Hope your healing continues to go well. I am sure you will get lots of puppy names from this board. A friend of mine had the surgery just over a year ago. She said that one positive about it is that it made trotting on her horse a LOT more comfortable---she is now showing in reining classes. Maybe once you heal you could take up horseback riding.

I agree with getting a physical and some basic blood work--esp. thyroid. A lot of this sounds like my dd with bipolar. It is like hormones totally over the top. This is likely not what you are dealing with but you can check out http://www.bpkids.org for more information.

The Omega 3s are great for mood stuff (which hormones play a big role in). We use 3 of the http://www.omegabrites.com per day.

I have 2 that will be in this situation. My oldest is now 21 and likes living at home. He is in a public school program for young adults with job training, etc. He loves it. We are in Michigan so we actually have a lot of supports available. he will likely move out when he is about 25 or so--when he is ready. It will be to a group home or supportive situation. In our state there is quite a bit of money for home help so I have a friend that actually lived in a home with a disabled young man. The young man could be left alone during the day and a bit at night but needed help with money, cooking, laundry, etc. so that is what Dan did for him. Honestly, I could see my 21ds living with his 18 year old bio brother in a few years. They get along great and Joe could provide some supervision but at 18 he needs a few more years to mature. (we adopted our son when he was 7 1/2 and Joe was 4 1/2 and adopted by a family about 45 minutes away) My next one is only 13 so it will be awhile before she is ready for anything. I would certainly look into respite services NOW. It has been a huge blessing for us.

This is also known as Indian time or Eskimo time---depending on where you live. My dh is Native American and his family runs on Indian time--esp. the extended family. If you have a potluck set to eat at 5, don't expect the people with food to get there until at least 5:30 with 6 or later being common (I learned to feed the toddlers before we went). My friend lived in an Alaskan Eskimo village for 15 years and is well versed in Eskimo time as well. That culture just isn't as tied to the strict time schedule that most us are.

This is the US 31 bypass between Holland and Muskegon.

The biggest hit in our nursery for the past 18 years is the little tykes activity garden--it has a little gate they can walk through and shut. A tunnel to crawl through, a few activities, etc. Basically, the Little Tykes stuff has held up well. The kitchen is a big hit as well.

Well, it will connect to ours. If they move the highway over and miss us, it would miss this piece and we would have 6 acres to call our own. If they highway stays on course, they would buy all 6 acres from us as the property we want to buy is directly behind our house.

We are fine with moving and knew this might be coming for a while. It is just so up in the air. If they move the highway over a bit it won't get us, if the funding is delayed it could be 10 more years, etc. Moving the house might be an option but this is a bilevel so I don't know how those are to move. I actually have friends that worked as house movers for years so I am sure they could tell me. A different house would be nice though so I could make it wheelchair friendly so my mom could visit us again--same size house, just a ranch with basement instead of bilevel. I will have to see about the land/building thing though as they have NOT declared a NO BUILD/NO BUY zone yet for this area---I think that means we are safe. If not, we will just lease the land behind us for the next few years as well.

I am now using ACE paces http://www.schooloftomorrow.com and LOVING it for my girls. It is self paced, self teaching, very easy to use and a good education. I pushed it aside for several years when some friends were using it as it wasn't "good" enough, too boring, not hard enough, etc. Then I gave in and my kids are much happier and learning things that I never covered in school with my college prep. education. It might be very helpful and my kids really enjoy it. They have a list of what to do for the day and when they are done, they are free for the rest of the day--read, play, chores, etc.

I talked to the Department of Transportation guy at the state level today. The plan is to get final approval of the plan in July/August and then start buying up properties for the highway. Our home has the northbound lane going right along the property line and the drainage ditch through my living room. Needless to say, we are going to have to move. Problem is, our home is paid for, we like our neighbors, our area, etc. They said they will give us 125% of the value of our home but now in Michigan's severely depressed economy our home value has dropped a lot in the past few years. Right now we have 2 acres but are hoping to pick up 2-4 more acres from our neighbor behind us in the next few weeks. That will give us a 4-6 acre parcel to bargain with--as we will need a place for our horses when we move as well. I was just wondering if anyone else has had their home bought out by the state for a right of way. They did say if we couldn't find a home to purchase similar to ours we could buy property and build new while we stayed in this house until it was finished. An hints/ideas for me?

