Category Archives: Health

7 Quick Takes: Endless Doctor’s Appointments Edition

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7 Quick Takes

I was remarking to my priest today that I haven’t had a day free of doctor’s appointments since Saturday. Here they all are.

— 1 —

Urgent Care. I got home on Sunday to find that Mom recommended a trip to Urgent Care for Daniel to make sure he didn’t have pneumonia. His class has been living out Tom Lehrer’s song about friendship with a cold, so my precious sweetling was coughing to the point of vomiting.

The Urgent Care doctor’s verdict: it’s a virus. He probably shouldn’t be around immunosuppressed people… like his mommy. Oh well.

— 2 —

Gynecology. Monday was my pre-op appointment before my hysterectomy in October. I was dreading it because I thought there was going to be a thorough exam done. There wasn’t. Instead, it was my gynecologist telling me that he was going to take out everything but my ovaries, when the surgery would be, and how long I would be in the hospital. I then had to sign a bunch of paperwork stating that I knew that this surgery was going to be irreversible and would make me sterile. (The human race never ceases to make laugh.)

— 3 —

Family Medicine. My GP likes to see me every so often to make sure that nothing she has prescribed caused me to sprout a third leg. She is OK with my bloodwork as my diabetes is controlled with medication. I was apologizing that my diet is craptastic, and she replied that I have just a little bit on my plate (a little, you say?) and once Daniel requires less care, we can tweak my diet. OK then! Pass the gummy bears! (Not the sugar-free ones! Those are only for colonoscopy prep.)

— 4 —

Behavior Therapy. No new changes. We’re dropping down to once every week vs. twice a week. We also saw him earlier, so the drive home only took an hour instead of the normal two to three that it takes us at rush hour.

— 5 —

Occupational Therapy. Oh hai, therapy consult! It was an hour of Daniel trying to avoid working well with one of the occupational therapists at the local hospital. She won: he did what she wanted and ended up having some fun. We’ll be working with her to get his startle reflex to calm down.

— 6 —

Radiology. While emailing Daniel’s teacher, I discovered that Daniel’s pediatrician had put in the x-ray request and wanted it done before his appointment this morning, so we went straight from Occupational Therapy to the Lab/Imaging department at Skagit Regional Health’s outpatient clinic building. After two pictures were taken of Daniel’s tummy, we headed to his school to drop him off.

— 7 —

Pediatrics. D’s quarterly ADHD appointment wasn’t until 9:40, so we got to sleep in this morning. Woo. The x-ray apparently showed that my wee bairn’s bowels are full, so we’ll be doing a nice 3-day cleanse this weekend! I am SO excited!!!!! (Yeah, no. I’m totally wishing it was my worst enemies changing those training pants instead of me. Purgatory, here I come! #sinner #pettymamaproblems #jenstopcomingupwithhashtags) In other news, his pediatrician does believe Daniel has ADHD… as does everyone who has to spend any time with him on a regular basis.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: September 23, 2019

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For Today… September 23, 2019

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… grey. We had a rainy day today, and it was lovely.

I am thinking… about things related to my pre-op appointment and how to deal with getting my family information if both of my parents need to be home with Daniel on surgery day, leaving me at the hospital alone. (The surgery isn’t until October 8th.)

I am thankful… that my pre-op appointment went well and there was no pelvic exam involved!

One of my favorite things… quiet. It’s not happening for another two hours given Daniel being sick with the cold going around his class and me having to give him fluids in small doses every 30 minutes so he doesn’t cough his meds up. #gtubekidproblems

I am wearing… jammies. Clothes today were a long-sleeved blue shirt and jeans.

I am creating… letters and an Advent devotional booklet. Oh… I’m also making lovely progress on my nephew’s baby/big boy blankie.

I am reading… Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It’s delightful, so much so that I really don’t want to watch the TV series.

I am hoping… Daniel doesn’t puke up anything tomorrow morning and make me miss my doctor’s appointment.

I am learning… that I really need to practice better sleep hygiene. (Sleep hygiene is defined as turning off electronics and doing things to create a better sleeping environment.)

In my kitchen… defrosting some pesto and tomato linguine from Trader Joe’s.

In the school room… Daniel is happy to be back at school after being out sick on Friday.

Post Script… this is the apple cake I made for church on Sunday.

Shared Quote… “[describing Crowley] An Angel who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards.” – Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

A moment from my day… Duuuuuuude…

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: Language Acquisition Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Interesting… Apparently, we communicate information at roughly the same rate across languages. Once my brain has a rest from therapy with Daniel today, I will have to think through this regarding the languages I speak. #polyglotproblems

— 2 —

First day of school. I didn’t get any cute First Day of School pics, partly because my spawn is not cooperative and partly because we were having the usual issues with transportation on that day where Daniel’s bus didn’t show up. It was slightly better this morning, so I’m hoping that we’ll have it figured out tomorrow morning.

