Little Bear's legs and feet have the possibility of causing him great pain.  In fact, I'm surprised that he can walk without a great deal of pain.  He does complain of pain, but often it is when he has to do something boring like walk through a store.  In the past I've thought that he was just fussing (like when Jophus is "too tired" to participate at mass).

I've been reevaluating that after reading that children with attachment problems can be disconnected from their physical pain.  I also realize that we've kept Little Bear in a stroller much longer that most children just because he is all over the place.

The last few days I've been watching him.  He really can't walk very far.  I don't know if he just get tired or if there is pain, but someone showed me a great tool called "Oucher" that I'm hoping will help.


It's a visual pain scale, and I'm hoping that it will help us evaluate what is real pain or just Bear avoiding unpleasant tasks.  If he really is having a lot of pain we will have to re-evaluate treatment options for Bear's feet, something that I'm not really keen to do because we will have to make some very hard decisions.

http://oucher.org/

So, if anyone is reading this you may notice that posts have been very few and far between.  I'd like to say that is because things are so amazing that I didn't want to make you jealous . . .but it ain't so.

After three years home Bear still struggles on a daily basis with  behavior problems.  About every six months he completely  dysregulates into extreme and dangerous behavior.  This is a grueling and exhausting process to get him back on track.  It takes all my effort to get though the day and meet the responsibilities (OK, try to meet and fall short).  Between that and the other children and their activities, blogging fell to the bottom of the list.

Hope to write more soon.

My Love Song to Little Bear

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning the devil says~~ "Oh Crap, She's up!"

I didn't write it, but as someone who lives with a great deal of stress, I appreciate the thought.

A young lady confidently walked around the room while explaining stress management to an audience with a raised glass of water. Everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question, 'half empty or half full?'... She fooled them all.... "How heavy is this glass of water?" she inquired with a smile. Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz. She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." She continued, "and that's the way it is with stress. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on." "As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden - holding stress longer and better each time practiced. So, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't carry them through the evening and into the night...pick them up tomorrow."