Friday, March 28, 2008

Kids Helping Kids, Tic Relief, and My Love For Chemicals



This week has been a good week. I've been down hard with the flu. The silver lining of the flu is why it's been a good week....I've been upstairs in bed for 4 days has made me realize that all our hard work has paid off. Without mom, they can take care of themselves. They've made themselves eggs, cereal, and heated left overs for dinner (DH at work). Sydney said Leo helped her pour the milk....Showered themselves without complaining (they usually do), and remembered to pack snacks for the next day. My DH can make lunches and get them to the bus in time. I guess if I die from this flu everyone will be just fine!

It all started downhill after I threw up in the car on the way to pick up the kids AND A PLAY DATE from school (our bus is allegedly, and I say allegedly, too small). Did I mention it was a busy road and I had to quickly dart over to the side? (I know, insert violin music here). The mom picked up Leo and his friend and had the play date at the other house.

I'm finally turning a corner thanks to my homeopathic remedies - I think perhaps they've shortened it a bit (4 days?). I usually don't "do" the flu, so I don't know if that's short or not. I was really sleepless and in pain for those days. But, the BIGGEST thank you goes to my NEW BEST FRIEND AND ADDICTION.....Gatorade (insert "Hello Darkness My Old Friend"). Chemicals rule man! I got teary when my last bottle of the blue one (yeah, way natural), was gone. I do love Fruit Punch & Berry though I have to say. Without the chemicals, sugar, and oh yeah, the electrolytes, who knows where I'd be. Those Excitotoxins will be hard to get out of my tastebuds, but I'll worry about that later. I love Gatorade and who gives a shit! But seriously, is there a healthy alternative? Please let me know if you have one!

To my relief I found a remedy to really work for Sydney's mouth tic. Incredible! There's just a tiny hint of it when she eats, but other than that it has disappeared. Two for Homeopathy for this week. Sydney was so happy, as the tic was really bothering her. My normal onslaught of immune boosters didn't nip it in the bud like it did last fall. It is a different tic I believe associated with Fifths Disease. I've posted about the kids' reaction to strep as facial tics before, and the mouth tic for Syd has been around for a few weeks.

My conferences were scheduled for yesterday. I didn't cancel, hoping I'd feel a bit better since I just didn't want to wait to hear how Leo was doing. After all, I've been waiting for 3 years for this moment. The conclusion of this marker year. Will he need services in the near future? So I busted out the Vitamin I (Ibuprofen), and threw back three, and took a shower. I felt pretty good, just clammy, so I went on to the conferences. DH was away.

Sydney's conference was first: Everything was great across the board. A good student, a good listener, ahead academically. I asked the teacher about her attention since she seems a little disorganized for her age. She said she is a little messy, stands up for cutting and gluing, etc. Teacher said, "Interesting to see in a girl. You really don't see that." In my mind I shouted "It's totally normal when you are wired like our family is!" She goes on to tell me she recently partnered Syd with a girl that is a little behind the class. The teacher says, "She gets to play "teacher" to her. She's very helpful and patient with her." I was pleasantly surprised to hear this. She doesn't show a lot of patience at home, and she's all about chatting away with her friends. I'm very proud of her, she's becoming so mature! But my DH pointed out how she grew up with therapists teaching in the house. That's been her example her whole life.

Insert nausea and constant sweating for Leo's down the hall. Everything was great across the board here too. Doesn't seem ahead academically, just a 3rd grader in the top groups. I don't want to say the n word, it's just to foreign to me. Normal? I don't know. Nothing to say about the standardized testing or anything else. His handwriting great (still amazing to me since he could barely grasp a marker at 4). Socially, great, although he has to "watch the chatting". She went on to say she moved his seat because of the chatting (my frightened little boy who feared other kids).

She moved his seat next to a boy she says needs a lot of support and that it's been working out nicely for both. Leo gets to help out his friend when he needs it. "Leo is a very good example for Marshall, a kid that needs extra help", his teacher says. "Leo is always there for him, saying positive things. He is always reaching out to others to help at any time. He has such empathy for others, a very sensitive boy. And, he never seems to have a bad day."

Such nice things to hear about kids, let alone your own. So both my special kids are helping their friends in class. I couldn't be happier right now.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Water

And how could I forget THIS goody for the week?

Anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones found in public drinking water. Nice.

Too Much In The News

There's just too much to comment on I don't know where to begin.

Hilary vs. Obama...I really like them both, but I'm sad that our country isn't ready for a woman president. We are so backwards compared to the rest of the world. Number 2 in infant deaths, never a woman president. Pretty incredible.

Newsweek says we really ARE in a recession. I guess if the media says it, we are (insert sarcasm here).

Vaccine "news" has been plastered ALL over, as a not so secret response to our quiet victory in court last week. One for Autism. I guess they think people are too dumb to notice that the special interest groups cause these "pro-vaccine" articles to "suddenly appear", almost as a coincidence to balance out the autism news.

Interestingly "Children who get a combined vaccine against measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox are slightly more likely to have seizures compared to those getting two separate shots for the same diseases, U.S. officials said on Thursday. They go on to say how benign these seizures are, almost like they are an okay thing. Since when are seizures okay? From the CDC? Isn't their job to protect the public? The good news is they are not "expressing a preference that children get the MMRV". At least that's good news.

More news on the antibiotic front...like it's news, or hasn't been covered before, but hey. Antibiotics are over prescribed for common viruses. Hmmm...who would'a thought? The focus was on sinus infections.

Okay, I'm all done venting. I'm still thinking about those cows.

In other news, all is well here - Leo just finished his standardized testing for our state. He wasn't stressed at all, and he seemed to handle the testing well. We'll see what his teacher says in two weeks, another conference. I still can't believe he doesn't go down the hall to another room for untimed testing with the other 3 boys in his class. Pretty incredible.

On the health front, our school has been inundated with strep and 5ths disease. Both kids seemed to be fighting something last week. I hit them with all my immune support stuff, as much as I could think of. This week, my daughter Sydney started presenting a new tic (she'd been tic free since my post about it last). It's a mouth tic, very minor, but it bothers her when it happens. "I can't stop myself from doing it Mom". Then today, I found out that Syd's reading partner was sent home for 5ths disease. So there ya go, the new tic must be Sydney's version of 5ths. Leo is tic free thankfully. As I've mentioned in previous posts, my kids start blinking a lot when they are fighting strep.

I feel bad because I've been so remiss in visiting my favorite blogs. I'm so out of it! I think all of the illnesses in the house really set me back. I hope everyone is well.

Ashley