It's all about the update
Well, things have been busy since I was here last. Wednesday I took Geoff to Children's Hospital for what I thought was going to be neuropsych testing. I was prepared to spend about 4 hours there waiting while they did the full battery of neuropsych on him... but instead, it was a consultation with a neurologist to determine whether or not Geoff needs a neuropsych evaluation... even though I already have documentation from a psychologist and a psychiatrist who both say "Geoff needs a neuropsych evaluation." And, once that neuropsych evaluation is done, he interprets it and writes recommendations for Geoff for school and living ... but he doesn't do any testing. He looked Geoff's paperwork and school IEP testing over and said 'uh, yeah. Geoff needs a neuropsych evaluation.'
Well, Duh, buddy. Why do you think I'm here?
So in essence, it was kind of a wasted day. The doctor told me the neuropsych department at Children's has a 2 year waiting list for evaluations, so he gave me a list of doctors to contact, and then from there we'll interface with him and he'll write the report of findings and stuff after the whole kit and kaboodle is done.
Right.
So on Thursday morning I spent a few long hours making phone calls to find out these other doctors had 6 month, 8 month, 15 month waiting lists or they were "not taking new patients at this time."
Of all the messages I left, only one called me back. Mass General can see Geoff for testing sometime this summer, and then the reports can be analyzed and back to the school by the beginning of the academic year. A full diagnosis will be in hand, and the school can put whatever Geoff needs into place... but not until they have all of that.
All this should have been done in February in order for things to be in place and perfect for the beginning of the year.
There is a doctor who comes very highly recommended to me, and he's pretty close to us geographically. He can see us now. But he doesn't take insurance, and it is about $2000 out of pocket to pay for it. Not sure which is worse, having my wallet raped or having my son's time stolen.
I'm thinking we'll lean to the testing in July. If I had a lucrative job that paid me well, 2000 is a drop in the bucket to get this taken care of. But I still want to talk to this other doctor and find out what the deal with the no insurance thing...
I told Doug the other day that after my experience trying to get a human to even talk to me, I feel I should go to graduate school, get a degree in Neuropsychology, open a private "testing center" in the upstairs apartment and never have to worry about being unemployed again. Hell, I called a doctor in Springfield only to find out she's got a waiting list too.
It seems ridiculous that there are SO many doctors, but an overwhelming number of kids (and adults) who need their services. Fucking hell.
I found it all incredibly frustrating. I wanted to go for a ride, go to the ocean, go get a big pizza (no! no! Diet must not suffer! do not succumb to pizza temptation because of doctor frustration!)
But our truck was in the shop on Thursday for the day (leaking power steering fluid like mad) so I was without vehicle.
To deal with my frustration, I grabbed the GPS and went out. And the next part of the entry begins...
It's All About the Cache
I took a walk.
I went out and hid a geocache in our neighborhood. I didn't realize that there are over 50 acres of "town" land out across the pond, and I felt it needed some cache action. I spent three hours plotting this one out. First, I walked to the sanctioned parking area about .40 miles from my front door. I started into the woods and found the trails submerged. I tried to ford around... but the ground was like quicksand and I barely got out of there with my shoes. Heading home, I realized that I'd read somewhere that there was an alternate trailhead, so I walked back to my house and past it, up the road and back into the neighborhood that abutts the conservation land.
Sure enough, I found the trailhead and plowed in. I went all the way over to the area of the pond that I tried to walk over to on the opposite side, just to measure the distance and meter out a hide that would be equidistant from both trailheads. I found a pretty awesome hiding spot about .35 miles from both trailheads, but only after wandering around in there for a good hour checking everything out. I so should have made it a multi-step cache. I could have made a good one. No one says I still can't though... mwah ha ha.
My frustration with the American Medical Bureaucracy was slightly lessened, or at least my murderous rage was diminished. It was a wonderful time outside, and I really enjoyed the solo time and the hide.
Friday, Geoff had a friend over for the day as they had no school for Good Friday. Instead of taking his Jewish friend to Good Friday services, I figured it would be cool if we all went and hid a cache over in Rowley. He (Zack) was very impressed with the hike, the hide and the concept of Geocaching. His dad was too when I explained it to him later that day.
It was like church, only steeper and rockier. And with bees. I saw bees but didn't get stung. Whew. We had a camp fire that afternoon with Zack, and everyone had a super excellent time.
Saturday we got up early, and headed into Maine where we did five caches. We drove past one that we'd programmed in last year and forgot to do, so we started here in York, ME. It was a micro cache in the wall of a cemetery. Very cool and very nice. The weather was perfect. As always, we spent a lot of time reading tombstones. The major cool thing about living in New England is the history and the dead. A lot of other parts of the country don't have the kind of gravity that the east coast has... where settlers came in 1701 to start a little community north of Boston a ways, after getting law degrees at Hahvahd... There was a lot to see and read. But time was burning, and we headed to Ogunquit.
We went to a cache that had us stumped. I thought I "got" the joke in the first step of the multi and we headed over to where we thought part two was. It was hard to get to, and on private land. but after talking to Fismo and the Owenses we learned that my really cool-assed hunch was ... wrong. I think the clue is totally missing, although the cache owner was there one day in late March and states that it is indeed there. Hell if we didn't see it. I thought that my idea of using what I thought the coordinates was pretty smart... it would have been really cool to put it where we headed, but it was wrong.