— 3 —

*snickers* If you have a kiddo on the spectrum and you don’t follow “Autism with a side of fries” on Facebook, I really recommend subscribing.

An answer to those who ask if we've tried essential oils to cure our kiddos on the spectrum.

— 4 —

I’m getting spayed. The surgery scheduler for my OB/GYN’s office called. I’m scheduled for my hysterectomy on 10/8. I’m positively giddy about being done with my period and feeling like I’ve been hit by a Mack truck every month. Not having to worry about getting pregnant and possibly dying is also going to be nice.

— 5 —

A heads-up for homeschoolers. If you want your kids to do a language for homeschooling, consider looking at Duolingo. I’ve been using it to learn Spanish and Arabic and to review my French, and I really like it. I know a lot of you do Latin, and they just rolled out their Latin course. Bonus: it’s also free.

— 6 —

Prayer request. If you could please pray for a special intention regarding Daniel’s behavioral therapy, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

— 7 —

Some music. I’ve liked “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas since childhood, but I finally saw the video of it a few weeks ago and was impressed that they include a violin in it.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: Daniel in Hospital Edition

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7 Quick Takes

Just a warning: lots of mentions of poop. Skip it if it is going to make you queasy.

— 1 —

Backstory. Daniel puked up a feed on Monday afternoon, and I decided to withhold his evening feed to give his stomach a rest. Well… he couldn’t keep anything down on Tuesday, and he started puking up stuff that looked like coffee. After a Google search on what it might be, I made the decision to take him to the ER. It turns out (after an x-ray and bloodwork) that his lower G-I was completely impacted with poop, and nothing was getting through. We made the decision with our ER doctor to admit him for hydration and to see if they could get him pooping again.

— 2 —

Wednesday. They tried various things and he puked up everything they gave him through the tube… so they ended up taking him down to the OR and manually disimpacting him under anesthesia. (I’m not going to describe how. You can Google it.) The good news: he came out of anesthesia well, and I need to find out what they gave him to get that outcome because he has been crankier than cranky the previous two times he was under anesthesia.

— 3 —

Last night. He’s been on a continuous drip of GoLytely, which is the stuff they give you to clean you out before a colonoscopy. I slept for a good chunk of the day because I was up until 5 a.m. with people coming in and out of the room to change his training pants and also change blankets and sheets. Thankfully, the nausea is gone.

— 4 —

Today. My priest woke me up at 10:30 a.m. to anoint Daniel and me. (I had been dead to the world yesterday when he stopped by, so I told him he was allowed to wake me up if I was asleep when he came by.) It has been a day of changing training pants and sheets, and unfortunately, the nurses were having to do it all as I accidentally took my night meds this morning and took a decent nap this afternoon.

— 5 —

Tonight. We’re letting him get up and walk around a bit as long as he holds on to his IV pole. We are currently waiting for his CNA to be available to take him out on the floor for a walk and maybe stimulate him to poop. Once kiddo is asleep tonight, they’re going to figure out a way for me to get a shower. Mom has been bringing me clothes and I thankfully do have clothes to leave in tomorrow.

— 6 —

An interesting discovery. When they disimpacted him on Wednesday, the blockage that they were able to get out without cutting him open had a bunch of his ADHD meds in it… UNDISOLVED!!! This explains the really severe behavior issues we have had as of late.

— 7 —

Prayer request. Please pray that the walking tonight causes him to start to pass the rest of the solid blockage. As much as this is an easy hospital stay thus far, I’m almost out of clean clothes and I am going to feel guilty if I have to make Mom do my laundry to get more. I live only a mile from the hospital, but my car died its final death on Monday, so I would have to borrow Mom’s car to get home and shower or do laundry.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: TGIAF Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

The dangers of negativity. Apparently, I’m not the only one who finds perpetually negative people to be a cancer?

To a degree, being happy is a choice. I don’t believe depression can magically be cured by happy thoughts, but you can choose to find happiness in really difficult circumstances.

— 2 —

An interesting protest. Some Catholic protesters in the Russell Senate Building formed a cross with their bodies while protesting the draconian immigration situation. A friend found some other pictures of the protesters being arrested which included some Dominican nuns.

— 3 —

OCD princess learns about the BUJO lifestyle. I want to start a bullet journal, but I’m having a heck of a time figuring out how to start and what to do because I’m OCD as all get out. So… I’m reading a book on it.

— 4 —

NFP Week, yo! It’s NFP Week, so I’m betting there will be a boatload of posts on how WONDERFUL it is (not!). Here’s the first one posted.

By the way, my Fitbit app has accurately predicted my period’s start date two months in a row. Woo.

