I touched a little on it recently, but Alex’s new home’s upper management seem to be significantly more concerned about doing what’s best for Alex than his last home. This is just one of many reasons I’m thinking this year could be the first one where things really start looking up. Continue reading “Why 2015 could be Alex’s best year”
Tag: home
Post-KKI Alex
[ I apologize for the lack of contact, I’m actually at work right now delaying my “clock-in” time, so to speak, in order to write something up – it’s been a crazy, crazy couple of years ]
Initially, Alex went to a “crisis home” in Salem (I think that’s what it was called). It was okay, but they never really got a handle on his behaviors. The state shuffled him off to Creswell before he was stable in our opinion, though we couldn’t fault them really — we, his parents, never did, either. Nor did various doctors, medications, etc.
But the Creswell home is where things went downhill. It seemed like the goal was to figure out the cheapest way to keep Alex alive, as opposed to figuring out how to keep him engaged and keep his mind working. Continue reading “Post-KKI Alex”
What’s the problem? Why can’t Alex just come home so we can figure this out?
With the recent surge in traffic I’ve seen variations of these questions posted as comments as well as asked directly. Some people think that if cannabis works to calm Alex, then we have no good reason to not take Alex home and just dose him ourselves. Back when Alex was first moved from Salem, one woman suggested, directly to my face, that if we cared enough, we wouldn’t keep Alex in a group home, and that we didn’t have any right to complain because we had made our choice.
I should note that some of the confusion may be due to the Treating Yourself article — as in any article trying to get a lot of information across in a concise way, there are a lot of details left out, and some elements are slightly changed to simplify the explanation of the situation. The article is a great way to expose people to the damaging effects of prohibition, but it does gloss over some details that can make our plight seem confusing.
Unfortunately, the story is a lot more complicated than it seems at a glance. I tend to sound like I’m saying, “cannabis is Alex’s miracle drug”, when I really mean that it is his best option, and probably better for his situation than any drug available. Cannabis is an amazing substance. But Alex’s situation is extreme: Continue reading “What’s the problem? Why can’t Alex just come home so we can figure this out?”
Alex’s sibbing is still a major problem
It’s been about a year and a half since we made the decision to have Alex placed outside the home, and still he has these horrible periods of sibbing (to “sib” means to engage in self-injurious behaviors).
We took some video during a recent home visit (about a week ago) demonstrating just how much rage and anxiety Alex still has. He appears to be “stuck” in a behavior of hitting his chin into his shoulder, and even his bath time doesn’t fully calm him down. Continue reading “Alex’s sibbing is still a major problem”
The Portland move
Recently Alex was moved to a home in Portland so he could be closer to his primary medical care. He’s back in his old home now even though the home and the house manager seemed like a wonderful fit. Why? Because the agency running the home pulled a ridiculous bait-and-switch on us. Continue reading “The Portland move”
Oops
We made a mistake and told too many people about a situation we meant to keep a bit more “secret” for a while. It’s probably not a big deal, but we should have mentioned to those people not to go crazy until we had more information. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, ignore this. If you do, shame on you for not reading our minds! Seriously, though, we didn’t think to tell you not to share our story, and it’s amazing the amount of support we’re seeing. I know it’s become a cliche, but we cannot express how much we appreciate your support. Continue reading “Oops”
Alex is moving away
Not a lot to be said, really. It’s been made very clear that we have no choice in the matter. Alex is moving further from us, which we knew had to happen eventually, but he’s also moving further away from the only useful hospital in the area. They state that they “felt pretty confident” his new hospital will be able to work with the main children’s hospital in Portland in order to reduce the number of times he has to be driven there. Continue reading “Alex is moving away”
Our home is no longer Alex’s
This is mostly just me whining tonight. No agenda, no real updates to speak of. Alex’s situation is more or less the same as it’s been for a while now, and I’m mostly just waiting to see how prop 19 does before I’ll have much else to say about the bigger picture. Continue reading “Our home is no longer Alex’s”
A rougher week than usual
Alex’s previous few visits have been very hit and miss. I’m not sure if something new is bothering him, but on the 4th, he had a very rough time with me. (I wrote the previous update before my visit, so it looks as though his weekend was great, which unfortunately was not the case) Continue reading “A rougher week than usual”