Wow, I wish I had some wonderful, fantastic news for a change! But alas, it's the same old crap, different day...
Both the kids have been sick on and off since mid to late January. Last week was the only week where they were both feeling fine, and then Beauty went and stopped that trend dead in its tracks. She's sick again and I wish I knew why. Yesterday, she started getting congested and coughing so I gave her medicine right away, hoping that I might defeat it before it really gets going (silly mom). She woke up this morning all sickly and the medicine doesn't seem to be helping much. I guess I'm just gonna have to accept defeat and just gradually nurse Beauty (and her little nose) back to health.
Now I just hope I can keep Macho from getting sick. Although if one child gets sick, the other one is soon to follow suit. Wish me luck!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
And the rain keeps comin'...
So, when I got diagnosed with a respiratory infection and told that my asthma had come back, I was given 4 new medicines to help me out. Yesterday, I officially finished the antibiotic and I didn't need the inhalers anymore. Sounds like I'm out of the woods and finished with my medical dramas, right? Wrong...
This morning, I woke with Hives all over me. I couldn't figure out why I was having an allergic reaction. I hadn't changed my detergent or bath soap, and I haven't been around animals the last two weeks. I called my doctor. Long story short, turns out I was allergic to the antibiotic I've been taking. Why? Because it has penicillin in it. That's right...all of a sudden, I'm allergic to penicillin now.
Don't I just have all the luck?!
This morning, I woke with Hives all over me. I couldn't figure out why I was having an allergic reaction. I hadn't changed my detergent or bath soap, and I haven't been around animals the last two weeks. I called my doctor. Long story short, turns out I was allergic to the antibiotic I've been taking. Why? Because it has penicillin in it. That's right...all of a sudden, I'm allergic to penicillin now.
Don't I just have all the luck?!
Monday, February 23, 2009
TOO FUNNY!
Ok, this blog might contain some info that may be considered TMI or too graphic regarding my son, so if you don't want to know what he did, don't keep reading.
I had just come back from taking Beauty to school and picking up Husband's prescription (which, by the way, total rip off!). I got Macho out his car seat and took him upstairs to change his diaper before putting him down for a nap. Recently, Macho has been in the habit of grabbing at everything; people's faces, my neck, my ears, basically anything he can get his hands on. So... I took off his diaper and before I knew it, he had his little hand down the front-end. Then, he started crying. Why? Because he was so busy grabbing at anything he could that he ended up grabbing - and squeezing - his little manhood a bit too hard.
As I type this, I'm having trouble containing my laughter because it was just too funny! I mean, I know it wasn't funny for him, but for me it was hilarious. You should have seen the surprised look on his face! LOL I don't think he'll be doing that again anytime soon, or he might, he is still a baby and doesn't know any better. That's ok, maybe next time I can catch it on video!
I had just come back from taking Beauty to school and picking up Husband's prescription (which, by the way, total rip off!). I got Macho out his car seat and took him upstairs to change his diaper before putting him down for a nap. Recently, Macho has been in the habit of grabbing at everything; people's faces, my neck, my ears, basically anything he can get his hands on. So... I took off his diaper and before I knew it, he had his little hand down the front-end. Then, he started crying. Why? Because he was so busy grabbing at anything he could that he ended up grabbing - and squeezing - his little manhood a bit too hard.
As I type this, I'm having trouble containing my laughter because it was just too funny! I mean, I know it wasn't funny for him, but for me it was hilarious. You should have seen the surprised look on his face! LOL I don't think he'll be doing that again anytime soon, or he might, he is still a baby and doesn't know any better. That's ok, maybe next time I can catch it on video!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Another week gone...
My expectations for getting things done must be too high 'cause I can never seem to get half my list done. This week, however, I need to cut myself some slack, seeing how I'm still getting over this infection. I'm doing much better, but I still have a way to go. I've been on this medicine long enough now that I should be almost 100% better and I don't feel like I'm quite there yet. Oh well, we'll see how I feel in the next 3 days or so.
I've decided the nicknames for my family members are too long. They need to have shorter nicknames so I can hurry and say what I need to say. So, Beautiful Angel (my daughter) will now be called Beauty. It's shorter and it has a nice ring to it, I think. Little Man (my son) will now be called - don't laugh - Macho. I know, I know....it's a funny name, but if you knew him, you'd know that it is PERFECT for him. He's always slapping things and grunting all the time and he is rough! He's always grabbing my face or pulling my neck. It's so funny how I used to think boys picked up those habits from other boys. Turns out, boys are BORN knowing how to grunt and make weird sounds.
