Intensive Home Therapy Update 1/12/18

It's been about six weeks now since we started intensive home therapy for Issac. When they say intensive they are certainly correct. Up until Christmas someone was here Monday-Friday for almost 2 hours a day! It's been very hard to adjust our work and schedule. We've got school to the minimum for Issac because I didn't see any other option.  They have just recently bumped him to four days a week. As he continue to do well they'll drop it down until it's one day a week. Then he'll be turned back over to a regular counselor and will continue with them for a bit. I honestly feel this is the hardest and best thing we've done. I do seem small changes in him. We were having multiple issues a day and often times they'd go for hours. Up until last week we'd had several days with only one issue per day and a few days with NO issues! Such an answer to prayer. We started school back this week and all I can say is it's like we've never even started this therapy. He had a horrible day Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and a little bit today. Thankful each of those days other than yesterday one of his counselors came and were able to talk with him and try to work through some of the issues. I almost called them yesterday to see if they'd come out or even talk to him on the phone, but he ultimately fell asleep (LOL) I think the three weeks off school was too much or he's struggling with my aunt's death even though he doesn't really even seem to understand it. I'm not sure what's going on, but this afternoon was better and I'm thankful for that! They've been working with him on coping skills and I've seen him use them a few times, but this week he refused. He ranted about how the dr's didn't know what they were doing, he wasn't using stupid coping skills, etc.  I don't feel therapy has failed I just think this shows how life can be like a roller coaster. Sometimes a bad week happens.

We've learned so far that he tends to jump to the negative for almost everything. Those negative thoughts then get his mind going and he gets angry. One of his counselors has been working with him quite a bit on how to change the negative thoughts into more positive ones. One of the other counselors taught him some things he could do with his body to help him realize when he's getting calm. They made stress balls-playdough inside balloons and I've seen him use those a few times. All in all I think he's made some good progress for the time he's been in it. They say it's usually a minimum of six months and can continue more if needed.