This past Thursday I had the incredible opportunity to share my story of Thomas…in 10 minutes. I think I took 12. A month or so ago my nursing supervisor and another supervisor called me at work. They said they were putting on a presentation about D75 nurses and what we do; would I mind sharing my story of Thomas? I said of course I would, however we weren't even told about District 75 until Thomas was about 11 years old.
In NYC District 75 encompasses all exclusively special education students. In my school we have a huge variety of diagnosis and level of functioning. Medically fragile students who require complete care, students in wheelchairs that are fully capable of telling you their needs, neurodiverse students with medical needs you cannot visibly see, to higher functioning more independent students. An extremely diverse population. I don't know the criteria for placement in District 75, but given Thomas' IQ tests back in the day; yes he should have absolutely been a D 75 student.
Back to the conference. I drive into Manhattan through Brooklyn (my dad would have been so, so proud!) park the car and arrive at 4 no World Trade Center. So cool. Make my way to the 43 floor and I'm met by my supervisor, her supervisor and the woman who oversees all of school nursing across NYC. My audience was nursing supervisors from all NYC boroughs; all school districts both regional/general ed and D75.
It wasn't difficult to tell what we went through with Thomas from when he was a baby to now an adult living in a group home. It wasn't painful. It was simply me talking to a big group of nurses who needed to hear what a parent can endure when faced with raising a child with special needs. It was difficult to have a limited amount of time. I don't know exactly how much time I would need to go into detail of raising Thomas. I'm used to writing about him here.
I don't often have the opportunity to tell my story about Thomas. The most I usually say when asked about my family is, "I have a special needs son. Yes, he's the oldest…no, I have four children." Then I get "the look" and most times something along the lines of "and Thomas is your oldest??"
Nice.
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