only4me

Jeanie- My oldest is a boy 19- He has a gentle spirit about him. But is challenging in other ways. Then I have a 17 year old girl, 14 year old boy, 10 year old girl--Never a dull moment or a quite one either!

in case no one has noticed we have made the top 5 viewed threads!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jackie, I would love to go to your support group, unfortunatly I work in a dental office which is open untill 8pm on Tuesday. If I happen to get off early one one of those Tuesdays, I will definalty go. I just joined that support group on Yahoo, but I am having difficulty navigating it.

I on the other hand suffer from bad spelling!!!!!!!!!!!! Teacher, don't grade me!!!! I just realized there is a spell check on the reply box.......Duh

Jeanie- Thanks for the complement, but I'm sure my teenagers would laugh at me being called loving. I think the word they describe me as starts with B....But this B does love them with every fiber of my soul. All joking aside, my daughter has not ever suffered from self esteem issues. She is perhaps one of the strongest people I know. I really admire that about her....It doesn't make it an easy household to live in at times because she truly believes she is right about everything and has nothing to learn (but I thought the same thing at 17)

And stop looking at peoples failures!!!!! I am a firm believer that what you put in your mind you will remember. (thats why I dont watch scary movies- Im such a chicken sh_t). Look to all of the success' on this forum!!!!!!!!!!

Jackie- try not to get discouraged. You cannot and will not always be able to measure success by the numbers on a scale. You success' are that you exercised on a regular basis, and that you managed to stay on program even though you are not feeling any restriction. Congradulations!!!!!!!!!! The weight loss will come. Celebrate what you did succeed in this week. You might be retaining water with your period on the way. So with that in mind. Relax. You did good. The numbers will go down, maybe not today, but very soon.

Rainer, no offense taken, but as you can see, I do take what I have been able to help my son achieve very seriously, I have had to learn how to fight a system that seems to always have been against us. Sorry if I offended you.

I think you are right, my son as well as all special education students should have been with kids who have to same kinds of issues. Unfortunatly, there are a lot of discipline problem students or kids with "at risk behavior" with high IQ's and no true learning disablilty in Special Education. Because there is no where else to put them. But that is another issue, and I cant even get into that one right now. Putting a special ed student in with high-achievers sets them up for failure--in all cases no, in some yes. I do believe that inclusion classes have been successful, not in my case however. My issue really is with the standards of Education. Kids are not "cookie cutter students". Not all kids can earn a regents diploma, or local diploma, Many special ed kids can earn an IEP diploma which means they met the requierments of their IEP. But they cant write down on a job application that they earned a high school diploma with that. Its not considered graduation from High School. Without a high shool diploma, your chances are very limited. I am lucky that my son is eligible for VESED and can go to a one year vocational school being that he is a documented Special Ed student. But he still cant write down on an application that he graduated high school. As a side note, I just found out this evening that my son passed his science RCT which he took this morning. One down, 2 more to go. He will take them in January (I will have to pay for a tutor to prepare for that)

Kathy, My daugher who is now 17 was diagnosed with chronic tic disorder. She started with vocal tics when she was 4. at first our pediatrican stated that tics were normal in child hood and we should wait for a while. When withing 6 months she stared with motor tics, and we were sent to a pediatric neurologist. She was given an EEG, and Cat scan, and it was determind that she had Chronic Tic Disorder. He explained how it is in the spectrum of Touretts Syndrom but full blow touretts is on one end of the spectrum, and chronic tic disorder is on the other end of the spectrum. He said that we would see the tics come and go (wax and wane) and that they could be either motor or vocal or both at the same time. If it progressed then she would be evaluated furthter for Tourettes. Her tics did exactly what he said. In times of stress--School starting, Christmas, vacation (even though some of these are good events, they produce stress in children) she would start with the ticks, and they would come and go. But as she progressed toward puberty...They stopped. My youngest daughter who is 10 also has tics but not as sever as my oldest. I used to beat myself up, because I had many tics as a child (but my mother never took me to a doctor-she just used to tell everyone that I was a nervous child). Mine also lessened through puberty, but to be honest, in times of stress, I do tic....I have learned to keep it to myself and nobody knows Im doing it, but it still happens. Neither of my girls were ever medicated. The neurologist said that we dont treat a tick because its bothering the parent. If it bothers the child, then we can talk about it. My daughter was very bold about her condition when she was younger, if someone pointed out what she was doing she would just tell people young and old that "its called a tic, my body does it and I have no control over it" and most people never said another thing about it. She was very compfortable about herself. I hope this helped. It you want to PM me, you can, I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

<p>One last thing. I did state that I did not hold any of his teacher to blame. They worked very hard with my son. Some of those teacher I will forever be grateful for.</p>

