southcarolinamom
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Posts posted by southcarolinamom
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I'm so grateful for everyone's advice! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. :grouphug: Hugs back to all of you. I feel better now...perhaps I should say ...calmer. Will keep researching on her behalf.
She will be out of the country for about 3 months, visiting family and friends. Sometime in the next year her sister is planning to move to our city, and they will rent a condo or ranch style home together, so she will have someone living with her at all times.
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I've noticed for the last 6-8 months a slight tremor in her hands, a faintly visible tremor in her head at times, feeling her shake in my arms when I hug her, her voice quieting to almost a whisper at times, and her once wide smile now has an almost frozen appearance.
I didn't realize until yesterday that she was having trouble writing her beautiful cursive handwriting clearly, that she had temporarily forgotten how to fold clothes (until she visualized it mentally, going through the steps, and then remembered), and forgot how to turn over a hamburger patty in the frying pan. Her doctor is referring her to a neurologist for medication treatment.
This breaks my heart. She is 76 years old and a wonderful mother and grandmother. From what I've read, not all Parkinson patients have the same symptoms, treatments vary, and the degree of severity also differs from patient to patient.
I want the good, the bad and the ugly from the hive. Talk to me ladies. What can I do? What should I expect?
Yes, she still lives in her 1 bedroom apartment 3 miles from us. She doesn't drive (never has) but other than that, is pretty independent. We drive her wherever she needs to go.
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:grouphug: My son got married a month ago. It finally hit me a day after the wedding, when I went to turn out the porch light and realized ... I don't have anyone to turn the porch light on for anymore at night! Which started a crying fit .....
I understand. It's bittersweet.
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I've noticed for the last 6-8 months a slight tremor in her hands, a faintly visible tremor in her head at times, feeling her shake in my arms when I hug her, her voice quieting to almost a whisper at times, and her once wide smile now has an almost frozen appearance.
I didn't realize until yesterday that she was having trouble writing her beautiful cursive handwriting clearly, that she had temporarily forgotten how to fold clothes (until she visualized it mentally, going through the steps, and then remembered), and forgot how to turn over a hamburger patty in the frying pan. Her doctor is referring her to a neurologist for medication treatment.
This breaks my heart. She is 76 years old and a wonderful mother and grandmother. From what I've read, not all Parkinson patients have the same symptoms, treatments vary, and the degree of severity also differs from patient to patient.
I want the good, the bad and the ugly from the hive. Talk to me ladies. What can I do? What should I expect?
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My husband and I think more like Nicole on "Rehab Addict". :laugh: Why rip up perfectly good cabinets if you can re-purpose them?
At any rate, what really "chaps my shorts," "gets my goat," etc. are the multitude of shows that tell the viewing audience that the soon-to-be-homeowners have been "pre-approved" for up to XXX amount of dollars, and then their housing budget is pushed right up to the max, including home purchase and renovations. Not that they aren't beautiful remodels, but it pains me to see young couples getting strapped with a high mortgage, all in the name of their "dream home".
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Pinterest has great ideas for care packages! (Just do a quick search for "care packages for college students.")
My favorite last year was a "box of sunshine" I sent my DD. Everything inside had the predominant color yellow - yellow sunglasses, a yellow flowered tote bag from the Dollar Tree for towel and sunscreen (she goes to College of Charleston), lemon drops, a yellow comb, a funny card, etc. It was a big hit with her roommates. I put everything inside her tote bag and zipped it shut, so she had fun opening the "package within a package."
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I'm so relieved that her first year is over! She is attending College of Charleston, her "dream school". Final GPA 3.5. She took courses such as: general psychology, Spanish, Shakespeare and the Comedic Arts, Freshman English, Ballet, Beginning Acting, Costume and Design I, Classics for the Digital Age, Music Appreciation, Screenwriting, etc. A nice mix of gen ed, major and elective courses, All A's and B's. Her creative brain was in high gear!
I wasn't sure how she would do, since she has ADHD as well as depression, but things worked out well. She absolutely had some moments when she called me or my hubby in a panic or crying fit about things "falling apart" and "not wanting to live in the dorms, so she could be alone to study," but she pushed through it, got advice, and overall it has been a great experience. She went off her meds several times, which didn't help the situation, and she learned the hard way that she needs to keep taking her prescribed medication, even when she doesn't feel like it. One of her roommates snooped in my dd's bathroom cupboard and found her prescription bottles, and googled the names of the meds. Which totally embarrased my dd, which caused her to stop taking them for a while. Sigh. But beside that, it's been an amazing growing experience for her. Thankful God kept her safe!
