Arianna spent summer of 2012 at camp with the daycare she was attending. She got to go on allot of different field trips to parks, the zoo, museums, karate class and more. We didn't do much hyperbaric oxygen therapy sessions this summer as we had pretty much drained our financial resources earlier in 2012, but Arianna still continues to improve little by little.
So, for the first half of her 3rd grade year she was totally mainstreamed in class with her friends and barely visited the ASD room at all. They were pushing her more and more to be independent and to be responsible for following along in the classroom and all other events at school. This made me so very happy as this was my main goal in this journey, for her to become a typical 8 year old girl but I was also concerned with changing schools, routines, making new friends....a ton of change which isn't always great to deal with.
Halloween time was allot of fun this year. Arianna chose her own costume and got to trick or treat downtown as well as at the Detroit Zoo. She's been doing great at school and her homework is done almost totally independent without much help from me. She can read, write, do math and is awesome at spelling words. She also has made some best friends the last few years and even more in just the last few months of 3rd grade. All the children at her current school were being prepared for Arianna to leave after the holiday break and they each wrote her letters and notes wishing her well and that they would miss her. Yes... I cried allot going through each of them to see how much my little girl was liked and thought of... it really meant allot to us both.
We attend a Santa brunch every year and look forward to it since preschool. It's for all children in the special education from our district schools. I can say for the first time since Arianna was 4 years old, we no longer "fit" this event. Although we are told we will always be invited to come, Arianna is one of very few children that started the same school district who has improved. I see allot of the same children and parents every year and each year I see the children the same or worse off than they were before. No improvements, no changes just "there". It saddens me to know that people give up so easily when things get tough. Trying to heal your child is draining both emotionally and financially. It will test and/or dissolve relationships or marriages and can be very easy to want to toss in the towel and give up. I'm SO glad that I didn't do that...I knew I couldn't. If I had stopped trying and researching and begging doctors I could afford to follow protocols that I developed from staying up for days on end searching for answers, I wouldn't have the sweet, social, happy, smart and mostly independent daughter that I do today.
Christmas break I spent trying to prepare Arianna for getting on a new bus and going to a totally foreign school with all new people. In the months prior to her transfer, I had meetings a few times with both teams from both schools... me and a room full of teachers, speech therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, the new principal and resource room supports. The crazy thing is that after all these years of dealing with IEP meetings and school staff... it was me who was telling this room full of 15 or more people what they need to do for my child instead of what I experienced when Arianna was 18 months old, in a room full of whoever they were telling me that there was NOTHING that could be done for her.
January 7th was the first day at her new school. Prior to this we gave Arianna a tour of the new place, all the people she would need to know, where her room and desk were, the gym and cafeteria and so on. Lets just say that no matter how much prep work we did, it was still difficult. The first few weeks were terrible to say the least. She was emotional, anxious, crying and we didn't even attempt homework. All we did was what we could to make it through a day and night without both falling apart. But as week two and week three came along, so did the adjustments.
It's only been 6 weeks at the new school and Arianna was greeted and accepted by all her new classmates. She's made new friends, does fairly well getting around the new layout she's not used to maneuvering herself but we are thankful that her old school sent a para professional she knows along with her and they are keeping her there until the end of this school year.
There are some issues with the larger class sizes, more noise and the occasional off day, but with Arianna in a regular classroom following the same curriculum except for a modified math and reading program, she will now be able to receive a high school diploma which was not possible if she did not get to the point she is at today.
This is still a process to help improve the last of the damage done by all the toxins she was subjected to almost 9 years ago when she was born from vaccines and other environmental pollutants. Comprehension and independent thoughts and conversation are the last areas we are working on. These are the areas of her brain which were hit the hardest so they will take the longest to heal. I hope to be able to do more hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy with her over the summer break to help her brain heal more as well as some extra intensive one on one therapy for reading comprehension and interactive speech.
Will try to update a little more often as to how this year progresses for her and any new improvements or developments. God Bless!
