[Lesly]

Hi everyone,

Actually I don't have a question. :? Weird? No. This is for the archive.
I just want to share this, maybe there will be someone someday that will search the forum for the word "disability", just like I did hundreds of times to search for an answer. In the end I didn't find the answer before moving to NZ, so here 's our NZ experience with a child with a disability. Maybe that way I can help someone making a very difficult decision.

We have 2 boys, they are 9 and 8 years old. Our youngest son has a disability, he had an inflammation of the brain at the age of six months, result: braindamage, consequences: he cannot speak, and can hardly use his right arm, he's intelligent though, and a great kid, with a big future... He speaks with sign language and uses a speech computer to communicate.

Husband got joboffer and work permit after 1 month in New Zealand. I got an open workpermit, oldest son got a student permit, no problem. Our youngest son got an interim student permit, it is valid for 6 months.
What we need to do now? We have to visit a peadiatrician for some extra information for the NZIS consultant physician.
What extra info does he need? He needs to know if there are high needs for special education/teacher aid, he needs to determine the degree of disability, and he will have to find out if our son can take care of himself such as feeding, toileting, dressing,...

This story is to be continued, because we have an appointment with the peadiatrician tomorrow, :hopeso :hopeso :hopeso . I hope the man realises that he 's got our future in his hands. :uhoh

I will let you know the result when we have one.

Lesly

[Moorf]

Hope all goes well Lesly, keep us posted :hopeso

Moorf

[kiwidebs]

Let us know how it all goes Lesly. Will be thinking of you. :hopeso

Debs

[Dave & Sandra]

Good luck Lesly :hopeso Hope the paediatrician realises how much is at stake.

[eric_amanda]

Hi Lesly

I remember you postings from last year.

Congratulations on making it to New Zealand.

Our thoughts are with you and your family today. Best of luck with the consultant and let us all know how you get on.

Best wishes

Amanda

[jan]

Lesly

Good luck with the peadiatrician !!

My nephew has a brain tumor which has cruely taken away his sight and his speach along with 75% of his mobility. He has a speach computer to communicate with us too. They are fantastic. He has even stored a few saucy jokes that he will play to people he meets for the first time.

Jan xx

[Jodie]

Hi Lesly,

Good luck with your appointment. :hopeso

I think this is a good thread for people with any kind of disability to read. I've got a mild form of muscular dystrophy which basically affects my ability to walk miles quickly or lift heavy objects etc, and i always thought it wouldn't be a problem with our PR application cos what they're really looking for is to make sure that you're not going to be a burden on the NZ health service, and that it won't affect my ability to hold down a full time job and contribute to the growth of NZ, blah blah blah. I'm a web designer so it doesn't affect my work at all. Obviously if I wanted to be a builder or manual labourer, then I'd have a problem! :laugh ;) , but not with office-based work.

I had my medical on Monday and the Doc noted a few things on my form, and said that she'd request a neurologist report, cos that's all that the NZIS will ask for anyway, even of she didn't request it. She said it's better to pre-empt them, rather than wait another few weeks for them to let us know, and by then we'd probably have had to get our meds done again cos of the new rules after the beginning of April and all... Anyway, I phoned up the hospital to make an appointment, and they needed a letter of referral from the Dr, so after a few phonecalls, she faxed my referal letter through and I had a call the next day to say that I've got an appointment on 17th February - much quicker that I expected seeing as I was told on the phone that I'd need to wait until at least the end of March!

Hmmm, where am I going with this? I don't really know. Maybe just to let people know a little of how the system works when there's a disability involved. The specialist here has asked to see my neurology reports from the UK, so my UK specialist's secretary has sent it all to my Mum back in the UK who will send it all out to me, and we'll see what happens from there. (should have been more organised really and got them before we came out here, but hey! Never mind!)

So fingers crossed for your appointment Lesly, and fingers crossed for the 17th for us too. Like you said, I do wonder if they know just how much is hanging on the result of their check up! :uhoh You know, only our LIVES!! ;)

Hope this helps, and if anyone wants to talk about anything else, feel free to PM me.

Cheers,

Jod
:cheers

[Lesly]

Thanks to everyone for the support!

Jodie, thank you for your addition to this topic. We brought a neurologist's report with us from Belgium, we included that in the medicals in November. Even though we will have to get more information now, I do think that it was usefull.
I wish you all the luck in the world with your application and your appointment on the 17th :hopeso
I hope you let us know what your result is!

We went to the peadiatrician today, he was a very kind and understanding man. I'm happy he noticed that our son's not a vegetable, but bright, alive and well. He said that NZIS probably just wants to find out if our son will not be a burden to health service, but I think that if that would be the case, they probably would not ask for information about special education needs.
The peadiatrician promised to send us his full report at the beginning of next week.
The dear man definately realised that he actually had our future in his hands!! :nice1


Note that health regulations are changing in April, I think it will be hard if not impossible from that date for someone with special education needs to get PR.

Cheers, Lesly

[Moorf]

Yes, I too heard recently that the medicals are to get alot tougher (and more expensive?) after April... can anyone confirm just how different the process will be?

