Mickey'snewestfan
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2005
This is a totally hypothetical question, as my DS is now 9 
and the issues I'm talking about here are long in the past, but reading some of the posts make me wonder if a GAC would have made sense for us int he past.
Up until about 2 1/2 my DS was primarily g-tube fed. Because of severe reflux he was fed by a very slow drip -- 18 hours a day. The 6 "tube free" hours were broken up, partially to allow him the chance to run around, and partially because he got chest PT 6 times a day and needed to be off the tube for 1/2 an hour before each treatment so that he didn't reflux and aspirate. In addition he needed frequent nebulizer treatements and used an apnea monitor while he slept.
He had no developmental needs, and was a happy, active little boy with lots of energy and stamina. He handled waiting as well as most toddlers (e.g. not well, but not qualifying for a GAC).
The issue we would have had at WDW wouldn't have been him, it would have been the equipment. Realistically, I couldn't have handled carrying him, the pump, the nebulizer, and the monitor in a long line. I could have left the neb and monitor for short periods of time, but only if I had a place to leave them where I knew they wouldn't be stolen. Would that have been enough of a reason to justify stroller as wheelchair? If you saw me in line, wearing the pump backpack (he couldn't wear it -- our insurance never covered the kid sized one and the bigger one was too big for him to handle), pushing a stroller, with him walking beside me, possibly with a tube running from him to me? What if people saw him playing happily on one of the playspaces, and then I popped him into the stroller (and "hooked him up" but you wouldn't notice that if you didn't know what to look for) and pushed him into line.
If the answer is no stroller, is there another option? I would have needed to keep the pump with me at all times, but I could manage him and pump without a stroller -- it's the other two pieces (the monitor and nebulizer) that I really would have needed the stroller for. I just wouldn't have felt comfortable leaving them outside in "stroller parking".
and the issues I'm talking about here are long in the past, but reading some of the posts make me wonder if a GAC would have made sense for us int he past.Up until about 2 1/2 my DS was primarily g-tube fed. Because of severe reflux he was fed by a very slow drip -- 18 hours a day. The 6 "tube free" hours were broken up, partially to allow him the chance to run around, and partially because he got chest PT 6 times a day and needed to be off the tube for 1/2 an hour before each treatment so that he didn't reflux and aspirate. In addition he needed frequent nebulizer treatements and used an apnea monitor while he slept.
He had no developmental needs, and was a happy, active little boy with lots of energy and stamina. He handled waiting as well as most toddlers (e.g. not well, but not qualifying for a GAC).
The issue we would have had at WDW wouldn't have been him, it would have been the equipment. Realistically, I couldn't have handled carrying him, the pump, the nebulizer, and the monitor in a long line. I could have left the neb and monitor for short periods of time, but only if I had a place to leave them where I knew they wouldn't be stolen. Would that have been enough of a reason to justify stroller as wheelchair? If you saw me in line, wearing the pump backpack (he couldn't wear it -- our insurance never covered the kid sized one and the bigger one was too big for him to handle), pushing a stroller, with him walking beside me, possibly with a tube running from him to me? What if people saw him playing happily on one of the playspaces, and then I popped him into the stroller (and "hooked him up" but you wouldn't notice that if you didn't know what to look for) and pushed him into line.
If the answer is no stroller, is there another option? I would have needed to keep the pump with me at all times, but I could manage him and pump without a stroller -- it's the other two pieces (the monitor and nebulizer) that I really would have needed the stroller for. I just wouldn't have felt comfortable leaving them outside in "stroller parking".
