10 years ago Today

As if Dakotas birth wasn't enough for a life time....10 years ago today we suffered another set back...
The short story is that Dakotas Teacher went against the IEP and made him and his 1 on 1 aide go to the baseball field for lunch rather than the quad as described in his goals . This way the teacher could give the other aides in the class their breaks while still covering his own ass by using Daks aide to watch the other kids...
Dakota decided he did not want to be there and started back to the class ..stepped down off the cement foundation onto gravel slipped and broke his leg in 3 places............

The ride and stay in the ER is another subject but this post is about how it has had an effect that has yet to fade and the residual memories still give Dakota terrors.
After 3 days in the hospital which was a "tap dance"to keep Dakota there and co operative it was 2 months on the bed refusing to get off because he was afraid of breaking his other leg...of course there was no acknowledgement by the school or offer for accommodations to get him back and eventually after a discussion with risk management and their in ability to understand that not only could this incident been avoided but a simple fix with very little  cost could solve the problem there was litigation..again not what this post is about.

What Dakota got out of this is a permanent inability to to feel safe any longer on his own 2 feet...he now refused to go anywhere near the sand at the beach because of the instability of the sand, he has major issues with many types of flooring and surfaces...if there is a texture, or a color or even a crack or change in patterns HE FREEZES...
The cast was set improperly which we didn't understand until it was too late and he had pain in his foot and leg while in the cast so he started twisting and pulling his hair to the point of bald spots ...that habit has continued ...it also is my biggest battle as I write this post....it no longer is a way for him to deal with pain but has become a habit that he cannot stop.....He has had toenails removed and a hammer toe and no longer walks like a normal person. His "gait"is not right and I have yet to get a podiatrist to agree that so ething need to be done. The last time we went to Disneyland I had to get a wheelchair half way thruthe visit   as his foot was giving out on him.of course all this pisses me off YET we solider 

Beyond all of that when the date rolls around .....it obvious that he is well aware of it and he becomes almost traumatized and fixated ....that SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN...

As early as yesterday morning I noticed he was "touchy"and he had escalated behavior. Had a minor meltdown , was sleeping or napping a couple of times during the day and just an overall sketchy  day. Last night he usually sleeps quite well, falls asleep easily and wakes up predictably around the same time..BUT not last night
First thing out of his mouth this morning was "Mom....It's April 27" 
I sat down and looked him in the EYES and told him it was Ok and we would have a good day...We 
would be careful and I would make sure that nothing happened...
he seemed to be relieved and and trusted me..but I knew until the time passed and the clock struck midnight we wouldn't be out of the woods....

It's now 11:39pm and barring any unforeseen freaky happening I think we made it through about April 27...10 years down....hopefully by the time we hit 20 years I won't be writing about it !!