Terrible Tuesday

It's time to celebrate WHINY WEDNESDAY... and while my first inclination is to expound on the Occupy Wall Street nonsense... this is not a political blog and I won't let it get bogged down in politics. I'm a Southern girl which means we don't discuss politics or religion. Much.

Yesterday had a good chance of becoming Whiny Tuesday but I appreciate alliterations so much that I resisted the urge. We finally got the situation ironed out regarding Austin's reduced lunch. I can't even remember if I've blogged on the issue but essentially what happened was... I got a letter on September 21st letting me know that  his reduced lunch was ending because they hadn't received his new application for this school year. Little surprise... he's a senior... I've been dealing with Austin's failure to deliver paperwork back and forth from the school since he was in kindergarten. I called the head of the Food Service department to ask if I could fax his application. Left a message. Tried to fax with an attached cover sheet. Fax was busy. And busy. And busy. Sent an email with the application attached. No response. This pattern has continued... until I had made four phone calls with no response... three emails with no response... I don't care who you are or what your job is... if a client/constituent/parent makes 8 legitimate attempts to contact you and you don't respond... you either need retraining or a new job. I probably would have let it continue - I'm mellow lately - until Monday when they refused to let Austin charge his lunch - his account was empty because he had not been getting the appropriately priced meals - and so he had NOTHING for lunch on Monday. Not cool.

Long story short ... (too late) ... I called the Superintendent's office, gave them the summary I just gave you and a very apologetic Food Service director called me back within an hour. She had a list of excuses and reasons and some of them are legitimate.... well over half the students in our county receive either free or reduced lunch. It's a big job to process those applications. She would have had a deluge of applications around the time that the benefits from the previous school year end. I get that. However... it would have taken her two minutes to review his application and respond to me and over the course of the past two weeks, there's no reason that she or her clerk couldn't have done that. I asked that she refund the amount that Austin overpaid over the past two weeks since I first attempted to contact her - she was admittedly able to trace back to my original email and application - and she agreed to refund his account the difference between the full price lunch that he paid and the reduced priced lunch that he should have received. It's a difference of over $20.

*sidebar* Having a tight budget this week and honestly, that surprise extra moolah in his lunch account came right on time... so you have to wonder if some of these things happen for a reason, right?

It was frustrating... I'm weary of having to be Austin's only advocate in this world. It's a heavy burden, some times too heavy for me. He had an altercation with his Economics teacher yesterday... who took issue with Austin's "listening position" in his class while the class was taking notes. Austin's IEP provides for him to get a typed copy of notes because his small motor skills (i.e. handwriting) has never improved. His handwriting is entirely illegible, even to him, so if he hand writes his notes, he is never able to read them or use them for study. He has a solid B in that class so it's not as if he doesn't have an interest in and a mastery of the material. He frequently brings up topics and concepts they discuss in class. He's listening. Now, to be fair, he may listen with his head on the desk... but that's how he excludes other stimuli... and when confronted about his listening position he very likely was disrespectful - he always is when challenged, lately. Ultimately, though, the "discussion" escalated to the extent that the teacher told him he wasn't going to make those type of accommodations for him any longer... which he legally can't do. And Austin KNOWS he can't... but it will be another matter that I will have to make phone calls, send emails, probably visit the school causing me stress, frustration and missed work.

I've been doing this since he was two and was biting his playmates. I've been Austin's ambassador to the world... the one who has to listen to his complaints about people... and people's complaints about him. I've lost friends... lost close family members... it's isolating and frustrating and yet, I'm the little Dutch boy with my finger in the dam. If I STOP supporting him, who will? If I stop being his outlet for his frustrations, who will listen to him?

I also got a call from the Sleep Study people yesterday who said I have "mild sleep apnea" which I doubt. I have already been diagnosed with tachycardia and my heart can race at random times without explanation whether I'm awake or asleep. They want me to come back for another sleep study with a c-pap machine, which I really don't want to do... I feel like it's a bit of a scam, have you ever heard of anyone who had a sleep study who DIDN'T need a c-pap? On the other hand... my deductible is paid, I'm approaching my out of pocket limit and... if I'm going to do it, I should do it now.

I'm paying off the cardiologist out of this next paycheck. I'm determined to get this medical debt paid off. The bill to the hospital who provided the MRI and other high dollar exams is more than I can pay in one pay day but I'm going to try to send $50 out of each paycheck until we get there. It may take me ten years... but I want to be debt free before I die, know what i mean?

My blood pressure and heart rate were too high at the doctor on Monday. They want me to follow up with my doctor about that again. Argh.

If I click my heels together three times will I be able to go back to a time when I was healthy or at least healthier? Taking care of my health is a full time job. Taking care of Austin is STILL a full time job and I have a feeling the transition to adulthood is going to create a whole new bag of problems. And I do have, on top of these issues a real full time job. It's going to get worse before it gets better.

So there you have it... a Whiny Wednesday recap of what should probably be called Terrible Tuesday.

Other than that... life is good. I fell asleep early... woke up early... the coffee is awesome, the kitty cat is loving and... we're gonna make it after allllll!