My husband will be known as Husband (so original, right?), but if he's been particularly patient or sweet or whatever, I'll call him Patient Husband, or Kind Husband, or Sensitive Husband...the point is, he's always Husband either way.
Anyway, getting back to what I was originally saying, I always have so much to do and not enough time to do it in. My biggest challenge during the last month is how to get things done around my daughter's preschool schedule. To take her to school, I need to have the car, seeing how we're a one car family. My typical schedule is now as follows: Wake up @ 7 and have everyone in the car by 8 am to take Husband to work. Come back, put Macho to sleep, feed Beauty, eat breakfast. Get kids in the car and leave by 12:30 to take Beauty to school. Come back and put Macho down for another nap. Leave to pick Beauty up from school @ 3:30. Come back home for 1 hour, leave again and pick up Husband from work. We're all home again by 6 pm, at which time we all eat dinner, my son goes to sleep between 6:30 and 7, my daughter goes to bed an hour to 1 1/2 hrs later, then by that time I'm exhausted and I need a nap!
The biggest block of time I have to do anything is in the morning, but since Macho still naps until 10:30, that eats away a lot of time. I can't do anything while he's napping 'cause he's an extremely light sleeper. I normally stay downstairs with Beauty until he wakes up. So really, I only have 2 hours to get everything done. My next biggest obstacle is getting the energy to do what needs doing. Some days I'm so tired and achy that it's hard enough just to play with the kids. It's a challenge, but I know everyone has challenges and these are mine and I just have to figure out a way around them.
So, how do you "find the time" to do your chores?
I've decided the nicknames for my family members are too long. They need to have shorter nicknames so I can hurry and say what I need to say. So, Beautiful Angel (my daughter) will now be called Beauty. It's shorter and it has a nice ring to it, I think. Little Man (my son) will now be called - don't laugh - Macho. I know, I know....it's a funny name, but if you knew him, you'd know that it is PERFECT for him. He's always slapping things and grunting all the time and he is rough! He's always grabbing my face or pulling my neck. It's so funny how I used to think boys picked up those habits from other boys. Turns out, boys are BORN knowing how to grunt and make weird sounds.
My husband will be known as Husband (so original, right?), but if he's been particularly patient or sweet or whatever, I'll call him Patient Husband, or Kind Husband, or Sensitive Husband...the point is, he's always Husband either way.
Anyway, getting back to what I was originally saying, I always have so much to do and not enough time to do it in. My biggest challenge during the last month is how to get things done around my daughter's preschool schedule. To take her to school, I need to have the car, seeing how we're a one car family. My typical schedule is now as follows: Wake up @ 7 and have everyone in the car by 8 am to take Husband to work. Come back, put Macho to sleep, feed Beauty, eat breakfast. Get kids in the car and leave by 12:30 to take Beauty to school. Come back and put Macho down for another nap. Leave to pick Beauty up from school @ 3:30. Come back home for 1 hour, leave again and pick up Husband from work. We're all home again by 6 pm, at which time we all eat dinner, my son goes to sleep between 6:30 and 7, my daughter goes to bed an hour to 1 1/2 hrs later, then by that time I'm exhausted and I need a nap!
The biggest block of time I have to do anything is in the morning, but since Macho still naps until 10:30, that eats away a lot of time. I can't do anything while he's napping 'cause he's an extremely light sleeper. I normally stay downstairs with Beauty until he wakes up. So really, I only have 2 hours to get everything done. My next biggest obstacle is getting the energy to do what needs doing. Some days I'm so tired and achy that it's hard enough just to play with the kids. It's a challenge, but I know everyone has challenges and these are mine and I just have to figure out a way around them.
So, how do you "find the time" to do your chores?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
What an interesting weekend...
So on Thursday night, I decided to watch a show over at my sister's house, forgetting that she had a dog and I'm allergic to dogs. I won't make that mistake again! By Sunday night I was having trouble breathing, so Monday morning I went to an Instacare and found out I have a Respiratory infection and my asthma has returned. Turns out I had a very mild asthma attack. Just my luck. I'm always getting sick with weird things all the time: at 21 yrs I got a rare blood disorder (I'm fine now); at 28 yrs I found out I have fibromyalgia (I thought that was only for old people); and now I have an infection and my asthma is back after 10 years being symptom free. Go figure.
So yeah, I spent the whole weekend doing nothing 'cause I felt like I got run over by a truck. Luckily I had Patient Husband there to help me with the kids and take things over. Anyway, I'll be fine now. I have a total of 5 medications helping me out with my various ailments - yay drugs! lol
So yeah, I spent the whole weekend doing nothing 'cause I felt like I got run over by a truck. Luckily I had Patient Husband there to help me with the kids and take things over. Anyway, I'll be fine now. I have a total of 5 medications helping me out with my various ailments - yay drugs! lol
Monday, February 9, 2009
Immunizations Do Not Cause Autism!!!
