Week Ten

The following installment is courtesy of the Lisa Yoo group:

After working hard to clean herself up, Vasha regained custody of Terrance when he was 10 years old. Once Terrance returned home, things went well between him and Vasha for the first 2 weeks. However, things began to go downhill after that. Because of Vasha’s drinking problem when Terrance was a child, as well as Terrance’s emotional instability, there was never an appropriate attachment formed between the two. This made things difficult once Terrance was under the care of his mother again. The two could not seem to get along or communicate well with one another. The communication difficulties also had to do with the malformations in Terrance’s oral cavity, so in order to try and help the situation, Vasha looked further into the surgery Terrance would need.  Vasha found that the surgery would be covered by insurance so they went ahead and got it done. The surgery was a success and it helped Terrance better communicate with others-including his peers and his mother.

Although the surgery was a success, Terrance’s speech was not appropriate for his age; he needed some help from professionals to learn how to appropriately articulate his speech. Vasha decided to enroll Terrance in speech therapy. She ran into some difficulties when she found that the insurance would not fully cover these services. Because she saw how much Terrance was improving just because he was able to communicate, she wanted him to improve even more and decided to pay out of pocket for the services. She picked up an extra job and was doing everything she could to help her son and improve their relationship. After 3 months, Vasha could no longer afford to pay for Terrance’s therapy and had to pull him out. Terrance grew very upset about this because he enjoyed going to therapy and really liked his therapist. It was at this point that things took a turn for the worst. The whole ride home from Terrance’s last therapy session consisted of crying and screaming horrible things to his mother. They got home and Terrance continued to lash out at his mother; she couldn’t take it anymore and began to yell back. This caused Terrance’s emotions to rise to the point that he grabbed the chair behind him and threw it across the room in Vasha’s direction. The chair ended up hitting Vasha on the forehead leaving a gash. Vasha had to go the hospital where she once again encountered social workers and had to answer their questions.

Terrance’s bad behavior caused Vasha to turn back to alcohol even after being clean for 5 years. Although he was no longer going to live with her after her report to the social worker, she still couldn’t handle the stress and pain he had caused her. Terrance was placed in an emotional and behavioral facility an hour away from Vasha’s home; he was 10 ½ years old when placed in this state funded facility. When he arrived at the facility, numerous tests and evaluations were done. The doctors found that Terrance suffers from multiple disabilities. He was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, which helps to explain many of the outbursts that Terrance had. After a hearing screening, it was also found that Terrance suffered from some hearing difficulties that contributed to communication difficulties. It was found that his right ear did not develop properly while in the womb due to Vasha drinking while pregnant. The emotional and behavioral facility provided Terrance with the appropriate therapy and services needed for him to get better.

 Although Terrance still had difficulty forming positive relationships with the other kids in the facility, he was able to develop a healthy relationship with his mother. The hospital had family therapy sessions in which Vasha and Terrance attended to work through their problems. Aside from the therapy session, Vasha visited Terrance weekly to see how he was doing. He continued to make significant progress and after 17 months, Terrance was released from the facility and able to go home. While Terrance was in the hospital working on improving himself, Vasha also returned to classes to forever give up alcohol, allowing Terrance to remain in her custody. While at home, Terrance and Vasha currently receive weekly consultation from a social worker just to make sure that everything is going smoothly. Terrance is attending the public school in his district. With the diagnosis received when at the hospital, he is able to receive services under IDEA at school. Although Terrance’s FSIQ continues to remain at 65, which is significantly below the requirements for normal intelligence, he continues to make progress in his learning as well as his ability to form positive healthy relationships.