No School This Week

Molly was supposed to start school today, but her head teacher, and one of the two aides have had a death in the family.  We have decided to postpone Molly starting school until next week.  We were concerned that the students will be out of sorts this week with both their head teacher and one of the aides absent.

It is disappointing to have to wait since the school year will end in early June, but we also want Molly to have success and feel safe once she starts.  She doesn't seem disappointed at all and is taking it in stride :).

We are continuing to search for a wheelchair for Molly and another OI family just posted that they have a preschool size chair they would be willing to give us.  I am waiting to hear whether another family needs it more and whether the dimensions are appropriate for Molly.  We are also continuing to wait and see about getting Molly a chair through the help of Chicago Shriners, which would be ideal because it would be made specifically for her.

Molly is complaining of pain in her right Tibia and we have started using her bone stimulator again.  She is doing some standing and walking even with this pain, but we are trying to be a bit conservative.

Preschool starts next Tuesday

Molly was supposed to start school yesterday, but due to snow on Monday we weren't able to have a meeting with the staff to discuss the plans for Molly in case of an emergency.  

We received 2-3" of snow on Monday, which shut the whole town down.  

We had our meeting yesterday and Molly will start next Tuesday.  There is a hiring freeze at the moment, so the teacher who has been coming to our house will be acting as Molly's Aide possibly through the end of the year.  There will be 4 adults in the classroom when Molly starts.  The class is made up of 7 tuition students and 4 hearing impaired students.  There is a head teacher, Ms. Lynn, and two language facilitators that are there to help the hearing impaired children interact with the other students.  The teachers all wear headsets that they can "beam" directly into the hearing aids of the student they are working with.  Their plan is to have Molly rotate around the room and that she will not have one particular aide, but rather have the teachers tag-team responsibility throughout the day.  

I am very nervous about Molly entering the class, but I feel very good about the intentions and capabilities of the staff.  It is going to be a learning process.  I will be going with Molly and mostly hiding in a corner until we all feel that the staff is ready to keep Molly safe and know how to handle her.  I have encouraged them to tell me when it is time for me to leave the classroom - I don't know who will be ready first: me, Molly, or the staff!  I am really excited for Molly to start.  It is going to be so wonderful for her to be a part of a group.  

Molly is doing well healing, but seems to be having pain in her Tibias (lower legs).  She is standing for seconds at a time, but soon complains that her knees and/or lower legs hurt.  It has been hard having her hurt and not able to stand/walk after such a long time.  

We are now trying to find a way to get Molly a wheelchair that will work for her at school.  Our insurance will not pay for a manual chair since they bought the power chair.  I have made several phone calls and I am still waiting to hear back from a few places about either getting a demo chair at a discount or possibly going to Shriner's to get a chair made for her - which would obviously be my first choice.  The chair that she tried out at the conference that would work perfectly costs around $4300!!!  That is a lot of bake sales!  We are really hoping that Shriner's can help us find the funding to get the chair.  This would allow her to get around the classroom and reach the tables.