|
| |
The Windmill Project Midwest Area Newsletter
May 1, 2001
Hey…Have You Heard?
"Fact Sheet 2000 Third Party Billing: Coming To A School Near You." is
available through ARC MN. To receive a copy, call 651-523-0823 or
1-800-582-5256. Their web site address is www.arcminnesota.com
"Billing For IEP/IFSP Services" is available through PACER Center. Call
952-838-9000 or 1-800-537-2237. Their web site is www.pacer.org
Both fact sheets are free to parents of children with special needs. The fact
sheets are very similar, so you may not need both. I found them both very
informative about parent options, as well as easy to read and understand.
BRIEF SUMMARY: The school, by law, must request information about insurance, but
cannot require parents to provide that information. And before a school can bill
private insurance or MA they must have your signed consent. You are allowed to
give your consent and then later change your mind. You are allowed to consent
for them to bill for one service and not another, for example: they could bill
for therapies but not PCA services or vice versa. But you cannot give consent
for them to only bill MA and not bill your private insurance.
With the school year winding down and our thoughts on the enjoyable activities
of summer, it might be worth checking into these fact sheets. School will be
here before you know it and it will once again be time to write those education
plans.
Life Lessons Learned In Holland
My most selfless acts have been imparted to Benjamin, not because I am by nature
a selfless person but because he came into this world needing that of me. By the
same token, my most selfish thoughts were a result of him needing me so much. A
result of the requirements of his life being so intertwined with the duties of
mine.
I have learned that I can be both selfless and selfish and still be true to
Benjamin and myself. But that I will have guilt over both.
Days Like Ours
Jazz up that leftover beef roast by turning it into a cold sandwich filling. You
can prepare it the day before if you like, making dinnertime go more smoothly.
About 2 c. roast beef, cooked and cubed.
¼-½ med. head of cabbage, chopped.
½ med. onion, finely chopped
½ green pepper, finely chopped.
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced or handful cherry tomatoes quartered.
1 bottle Kraft cucumber-ranch salad dressing.
Stir all ingredients together, keep refrigerated.
Serve with pocket bread or another favorite bread.
Garlic powder or Dill weed could be added for extra flavor.
Use within 48 hours or discard.
Sibling Strategies
Let siblings help out when they want to help and not when they want to help just
to please you or gain your acceptance. There is a difference. One is healthy and
the other is not. Be careful not to shift too many of the child care
responsibilities on to the siblings. They need time to be regular kids. They
need equal portions of family responsibility and individual identity just like
adults do. I am Ben's mom, but I am also Dawn. They are the sibling of a special
needs child, but they are also a kid.
For instance, Emily used to shut off the feeding pump for me, if it beeped or
Ben was having a seizure and I was on the phone or changing Matthew. But if she
said "no", I had to accept that. My being right in the middle of an activity
could not override her being in the middle of something as well. She did not
abuse this system, and generally was very helpful with Ben, but I tried not to
abuse this system as well. Because in the end we are the parent of the child.
"Brothers and Sisters - A Special Part of Exceptional Families" By: Thomas H.
Powell and Peggy Ahrenhold Ogle received an excellent review in the Courage
Center Newsletter. I checked with the Morris Public Library, and they have a
copy if anyone's interested.
Someone Once Said…
"I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it."
-Charles Swindoll
Special Thanks To…
Let's all give Mary O'Neill the applause she deserves for all of her hard work
on behalf of our local Windmill project! Best of luck to her and her family.
Who's Life Is This?
I have an aunt who, in the past, has "affectionately" referred to my husband and
I as "Ken and Barbie." Not because of our figures I can assure you. She just
assumed that everything went right for us, as if we put no effort or thought
into how life would turn out. I laugh at that now, looking back on it, for two
reasons. Things since Ben's birth have not ever gone "our" way. And, though we
painstakingly plan life out we've never really had complete control over any
aspect of it. These are important things to remember as the following story
unfolds.
When Ben was just about to turn one-year-old, we had taken him back to Mayo to
have his feeding tube put in. While he was under anesthesia for the surgery,
Neurology performed a follow-up MRI to see if something more was going on to
explain Ben's new seizure types. Just before we left for home, the neurologist
let us know that Ben's stroke had spread and now encompassed the entire brain.
She believed he functioned at "brain-stem level." Those words were tough to
digest.
We now had to face the nine-hour drive back home to Bismarck, ND. On the trip
both kids took turns vomiting in the car most of the way home!
Finally we made it home and unloaded the car. It was then that we discovered our
fridge/freezer had shut off, defrosted everything, and started back up! There
was red sticky stuff all over our floor. We had to clean up the floor and throw
out all the food. The pressures of the day were starting to mount to that point
when you can only laugh or cry, either way it's hysteria. As we knelt there on
our floor knee-deep in goop, I looked my husband in the eyes and said, "Ken and
Barbie have hit the skids!" We both laughed and continued making wise comments
as we cleaned up what was left of our well- planned life.
|
