Craziness!

The last couple of weeks have been absolute craziness in the Sines household!

Caleb has been off -- and when I say off -- I mean that he has been teetering on the VERY thin line of become explosive.  The smallest thing that we say that he doesn't like he can just meltdown.  I also received an e-mail from his teacher that he has been very oppositional and causing problems at school.  She asked me me if I had any thoughts.  My first thought was, "Shoot me now!"  Now, I totally do not mean that -- but seriously, some days it is just very difficult!

Steven is doing fairly well.  He has been sick for over three weeks and is on his second round of antibiotics.  He had an ear infection in one year, then we finished it and went back to the doctor four days later and the other ear was infected.  So we have an appointment with the ENT on April 3rd. 

The craziness has been surrounding Cassidy.  Cassidy's last 60 day screen was up on March 6th, which meant that the new managed care organization that Kansas transitioned to as of January 1st was now the decision maker as to whether or not her treatment would continue or not.  We have been unable to get an answer to what the appeal process is.

So far they have been extending her for a week at a time.  Like a whole lot of progress can be made in a week's time.

Then last week things even got more chaotic.  Part of the story, because of our privacy, I do not on this general blog, so I will put that over on my private blog.  You can find my private blog here.  You will need to receive an invitation to read this blog, so if you want an invitation, please send me an e-mail at cassandra {dot}sines @ gmail {dot} com (taking out the spaces and replacing {dot} with a period) and I will send you an invitation.

The part of the story that I will share here will show how God can turn a bad thing into a good thing!

Cassidy has been at a center that is three hours away from home, making it very difficult for us to visit, as well as participate in therapy on an in person basis.

On Tuesday, I had a regularly scheduled conference call with Cassidy's treatment team, as well as our local mental health provider and the managed care organization to discuss Cassidy and how she had been doing.

As we were finishing with the call, Cassidy's case manager asked me to call back so that I could talk with just her and Cassidy's therapist as well as the individual that was supposed to help us after Cassidy was discharged.  When I called back, they informed me that as of April 20th, the girls unit would no longer exist, which meant that Cassidy's case manager and therapist would be losing their job.  I felt like the breath had been sucked out of me.  We were going to have to start all over with new people.  I was also told that Cassidy would be integrated with the boys during the day, but still sleep seperated at night.  So they gave us the option of transferring her to a new unit or leaving her there.  Cassidy's case manager said she would send me a list of PRTFs and I could call around and see if there was a place where we could transfer her.

I immediately called Tony and filled him in. The next morning I received the list and saw a facility that was much closer to us.  I called them and explained our situation and asked if they had any beds available.  I was told that they did, but they were not sure whether or not they were able to do transfers.  I was advised they would check and let me know.  I received a call within 10 minutes later and was advised that they would transfer her.  Thus began a huge amount of paperwork and lots of e-mails and phone calls to get things started.

We drove and picked Cassidy up on Friday and got her admitted to the new facility.  She got very mouthy with me while we were there trying to get the nursing assessment completed, so they were able to get a small glimpse of her behavior.  They've seen more behaviors since she has been there.  I have our first in-person family therapy session tomorrow.