One final summer hurdle

Aug 23, 2011

Over this summer, we’ve had some very long, hard days. We’re now finished with our travelling both to and from Cincinnati and to and from Marysville. However, for all of the hours we’ve spend for Nathan, some of the most stressful came today.

CP Clinic was created so that families could see all of the different doctors/departments in one day. Up to now, it hasn’t been the best experience for us, but today wasn’t nearly as bad. It was still a 3 ½ hour appointment, seeing specialists from occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, nutrition, developmental disabilities, orthopedics, and care coordination.

Of course our managing physician, the doctor who Nationwide Children’s, brought up to start the CP program, has come and gone, after only seeing her twice, but such is life. Several of the others know Nathan well, the OT and PT are our usual therapists, and the speech therapist was the one who worked with Nathan during his bout in the hospital a few years back.

This makes things nice if Nathan isn’t having a good day, knowing what he can do and not judging him on a one-time performance. This appointment often steers what treatment/services Nathan will be eligible for and influence how things flow for the rest of the year. Nathan seems to handle things well, at least for the first couple of hours, before hunger and longing for a nap kicks in, and it seems like all the therapists want to get in first before the doctors start pulling, stretching, poking the way they do.

At the end of the appointment, we’re all exhausted. We’re glad it’s only once a year, as I don’t think we could handle it any more often than that. We should all sleep well tonight, and with a little more ease than after last year’s meeting.

I’d like to say that I planned the delay in posting with the appointment today. The truth is, we’re all still recovering from our travels and enjoying the one week we have before school starts up again. In our minds, that’s still five days away, and we’re savoring every hour left before things crank back up, yet again.

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