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She would also like Brave New World and Lord of the Flies :laugh:
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CLEP credit is awesome! My son CLEP'd out of 7 subjects his senior year of high school, which greatly lightened his 4 year nursing major schedule. So many of his classmates had never heard of CLEP testing and were jealous that they didn't do it in high school.
My daughter is working through CLEP exams this summer, to help lighten her load as a theatre major next school year.
For $100 and the cost of the study materials, it's well worth it!
Just as a reminder, if your student needs to raise their GPA, CLEP exams won't help. They show up as a "pass" on a student's college /high school transcript, but with no letter grade attached.
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I created a "fine arts resume" for my daughter, listing her years of piano, art, as well as all the theatre productions she was in in high school, and printed the info. using Vista Print's "rack cards." It makes for a unique way to quickly showcase a child's talents. It's different than anyone else's and is very eye-catching, since it's in color and not the usual black and white resume on 8 1/2 x 11 paper. While this kind of "resume" won't work for a lot of job titles, it can definitely be an effective tool to help get your child in for a specific kind of interview when they need to "stand out from everyone else," i.e. fine arts.
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I feel your pain. In the last 2 weeks, my 19 year old son has gotten engaged (wedding planned for next May), and my daughter started a really busy job, that keeps her away from home from about 10 AM til midnight 4-5 days a week. I figured this is God's way of helping me ease into the fact that she will be 3 hours away at college in 6 short weeks! I'm going to miss her so much! I hate walking past her room, not seeing her there. But I know my children are where they are supposed to be, doing what God wants them to ... I can hear my apron strings ripping away from my body this month.
Sending you hugs today.
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I agree, the anatomy and physiology would be best done in 11th or 12th grade. Definitely after a year of biology. We loved the labs that go along with anatomy! Our family "typed" our blood together, (turns out, we all have 0+ blood!), dissected a fetal pig, a sheep eye and cow heart together. My son was really glad to have taken high school A&P, as it helped refresh his memory during college A&P his freshman year.
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My son did the Apologia A&P in 11th grade and the Apologia Chemistry in 12th grade. There was absolutely no need for a chemistry prerequIsite for anatomy!
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Yeah, baby!!! :hurray: :hurray:
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My son got 7 CLEP courses done between February and August of his senior year in high school.
He now has a MUCH lighter class load in college. It was totally worth it to him, to sacrifice a summer doing nothing but lifeguarding and studying for CLEP exams! 21 credits - bam. And at $100 a class (CLEP exams are $100), plus about $20 a book for study purposes, that's much cheaper than paying normal college tuition.
Of note, CLEP takers don't receive a grade, they just get credit for the course (usually it's 3 credits). So it's not affecting the student's college GPA. But doing CLEP exams in high school, before they graduate, looks really good on a transcript, and raises the high school student's GPA.
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UPDATE TIME! Wowzers, ladies, I can't believe how long it took to get an approval for her ADHD / "extra testing time accommodations" at college, but she officially received the letter yesterday. Lots of hugging and smiling going on at our house! It took 3 separate letters from her treating psychiatrist, each successive letter needed to be more detailed than the previous one, but it finally worked. I've never fought so hard for so long, or done so much paperwork as I have with this issue.
We are now working on getting her a "math alternatives course", as she has struggled with math her entire childhood, and her math placement exam for college was a score of 30.5%. She needs an assessment and testing by a psychologist, then a lengthy report to demonstrate aptitude deficiencies, etc.
I am so grateful to each of you who have sent me suggestions on how to handle her ADHD while away at school. Thank you! :hat:
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I second the College of Charleston! www.cofc.edu
The school is in a beautiful urban setting, in the middle of downtown historic Charleston. The ocean is a couple of miles away from campus. The school has a sailing team that finishes strongly in competition: http://sailing.cofc.edu/ I'm also a bit partial because my daughter will be starting there in the fall :laugh:
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My dd is an accepted student at college for the fall. Her university requested a letter stating her diagnosis (ADHD) and what kind of accommodations she would need (extra time with testing). Her psychiatrist, who prescribes Ritalin and sees her for ADHD / depression, wrote a beautiful letter on her behalf, stating exactly what they asked for.
