More stress

Last Thursday was mine and John's 10 year wedding anniversary. On Wednesday, the kids and I went to Hy-Vee and ordered a candy bouquet to be sent to John at work. And the kids actually kept it a secret. On Thursday, I took my brother's girlfriend Kayla to Kansas City for a dr. appt. with a specialist. That was a stressful drive. I somehow made it without getting lost or putting Kayla into labor. I have a feeling that she is going to go into an early labor again. The baby looks fine though so that's good. Anyway, before we even left town that morning, I got a call from the school nurse. She (and some of Dakota's other teachers) are concerned about Dakota. The nurse said that Dakota couldn't stop moving, almost like he had a tic. She said that he was moving so much that it looked like it was exhausting him - but he couldn't help it. She also mentioned that maybe Dakota needs to see a psychologist, not only for the extra movements, but for Dakota's lack of muscle strength. But anyway, the specialist in Omaha who recently changed Dakota's meds was out of town for the week. Of course... I called his doctor here in town, but she didn't feel comfortable doing anything with his meds. I was just told to wait and talk with the specialist this week. I called the specialist yesterday, and she didn't seemed too concerned. She said that it was probably from dropping down Dakota's dose of Abilify - kind of like withdrawal symptoms. She said to just watch him and if doesn't get better, that we can go back up on his dose a little and come back down more gradually. So then today, the school nurse called me again. The Occupational Therapist works with Dakota on Tuesdays. She actually works at the hospital but comes to the school to work with certain kids. Anyway, she wanted to fax something to Dr. Watson. She is concerned about Dakota's muscle weakness and thinks that it's progressively getting worse. She thinks that is why Dakota is walking differently now - that he has trouble using some muscles so now he's using others. She also says that Dakota gets up out of a chair differently than he used to. I don't know...I was asleep when the nurse called this morning so my mind wasn't completely clear. I just know that they think that Dakota needs to see a muscle specialist. There are some different tests that can be done, including a muscle biopsy. Eeek. That got my attention. So, I just don't know what's going on really. A lot of this stuff - John and I don't notice. I mean, I know he has been walking differently for awhile and he has always had weak fine motor skills (like with writing). For the most part, he is a strong boy. Him and John wrestle around every day. I'm just really confused right now and don't know if I need to worry.... You know, when we found out about Dakota possibly having Semantic Pragmatic Disorder, it was a relief because I thought we finally had things figured out. Now I'm not sure and I'm stressing about this again. I also feel like a bad parent because I'm not noticing everything that the school is noticing. I guess that things I see him do I assume is just part of his quirky demeanor.

But anyway... I signed Mikayla up for ballet classes today. I found out that the Maryville Dance Academy does them for only $20 a month. Mikayla is so excited. She starts on Thursday - it's only once a week for a half hour. They told us to go buy some ballet slippers at Payless. Of course, we just HAD to buy them right away. Mikayla just HAD to have them so she could practice at home. Luckily, she has a ballet outfit that we had found at a garage sale awhile back. It doesn't really matter what she wears to class, but I just know she wouldn't be happy unless she was dressed as a ballerina. Next April, she will have a dance recital. It will be so cute, and I can't wait.