April 12, 2007

Brennan Update...

For those in the family that have been asking...here is the Brennan update:

Went to the doctor yesterday (btw did I say how much I LOVE and respect my doctor...he's awesome!) He pretty much told me what I kind of already knew...that his sniffing his hands & neck twisting is a nervous condition...his way of coping in high stress situations. So doc gave us these options:

1) See a child psychiatrist and put him on meds (which the doctor and I agreed was NOT an option)

2) Talk to his teacher and see if there is a way to correct any problems he may be having (kids picking on him, stressful situations)...in all honesty I think the teacher is the problem, but I won't go into that here.

3) Homeschool him.

We take him back in a month to see if the situation worsens and just check up on him. So what are we going to do?? Not entirely sure yet, but if it was earlier in the school year I would probably pull him and try to homeschool (though the thought of that scares me a bit), but with only 6 weeks of school left I'm not sure that it would be all that beneficial pulling him like that and then trying to acclimate him to doing "school" at home...the thing I want most is building his self confidence and the thing I want most to avoid is hurting his self esteem...I don't want him to think that he's different or that he's stupid (which he already tells himself that)...I want him to think that even though he may be different in some areas in his life that God made him special and that he's great just the way he is. What I'm thinking of doing is keeping him in school until the end of the year and then try and work with him at home with homeschooling books during the summer...that way I can see how he acclimates and how well I do with it. Brennan is just the type of kid that doesn't do well in big crowds and social situations. I'm not going to condemn him for that because I'm kind of the same way...I was a lot that way when I was younger. God has kind of forced me out of that shell over the last few years :-) So your continued prayers for Brennan will be much appreciated and also for me and hubby as we make decisions about what to do.

And just a note...the snow is gone, but has been replaced by rain which is supposed to last through the weekend....come on spring...we miss you!

1 comment:

Jada's Gigi said...

Well, I'm glad the doc calmed your fears a bit....the homeschool thing is kind of scary and then you'd be faced with deciding on doing all the kids...my sister does two of hers and it has been very overwhelming as they have gotten older. Plus hers have lots of peer opportunities so they aren't isolated...thats a good thing, but she has struggled with it...perhaps the summer idea is a good one, to see if you can get him on level with others his age and to see how you deal with it yourself. I'll pray that the lord will lead you in knowing what to do...maybe its mainly this year and this group of kids and this teacher and next year will be totally different...