Aah, EI.

[judecorp]

So I have been trying to call my pedi to find out why I never heard from the EI program. (I start a lot of entries with 'so.') Come to find out, I was supposed to call them. Whoops, thanks for telling me. But whatever, she's not going to qualify so I've got time.

I called this afternoon and when the scheduling person called me back we got to chatting and she asked if I was familiar with Early Intervention and I told her I spent almost 3 years doing EI in Boston. She said, "What are you doing now?" I told her I was home with the baby but should probably find something soon and she said, "I will stick an app in with your materials."

Ha ha ha, if I walk into a job because of my kid I will laugh my way out of town. It certainly could be fun to do EI work again, although I would have to do all of the pesky certification that I dodged at my last shindig. But still, she made it sound like they were looking for people and I should be in touch.

~//~

When we were going through the questions, she asked my name and Punk's name, and then asked for the father's name. Really? In this town? Tsk. I told her there was no father and a bonus mom and gave Jen's name, and later she said, "Do you know the father?" Does it matter? Enough with the father, lady!

~//~

There's a spot on the referral forms (heaven knows I've seen enough of them) for race and then ethnicity. I said, "Portuguese" but I was tempted to say, "Portuguese, Ukrainian, French Canadian, German, Irish, and more!" I also told them her race was Caucasian but I guess technically she is half Jewish. Whoops.

~//~

They have PTs at their program. Lucky, we had a heck of a time hiring a PT at my place after Coworker Gina left. EI pays so much less than the hospitals and stuff do. But yay, I can pick a PT's brain!

Comments

[thatpatti.livejournal.com]

a "bonus" mom. some days i think we need one of those. :D

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I could definitely use a couple more!

We should post ads or something. :)

[yip95.livejournal.com]

I was just wondering what happened with that EI stuff! That's great that you got the ball rolling. Annoying of them not to specify *how* to get that happening, but oh well.

I'd be surprised if Gus didn't qualify, actually. Unless we totally mis-remember, it was Shaya's "self-soothing techniques" (or lack thereof) that qualified her. They didn't care at all that she couldn't roll over, for instance. That wasn't delayed enough.
But waking up every 1-2 hours at 8 months old was over 66% delayed, or whatever. And I assume that MA has better EI than NY. But I have nothing to base that on...

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

MA doesn't have any qualifier about self-soothing, sadly.

Punk is an automatic qualifier for services, however, because she has "hypertonia" in her medical record. But if she is developmentally on track (which I believe she is) I may not pursue services. Although I may, because her legs ARE really tight and heck, maybe I can pick brains about how intense she is, too. (Although I think it's just her personality.)

I don't know anything about NY EI though.

Look! A Skwish!

[calledmara.livejournal.com]

My best friend's little sister (train-hopping type girl) is newly pregnant. She actually has her life together now and is going to community college. I'm trying to find baby stuff for her cause she's poor. Not sure what your future baby-makin' plans are but if you have any old baby stuff let me know. I'd pay you back for shipping.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Where is she located? If there is one in her area, I'd recommend a Freecycle mailing list. I got a TON of baby stuff on there (potty, tub, clothes, etc.) and people leave it out and you go pick it up.

Otherwise, I have a /little/ bit of stuff but I passed on most of the stuff we're not using (or have given back what we've borrowed.)

xo

[calledmara.livejournal.com]

She is in Sacramento. She doesn't have a car, maybe doesn't drive which is gonna be hard. But you're like the billionth person to recommend Freecycle, so that's what I'm passing on.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Maybe a friend can drive her or she can stick to places on the bus route or something. Because seriously? Freecycle is the bomb diggity.

[oddharmonic.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of Once Upon A Child, which sells new and gently used baby and kids' stuff, plus they keep up on the product recalls and pull product accordingly. Their Sacramento store is at 3186 Arden Way, 916-488-8861.

[calledmara.livejournal.com]

awesome, thank you! I will pass the info on.

[oppendonnell.livejournal.com]

So was your donor Jewish?
Don't get me started on the race/ethnicity thing with Jewish.
Really. Don't.
Gus is so friggin' cute. (That's responding to the 2nd post. Or could be a random declamation. whatever.)

[eeka13.livejournal.com]

:o)

Mass General is now asking people for their ethnicity beyond the five randomly chosen census designations. Which is freakin' awesome and about time. They have a brochure explaining that they're asking for it because it helps track conditions that tend to run along ethnic lines, helps them be more sensitive and aware of cultural beliefs people have about health and sickness and healing, helps them to be aware of which folks are more likely to have tried traditional types of healing that they might be reluctant to tell the Western doctors about unless the Western doctor makes it clear that they're not looking to judge, and helps MGH to track the patterns of different ethnic groups to see how and why people access healthcare as well whether MGH is treating different groups with different standards of care. I saw the brochure and was like, really, how cool is that?