I would see a pediatric opthamologist. IF they suggest treatment, your health insurance is more likely to cover it as it would be for a MEDICAL condition--eye muscle problems, etc. We did vision therapy for a while with my now 13dd. While they said they saw improvements, we saw none in her reading ability, way she looked at things, etc. The one thing we did do that really helped was use a CURSOR for reading. This is a notched 3x5 card that is moved long left to right with the notch in the upper left corner. It really helps the child focus on tracking left to right as they read and keep their eyes from jumping around. It isn't going to cure a muscle problem (which is why I suggest the md above) but will help with tracking. It costs about 5 cents---basically the cost of a 3x5 card and the use of a scissors. My dd has gone from not being able to track on a single line of large print texts on a page to reading a full page of regular size text. http://www.piperbooks.co.uk/documents/Notched_Card_Technique_000.pdf Here is a link with more information.

Is she on a low dose prophylactic antibiotic? My dd took Bactrim daily as a preventative and that really worked. We did that for about 1 year and no infections since then. I would push for the nephrologist or at least a 2nd opinion from a specialist.

Thanks. We are waiting to hear what he comes up with for a number. He can't sell any of his property into other lots for development, etc. He can sell to us to increase our lot size but no one can build anything else on that property as it doesn't have road frontage and the township will not allow any more splits on it.

I LOVE these chairs as well. I got mine used and my girls still use them daily. Could you fit the baby rail in if you loosen the top back supports? That is how it looks on our chairs but I have no idea how old mine are.

I like Suprema Dophillus for a probiotic. My kids take it DAILY and it really helps build their immune systems (both girls have immune deficiencies and 1 had bladder infections) Are they culturing her urine to make sure that the antibiotic is THE one for her specific infection? I would also ask that they recheck her urine a week or so after the antibiotic is done to make sure it is GONE and not just hanging out there still.

We talked to our neighbor behind us today. He is willing to sell us 4 acres which when combined with our 2 acres would allow us to have our horses here at home. He has a 47 acre piece complete with creek, a few sand dunes (might be valuable for mineral rights), an open area and he just logged about 20 acres of it. He has an old old barn on it and a house that is about 120 years old. The 4 acres we are buying from him are ones that he just logged so they are clear cut (we will have to remove the stumps) and it is on the corner of his property--far end from the creek, sand dune, etc. It will NOT be a buildable lot. There is no road frontage to it so even combined with ours, we could not build another additional house back there. How much will his property value decrease going from a 47 acres piece to a 43 acre piece? We are just trying to figure out what is a fair price--to us and him--for the 4 acres. We are in West Michigan in a very depressed economy right now---our home lost about $40,000 of equity in the past 2 years.

You can have the doctor order an EKG and even an ultrasound of the heart to help you greatly reduce the risks. If something abnormal comes up, then you can address that. Our pdoc said that with some of the meds, it was not the med CAUSING it but rather the child/adult already had a heart problem, they just didn't know about it before starting the meds. There are risks and benefits to all things but like others have said, at times the risks are really minimal if the med can give your child a more normal life and allow them to stay at home.

Welcome. What concerns do you have with her? Do you have the results/scores of these tests? that would help us out.

You would have to double check at the website but I believe that some of the same people worked on both. The Explorer's Bible study is an "easier" version of what BSF does--takes less time per day and the leaders, etc. don't have to be trained like they are in BSF. If I remember right (and I could be wrong) it was designed for groups in more rural areas, etc. where they couldn't/didn;'t have a BSF group. I am really enjoying the study. I like studying the BIBLE, not just reading a verse here or there and then studying someone's ideas about it.

http://www.explorerbiblestudy.org/store.php I am doing the first one on Acts right now. It is a spin off of BSF so very focused on the Bible. You learn a great deal. There are 6 lessons a week and it takes about 15 minutes a day to complete. We did the book of Luke for our Ladies Bible study at church this fall and enjoyed it as well.

For reading, NOTHING I have tried beats the I See Sam program. Likely she could start a ways into the program. http://www.roadstoeverywhere.com/3RsPlusRead.html or http://www.iseesam.com For other stuff, ACE paces are great. http://www.schooloftomorrow.com I have 3 kids with mild CP. The 2 girls are using ACE and the I see Sam reading and it is going well.

When are you going to the neuropsych? The tests are long but generally fun for the child as there is a lot of different activities, breaks, etc. Bring some healthy snacks along and plan for her to get a good night's sleep the night before. I would write down what you said before--esp. about how some days are great and others are terrible behavior wise. Try to write down a developmental history--when she did what--roll, sit, crawl, walk, talk, potty train, etc. Then write down ANY and ALL concerns you have--no matter how minor they might seem. The more pieces to the puzzle the neuropsych has the better. Hope this helps.

Chiming in here---meds are very individual so you might end up trying a few different ones to figure out the best one for him. That said, Dexedrine spansules are working very well for my girls and they are both on Lamictal for seizures. It is a much older med and cheap but not used as much.

The Omega Brites capsules are a medium size, not small but not the largest either. They do though have a kids liquid that might work for you. It would only be about 1/3 tsp. per day so not a huge amount.