What happens when your son is smart but lazy in school?

My 8 year old is amazingly smart, the problem? He is lazy!

He finds ways to get out of doing school work and sadly the teachers have let him get away with it. He claims he is feeling ill or has a headache. This past Monday we met with his teacher and resource teacher of finding ways to help him.

The one thing is helping him become more independent. This one is not only hard for him but also me since he is my last “baby”. You never realize how hard it is to let go until your youngest starts growing up. Then you hold on to the little things you do for him. I haven’t pushed him like I have pushed my daughter. So now he is being more responsible in the morning and surprisingly it has been quite easy. He does it with no question and now I wonder if all along I wasn’t actually helping him to move faster but holding him back by doing it. I have to say it is a bit of load of my morning schedule for him to get himself ready. I still pick out his clothes but he puts them on and then goes to the bathroom and brushes his teeth. He also receives a sticker daily at school in his planner if he had an independent day and there has yet to be a day without a sticker!!

The second thing we are working on is his printing. While he is smart his ability to write down on to paper is lacking. So each night we do a journal and he is learning to pace himself at work when writing so that everyone can read his work. He has been doing well with that as well. He does try to stall by complaining that we have to do another journal but once he sits down he does complete it.

I am hoping with just those two things it will help him with the rest of his school work. They tried testing him in school but he rushes and then the test isn’t accurate. So really the school has no idea what he CAN do because he doesn’t have the patience to be tested. My husband feels that threatening to take his PS3 away or his computer away if he doesn’t do it is the key. I think that we need to show him he needs to do it to be those wonderful careers he wishes to be. (mayor, army man, police officer)

Hopefully he finally does because then maybe they can see what I see with my son. I know he can do a lot more then they believe and it is frustrating having to hear over and over he can not when he does do it at home.

Do any of you have some problems with your children not doing what they need to at school? And how have you succeed in getting them to do the work or how are you trying to get them to do it?

My simple mistake on PD

On Friday, I was in a hurry to get unhooked from PD because we were running late and I had to get my kids to the stop in time for school.

When you get unhooked from pd, you have to close the catheter that is in your body and then close the clamp on your machine tube that connects to you. I closed the machine tube and unhooked. I did not close the catheter! Fluid sprayed everywhere (at the end of dialysis my stomach fills with 200 mls for comfort so the catheter has padding in my body) and I closed it right away!  I then got my children ready for school and sent. While I did this my husband called the dialysis unit to inform them and make sure it was okay that it happened.

From my training I knew it probably wasn’t. The catheter opening had been contaminated by air.  Sure enough, I was correct and I was informed I had to get into the dialysis unit for antibiotics. Once in the unit, they drained the fluid that was left in me. Added fluid from a twin bag (a small bag of fluid that is similar to those I place on my dialysis machine) to my drain bag and then injected 2 antibiotics into the bag that was going into me on the twin bag. (the twin bag is called a twin bag because there is 2 bags, one with fluid and one is a drain bag.) Once the fluid and meds were in my body, I had to sit for 15 mins. I have an allergy to penicillin and these meds were for those that were allergic but still could cause a reaction. I received a drain bag, masks and isogel in case there was an issue on the way home.  I had to drain right away and get to a hospital. (nothing ended up happening but at least we were prepared for it!) This fluid had to sit in my stomach a minimum of 6 hours before being drained on my dialysis machine.

The nurse doesn’t believe there will be a problem but we took care of it just in case. For the next week I just have to make sure I do not get pain or run a fever. I believe I will be fine. This is how a simple mistake could be a bad one. Hopefully I never make it again! I feel very foolish that I made this one mistake, but I figure since it is my first one and I just got the machine in July, I am doing pretty good!