Green- while I appreciate you comments and agree with a lot of what you have posted, #1- my son was not or ever has been a social problem. My post stated that he was sent to a school which mostly had discipline problems- his problem mostly was that he wasn’t a problem and because he was "polite, and a gentleman" as all of his teacher have stated, and he did not cause problems in his class, he fell through a lot of cracks. #2-Maybe I phrased it incorrectly, but I’m not asking my son just be handed a diploma, but the law in NY state make it so that each school district can enact a 'Safety net" and make 55 not 65 passing for Regent Competency exams. Not all school districts enact this policy. So if my son was in one of the school districts that have this safety net, he would have a diploma, and I wouldn’t be as frustrated as I am. My feeling is that either all schools in the state should either have this 'Safety net" or not. #3 my son has been a special education student since the third grade, I have had numerous conversations regarding my sons maturity, and whether or not he could survive on his own. To be honest, I don’t think at this time he is prepared for the world on his own, but then again my good friends son who just graduated with honors, isn’t ready either (and that’s her slant on it, not mine) I don’t know many 18 or 19 year olds that are. and as far as our school district goes, remember, they are the ones who sent me the letter stating that they have done their part and he has passed all of his requirement, their job is complete- have a good life. So that door is closed.

OH MY GOSH....I had my first PB.......I was talking on the phone with my friend. I was packing up the left overs that my kids had (Grilled Chicken) and absent mindedly put a piece in my mouth, and of course did not chew it well..................Habbit...........................and it got stuck halfway down. All of a sudden my eyes started to water and it just to come up on its own....and lets not mention the ammount of phlem!!!!!!!!!!! It was a little scary!!!!!!!!!!! I dont think I did any damage...It really didnt feel like I was throwing up, but it came up anyway.

Isnt that amazing. $29,000 for surgery? I have not seen my bills yet, but thats not the first time I heard of that. Was that the Surgeons bill only or Hospital and Anesthesia?

Jeanie- It truly was a joke, especially after paying for all of the testing to be done, now the stupid ins company had to pay my primary care dr every month for 6 mos. So stupid, a waste of their money and my time. DLW- my ins company did not accept the letter from my physician. They required me to go, for him to fill out the form and fax it in monthly- Trust me, my physician was pissed and didnt even want to see me for the 6 mos-He was not very supportive of the surgery either. Needless to say, I switched Drs

DLW- you might want to check with your insurance in reguards to what they accept as prior weight loss efforts. For myself, after going through all of the testing required for surgery, my insurance company did not accept anything but 6 months of documented weight loss visits with a physician. Jennycraig, LAweightloss, weightwatchers, did not count even though I had documentation from all of those that I went. It had to de from a physician. So, needless to say how bummed I was to have to extend things another 6 mos. Just a little advise to check it out.

If anyones from Long Island NY- there is a Lap Band support group on Wed Sept 5th at Samantha's Little Bit of Heaven Coffee house in Northport.

Ssandofa- Im doing well, Tues, Wed, Thurs are hard for me to get here and post alot. I work 28 hours in 3 days, so Im shot at the end of each night. I feel much better since I started on mushies. I dont have that and spasms in my chest anymore. Good luck with your appt. Let us know what they said.

Thanks Ron! I will be there. I PM'ed my email adress to you

As a parent of a Special Education Student I have to add my two cents. My son is now a 19 year old and I can attest to the fact that there are children left behind. Life with my son has been a struggle from the second grade. He slipped through every crack available at our economically disadvantaged school district. I was given every excuse under the sun for his lack of focus and inability to retain information (from both teachers and doctors). I did not realize the scope of what I was dealing with until 1 year later when I had him tested outside of the school district. He was in resourse, inclusion, and finally a 6:1:1 and then bused to an alternative High School which dealt with mostly discipline problem children (I may add that our school district at that point was glad to see us referred to Boces) When he completed High School, and I mean completed not graduated. I was sent a letter from our school district stating that although my son could not pass the regent competency exams, he passed his high school courses (with mostly B's I might add)-that pretty much were finished with his education. So now I have a 19 year old who does not have a high school diploma, is very turned off to education, and has no direction in his life right now. Do I blame the education system. You Bet!!! I as a parent did everything possible to get this child through school. From studying with him, to testing him and guiding him. Without my guidence and constant studying, he would not have been able to achieve the grades he did. Do I blame his teacher.....NO, they did everything they could have for him. I blame the laws of New York State that Special Education students cannot compete with regular ed students. Special Education students who pass their classes but cannot pass state tests, should be given a local diploma.

Ron, When is the next support group meeting?

Well..............It was bound to happen to me. I have to say, My body has adjusted to mushy foods way better than liquids. Today for the first time, I was hungry, and I felt as though I could have just kept eating at every meal. I stopped myself by portioning out everything, but I could have eaten alot more I think. I no longer have those crushing esophogus spasms. I really think those were brought on my hunger, I just didnt feel like it was hunger, also, I am able to burp.....I think I was so swollen on the inside, that I could not do it. I feel so much better since I can burp!!!!!!!

Dini--typo- the town in Italy is Laderia