Wednesday’s Fostering Blog
Every so often we have multiple appointments on one day. Fortunately they don’t happen very often but today is one of those days. The morning began with an appointment with the Physiotherapist. She has come to review Alice, and check that we are following her physio programme. She is also delivering a new piece of equipment that the Orthotist at the Children’s hospital had requested. It is great that Alice is becoming more and more mobile. However with every new piece of equipment we get, we have to get her through the pain barrier. She does not like change and she does not like hard work when she has to do new things.
The Physiotherapist is not here for the tears and the tantrums that we will inevitably face. She will return in a few months to see the progress that has been made.
We will work hard in the meantime to get her used to the new equipment. The Physio leaves and we wait the next appointment.
She is due her annual Looked After Child Medical Review. Every Looked After Child should have an annual medical – to check they are attending appointments, getting the right support, have the right referrals. Last years appointment was instrumental in getting a CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Heath) referral sorted that we had been waiting for for over a year. After 30 minutes of waiting we got a call from the Nurse who was due to attend, she was very apologetic when she said she wasn’t going to be able to attend. She explained that they were short staffed and so wouldn’t be able to do the two hour round trip today. I am glad she called but would have appreciated knowing a little sooner. I cannot complain though as the appointment was due to be back in the local authority where Alice is from. I insisted that it would have to be at our house as it wasn’t fair to make her travel
Being flexible one of the keys to success. It can sometimes feel a bit unnatural especially if you are anything like me and like to be super organised. Not everyone is, so sometimes you just have to roll with it.
The final appointment was to have the final fitting for her new wheelchair. We have been waiting for the new chair for a few months. This is to replace the one that we had stolen along with our car at the end of last year. We opted to get a custom made chair for Alice – this would have greater benefits than the previous one – giving her greater independence. It wasn’t surprising that when we got there, Alice wasn’t overly excited about the new chair and kept asking to go back into her old one. Of course she doesn’t yet appreciate that over £3,000 has just been spent on her, neither does just appreciate how superior the new chair is. There is no point trying to explain to her, it’s a bit like pouring water into a colander – that kind of stuff just doesn’t sink in!
A Less Ordinary Family Foster Carers Blog
