eSpecially Ben

After 45 minutes of a work session, Ben's new and highly competent speech therapist, Jayne, gave Ben his first opportunity to use the key board on her iPad. This is what he typed: TVEE WATTCE I am, ironically, speechless.

Love INC's mission Last night, we had the wonderful opportunity to attend  Love INC 's Celebration Dinner. Love INC coordinated the building of Ben's ramp this summer. Unbeknownst to the lead carpenter for the project, Steve; he was receiving a special volunteer award at the banquet. We were invited to sit with Steve and his family and also introduce Ben to the guests before they sprung the award on Steve.  Steve with his wife, Ann and mom, June. In the end, Steve was surprised, but with Ramp It Up! staff coordinator Keri, Steve's wife and even his own mother in on it, he had no chance. When he sat down, they quickly hid the event program from him which had his name listed as an award recipient. After Steve received the award and sat down, I think his first words were, "I am going to get you back." Of course Steve was joking, but he is not the type of person to want his efforts flaunted in front of 300 people. He does what he d

Last weekend we found out about a local wheelchair basketball tournament in an interesting way. My mom and I were having dinner out, and we noticed a table of people who were mostly in wheelchairs. We were leaving at the same time as this group and because I was curious (and nosy), I asked one of the people if they were part of a team. Lo and behold, they were the Atlanta Wolfpack Wheelchair Basketball Team and were here for a tournament. The group was open to answering my questions about when and where they were playing. They whipped out the schedule and said there were games the next day. We knew the kids would love going so we made it to a couple of games the next day. We saw the Carolina Tarwheels beat the Atlanta Wolfpack, and then Atlanta played the Fayetteville Flyers . We missed our home team,  Charlotte Rollin' Bobcats  play. One of the Tarwheels players thanked us for coming and explained the rules of the game. We learned that there is a classification syste

Happy Halloween! With Scooby Doo and Shaggy after the Pumpkin Head Soldier,  the infamous line ran through my head,  "... and I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids."

Ben carefully rolled the red ball down the ramp without looking - a challenge he added to the event himself. His eyes were on the volunteer with the hot pink socks, thinking,  "Where can I get me some of those?" Then, his attention turned to the ramp and looked for where the ball might end up after his big push. Or he noticed the two cute teenage girls hanging onto his every move. Actually here is the real story: Ben participated in the Bocce Ball event only after waiting 2 hours and Grandma having to ask why her grandson did not get to have a chance.  Supposedly they had called his name and none of us heard it. Ben did not have a medal ceremony which will be a difficult conversation with the brothers. In their eyes, Ben's worth is tied to those medals. They have been holding out for a Gold far too long, in their opinion. Ben was actually excluded in more ways than not getting his name called today. Because he is in a wheelchair, he was signed up for

My mom came with me to Ben's next neuropsychology appointment. We spent a few minutes with the doctor while Ben went off with the two young women proctors and his OT. They also had the NOVA Chat. I was worried about how Ben would do - he had been up since 3am because of the crazy cab driver and drunken bicycle brawl the night before and performing on command is not usually one of Ben's finer moments. Ben's OT found us in the waiting room about 20 minutes into their session. She needed water for Ben because he had requested some. She said he was doing remarkably well, although they had to ask one of the proctors to leave because Ben's flirting was getting in the way of the testing. Ben lasted another 20 minutes, for a total of 40 minutes. The OT reported that he shocked the proctors who the week prior could not get anything out of him. Ben was able to tell them what words like bovine, marsupial, and oil can (thanks Bob the Builder)   all meant. The doctor calle

It will be almost a year since we started using the NOVA Chat with Ben. It has opened up our minds to what Ben is capable of learning and doing. Ben's neurologist has been intrigued by the device and Ben's use of it. In our spring appointment with her, she suggested we take Ben to a neuropsychologist for testing. I did not follow-up with this suggestion until  a few weeks ago and lucky for us, they fit Ben in immediately. I knew I was dealing with a different type of doctor when I received an email from her asking if we could talk on the phone about Ben. I was not available to talk because I was working crazy hours at a five day conference in California, so I referred her to  eSpecially Ben . I think she read it that night because she got back to me and changed her strategy: 1. We need to use the NOVA Chat for testing 2. We need to get Ben's OT involved 3. We need to do the testing in 30-60 minute increments, rather than the usual 3 hours At our first meeting, she