Yesterday was a long day with yet another trip down to Seattle Children’s Hospital. We were supposed to pick up Kalina’s hearing aid at our 1 o’clock appointment and then get a test done at 3:30…Unfortunately I got a call from Children’s on Tuesday to tell me her new hearing aid had not arrived (Phonak, the hearing aid company, sent it to a hearing clinic up here in Bellingham, but we need to pick it up in Seattle, where they manage her care)…so we drove two hours for one five-minute test. We live way too far from the hospital.
*sigh*
The day was somewhat redeemed by a lovely visit with some of my favorite people. You know, the family who: watched our children for 10 hours, fed them two meals and performed minor surgery on Avi. All in the same day. The first time we met them. Technically, I had met Molly once before, but this was the first time our families met. Molly and I had a leisurely hour-long, interruption-free conversation. Certainly, that’s worth a two-hour drive, right???
My children in general and Kalina, in particular, have once again astounded me. I was worried, really worried about placement for Kalina in school. She has been doing much better in math since getting her first hearing aid, but I haven’t been able to dedicate the time to tutoring her that I wanted. She went into the local Jr. High last week to take a placement test…age wise she would be in 8th grade, but since she is behind in our homeschool math curriculum, we were concerned about where she would place and there was much talk of having her do 7th grade this year (something she really didn’t want to do).
She took the test and placed (both at the local and national level) squarely in the 54th percentile for 7th graders and the 45th percentile for 8th graders (without being familiar with the 7th and 8th grade curriculum!) The counselor said beforehand that if she scored in the 40th percentile or higher in 8th grade he would be totally comfortable with placing her in 8th grade. She made it and is thrilled to be starting 8th grade next week!
The big snafu now is that since Kalina lost her hearing aid in late November and we still don’t have the new one. We were supposed to pick it up yesterday which would have given her a full week to adjust to wearing it before starting school. At this point, we have no idea when it will arrive and we’ll have to drive to Seattle again to pick it up…
If we had the means, I would have moved to Seattle in 2012, the year I drove over 4,000 miles taking Apollo to doctors’ visits. As it is, we can’t move at this point, but I can tell you if we do it will be south to be closer to Seattle.
As the parent of SN kids myself, it is absolutely priceless to be within 5 min of the hospital my son always uses. So far, thankfully, we’ve only had to make a 3 hour drive for a specialist once and were told then that most of what needs to be done for our son can be done at our local hospital with his current doctors. We have debated so many times moving out of the city so we could have more space and quiet but then our son has a medical emergency and we are reminded, yet again, why we stay where we are. All of that to simply say – I feel ya on the drive and the need/desire to be near to the specialists that handle your children’s care.
I told Chuck I would never again live more than 30 minutes from a good Children’s hospital (well, as long as Apollo is still at home). Selling our house is not an option at this point, but if we could, I would be out of here and closer to Seattle. Our local hospital no longer even has a pediatric ward, so were Apollo hospitalized (like he was in 2011) he’d need to be in Seattle anyway.
I am thankful to be 5 minutes from our hospital. It made the daily NICU trips much easier then it is for many families.
How are your children feeling about going to school? I think it was Tucker who had objected when they went before?
Any chance you could pick up the hearing aid yourself and take it to Seattle? Gah; what a bummer……that is a long drive! But visiting with a dear friend; priceless!!
It’s not here in Bellingham…it has been a crazy mixup that is complicating my already complicated life.
So fun to have the time with you!
Yes, it was great! Now have that cute baby of yours!
Wow. Why can’t they mail the dang thing? Why isn’t there some hearing instrument specialist or audiologist who travels to families who’ve had enough of travel? Travel, I swear, is what destroys moms. Many of us are just schlepping the kids on the tram or the subway or a few miles to ballet or tap or soccer or clarinet or . . . . you have done the driving heroics.
I am pretty sure they can’t just mail it because it needs to be calibrated to her ear and comfort level. There have been even more mix-ups..now they want me to bring her in (to the hospital 100 miles away) on what is supposed to be her first day of school. I am not a happy mama right now.