Friday, July 30

The last two days have been pretty busy. Yesterday started with our home nurse coming at 8:30 am to draw blood for labs. Then at 9:00 am the team from Early Intervention came to do Collin's evaluation. The team was the Service Coordinator, a Physical Therapist, and a Speech Therapist. The evaluation took about three hours. In the end, it was determined that Collin does qualify for some services, but since we are going back to the hospital on Monday for his next round of chemo, he will be put on hold for the time being. He is in the system now though, and they will come re-evaluate him when he is finished with the rest of his treatments so that the services can begin. It was interesting to see how Collin did on each of the tests they used to determine his level of functioning. Overall it seems he is doing pretty well; in most of the areas he has deficits, he is only about four to five months behind where he should be. That accounts for the time he has been sick and hospitalized, and says to me that he hasn't gone backwards as a result of his illness, but rather just stalled for a little while. I think that with time and effort, he will be able to gain what he missed, and move forward. The other wonderful thing to see during the eval was how Neya handled everything. She sat by Collin's side for most of it, and was very involved with helping him, encouraging him, cheering for him, and answering questions. By the end of the eval, the team members felt that Neya has a future as a therapist! It was so heartwarming to see how the bond that Neya and Collin share will help get him through this challenging time. She is a great big sister!


Today Collin had his last outpatient OT and PT sessions before he goes back to the hospital. He worked hard and had fun, and we expected him to fall asleep as soon as we got in the car to come home. He had other ideas though, and stayed awake the whole time. He had a great lunch and dinner today, and ate well at both meals. I tried to get him to take a nap this afternoon, but he wanted no part of sleeping then either. We went for a walk since the day was so beautiful, which he seemed to thoroughly enjoy. This evening he enjoyed playing with the stethescope; he puts the earpieces around his neck and puts the other end on his chest, just like the doctors do when they examine him. He held the bottle of eye drops, and when asked where they go, he pretended to put them in his eyes. He also likes to pretend to take his temperature with the temporal thermometer. It is so cute, and funny, to see his pretend play. He also seems to be talking more in the last few days; tonight I took him dowstairs and told him it was time to say "Night, night." Right away he said "na na" in the same sing-song tone of voice I had used.