Is it Too Much to Ask?

I'm about to loose it here! If you follow my blog, you know that Lincoln has some developmental delays. He has speech, emotional, and social delays and it has been suggested by several doctors that he may be slightly autistic, but I'm not sold on that and he has never been officially diagnosed.

I am so sick of trying to get him help and feeling like everything is working against me. I've been trying since we moved, in March, to get him back into Early Intervention. He received services from them in Utah and it made a world of difference. Well, every time I call their office I'm told that someone will call me back in a few weeks. Seriously, its ridiculous! After the third time I was told that, someone did finally call me back. They took all his info and said that they would send me a pack in the mail. Two weeks later I got the packet, called them to let them know that I received it. I was then told that I have to get a letter from his insurance stating that they won't pay for private therapy. Also that he was being assigned a case manager and that they would call me in 2-3 weeks to set up an appointment. That was two and a half weeks ago. Knowing them once the person finally calls back, if they even do, they won't be able to get him in for a month. He only qualifies for this service until he is three. That's in less than three months, I don't know why I'm even bothering to go through all this.

Its been suggested that preschool might help. Well, he's not quite three, not potty trained or anywhere near it, and finding a preschool has proven difficult. Most preschools around here are way more than we can afford. Ya, sorry but I just don't have $800 a month lying around for part time preschool. So we started looking into headstart. After calling four different offices, each time being told that they are not the right people to talk to and getting the number for the "right" people, I was told that he isn't old enough, and I need to talk to Early Head Start. Ya right, but the time I finally get a hold of them he will be three and I'll have to start over with the regular Head Start.

Then comes the really fun part. I tried to get some kind of diagnosis from his doctor. In order for my insurance to give me any services, including speech therapy I have to get a referral from his doctor. So we went to see the doctor. We waited two hours in the tiny exam room. Me, Savannah, and Lincoln- the out of control two-year-old in a five foot box for two hours. I about lost it! After two hours the doctor finally came in, spent less than two minutes in the room and told me that it seemed to her that there was definitely something going on with Lincoln, but she didn't know what (really, big surprise you spent 2 minutes with him after he was already completely out of control) she was going to refer us to some office that does nothing but evaluate kids. I was told that I should hear back about the referral in 2-3 weeks and if I hadn't heard anything in 3 weeks to call back. So its been four weeks now. I called my insurance on Monday only to find out that the doctor's office never submitted the referral! I'm fuming at this point, but it only gets worse. I called Monday and got an answering machine, so I left a message. Tuesday they didn't call back, so I called back. Twice, and left one message. Today they still hadn't called back. I've called ten times today and gotten nothing but answering machines. I left a message again. I actually left a message on their referral line, their nurse line, and their appointment line. We'll see if they actually call back. If I haven't heard from them by Friday I think I will take my kids down to their office, pay for the stupid parking and sit in their office until they give me the referral, this is beyond ridiculous!

Meanwhile, Lincoln is in what I like to call one of his "manic" states. I really don't think manic is the right word, but I don't know what the right word is. When he gets like this he barely talks. He refuses to eat pretty much anything. Today all he is eating is crackers, which is pretty hard to figure out since he isn't talking and if I try to give him something he doesn't want he screams, hits, and throws things. He won't sleep anywhere but on the couch, and hasn't for about two weeks now. He is having extreme separation anxiety, to the point that he won't even go with Jesse anymore. He doesn't want to go anywhere, and if I try to take him somewhere we have another of his meltdowns. Also Jesse is leaving tomorrow for six weeks. I'm seriously thinkning of just running away. Ok, so not seriously, but it is starting to look tempting.