Early Intervention...

Instead of continuing to post about spring break, I thought I would give an update on Juliana. I will get around to posting the rest of spring break, eventually.

Juliana will be having an endoscopy on April 19th. One of the 2 gastroenterologists that we see recommended doing one, while the other said it was not needed. After discussing the options with Ryan, and Peggy, our feeding therapist, Ryan and I are going to go ahead and have it done. I was on the fence with my decision, because I hate the idea of sedating my 11 month old, but we do want to make sure that we have explored all possibilities of why she is not "thriving". Please keep us in your prayers next Monday.

This past Friday, Juliana had her evaluation for Early Intervention. Peggy had given me an overview of how it would play out, but unless you've sat through one, you really don't know what to expect.

Four therapists arrived at our house at 1 PM on Friday- speech, occupational, developmental, and physical. Fortunately, one of them was Peggy, who ironically is also an Early Intervention evaluator. They proceeded to ask Ryan and I questions and try to get Juliana to perform certain tasks. I liked all of the evaluators, they were really good with Juliana, but I liked Peggy (for obvious reasons) and Sara the occupational therapist the best. After they all finished filling out their forms, our Service Coordinator arrived and that's when the discussion of the findings happened.

Each therapist spoke, told us the percent deficit that Juliana had, and what they recommended to get her on track. I have to say, I was overwhelmed. I knew Juliana was behind, but I didn't know she was behind in so many areas. Listening to each of them talk, I felt like I was drowning and I could feel myself fighting to control myself from crying. Each evaluator was quick to reassure us that she can overcome this and get caught up, but I felt overwhelmed, and still feel overwhelmed, and maybe a bit depressed.

At the conclusion of the meeting, it was determined that Juliana will receive speech therapy 2x's a week (feeding and speech- she's behind in some verbal things she should be doing), occupational therapy 1 x a week, and physical therapy 1 x a week. So if you count that up, that's therapy 4 days a week. How in the world are we going to get all that in while I'm still working?!? Unfortunately, I have to work, because my insurance is way better than Ryan's, and covers more for Juliana and all her doctors. This week we will get the call about scheduling all these therapies, and I will have to adjust our schedules accordingly.

I do feel like now I have done basically everything to get Juliana the help that she needs. I'm exhausted from the battle, but I need to gain strength for this next round. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to complain. I'm happy that we are able to help my little girl, I just am very overwhelmed.