As you know, we spent yet another day at the Cleveland Clinic this afternoon. Lizze finally got in to see their award winning Headache Clinic. Getting to this moment seems like it took forever and a day but we finally arrived. We we're in the appointment for maybe 15 minutes before the doctor stopped and said,"I think it's best that we just skip to the chase." For the record, it's not usually a good thing when you hear that from a doctor. There are a ton of details but I'm going to cut to the chase as well. Lizze is in bad shape.  Basically, the medications that her local neurologist had her on have completely screwed her body up and we're talking bigtime screwed her body up. She should never…

I got a phone call this morning from the Cleveland Clinic. They we're calling to cancle Lizze's appointment at the headache clinic.  She has been waiting for over 3 months for this appointment. We could reschedule for sometime next year or we could be there at noon today. We went into a stress fill frenzy and scrambled to make arrangements for the boys. Lizze's mom left work and picked up the boys because my parents have the flu staying at their house right now.  We took off for Cleveland like a bat outta hell and are now waiting to be seen.  Needless to so say that this completely throws the entire week off now.  Having said that, Lizze will be seen a few days early. That's a big positive.

My new article is up over at the Childswork blog. I would really appreciate it if you stop by and check it out. Please "Like" it and share it with your friends on Facebook. I would also love to hear your feedback in the comments sections. Thanks again everyone, I really, truly appreciate.   Never Judge a Book by It's Cover

I just can't sleep tonight.  Lizze and I decided to call Elliott off of school again because he's not really eating.  He are lunch yesterday and that's a food thing.  However, all he would eat for dinner was a small dish of yogurt. He's got big bags under his eyes and he's just so incredibly sad.  I have a 6 old little boy with aspergers, asthma, severe anxiety, most likely adhd and now a tree nut allergy.  He's barely eating and is extremely moody.  His little heart is broken over the whole Gavin thing and his anxiety is keeping him from eating because he's afraid something will have nuts in it and he'll get sick and have to use his epipen. That's my best guess is to what's going on. …

We finally got Elliott to eat.  He's munched on things but not willingly. Yesterday, we decided to try him at Cici's Pizza. We met briefly with the manager and asked about the food and they use soy oil for everything. Elliott are 2 pieces of pizza and a bread stick.  That's progress I suppose. Having said that, I'm still worried about him.  He's just so sad all the time. He did ask to go back, so that something, right?

Recently I had the unique opportunity to take a look at another, unique board game called Stop, Relax & Think. This game is from Childswork/Childsplay.

This game is geared towards special needs children and focuses on impulsivity.

In this game, active, children with impulse control issues can learn motor

control, skills to help them relax, how to express their feelings as well as problem-solve. The instructions included in this game also provide information about how this game can be used as both a diagnostic and a treatment tool.

The players answer questions that are designed to make them stop and think, hence the game title.

An example of these questions are as follows:

You think you have more and harder chores than your sister. You don‘t think this is fair. What can you do?

You don‘t understand how to do your math homework and no one is around to help.

As with the previous game I tested and reviewed, I don‘t know that this is meant for home use. I can see this doing very well in a more therapeutic environment.

My kids are considered highly intelligent but they couldn’t really get into this game. As the instructions suggest, you really need some type of moderator to facilitate game play and help with the questions.

Having said that, as with my previous review, this game would be fantastic in a school or clinical setting. In fact, we actually donated the last game to our kids speech therapist and we will do the same with this one as well.

Our speech therapist was so excited to receive this game and it’s something she could use in therapy sessions.

In my experience and opinion, using this game in a more therapeutic environment makes way more sense than using this in the home, especially with younger kids like Elliott and Emmett.

That doesn’t mean that your child wouldn’t benefit from this at home. I think that my kids are maybe a little bit to young.

This would benefit the right people, in the right environment. It’s just not for us, in the home environment..

I will be giving one of these games away. Even if you don‘t think you could use this yourself, win this for your school or local therapist. It’s easy to enter and fun to win.  

This giveaway will run today, November 27, 2012 through midnight, December 5, 2012.

This would make a great gift for a special needs teacher or therapist. With the holidays right around the corner, now is the perfect time to snag gifts like this. Besides, who doesn’t like free?

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I'm actually pretty freaked out right now still and I feel kind of ridiculous but it is what it is. I was in the bathroom...um.....brushing my teeth. There was a bath towel on the floor and Cleo was playing with it.  She lives in the bathroom for some reason so seeing her roll around on the floor is a daily event. I was thinking to myself, man I hope there isn't a mouse under there and I really hope it doesn't run at me and climb up my pants leg... Then I sorta laughed it off like, what are the chances of that happening? Right? Not 60 seconds later, out runs a mouse and it friggin ran up my leg.  It literally ran up the inside of my pant leg. …

Lizze spoke with the school this morning about Elliott's new diagnosis. They we're very cooperative, as I knew they would be.  They also supported keeping him home until we get everything figured out. There is paperwork and they need their own set, as in two, epipens. These would stay at the school at all times.  We have to call the doctor about this because we only have two and those are for home. We spoke with the pharmacy and it's $400+ for two more pens.  Insurance will only cover 1 script per month.  I'm not sure at the moment, how we're gonna work this out.  I think the immunologist will have to fight for it, otherwise, how is he going to return to school? I mean, we can't give them…