The school just emailed me to say they need comprehensive educational, developmental and medical history relevant to the disability, as well as results and interpretations from some sort of norm-based behavior ratings. He doesn't do the educational testing that an educational psychologist would do, but his office manager said if I can find one of the "norm-based behavior ratings scales," he could assess her with that, and generate another report for the school.
I've googled quite a few ratings scales, but don't know which one to use... are any of them free? Please help! The proverbial accommodations clock is ticking!
Thanks.
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I would set up a system for making sure she does not run out of meds. For us, that meant getting a 90 day supply (mail order allows this in our state) of his ADD meds and walking him through the process of setting up a campus-based practitioner who will continue to prescribe and monitor his medication. I don't know about your DD, but my DS has an ambivalent relationship with his medication and would very much like to be off it. When we've experimented with this in the past, it did not go well. He does remember that, but he still would much prefer to not take them. He still isn't fully convinced that he can't "smart" his way out of it. LOL.
My friend's DD, a very bright girl at a good school, just dropped out in the middle of her sophomore year, when she basically stopped her meds for anxiety, stopped seeing her practitioner, and spiraled into total agoraphobia and OCD in about 2 months. Some kids really need their medication and don't necessarily manage it very well alone.
My dd uses Ritalin ... she recognizes in herself that she does much better in school (focusing/not getting distracted) when she is on her medication. She also is a better driver and more focused at her job when she remembers to take her Ritalin. However, she does choose to not take it on Saturdays or days when she is just "vegging out". We do use a 90 day supply for her, however, local drugstores seem to have a constant shortage of this medication!
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I do not have kids in college, but I teach at one.
Make sure she contacts the office for students with disabilities right away and gets accommodation for distraction free testing and maybe extra time. She will need a formal diagnosis; the office can tell you exactly what the requirements are. Professors are required to provide these accommodations for the students, but this only works if the student goes through the office and gets the formal letter - just talking to the professor will not be sufficient. The nature of the condition is not disclosed to the instructors, but some students find it helpful to volunteer more information to their instructors. I am glad when a student gives me some information, because that may help me understand the student better.
Also, she should be aware that the school will have a counseling center for students (which is not necessarily the same office as the disabilities one). They can help students with adjustment to college, with academic things, and also with episodes of depression. If she feels the need to talk to somebody, there will be people there for her
ETA: It is very important that she is proactive and avails herself of opportunities for learning assistance that are offered (tutoring, help sessions, etc) as soon as she notices that she is having trouble in her course work. When students wait for weeks with seeking help, there is often not much that can be rescued, wheres a prompt intervention could have helped the student to be successful.
I'm in the process of getting a letter of ADHD diagnosis from her physician, to turn in to the Office of Disabilty Services. Hopefully it will allow her to have extra testing time. She may also be able to opt out of math classes (really, really poor scores on standardized testing) and take alternative courses. I will update everyone when I hear about the decision from the school's committee!
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Please advise! My dd will be starting as a freshman in college in the fall. She was diagnosed with depression/ADHD about 1 1/2 years ago, and is on Prozac and Ritalin. These manage her fairly well, but now that my daughter has picked a school to attend several hours away from us, I won't be close by to "keep an eye on her" as I'm used to.
Can you moms with college kids give me some tips to pass on to her? Like how to handle distractions in a dorm room, focus, stay organized, properly de-stress, etc.
Thank you so much.
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What a beautiful sight! So precious to see you and your husband snuggling with her. Thank you for letting us share in your happiness!!!
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I must confess I kept the sound on the TV muted during the abandoned building scene... I was so afraid the governor was going to reach out and grab Andrea.. I was a nervous wreck watching.. what a great episode! That governor is one sick puppy....and I was so hoping he would be ripped to shreds by the walkers. .
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:hurray: :hurray: Hooray!
So .... my sweet mother-in-law has just been diagnosed with Parkinson's ...what do I do now? (feeling overwhelmed)
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Thank you so much ladies! Your advice is invaluable -- as are your hugs and prayers. :laugh: