I took Jimmy to his follow up with his developmental pediatrician this afternoon. Jimmy is making progress, but still is most delayed in expressive and receptive language. The attention still isn't coming along as we would like, so we switched medication. He also is re-writing his recommendations for therapy to include physical therapy and 15 hours of ABA a week. At this point, we are up to 8, with 6 of those out of pocket. Kaiser will get a copy of the letter and I will ask his regular doctor to write requests for all of it. We will likely get PT through Kaiser, since they have their own, but I full expect them to kill speech therary and occupational therapy again. ABA is a non-starter, but I am going to ask anyway. Kaiser will say no. They always do. This time, I am going to fight.
I am going to fight for everything. How can a physician make recommendations for treatment and not have a single one followed through? The school has no obligation to incorporate the physicians recommendations for his medical care into his school. They are there to education him, not to provide therapeutic services. Except these ST, OT, and PT are fairly commonly provided in schools, just not to the degree that is needed for a child with Jimmy's disability. ABA, which is available in Fairfax, isn't available here as part of the curriculum for him. Maybe because autism is a gray area that impacts both health and learning - that has to be why the buck gets passed back and forth. It has to stop somewhere. Doesn't it?
In the meantime, I have the wish list. Everything that needs to be done to help Jimmy. Now I have to figure out how I can make those wishes real.
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