She Emerges!

Another internet hiatus. Seems to be a new norm for me but not because I WANT to be away, rather because there is so much fun and living and miscellaneous household chores to be done. I've relished my days filled with busy, busy, busy. I didn't realize how much of my energy was being stolen just in recuperating after Sissy's rages. Tired? Still very much so but at least I'm getting good rest. And I'm only twitchy every other day at night so here's to progress!

Speaking of progress, we managed a near miss with a discharge for Sissy. The new psychiatrist at the hospital decided to change her medication and did a direct doc-to-doc conference with the APS review board regarding Sissy's medical care. She won't be discharged on Tuesday but whether or not she'll get another full month is still up for debate. We should get the final score today.

In the meantime, we are actively preparing for discharge, a first for us. I will attend another CFTM on Tuesday followed by a short visit with Sissy. Then on Wednesday we will finally be discussing her case with LIPT. I've already alerted the special education department that there is no way she should be put back into a mainstream classroom after being in a residential classroom since March 8, 2011. Here's hoping that issue will be resolved at the LIPT meeting. Plan B is The Dad and I will continue to discuss and contemplate whether Sissy should be home-schooled for a brief interim to re-acclimate her to public community life.

Lastly, as part of APS requirements for transition, we will be doing weekend TL's including overnight stays. The objective is to show whether or not Sissy is able to transition home successfully or at least with minimal discomfort to all. And if it proves to be a colossal fail, then APS will review that information and will likely approve more time.

New changes (as if mental health never changed) include our IFI team from this summer is a bust. POO! Because that team had it going on in spades, first team to ever have a true idea of what was going on with Sissy and the rest of the family and then to advocate for ALL of us. Moving onward (and hopefully upward), Sissy's CBAY team found a new IFI agency that is also a core provider. We'll be staffing with them soon as well. Here's hoping they know RADs. If not, it will just be a waste of time for all (and more than likely, more finger-pointing at The Dad and me for our inability to correctly parent an un-parentable child.) Sissy still won't qualify for CBAY waiver dollars which puts us in the lurch for providing respite and other community wrap services that will help her. Whatcha gonna do? It was a crap shoot hoping she'd qualify twice.

And why do we care about a core provider? Because the children's local private psychiatrist is no longer accepting med!caid as of the 31st of December. Which means we need a new psychiatrist. Which means in our community, it's the other private psychiatrist in town (and I've met her and we don't "jive" - parent/physician relationships must be successful for a child's health to improve) or the local teach hospital's intern psychiatry team. Uh, yeah. NO. A core provider agency works with a contracted psychiatrist and will be able to staff both AB's and Sissy's cases. Plan B is to find a psychiatry team in the metro area, requiring the four hour round road trip once a month to take both of them to the doctor. It sounds insane, I know, but I'm leaning more toward Plan B. Core Providers through IFI agencies sounds like a second-rate plan because those agencies are always in transition. And all I've got to say to that is "ENOUGH TRANSITION!"

So you see, with all of that transpiring in the course of four days last week, there wasn't much else I had time to do beyond household chores, minor fixes and repairs to the house and of course, quilting!

I promised pictures. I keep my promises.

See this adorable young man?

His dental appliance is working its magic and should be off in time for Thanksgiving. Through commissioned quilts, I've already begun paying off the $900 bill not covered by med!caid.

The Commissioned Quilts:

I plan to make at least two or three more I Spy quilts. Like it? Look for it soon! I'll be posting items for sale on a different site and will link it by the end of the week.

Also Available

Thanksgiving coasters: sets of 8

I'll have pictures of Christmas Coasters up by the end of the week.  Another four sets of 8.
In addition, just in time for Christmas, I will have three or four Christmas Table Runners available.

And what about that Breast Cancer awareness bag?

I'll have three available for purchase and I can make more if there is a demand for them.  I will also be making purple for Pancreatic Cancer awareness.  What to represent another cancer awareness?  Awareness ribbons Just tell me what color you want. (not listed at the link is LGBSA but I will happily make a rainbow bag!)

Heart String Quilt:

I will be making at least two more of these, colors are representative and not exact.  I will be doing a more monochromatic theme with a central diamond color throughout as seen here.

I have plans for much more but that's just a taste to get you salivating, thinking, planning and wondering what you want to purchase for the holidays.  I'm also willing to talk about custom quilts.  Just email!

Here's AB and WG for Halloween as John Lenon and a black dog: (yes I made their costumes too!)