We didn't head back to look again. Yesterday was gorgeous... we got a lot of funny looks from "muggles" as they're called (non-caching humans) who couldn't figure out what we were scouring a signpost for. The crowds and the frustration got to us -- we bailed and headed to Wells.
Aaaah. No crowd. No problems. Great swimming for the dogs and an easy find here. We enjoyed the scene for a bit and then hopped in for the next one up in ... Biddeford!
Yes, Jen, I could have called you if I knew we were heading your way. I thought we were going straight past and up to OOB, but there we were at Clifford Park. We snuck in the "back" way where the construction is taking place. What a beautiful little location this turned out to be. We grabbed and ran, as some muggles watched us. Oops.
Then over to Ferry Beach State Park, where the longest walk of the day was had. It was .36 to the cache from the car, but then we walked the length of Long Pond and headed across Rte 9 to the ocean view. We hung out there for quite a while, enjoying being the only ones on the beach, sandwiched between a view up to Portland and down to Biddeford Pool.
The day was starting to burn away, so we trucked back to the truck and went to this cache. Another decent length to walk (about .35) to the cache, and all were doing well. Geoff managed to step off of a little ice lip and right into the creek, which was up to his knees. So he was soaked, Kinger was starting to limp, and we were all getting hungry so it was time to pack it in.
We got home and RSVP'ed to a campfire at another local cache-ing team's house the next town over. We cheated on the diet and had some 1 carb per bottle malt beverage (aaah. fire. resting. cool drink. springtime) and spent about three hours hanging out with people we'd never met before, and the Fismo team, who knew us both.
All told, a full day. A full, fun and wonderful day. Spring is here. Our family had fun. And to steal from PG Wodehouse, "God is in his heaven and all is right with the world."
It's All About the Christ
Today being Easter, we dragged our sorry tired butts out of bed and went to church. Geoff, on his meds, was a saint. Normally he can't sit through a whole church service... especially a long one with a huge long communion (when the church is packed, communion takes For Ever).
At the end of communion, when the organist stopped playing, Geoff applauded. Everyone cracked up. I asked him if he liked the organ playing once we were outside, and he said "that guy played for such a long time while everyone waited in line. He worked hard. It was like going to a concert. That's why I clapped."
Makes sense to me.
We did an Easter egg hunt on the lawn outside. Geoff is the perfect age for this, and he enjoyed himself fully. All the older kids (a bit older than Jessie) did the hiding. I love how they put stuff right in the middle of the lawn so the two year olds can walk right up and find things.
After church, we came home and dyed Easter eggs here at the house. The kids did a great job... and they came out lovely. Geoff was so into it... it was so much fun to be here with him while he pondered how to make two-toned eggs and how there should be a cool machine you can buy that holds the eggs in half way so they dye nicely and you don't have to sit there and hold onto it with the wire thingy yourself.
I love Easter. I love springtime, the concepts of Resurrection, the rebirth of hope. Our pastor's sermon today was about personal rebirth, the kind of effort it took Christ to rise from the dead can happen in your own life if you will release yourself from the tomb. Angels are waiting to help you push the stone away.
Wherever you find yourself, she told us to think about doing just that. You don't have to be Jesus, you don't have to be a saint. You just have to be willing to die to your past life, be it alcohol or drugs, anger from broken relationships, depression over your life and situation, whatever the case may be. Die to it, arise from the grave of sadness, and become new again.
Your life may not be perfect, but you should take what you perceive as a death or ending and turn it into a beginning, a birth. And run with it. Show you are willing and you will walk free. Very wonderful sermon... lovely day.
Happy Easter to you all.
It's All About the Cash
We thought it was supposed to start raining this afternoon so we skipped the caching action (no! really? A day without caching!!!). Jessica was relieved. She's got a cold and didn't want to be hiking again, although I told her I could tell the fresh air did her body good the day before but she doesn't believe me. When she was all smiles and happy at 11:45 at night by the camp fire regaling the host and other team with her bee sting stories... well, I saw that the day of hard hiking had done her body good.
But we stayed home because there was a very important task at hand. Doug did our taxes instead.
He always waits until the very end... and pulls through in a few hours what would take me a week or five to do. The only thing we have left to put in there is the interest paid on Doug's student loans and our kids SSNs, which I cannot find. I have no idea where I put their SS cards last year after we entered them into the form. Ooops. Guess what I'm doing tomorrow.
We're getting a small refund, very, and we owe the state a small amount so it kind of balances out nicely. I was afraid we'd have a huge debt to pay... meh! Glad it isn't that way. Normally I greatly enjoy paying the government our taxes instead of getting a refund. I'd rather have the money in my account earning me interest until it is due than the GOVERNMENT earning interest on my money until they feel like sending me my refund. But this year, I'm glad we don't owe much of anything. Not working sucks.
More resumes are flying out the door. Three more go tomorrow. I'm sending resumes into Boston, whereas I said I wouldn't do such a thing. Gah. I have to get a job and get some money.
Speaking of money, not quite sure how we are going to do this but we're going to go to Doug's hometown area for a couple o days next week for school vacation. My husband decided that he'd rather go and have us stay in a hotel than have our plans dictated to us by someone else's scheduling needs.
Guess what we'll do while we're there...Geocache?
Yup.
It's All About the Conclusion
Anyway -- that's pretty much our past few days all summed up. Sorry it was all about the Geocaching... but then again, it's spring. We're reborn. We're outside. It is fun. Hallelujah, Christ is risen. Our batteries are charged and we have a map and a truck. Get out of our way.
More normal stuff later. I'm kinda goofy tonight. Much apologies.
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