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Wednesday, September 06, 2006

First Days of School!

Krissy started Kindergarten on the 29th of August. After the trip to Children's on Monday, I thought that Tuesday would be a piece of cake for me. After all, child to kindergarten on school bus is much easier than child to hospital in an ambulance. But it was still really hard. I feel like this is the first step to her leaving home and even a week later, I'm still struggling with it. Here're a couple of pics.





She was pretty excited to start the first day and pretty bummed at the end of the day. Said that preschool had fewer rules and that her friends were there. She doesn't like how much they have to keep quiet, she doesn't like that she needs to sit with her hands folded and she doesn't like all the rules.

By the end of the second day, she was loving Kindergarten!

Today, my Bub started preschool. Let me preface this by saying that I am totally not thrilled with him going to preschool. He's only three and developmentally, he's younger than that in many ways. But the in-home PT, OT, and Speech therapy ends when he turns three, so we had to send him to preschool in order for him to get his therapy. Even that I'm not too happy with. Before, he got an hour of speech, an hour of PT and an hour of OT each once a week. Now, he'll get PT for 1/2 hr a week, OT for 1/2 hr a month, and speech 1/2 hr twice a week. He only goes twice a week, so I'm hoping that'll work out ok. He even takes a mini-bus there!

So the bus gets to the house this AM. I strap him into his car seat, take a picture (of course), kiss him and then climb off the bus. I thought for sure he'd start to sob at that. I stood outside and watched him through the bus window and he waved and smiled and said "bye" to me! He's such a brave, tough guy! I met the bus at his preschool as there was a paper I had to sign and I wanted to make sure the first day worked out ok. He walked (holding the teachers hands for support) into the school and then he saw his walker. He was not a happy camper to see that and started to cry. That's when I walked in. Upon seeing me, the crying quit. We went to his classroom and once he saw the toys, that was all he needed. When I asked for a kiss goodbye, he was going to kiss the little red-haired girl next to him! I told him to kiss me, not her and I got my kiss. As I walked out of the room, I was so proud of him. Not a tear. Not a single, solitary tear on his first day! Maybe he's ready for preschool after all!



Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Nice weekend after busy week!

After a last week with all the craziness of a trip to the hospital Monday and Krissy starting Kindergarten on Tuesday, it was really nice to enjoy a three-day weekend.

We spent Friday night at the local fair and had a great time watching the kids on rides and eating some fair food. It was chillier than usual for the fair, so we were all bundled up in our jeans and sweatshirts. We left just as it was starting to rain.

Saturday we spent the whole day at my Mom's. Jimmy was helping Daddy with some new flooring in the bathroom. My sister and her husband came over for dinner and to help with the plumbing of the new bathtub. Mom had cooked a turkey and it was perfect for a chilly, rainy day like we had Saturday. I got the page for 9/1 done for my Learn Something new album that I'm doing in a class at www.shimelle.com .

Sunday, I slept in a bit and then we headed over to Mom's around 12:30. Jimmy helped Daddy and my sister's husband for 45 minutes and then we were off to the first of three birthday parties we had this weekend. This one was for Jimmy's foreman's mother's 75th birthday. I felt a little uncomfortable there at first, since I didn't know anyone, but DH was proud to be one of only two from his company invited. There was a playground across the street and we spent some time there on the slides. The food was good and it was nice to just spend some time with Jimmy and the kids. From there, we went to the mall and did some shopping at Old Navy and Yankee Candle for their Labor Day sales and then I got my Troy Polamalu jersey. Can't wait to wear it for the game on Thursday, even if Big Ben isn't playing.

Monday we had two birthday parties to go to. One for Jimmy's cousin Michelle's son's first birthday and one for my Sister's step-daughter's 14th! Enjoyed both parties very much. And made it home in time for Krissy's bath before school today and I even found the time to get my pages done for 9/2 and 9/3.

Tomorrow will be another day of changes. Bub starts preschool!

Thursday, August 31, 2006

A scary Monday

Monday 8/28 was to have been Krissy's Kindy orientation. I dropped Bub off at my mom's and took Krissy to orientation. We pulled into the parking lot and my cell phone rang. It was my mom. She was calling to tell me that Bub had just thrown up and was not responding when she called his name. She'd picked him up and his eyes were both facing to the right. She thought he was having a seizure.

We ran into the school to get the paperwork we needed and by the time I got back out to the car, my mom called again and said that my sister (a veternarian) was there. Kristin (my sister) has experience with seizures in dogs and she knew that Bub was having a seizure and she said it was getting worse. They had called 911 and an ambulance was on its way. By the time we got back to my mom's (10 minutes from the school), the ambulance was there.

