Blue Roses

Wheeeee! My lovely advisor fixed the boo-boo that put me in the 8-10pm lab on Thursdays. Everyone knows that I don't go to night classes. <.g> I'm back in the 6-8, where I belong. Yay for Kathi!!

I didn't go to work today. I know, I'm horrible. But I just couldn't do it. Kim pissed me off so many times on Monday, I don't think I could have faced her without bursting into tears, ripping into her, or screaming. None of which would have been good in front of my babies. Okay, first, I'm writing up the note for the parents. I ask a simple question. "Kim, what are you doing for closing today?" Blank look. "I didn't know I was doing closing this session." My turn for a blank look. "This session? This is the same session as last week. Remeber how for the first 2 sessions, Jane did opening and I did closing? Now for the last two sessions, I do opening and you do closing." Dumb look. "Oh. Well, I guess I'll read your book and review the day." Which, BTW, turned into her reading the book and doing nothing, leaving me to do closing, too.

Then, in opening, A was leaning towards S's DynaVox. He has an impulse problem that generally means he tries to talk with the device. We ask who's voice it is, ask who uses it, he usually stops. Kim actually reached over and yanked him back to sitting by pulling on the back of his shirt. A almost burst into tears. "Don't pull my shirt," he wailed. "You don't do that!" Jane and I were horrified - she could have hurt him, any number of things could have happened. That was such a bad thing to do. i felt so bad for him.

Then the kicker. During the art project, R spaced out. I mean a full 20 seconds, staring out without blinking, unresponsive space out. I'm, of course, afraid it was a seizure - 20 seconds is unacceptable. it was terrifying. So I asked Janet if R had a history of seizures, she said not to her knowledge. He kind of did the same thing in the ball pit later, but for much shorter times. So at the end of the day, I walk over to where Kim is standing with R and his mom. Kim, who wasn't in the room when it happened, was trying to explain and bungled it horribly. I asked his mom if he'd ever had a history of seizures, she said no. I explained what happened, and that I had been concnered and curious. She said he'd had Benedryl the night before, I agreed that was liekly the cause, but I wanted her aware of the situation, and then headed off to M's mom who was asking me questions, so I didn't quite get to close with R's mom, which I regret. The kids leave, and Kim, Jane and I are walking down the hall back to our room. Kim was like, "You know, I don't think you should have said that word, seizure, to the mom. I talked to Janet about it, and she said we shouldn't because we're not doctors. So you shouldn't have said the s-word." The S-WORD! Since when is seizure a swear word?!?! I explained, as calmly as I could, that I had asked if he had a history, because that's something I need to know. Janet hadn't been aware of one, but she never treated him. His mom would know. Jane backed me up. I never once tried to diagnose him, I just asked if he had a history! She then had the audacity to say that "Seizure kids" would tell you if something was wrong. SEIZURE KIDS! My, wasn't I surprised to find out Josh was a SEIZURE KID. I was incensed. No one deserves to be labeled as a disability. Good God in heaven, I almost smacked there and then. Voice quavering with fury, I told her not to call them seizure kids. She's like, "Kids with seizures, whatever." BITCH! AUGH!!! Janie drove me home and we shrieked about her stupidity the whole time.

So, yeah, I couldn't do it. I don't know how I'm going to last three more days. My mom backed me up fully on the R situation - if it was Josh, she'd want to know if something was up. Yeah, it probably was the Benedryl. It can totally knock a kid out. But wouldn't you rather be safe than sorry? This is a kid's health and safety we're talking about!

Okay, I have to calm down. I have to see her again in 12 hours, and it'll take me that long to steel myself to it. She just drives me crazy. One summer at LADSE and a secondary ed teaching degree makes her an expert? I've been Josh's sister for 13 years, but I don't claim to be an expert, even with him. On R's first day, I didn't know how to handle the situations. I'm not always sure of what to do, and I don't pretend that I do. I'm still learning, even with all of my experiences. But if you ask Kim, she knows how to do everything. Because every kid with special needs is the same, obviously.

Bitch.