This post was originally done by Husband and I felt this was really important to share:
Some interesting developments in the autism world, especially with regard to the immunization controversy. Last month a top executive at a major autism group called “Autism Speaks” resigned over a disagreement with the group. A major component of AS's focus is fighting against immunizations due to concerns about thiomersal. The group's VP of Communications, Alison Singer, says that copious scientific research into the subject as shown that there is no causal link between thiomersal and autism. She feels that AS ought to stop putting so much effort into the immunization fight and redirect those energies into more promising avenues. The other AS execs, however, appear to be too invested in the fight to give it up, and so they and Singer parted ways.
Shortly afterward, the findings of a new study were released. A group of 1,403 children who had received thiomersal in their vaccines ten years ago were evaluated and found not to have any significant decrease in neurological function when compared to children who had not been exposed to thiomersal.
Now it's been discovered that the original research about the MMR immunization may have been falsified to show a link to autism. Evidence presented by the UK's General Medical Council shows that the data presented in Dr. Andrew Wakefield's report on the original study on the MMR vaccine are not supported by the medical records of the patients used in the study, and ten of the original thirteen contributors to the study have retracted their interpretations of the findings since its publication. Many patients' symptoms which were blamed on the MMR vaccine appear to have been reported before the vaccine had even been administered. The original study only involved a dozen children, which is not even close to a large enough sample to give any confidence to the results.
The 1998 report resulted in a significant drop in the administration of the MMR vaccine to children in the UK, resulting in a 24-fold increase in measles cases in 2008 compared to 1998, two of which resulted in death. It is believed that Wakefield may have falsified the results of the study due to a conflict of interest because the children used in the study had been recruited through an attorney preparing a lawsuit against MMR vaccine manufacturers, and the hospital where the study was performed had received £55,000 to pay for the research. Wakefield and his colleagues deny allegations of professional misconduct.
More autism news, apart from the thiomersal controversy. Multiple states are considering legislation that would require insurance providers to cover diagnosis and proven treatments for autism. Utah's bill, popularly known as Clay's Law, would require a maximum annual benefit of $50,000 for children under 9 and $25,000 for children between 9 and 17. If passed, the bill would go into effect on July 1, 2010. From a purely financial standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to spend money on early intervention treatments for autism. Autism therapy can be very expensive, and many families descend into poverty to pay for it and become burdens on the state. Additionally, a child recovered through treatment can financially contribute to society instead of drawing from it for the rest of their lives.
(BTW, check out my autism blog: http://speakingonthespectrum.blogspot.com/ )
Some interesting developments in the autism world, especially with regard to the immunization controversy. Last month a top executive at a major autism group called “Autism Speaks” resigned over a disagreement with the group. A major component of AS's focus is fighting against immunizations due to concerns about thiomersal. The group's VP of Communications, Alison Singer, says that copious scientific research into the subject as shown that there is no causal link between thiomersal and autism. She feels that AS ought to stop putting so much effort into the immunization fight and redirect those energies into more promising avenues. The other AS execs, however, appear to be too invested in the fight to give it up, and so they and Singer parted ways.
Shortly afterward, the findings of a new study were released. A group of 1,403 children who had received thiomersal in their vaccines ten years ago were evaluated and found not to have any significant decrease in neurological function when compared to children who had not been exposed to thiomersal.
Now it's been discovered that the original research about the MMR immunization may have been falsified to show a link to autism. Evidence presented by the UK's General Medical Council shows that the data presented in Dr. Andrew Wakefield's report on the original study on the MMR vaccine are not supported by the medical records of the patients used in the study, and ten of the original thirteen contributors to the study have retracted their interpretations of the findings since its publication. Many patients' symptoms which were blamed on the MMR vaccine appear to have been reported before the vaccine had even been administered. The original study only involved a dozen children, which is not even close to a large enough sample to give any confidence to the results.
The 1998 report resulted in a significant drop in the administration of the MMR vaccine to children in the UK, resulting in a 24-fold increase in measles cases in 2008 compared to 1998, two of which resulted in death. It is believed that Wakefield may have falsified the results of the study due to a conflict of interest because the children used in the study had been recruited through an attorney preparing a lawsuit against MMR vaccine manufacturers, and the hospital where the study was performed had received £55,000 to pay for the research. Wakefield and his colleagues deny allegations of professional misconduct.
