Bad day in the Cohen house...

what a day thursday was...still is for me because I'm awake at work and won't sleep till Friday night...so Thursday is still going on for me! Hooray! Why was it such a bad day? Well, it started out with Aaron having an evaluation from early intervention. It's sort of a long story...and I didn't post anything about it until I knew if we were going to be needing the services or not...I wanted to wait and hear what the experts said.



It started a while ago...I noticed that Aaron was still a very floppy baby and needed lots of support when held. I started looking at pics of Charlie at the same age and realizing how little Aaron was doing in comparison. At Aaron's 4 month checkup, his pediatrician started asking me if he does this, no...does he do this, no...can he do this, no...that's kind of how our conversation went. So he did his exam and told me to take him to a neurologist because he was delayed and he was worried about his hypotonia (low muscle tone). I was upset...another Dr. appointment,a nother specialist, another referral to call in, another co-pay, etc. I made the neuro appointment (7/13/09) and mentioned all of this to Hallie's mom Abby. She suggested I call Child-link/Early intervention and get on the list for them to come and assess him. I didn't know I could do this, nor did I know that this service existed...but it does and the whole process was rather quick. So our formal evaluation was today, and the woman certainly feels that Aaron is delayed physically and that he is hypo tonic. She recommended that he receive PT services and the therapist should be calling us next week. So that started our day. Not a huge deal but I am upset about the whole thing. I want him to stop having doctor appointments, I am trying to cross things off my list of things to do, not add to it. But we'll do what he needs, and help him in any way we can so that he can play and develop appropriately for his age. Their goal is that he's no longer delayed at 2 years of age.

So then, we had a GI appointment. No big deal, just long and full of waiting. They changed his meds which makes me nervous...we have a good thing down now and I worry that changing what works will make it not work...but these are the GI "experts" so I am hoping they know what they are doing. The one med needs to be compounded so he won't get started on them till Saturday at the earliest.

So after several hours at CHOP, I picked up a very cranky Charlie from school and we headed home. I was getting the kids settled, trying to feed Aaron his cereal/fruit combo that he now loves and opens his mouth for...Charlie was freaking out, Aaron was screaming because I hadn't actually put any food in his mouth yet, and the phone rang. It was Alex...oh great, he gets to hear the chaos that is our life at 5pm every night. Our conversation went like this:

Me: "Hello"
Alex: "Hi, how are you?"
Me: "ok, just a little overwhelmed with both kids freaking out, I need to make dinner and get ready for work still, oh and both kids are currently screaming, did I mention that?"
Alex: "It's about to get worse"
Me: "oh yeah, why, are you going to be late and I have to go to work late?"
Alex: "they let me go"
Me: "what do you mean, who let you go....oh shit, you're kidding me, why? When? How? WHAT?!"...now comes the crying, the total freakout.....

So yeah, the evening began with news that Alex lost his job again.
If anyone reading this wants to send Alex an encouraging comment or email or facebook message, I'm sure he would appreciate it...also if anyone knows of anyone hiring in the city who doesn't mind that he's incredibly hard working and talented, but visually impaired...please pass us the information!