Peanut will be attending Camp Champ next week. It is a week long intensive camp to treat Apraxia. I am excited, nervous, anxious and overjoyed that he is able to do this. He will be 1:1 with a clinician for the entire camp which is amazing and he has skyped with his clinician (Becky) once a month since March so he is familiar with her although I am still really nervous about the transition when I leave him. I can stay an observe in a special room that has headphones and a two way mirror but if he is crying or upset I am not sure that I will be able to watch that.
It is such a nice change of pace to be taking him somewhere that is outfitted with everything that he needs. All of the kids that are attending are on a special diet of some kind so they are happy to comply with his corn-free eating and they have the weighted vests and other things that help him organize his motor movements. I can't explain how comforting it is to be taking him into a camp or social situation where I don't have to explain that he has apraxia or that he is on a special diet or that sometimes he needs extra input to organize himself. This will also be the first time that I will meet other parents who have kids with apraxia. Sometimes it can be isolating to be the only one you know dealing with apraxia and I will be literally surrounded by 12 other families from across the country who have experience with apraxia, who are walking the same road we are walking.
I know this isn't going to be easy. Logistically it is a nightmare with Little Man and Sweet Pea needing childcare and Papa Bear not being able to take off much work, but with amazing friends who are all pitching in to help, we will make it work. Emotionally it is going to be difficult because I have such high hopes for the strides he can make. I keep hoping that one day he will just be cured but that isn't how apraxia works. I have to set my sights on a smaller goal. I am hoping that at the end of this week he will be able to say Sweet Pea's name, his own name (First and Last), motor plan some sounds that he doesn't have like "l" and "r" and some key sentences (intelligibly) needed to interact better with his peers. Physically we are all going to be drained with the juggling act that will be our week. I will be taking him to camp and staying to learn and observe all morning then rushing home to work in the afternoon and then having single parenting duties so that Papa Bear can make up the work hours that he is missing in the morning.
So it isn't going to be easy. The really good things in life never really are. It is still going to be amazing. It is going to be an experience like we have never had and we will make friends and we will learn and we will get more words and sentences and motor planning sounds like "r" and "s" and "l".
It isn't going to be easy for Peanut either. He has never had this type of intensive therapy. He is going to be exhausted and cranky in the afternoons because he will be working so hard in the mornings. He is going to be pushed and taught new ways to motor-plan to build pathways for his brain that he hasn't ever had before.
It isn't going to be easy, but it is going to be amazing!
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