Moorf

[Lesly]

Hi everyone,

If you read the first post in this topic, you will know what I'm talking about. The next chapter of our story:

Our son's new student permit has been approved untill June 2007, it looks like the peadiatrician did a good job!!
Our ITA is still being processed at the moment. We heared from our case officer that our son's medicals are with the NZIS consultant physician again, this time for PR :hopeso. We expect the grand final in a few weeks!!

Cheers, Lesly

[Jodie]

Great news Lesly - Got everything crossed for you... :hopeso

A bit of an update from me - had my neurologist appointment last week - he was the most miserable, abrupt consultant Ive ever met! I've always had a really nice, young-ish (in his 40's) consultant in the UK, and we always have a chat and a laugh when i go for my annual chekup, and make a few jokes during all the tests/examination, but this guy was really old and doddery, and didn't have one word to say in conversation other than proper medical speak! :roll:

I tried to lighten the mood a bit when he said he needed to examine me so had to strip to my underwear - he said "I take it you've got a bra and underpants on?", so me being me, said with a smile "yeah, I decided not to go commando today! he he he!" :laugh with a chuckle, and he just looked at me with a stern look and said "What?!", so I had to say it again, (not quite as funny when you have to say it twice! :oops: ) and he just went "hmmmm" and went to get his hammer thing for testing my reflexes! Me and the nurse in the corner were p*^%&ng ourselves laughing, quietly mind you, while he was just a real stern jobsworth! Ha!

Anyway, had my examination but he didn't realise it was for immigration, even though I said it about a million times, and at the end I asked if I'd get some kind of report to submit to NZIS, and he said "No, just get them to write to me if they want any information." Huh! If I'd have know that, I'd have sent our ITA off a few weeks ago after getting our first meds done - we could have been a few more weeks down the track by now! ARRRGGG! :wah But I called the secretary when I got home and asked if I could have a copy of the write up that the Doc will do to put in my notes, and he said he'll see to it. He was really helpful and friendly - much more comforting!

But he didn't write anything too damning in my notes anyway, and I was very quick, lively and 'strong' to impress him, jumping up quickly when he asked me to so that I could show I'm not gonna be a "burden on the health service" here, ;) so hopefully it should all be OK. We submitted our ITA today so I'm sure we'll hear soon if it's not. :uhoh :hopeso

I'll let you know when we hear anything else.

Cheers,

Jod

[Lesly]

Hi Jodie,
my God, you got the neurologist from hell !!! :exit Keeping all my fingers crossed for you Jodie!! :hopeso :hopeso I'm sure you will be fine !

This is the message we got from our case officer today: Thanks for letting me know the status of your son, Brent's, student permit. I will still need to wait for comments from the CP as to the long term prognosis :? for Brent, but it's definitely encouraging to hear that his student visa has been approved. As soon as I hear I will let you know.

It's the 'long time prognosis' that scared us again, but hey, going up, going down again... that's probably the way life is...

Cheers,
Lesly

[Hannah-NL]

Hoi Lesly!

I mostly only read on here, but wanted to wish you good luck as well :hopeso
It's a lot of paperwork to go through, but you have already come so far, I bet you will take this horde too.

Groetjes, Hannah

[Lesly]

Next chapter:

PR was granted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NZIS did not ask for more information for the application for residence. The only information they needed was
1. The report from our child neurologist in Belgium.
2. A report from a local peadiatrician, here in Auckland.

And then....they lived happily ever after!!!

Cheers, lesly :cheers

[SoCal Gal]

Thrilling news, Lesly! I just found this post, and have been reading it with a real knot in my stomach....as we are waiting for Drs. to realize they are only holding our futures in our hands! But enough about me, this is truly wonderful news, I am so happy and pray that you all do live happily ever after! Also, we have a referral to a really good neurologist in Wellington, if anyone needs a name, PM me.
:cool

[Hannah-NL]

Van harte gefeliciteerd Lesly en familie! / Congratulations Lesly! :cheers
All the hard work has paid off for you, I'm so happy for you. :laugh

[Jodie]

Fantastic news Lesly! :cheers

Really pleased for you - it was worth the struggle then!

Jod
:nice1

[Douglas]

Yes, it's fantastic Lesly. I remember you joining as one of our very early forum members back in 2003. I thought you had a real mountain to climb and wondered if you would ever be able to make it. It's wonderful that you have. :yes

[kiwidollie]

Just wanted to add my congratulations too.

:clap :clap :cheers

[MB]

We want to add our congrats. too, Lesly.
Good on you.

Cheers,
Matt and family. :nice1

[eric_amanda]

Lesly and family

Just wanted to add our comgratulations to the list above. I guess you can now sit back and relax and enjoy NZ.

Best wishes

Amanda

[Lesly]

We have the feeling that we are the most lucky people on the world at this moment :mrgreen: :P :mrgreen: :P :mrgreen:

Finally our son has a great future ahead of him. He already enrolled in a mainstream school, is having the most wonderful teacher aid, and is the sweetheart of all children in his class. That would be impossible in Belgium. He is now an even more happy kid than he already was.
Here in New Zealand, he already gets the opportunities that he would never have gotten in Belgium !!

Thanks to you all on the forum for the support and the congrats, and thanks to the Kiwi`s for loving children for who they are!!

Cheers,
Lesly and family :nice1

[jesselyn]

hi lesly,

great news! congrats!
http://img3.smiliedb.de/sdb80047.gif

cheers,
jes