Notes from Nomi Jill

What a whirlwind. No really...I am all turned around just thinking about everything.

• Brendan started school
• He said he loved it the first day
• Today wasn't as great
• He chipped a tooth and Grammy had to take him to the dentist in Sallisaw, OK to fix it
• It was just a little chip so it didn't require a shot
• He had his "pre-test" visit to the vision specialist in Fort Smith, AR
• She said he has many "issues"
• It will take two to three months to complete testing and get reports
• She said he has a fine-motor deficiency with his eye tracking
• He will need a lot of therapy
• He had a visit with the Really Awesome Chiropractor in Van Buren, AR
• Dr. Dave said he has scoliosis that we can likely correct with "lifts" in his shoes
• Dr. Dave said one of his arches is falling worse than the other one
• Brendan discovered his shoes are too small
• This required a side trip today to Academy
• Papa found a teacher for saxophone but somehow they haven't had time to go find a sax...wonder why?

And we are only to Tuesday! I am exhausted just thinking about it all! I have certainly spent my share of time in a fetal position crying these days and I'm sure my Mom wants to but just doesn't have the energy to curl up that far! The financial load is becoming very overwhelming. Testing, therapy and treatments for all these issues is running into the tens of thousands of dollars. I get so very frustrated that the doctors insist on doing things to make more money off of us. None of them seem to take our insurance (but they do take Medicaid...)so they all want money up front...a LOT of money! When Mom made the appointment for the vision specialist, it costs $125 for the "pre-visit" to screen him to see if he needed to be tested. The tests themselves will cost over $400. Then $125 or so every week when he gets therapy...and on and on it goes.

We are making it here at home. It still seems so empty and lonely with our boy not here...we are all counting the days until Thanksgiving break - now just pray we can manage to let him go back to Arkansas!