More autism news, apart from the thiomersal controversy. Multiple states are considering legislation that would require insurance providers to cover diagnosis and proven treatments for autism. Utah's bill, popularly known as Clay's Law, would require a maximum annual benefit of $50,000 for children under 9 and $25,000 for children between 9 and 17. If passed, the bill would go into effect on July 1, 2010. From a purely financial standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to spend money on early intervention treatments for autism. Autism therapy can be very expensive, and many families descend into poverty to pay for it and become burdens on the state. Additionally, a child recovered through treatment can financially contribute to society instead of drawing from it for the rest of their lives.
(BTW, check out my autism blog: http://speakingonthespectrum.blogspot.com/ )
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Finally, some time to myself...
I've been saying for a while now that I need a blog so people can keep up with me and my family. I finally got this new blog about 2 or 3 weeks ago and I've only found time today to say a little something. It's just been so busy and hectic that it's been hard to find 5 minutes to sit down and not be attacked by children demanding my attention! To start, I'll say what new things have happened in the last little while.
This past September, we sold our condo and purchased an actual single family home. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! It's absolutely perfect for us and I knew it was the right home as soon as I saw it (from the inside). We had seen about 20-30 homes and none of them were really grabbing me. This house was the last one on our list and I didn't think it looked that great from its picture. But when we walked in, I fell in love with it, so we made the deal and moved in right away. It's been so great and I'm SO happy that each child has their own room!
Since moving in, we've had friends over, family visits, houseguests and a birthday party. It's been pretty busy, especially when you consider that we also had get togethers for the holiday season. I'm not complaining, per se, but it'd be nice to have some down time. That being said, I have had anything but down time recently! First, Beautiful Angel (my daughter) turned 3 years old last month, which means it was time for her to start preschool. Many of you know she is autistic, so it was important to start her in school as soon as possible. So far, it's been a bit of a challenge, but she has been slowly improving in some areas, the teachers tell me. At home I've noticed a difference too; she wants me to interact with her more. Up till now, Beautiful Angel has been kind of a loner and very shy, but all of a sudden she's looking for me to play with her more. The other day, she wanted me to just sit next to her. That was HUGE for me. So while it's been crazy taking Patient Husband to work and constantly taking the kids in and out of the car during the day, it's been worth it.
So, I mentioned "Patient Husband" earlier. He and I have been married for almost 7 years now. Wow! It's been so great and Patient Husband really is amazing and patient! And thankfully, he has a steady job and there are no signs that the company is doing badly. The other person in my life is Little Man (my son). He just turned 1 year old last month and though he's been a handful, he's the cutest little guy I've ever seen. He's such a monkey though, but that's boys for ya!
I think I'll go ahead and end this particular entry, seeing how it's now after 10 pm and I initially started this at 4:30 pm. But, when Little Man wakes up from his naps, you don't keep him waiting!
This past September, we sold our condo and purchased an actual single family home. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! It's absolutely perfect for us and I knew it was the right home as soon as I saw it (from the inside). We had seen about 20-30 homes and none of them were really grabbing me. This house was the last one on our list and I didn't think it looked that great from its picture. But when we walked in, I fell in love with it, so we made the deal and moved in right away. It's been so great and I'm SO happy that each child has their own room!
Since moving in, we've had friends over, family visits, houseguests and a birthday party. It's been pretty busy, especially when you consider that we also had get togethers for the holiday season. I'm not complaining, per se, but it'd be nice to have some down time. That being said, I have had anything but down time recently! First, Beautiful Angel (my daughter) turned 3 years old last month, which means it was time for her to start preschool. Many of you know she is autistic, so it was important to start her in school as soon as possible. So far, it's been a bit of a challenge, but she has been slowly improving in some areas, the teachers tell me. At home I've noticed a difference too; she wants me to interact with her more. Up till now, Beautiful Angel has been kind of a loner and very shy, but all of a sudden she's looking for me to play with her more. The other day, she wanted me to just sit next to her. That was HUGE for me. So while it's been crazy taking Patient Husband to work and constantly taking the kids in and out of the car during the day, it's been worth it.
So, I mentioned "Patient Husband" earlier. He and I have been married for almost 7 years now. Wow! It's been so great and Patient Husband really is amazing and patient! And thankfully, he has a steady job and there are no signs that the company is doing badly. The other person in my life is Little Man (my son). He just turned 1 year old last month and though he's been a handful, he's the cutest little guy I've ever seen. He's such a monkey though, but that's boys for ya!
I think I'll go ahead and end this particular entry, seeing how it's now after 10 pm and I initially started this at 4:30 pm. But, when Little Man wakes up from his naps, you don't keep him waiting!
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