speech device this year, the teacher is finally able to assess what Ellie truly knows and that may have been why FAC couldn't measure her true progress.  Hence why we need new goals. 

Showing Mama Bear around her classroom

 What is up with these oxygen saturations? and always trust Mama Gut

Two weeks.  That’s how long the Bear has been ill.  I was at Ellie’s school for the Thanksgiving lunch and she was coughing.  Nothing that I normally wouldn’t think too much of, but mama gut told me to take her to the nurse to get a pulse ox reading (this checks the amount of oxygen in the blood.  Normal is 97-100%).  She was hanging out at 92%.  Her inhaler helped her a bit, but she kept returning to the low 90s.  I took her to CCC the next day.  Totally anticlimactic.  I was told she might have mucus plugs in her lungs and is coughing them up. Therefore, coughing is good.  I wasn’t to give her the inhaler unless she was either 1. under 88% oxygen saturations or 2. wheezing.  She started getting better, but then spiked a few fevers off and on during Thanksgiving week.  The day before Thanksgiving, she was a snot machine, which she didn’t have before, but not worrisome.

Then, yesterday morning, her cough was bad and I checked her saturations - 88%.  So we used the inhaler.  I had her checked out at school and same thing.  The inhaler helped a bit.  I was finally called to come pick her up because she was trying to nap on the classroom floor (of course she gets home and is miss energy).  She looked horrible.  Today I took her to CCC and I noticed her lips were turning blue.  She was at 86%, but came up to 91% with the inhaler.  Her lungs had crackles (a sign of fluid in the lungs like with pneumonia).  We are to give her inhaler every 4 hours and start her on Omnicef.  If no significant improvement after 48 hours, she’ll be started on a course of steroids.  If she either 1. can’t keep her sats above 88% with the inhaler or 2. has a >101.5 fever Friday or thereafter, she needs to be seen again.  I think she’ll be fine. 

She's pretty excited because she put her PJs on all by herself
Another milestone today!!!

Is it respiratory or reflux?

Reflex vs. Respiratory - Miss Pukes-A-Lot

Ellie has a history of esophageogastroduodenitis.  That is a fancy way of saying reflux and inflammation of the stomach and upper small intestine.  See, not that exciting, but it does mean the Bear gets to take reflux meds.  Last month, Chicka Boom was puking up her bedtime meds 2-3 x a week.  Usually about 1 hour after dinner and twice it wasn't related to her meds.  Once occurred, on the table at Chuy's.  Its cough, cough, cough, cough, puke.  After 3 nights in a row of not getting her meds, I called CCC.  Of course they don't get back with me. I call GI who calls the CCC for me.  Immediate call back.  My thought is that she needs a reflux med adjustment because back in June, we did a trial of the medication and she randomly vomited and it resolved after restarting the meds.  The docs agreed with me and had the bright idea to put her on cyproheptadine aka Periactin.

Periactin is an interesting medication.  It is a prescription allergy medication (antihistamine similar to Zyrtec)m, but is also used as an appetite stimulant, migraine prevention, and treatment of delayed gastric emptying.  Ellie was on this a few years ago as an appetite stimulant.  Uh huh.  The kid has packed on the weight these past few months.  She doesn't really need to gain anymore.  Anyway, fun fact about antihistamines: they help with nausea.  Histamine is what signals the release of gastric acid in the stomach to break down food.  If you block the release of histamine, there is less gastric acid to reflux back into your esophagus.  It seems to be helping.

I think that is all for now!  I am looking forward to hearing more of those "I love Mamas" and a future visit from my parents and my brother, Matt.

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