He had a grand mal seizure in the house before the ambulance got there and I believe he had another in the ambulance. I got to my mom's to find him shaking, his eyes were just staring off to the side. They were putting in an IV and he was already on oxygen. I'd never seen him like that before and because he'd vomited first, I was convinced it was a shunt problem. We left in the ambulance and I said I wanted him to got to Children's. They said he wasn't stable enough to do that and they were taking him to the local ER. Part way there, the said that he'd stabilized and that they were going to Children's. So we started towards there. We got about 1/2 way there and he started with the focal seizures (the staring ones) again and they were concerned that he'd again go into the shaking ones and then to a grand mal, so they stopped at a different hospital to try to get him stabilized again. We got there and the shaking started again.

I was alone and petrified. They gave him a different medication to try to slow the seizures down. Thankfully about that time, my Daddy got there and my sisters were only about 5 minutes behind him. After about ten minutes, my DH finally arrived. The doctor didn't want to wait any longer to get to Children's so the hospital was sending a nurse along with us in the ambulance. They gave him more medicine and once the shaking stopped, they loaded him back into the ambulance for our trip to Children's.

I got to ride in the back with him that time and by the time I got into the ambulance, she seizures had stopped and he was sleeping fitfully. I got to hold his hand and although he wasn't opening his eyes at all, I could feel him calm when I talked to him. We finally got to Childrens. My dad, two of my sisters, and DH were right behind the ambulance. They could tell that his brain was still too active, so they gave him a different medication to calm his brain down. They took him off the oxygen and his pulse ox level was still at 99%, so that was some good news.

They drew some blood and then Bub fell asleep for a while. After about an hour, they came to say they were taking him for CT scan. I asked if I had time to cath him before they took him (since he doesn't pee) and they said I did. He woke up while I was cathing him then DH walked in. He took one look at DH and said "DA-DA"! I was so happy! He was talking again!.

So they did the CT scan and then they did an X-ray of the shunt, as they were also concerned that it was a shunt problem. They had sent the blood to test the levels of his anti-seizure medication. Finally after about three hours of waiting the Dr. came in and told us that there was no shunt problem and they had finally got his Tegretol (anti-seizure med) levels back and they were only 5. The therapeutic range is 8-12, so he was well below the therapeutic range. After writing us some scripts for new medicine to increase his dose, they sent us home!

I can't remember ever being so scared and then relieved and then happy all in the same day! By the time we left Children's yesterday he was completely back to normal and to look at him, you wouldn't have known what his morning was like.

My sister Kristin had taken Krissy back out to Orientation so she didn't have to miss much of it and then she brought Krissy to my mom's and then she came to Children's. DH's step-dad and mom were there, too.

After all that , I feel so blessed. So blessed that my son is alive and home! So blessed that my sister knew what to look for and that my mom didn't hesitate to call the ambulance when it was necessary. Blessed that we had so much family at Children's to support us and yet my mom was willing to stay home for Krissy Faye. And so blessed that for once, the best case scenario came true for us.

It's now Thursday and he's doing great. He's had no other seizures and is is typical happy self!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Let's try this again

Its been over a year since I started this blog. One year and one entry LOL.

But I'm feeling very melancholy today and wanted to get this down somewhere, so I'll remember.

One week from today, my baby girl will go to school. She's scared. She asked last night why we couldn't make a robot Krissy to send to school and she could just stay home with her Grammy. I'm scared, too. I work full-time, so I'm away from her all day most days. But I don't want her to change. I don't want her exposed to words that we don't think are appropriate. I don't want her teased like I was. I want Krissy to stay the same sweet little girl she's always been. I don't want her to worry about what is "cool" and what isn't. I don't want to be what isn't "cool" in her world.

She stays with my mom while I work. She's been there since she was six weeks old. She and my mom are buddies and I'm afraid that being away is going to be really hard on Krissy and my Mom.

Krissy is worried that the teacher won't like her. She's worried that she won't be smart enough. She's worried about what her brother is going to do without her. She's worried that she'll miss me. She's worried about missing my mom. She's just plain worried. I'm trying so hard to pump her up about school. I've been telling her about art class and music and library. I've been telling her that the fun she had in preschool will just be longer since the days are longer. I've told her how Kindergarten was my very favorite year of school. I've told her about field trips and how she's going to learn to read.

I figure that once she goes to Orientation on Monday, that she'll be ready to go. Hopefully, I'll get there, too.

Days 'til Disney

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