Austin's new "school year" starts next week and I am already up to my eyeballs in craziness. Several of his ECI therapies are school year based and the schedule keeps changing. If it isn't one thing, it's another. I had the schedule all worked out (see below) and then, BAM! "Can we just move this appointment to this new day & time, but only for 4 weeks...then we mill move it back, at which point we may need to rethink the whole thing." Waaaaah!
When all is said & done, Austin will have 7 Therapists, 2 FT Nurses, 1PT Nurse & 8 Specialists on his calendar. As of now we have the following schedule for therapies, not including any doctor appointments.
Monday: Play Therapy - 1 hour (home)
Tuesday: Physical Therapy - 50 minutes (center)
Occupational (Feeding) Therapy - 50 minutes (home)
Every other Tuesday Night - Parent Class @ JTC (center)
Wednesday: Play Therapy - 1 hour (home)
Thursday: AVT/Demo Home - 1 hour (center)
Friday: AVT/Friday Family School - 2 hours (center)
And we have not even filled in all the blanks, I am still waiting to hear from:
DHH - 2 hours (home)
Speech/PMV Therapy - 1 hour (hospital)
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When there are last minute changes, cancellations, rescheduling...ah, well things can get crazy. However, I think I do a pretty good job managing all of Austin's appointments. If there was one thing I learned in my formerly employed life, as an Office Manager, it's that you need a system. So of course, in my new life as Austin's Personal Assistant, I have a system.
I am one of sickos who color coordinates her Outlook Calendar, yeah that's me. Seriously, it is really easy.
Just open Outlook Calendar > Edit > Label > Edit Labels.
You can even pick your own colors. It's so simple. Whenever you create an appointment you use the clever drop down menu and pick the color that corresponds to the activity. Notice, I even have one color for ME!
I also have a white board mounted in his room above the changing table so that the Nurses can be up to speed on which appointments we have on a given day. I change the appointments weekly, or as needed. This also has space for his feeding & medication schedule which fluctuates as well.
Usually, this entire system works out very well, although I did manage to forget my own doctor appointment earlier this week. It seems I failed to enter it in Outlook or write on the White Board. This is clearly another reason why I need an assistant too!
Traditionally, Austin's ECI therapies would ALL be home based, but we do some that are center based, by choice. Of course I am now questioning my sanity by taking on the center based appointments. But he NEEDS all of them. Or does he?
Thanks for peeking,
3 Peekers:
It sounds like you are a busy family! I wish little Austin the best in making progress towards ditching all of the specialists & therapists. I am an ECI occupational therapist and see many families go through what you are going through. I do in home services because in our area there isn't center-based. I like the family-centered approach to being in the home, especially when I am working with a family as busy as yours...it's hard for you to drive to all of those appointments and still have a life. Best of luck!
http://ot4specialtots.blogspot.com
That is a busy schedule! I also use Outlook. I print 7 day view and post on the frig (mostly for my husband) so we can see what's what each day. I also print a 30 day view that I keep on my desk. I still prefer to have a paper copy. I also color code by event type.
That is fantastic! I use Google calendar but I really like how you can color-coordinate on yours.
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