<p>Sorry to hear about your D’s accident. Mine had a fairly similar experience this past year. She stepped badly on a stairway on a Sunday, didn’t even fall, and then was in excrutiating pain overnight. She had some frat boys carry her to the university health center, where she spent about 6 hours waiting and then finding out that her foot was broken. They gave her crutches and told her to see an orthopedist. I picked her up (we live about 45 minutes away lucky for her), and she ended up on crutches for 6 weeks. Imagine hobbling around a huge campus where each class is at least a 30-minute hike from each other, not to mention her dorm. Needless to say, she became very skilled at crutches and very empathetic for the physically challenged. One great thing that the school provided was a disability van which picked her up at her dorm room and would drop her at most of her classes every day.</p>
<p>Thanks, opera-mom (chuckle) – you’re right, when they have to be responsible, they are, more often than not.</p>
<p>How is your D doing now,alohagail? My D is still on crutches and will be for some time to come since the damage is severe and the MDs are trying to give it time to heal properly. Although her dorm is very close to the music building, other classes- Italian and a Poli-Sci course are over on the university side so she has to allow about 20 minutes extra to the normal time alloted to get to those. There is an elevator in the dorm, but in the music bldg, it’s only the freight elevator and she’s not strong enough to work the door on that! Once class will be held in the Art Museum this week and the prof has been kind enough to make arrangements for a wheelchair,someone assigned to push it and a ride to and fro.
As for the problem with the Health Center- I spoke to one of the administrators of the place and was told that the center was jammed for the first few days because many kids don’t have health care when not at school, so they head there as soon as school opens for routine care! Shows need for health care reform of some sort, doesn’t it?</p>
<p>I’m a bit surprised by the school’s efforts (or lack thereof) to accommodate students (or anyone else) with limited mobility. The music building has only a freight elevator?? I know IDEA applies to public schools, but still…</p>
<p>A few years back, S3 sustained a serious ankle injury while participating in a club volleyball game on campus. No bones broken, but his foot was left quite literally hanging off the end of his leg. Fortunately, his campus was not far from Yale-New Haven Medical Center and he had a top-notch orthopedist put him back together with strict orders to stay OFF the leg and come back for followups and PT. He spent months in a rigid knee-high boot.</p>
<p>For the rest of the semester all he had to do was call campus security and they sent a golf cart to shuttle him from building to building. The drivers not only transported him to his destination, but also helped him inside and onto the elevators. Friends drove him back to the hospital for followup doctor visits. </p>
<p>Even with this level of care and accommodation, he still feels the effects of this injury and experiences some discomfort from time to time. It’s easy to tell which leg was hurt just by looking at it. Let me echo the sentiments of other posters on this board and emphasize what you already know: ankle injuries can be debilitating and take a long time to heal. I would hope that your D’s school would recognize this and make a more concerted effort to help her get around.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I am going to formulate a request and e-mail it to the Dean before Tuesday’s classes begin. The only one who has done anything at all was the prof who secured a wheelchair for today’s visit to the Art Museum, assigned someone to push her and a grad student to drive her back after. I am also going to get D’s exact schedule and contact Campus Security to see if they have any sort of small vehicle that they could send for her. One problem is that the conservatory is really seperate from the university with whom they share some facilities. She will be getting re-checked again on Monday, no ifs, ands, or buts!
Having had 2 major injuries myself, I am constantly amazed at the lack of access for those who need it (major hospital here puts the Pain Center and hip/leg/foot ortho docs on the second floor of new bldgs while Hand Therapy is on the 1st! None of those little blue buttons to open the doors either! As for schools making accomodations- well, the law only applies to making it possible for the students in that school to get in and out of the buildings- for instance, the doors must only nbe sized for a junior sized wheelchair and it’s OK if the dragoon the basketball team to carry you up and down stairs! I had to be reassigned to a teaching position in another building!</p>
<p>Has she worked with the disabilites office? Some kids don’t like to go there, but in our experience they are the ones that pull all the strings to get the best access possible, help arrange the golf carts, give info to professors re accomodations, and even tell the Deans.</p>
<p>No, I know D hasn’t done that. The conservatory is really quite set apart from the university and although the do “share” some things-nominally, anyway- getting over to the “other side” isn’t easy. The profs who teach classes that her “sendentary situation” would impact have been really great about making alternate arrangements for her- couldn’t ask for better. At least this all happened before the snow began to fly or she would have had to use those ice tips on her crutches (I hate those and always end up putting one down on my toes-youch!)</p>
<p>My D got sick at school last year and called the Health Center for an appointment. The girl on the phone told her she could come in the next day. D felt (and sounded) awful and I encouraged her to walk over to the Health Center anyways – they let her in to see a doctor within the hour.</p>
<p>I echo everyone who’s urging your D to contact the office of disabled students, or whatever it is called on your campus. It is most assuredly not “just” for those with lifelong challenges. I injured my back severely one semester and was unable to attend classes at all for most of it. The office arranged for note-taking, including delivery to me, telephone office hours with the profs, and when I was able to get around, picked me up and took me to all of my classes, and took care of getting my preschoolers to/from day care - now THAT was over and above :)</p>
<p>When I was riding the van I shared it with a number of kids with orthopedic injuries of various sorts, as well as the wheelchair-bound. Trust me, a huge camaraderie develops among all.</p>
<p>I will definitely tell her about the disabilites office when we talk later- she is in the mend, but getting to the two classes in other buildings isn’t easy.
I will be interested to see what happens with the office. I became very ill due to a severe reaction to a new medication while I was in my final semester of gradute school and found out just how awful things were when a school was not understanding.The med was given for RA, and they had messed up the dosages, causing me to lose a massive amount of weight and to appear terribly gaunt and haggard.So, I looked as awful as I felt, and some others in the class actually filed complaints trying to have me removed from class, on the mistaken belief that I had AIDS!! Standing- at least metaphorically, on ceremony, I refused to release my medical records to the school (they demanded them to “ensure the safety of the students” and wouldn’t settle for letters from various medical practitioners), and a long battle ensued. When you see, or hear, all of those lengthy warnings on medicactions for RA, it’s because of what they learned from me- cold comfort. That was 8 years ago, so I am really hoping things have changed by now. That is why it never dawned on me to have D look to that sort of office, but I thank you all for suggesting it.
This has been an eye-opening experience and I hope that others can take something from what my D has been through. Honestly, you leave a kid at school, thinking that something as basic as health care will be covered in the time (days, in this case) set aside for orientation, only to find out that some of the most basic needs aren’t touched on at all. With all of the news about the H1N1 virus and it sweeping through college campuses, one would hope that medical facilities would be at the top of the important “To Do” list. I have been told that if a sick student goes to the Health Center without an appointment, they will eventually be seen, but that it would not be before those with scheduled appointments, which seems logical, but, if the flu hits with a vengence, that method would seem impractical.
Heard from D while I was writing this and she says that the swelling is gone-except for one spot- the discoloration has cleared up and that she can now bear some weight for short distances in her room. I’ve instructed her to make a connection with the Disabilities Office so that she can get assitance with getting to class, so we’ll wait and see. It was nice to hear good news today, though!</p>
<p>Glad your D is on the mend and I hope she gets the assistance she needs, we keep checking in to hear how things are going.</p>