Then I got to the head of the line where the registration person was taking my info. They only had maybe 30 ethnicities. They seemed pretty in line with those that are best-represented in Boston, except that I believe the only European option was "European." They'd left out a fuckload of European and non-European ethnicities that are well-known for high rates of certain genetic disorders, as well as a lot that have high rates of people with different beliefs about healing practices than the general US population. So, in practice, it basically falls flat for doing anything other than tracking if certain large ethnic groups are experiencing disparities in their care at MGH. Which is great, but a blank line would allow them to do the other things they're looking to do. Durr.

Oh, and you can't have more than one ethnicity.

When I listed my three, the registration person told me that "no dear, Jewish is your religion."

I didn't bother explaining to her that it wasn't my blessing of the candles on Friday nights that increases my risk for Tay-Sachs...

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Did you know that French-Canadians also have an increased risk of Tay-Sachs? I didn't until I went to the fertility clinic and they made me get genetic testing.

[eeka13.livejournal.com]

Yep! I actually knew that, but only because I'm a nerd like that. A particular group of French-Canadians (I wanna say Quebecois originating from near the US border...is that right?) have similar rates to Ashkenazi Jews. So do Louisiana Cajuns!

So are you a carrier?

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

No, and neither is our donor, who was also screened.

I am also not a CF carrier. Yay!

OT, I love the word "Ashkenazi." It's so fun to say!

[oppendonnell.livejournal.com]

Right. This stuff is all pretty confusing in today's world. e.g. as Jude says in these comments, her donor puts ethnicity as Jewish and religion as Christian. That's consistent, actually. My own kid will be converted fully, and raised Jewish....but in the tribal, racial sense....not a drop. No Tay Sachs problems for him. Weird. But is he ethnically Jewish? Culturally certainly.

OK, enough hijacking of jude's journal. thanks for the tangent eeka.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Oh, hijack away! I don't mind, and eeka likes to talk. :)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Our donor listed his religion as Christian but listed Jewish as an "ethnicity." Eh, whatever.

And yeah, she's pretty cute. I'll keep her. Especially since she's stopped puking.

[eeka13.livejournal.com]

Right, except that if he were providing that information so as to be helpful regarding genetic traits and so forth, he'd probably wanna specify WHICH Jewish ethnic group!

Brigham and Women's let me put "Ashkenazi Jewish, Mongolian, Swedish" as my ethnicity the other day. I even know they weren't just smiling and nodding, because the friendly geezer who was registering me typed it in with one finger, spelling as he went.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

You're right, it didn't say which Jewish ethnic group. I assumed Ashkenazi because of some of his other heritage (German, etc.) and his reported skin tones/coloring, but of course I could be very wrong.

[siercia]

IS it possible that she was asking for "father" information because she was hoping for a medical history? (see, ignorant about EI too, don't know if they would need / want one).

[thespian.livejournal.com]

Also I'd suspect that 'do you know the father?' was meant more casually, as in 'If something comes up, can you go and ask about the rest of his family?' and such. Donors don't need to list every little thing about Great Aunt Judith, but regardless of the REAL parents, the donor's Great Aunt Judith is in there and might offer a clue.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for this EI program, but I know all of the forms and required info like the back of my hand, and there really isn't anything about "health history" that they are required to know, especially since they get signed releases to pull the full medical record on the kid.

But if they DID want to know if I had any health history on the donor, they could certainly ask that instead of, "So do you know the father?" Our pediatrician's office, who I would think needs this sort of info more than EI, asked if we had any health information on the donor and left it at that.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

They don't really need a medical history because they ask for all of the birth records and medical records directly from the source. And the woman I spoke to today was simply the person who fills out the little referral form (name, address, reason for referral, etc.).

It was just weird that she went back to the "father" bit when I had already told her that Punk didn't have a father. I don't care either way, but it was like, "Umm, didn't I answer this already?"

[eeka13.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna go with "ignorant." Harbors view from somewhere that biological mother and father are more valid/important than the child's parents.

(BTW, the referral form is the same form state wide...just got a memo about that.)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I know. All the forms are the same (well, they might be arranged a little differently because at your job David likes to make them "pretty") and have to have all of the same info as mandated by the state.

Fun with EI!

And yeah, I figure she just really wanted more info for herself, not the form. :)