IFSP annoyances
I’m lucky to be a part of the state’s 0-3 program that helps me afford Jordan’s many therapies and care. (It took many month fighting to get her into the program) It has been a way to help me fund the little things that insurance will fight – like shoe inserts that have helped Jordan’s strange leg structure. I finally got my pediatrician to fill out a prescription for new UCBLs (a technical term for the shoe inserts). But then I had to try to track down my First Steps coordinator, find a meeting time and then schedule an appointment for a fitting. It takes a week or more to get the inserts built.
Oy.
Poor kid will be without inserts at least two months before we get new ones. It stinks that the process is so slow when she’s growing so fast.
What’s really a bummer is how we have to leave the First Steps program in six months… We could apply to get assistance through the school system. But the difference is the school system program focuses on helping kids with the skills that will help them sit in the classroom and learn. Jordan will be able to do that. What she will need are therapists that can help her to learn how to take her clothes on and off, how to use the bathroom without falling into the toilet… You know, life skills that I hope I can provide, but I bet a little more expert guidance would help her get there quicker. Once we leave the First Steps program, I really don’t think I can afford the monthly $160 it would take in copays to get the same number of occupational therapy appointments she has now — and we’d have to return to DRIVING to the appointments instead of having the therapists visit Jordan at school. Add in the price of using more gas… and that’s a lot more money each month. That doesn’t even include our physical therapist who is amazing and I’m not prepared to lose. I’m bitching. I realize this and I apologize.