I hope this post finds everyone doing well and in good health.
We have had an exciting week. It was my last week working nights. I will miss my friends at St. Joseph's, but it is time to move on. Everyone wanted me to stay and become a staff nurse there, but I miss emergency medicine and I want to go to the emergency room.
I was given an unofficial offer at Scottsdale healthcare - Shea campus. The nurse manager has to complete the paperwork for the official offer, so I should start the week after next. In the mean time, I will work with a Registry nursing firm doing per diem/temp work. I may just stay with them for a while because I will only be able to get 36 hours a week while I am on orientation. Plus, it is a good way to keep up my med-surge nursing skills up. And the pay is really good. The hourly rate there is just about the time and a half rate anywhere I would work as a staff nurse. And I would not have to sign up ahead of time - I would tell them which days I want to work, and I could refuse any assignment they offer me if I don't like a particular hospital or floor.
Bob's IEP was today. He qualifies to remain in the preschool. He has come a long way since this time last year. He is talking in complete sentences, although they are short sentences. He is using verb+ing words. He does not, however, ask questions -except for "Where my blankie go?" when he is looking for his blanket. He still is not always age appropriate with his social interactions. His pincer grasp also is still not properly developed - which is needed to hold a pen/pencil/crayon properly. (Much to Bob's dismay, at the OT's suggestion, all of Bob's crayons are now broken - broken (small) crayons are difficult to hold with a fisted grasp and must be held properly) He can draw vertical and horizontal lines, but he does not even come close to approximating a circle or square. Markers are out of the question as they are long and Bob holds them with a fisted grip. He winds up just crushing the tip.
I discussed the option of the pre-kindergarten program for him next year. The pre-kindergarten program is tuition based (I would have to pay for it). There is one instructor for 13 children - so no one would be available for one-on-one time with Bob. The teacher is not certified (usually has an associate's degree). The pre-kindergarten program is run by a community education program - not the school district. And Bob would only get thirty minutes of OT and thirty minutes of speech therapy a week instead of the 600 minutes combined he gets now. Needless to say, Bob will be in Preschool for about three years total. I am not going to pay for Bob to get less services than he has now (unless he miraculously does not need services next year - then I would gladly pay for the pre-K program). Of course the fact that they love Bob and want him to stay with them had nothing to do with them convincing me that Bob needed to stay with them.
After watching an episode of Star Trek, Jim asked Bob if when he got bigger, if he wanted to go up in the sky and go to other planets like on Star Trek. Bob's reply was "No - there are no trains on other planets". He still plays with his train table every day. Usually he plays with it for a few minutes before school and when he comes home from school. There is a train table at the school which Bob plays with every day. They were not surprised when I told them his first sign when we were teaching him sign language (before he could talk) was train. He is going to be Thomas for Halloween. I have the costume hanging up in the package where he can see it so he can get used to the idea of wearing it. About a week before Halloween I will take it out of the package and hang it up so he can get used to the way it feels, smells (air out that plastic bag smell), and looks. We did not do that last year with Tow Mater and Bob took some time to warm up to his Halloween costume. Although now he is pretty excited over the fact that he is going to be Thomas for Halloween.
We went to K-mart and Bob was on Jim's shoulders when we were leaving. At the exit, they had a Halloween figure that looked scary and said "Boo" and then something funny. The figure then picked his head off of his body. Poor Bob was terrified. He was not hearing what the thing said. The thing was just scary. He turned Jim's head and said "No like it here, we have to leave" and started crying. Jim did not even see the creature. All he knew was that his head was turned to the exit and he was instructed to leave. It was a topic of conversation all evening. We explained to Bob that it was a make-believe statue and that real things cannot take their heads off of their bodies like that make believe statue. He told us how he did not like it and it made him scared and he cried.
Q's nose still looks okay as long as I squirt saline into it at least daily. It is not "normal" and I don't think it will be "normal" ever again, but I think it looks a lot better. He is not a young dog anymore.
Jim is nearly completely back to his previous insane workout schedule. Depending on the day of the week, Jim is at the gym from one to two hours. It does help him deal with Bob though. He needs to work out to keep up with Bob. He still carries Bob on his shoulders to and from the schoolbus. It is about a 2/10 of a mile walk to where the school bus picks up Bob, so that in and of itself is a workout.
That is all I have to blog on for now. I hope everyone is doing well.
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