Half a month has gone by... What have I done? I've been stranded on the side of the road. I've been to Columbus once, Logan once, Marietta twice. Athens about every other day. I've been on the phone for hours trying to get information on where to send Mike next yr. I've been trying to get my house under control. I've been to church three times :) I've made cookies, cooked way to much meat loaf for 7 people, and snuggled with my kids. I've watched more episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" than I can count. Totally mind numbing, but, I just love that show:) I've been getting phone numbers and contact information of family's that have had an SDR done.

I've fallen deeper in love with my husband, my children and my God. I've stopped to take a moment, or two to enjoy what I have. Ya know what. Half a month has Flown by...

School Daze.....

So this past Friday, I had a meeting with the staff at Carleton to try and figure out what to do with Mike next yr. It was interesting, but as always a little difficult. This was NOT the IEP meeting, but just a general planning meeting. To see where we go from here. So where do we go from here? Interesting question....

Living where we do, Meigs county, we are intitled to "open enrollment" meaning we can apply to send Mike to any of the schools in our county. That would be Southern, Eastern or Meigs. Meigs is a given because that's the district we live in. Frankly, I'm not happy with the scores I've seen with Meigs. Eastern is the best district, then Southern is a distant second, but both are better than Meigs. So today I have spent on the phone trying to figure out the open enrollment system. I'm not as confused as I was, and have started to understand it, but, it is going to be an interesting spring. Open enrollment starts on April 1, 2010. I need to go to each schools webpage and print off an open enrollment form, fill it out, send it in, with a copy of the 10/11 IEP, and pray for the best.

All this on top of trying to decide when to do Mikes surgery. Hum.... Maybe I've got a bit to much on my plate :) Oh-well, it will all work out, of that I am sure.

SDR....

Um.... Where to start. Well, I guess the beginning is as good a pace as any. About a year and a half ago, while at Children's, a father stopped Bob and I in the hall way and told us about his child. His son was using a walker like Mikes and if we hadn't heard about it there was a surgery out there that had done miracles for his son. It's called a Selective Dorsal Rizotomy. His family had theirs done in St. Lewis with Dr. Parks. (Dr. Parks is kinda the nations top SDR doctor.) So Bob and I started researching it on line. It seemed like Mike would be a good fit for it, so I asked our physical medical doctor, Dr. Klamar, about it. At first he blew the theory off, and after about 3 visits where I brought it up, he finally started talking to us about it. (I will say that it helped when Bob showed interest in it too.) We where pushing for being sent to St. Lewis, to be seen by Dr. Parks, but Dr. Klamar suggested Dr. Kosnic right there in Children's. Dr. Kosnic is a neurosurgon, who worked with Dr. Elton, Mikes first neurosurgon, and Dr. Riffell, Mikes current neurosurgon. Dr. Kosnic is in the same building, 5 floors above Dr. Klamars office. We know a fair number of the staff at Nation Wide Children's. We trust them, but it was actually a BCMH nurse that convinced me that Dr. Kosnic could do it. (Granted some of it was insurance related, but the clincher was when she said that she would let him do it on her!!) She had been one of his surgery nurses, and would have no issues with him working on her own children. All this took about a year. (So that covers 2009)

2010, lets see... Well we have started the process. We meet with Dr. Kosnic on Tuesday Feb. 2, 2010. He has scheduled a MRI for Mike on Feb. 23, 2010. Bob, Greg, Mike and myself will be going up the night before and we will be at the hospital at 7 am. to start the process. Mike will be put under, have the MRI run, and wake up again. Then we go up to Dr. Kosnic's office and have our apt. with him to schedule the surgery. It could be done sometime in March or April. The recovery period is intense. Mike and I will live in Columbus for 6 weeks. Mike will be IN Children's hospital at least 5 days a week. He will have intense PT for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for 6 weeks. Bob will continue to go to work. If it's done during the school yr. Greg will continue to go to school 3 days a week, and I will have to find a sitter the other two days a week. There is a slight possibility that our insurance won't allow Mike to stay at Children's. If that's the case then we will either drive to Columbus 5 days a week for 6 weeks, or Mike and I will get an apt. up there. Either way I will probably get an apt. or something up there because I will need a place to sleep, shower and store my stuff. In all this, I don't want to loose sight of Greg, and his needs. But at this moment, it's not fair, but he has to take a back seat. I don't like it and if someone has an idea of how to change it I'd be more than willing to hear it.

Bob has taken this quarter off from school because there is so much going on. I generally support that, but don't want him to fall behind. Oh and before any of this happened, Bob spent a week in South Korea. It's been an interesting year so far, and it's only just begun.