— 5 —

Camp NaNoWriMo update. I abandoned my novel at 30,000 words after it stalled out because I had letters to write. No regrets. None at all.

— 6 —

Just why… A friend of mine got these for her kids. She regrets it. Apparently, the envelope stank to high heaven. Just.. why do these things exist in the first place?!?!?!?

— 7 —

Minion update. Baby Blackpaw had his yearly vet visit on Tuesday. He was quiet in the car with the exception of giving me his order at Starbucks. (No, I did not buy him coffee. He steals mine.) He purred like a jet engine for his vet tech and vet until they trimmed his claws, at which point he started growling and hissing and meowing. He was doing all of this while trying to snort up the Cheez Whiz they put on the mat to distract him, so it sounded like he was saying “omnomnomnom!”

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: VBS, Take Two! Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

ICE Training. My VBS kids had to do ICE training this week, as in what to do if ICE knocks on their door. Many were born in the USA and have parents who are citizens. Others have some level of legality due to DACA, and there are still others where I am choosing not to know their status because it doesn’t actually make any difference to me. In any case, I am furious that the political climate is such that they have to be trained in this stuff at a place where they should be going to sing songs, do crafts, play games, and learn about Jesus.

This is similar to how I feel about kids having to have school shooting drills because we grown-ups cannot get our [expletive] together.

— 2 —

Happier topics. My kids knew me a bit better this week, and singing silly songs with them helped them to warm up to me a bit. A few of them would always come and say “hi” to me every day, and there were a couple of them who would attach themselves to my legs when they needed something.

One of them came to me with their counselor today and asked for a snack. Last week, one of the mission team grown-ups had told me about storing the Go-Gurts in the freezer in case one of my kiddos needed a treat, so I grabbed one and gave it to him. His smile was pretty fabulous. 🙂 I also got to make a special PBJ for a kid last week with similar results.

— 3 —

Daniel update. My wee bairn starts intensive behavior therapy next week and it goes for 12 weeks. The promise of having an end to the ear-piercing screaming, slamming of doors, and hitting me if he’s mad is pulling me through and keeping me from trading him for a goldfish.

Hopefully, we don’t have 12 weeks of commutes from Seattle like we had on Tuesday of this week. It took us THREE HOURS to go 60 miles. But Seattle TOTALLY doesn’t have traffic, yo! [/sarcasm]

— 4 —

Whoa… I fell down a Facebook rabbit hole today and found this. Apparently, there is a serious plan in place for what will happen when Queen Elizabeth II passes.

— 5 —

Camp NaNoWriMo progress. I’m currently ~2700 words behind the pace, but I can probably make it up this weekend if I can get some consistent writing time. If you’d like to help me catch up by letting me kill you off creatively in exchange for a donation to help refugees, click here.

— 6 —

Racism. Unless you live in your own little bubble, you’ve heard of 45’s racist tweets involving 4 female Congressmembers. I am not surprised that he said it, but I am definitely disgusted. All four of them are US citizens, and three of them were born in the USA. (Ilhan Omar wasn’t, but she became a citizen at 17.) Two of them have parents from the USA (AOC’s parents are Puerto Rican and Puerto Rico *IS* part of the USA), and all four of them pledged an oath to this country when they were sworn in as Congressmembers.

— 7 —

Speaking out against racism. You don’t have to start yelling and making a scene. Seriously, you don’t. When we were at the Autism Center on Tuesday, there were two women of Somali descent and they were in beautiful abayas with their heads covered. They had gone into the quiet room with their son, and Daniel and I went to go open and close doors elsewhere. When we came back, one of the dads made a catty remark about the women, who were sitting behind him. I smiled and told him that they were just fine. I didn’t yell — I just made it clear that I was not going to trash them. The dad blushed and refused to look at me the rest of the time until we were called in to see Daniel’s autism specialist.

The younger of the women and I ended up having a lovely conversation about our kids, and she told me about living in Nairobi where she was born.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

7 Quick Takes: “What’s Next?” Edition

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7 Quick Takes

I’m graduating tonight with my AAS in both of the Office and Business Technology degrees from Skagit Valley College, and I have a lot of people asking “what’s next?” when I see them. So… this is my list of things that are coming up:

— 1 —

Appointments. Daniel has a psychiatrist appointment in Seattle tomorrow, and we are going to be grilling the doctor on what we can do because he has been crazy this week. Next week, I have a therapy appointment on Monday and Daniel has a couple on Wednesday. I just called and got a bunch of stuff set up and the calendar is looking a little crazy.

— 2 —

Adulting. The last three years have been crazy with the divorce and school, so I have some adult and legal appointments happening in July to get everything squared away before I’m working full-time.

— 3 —

Possible surgery. There’s a hysterectomy in the somewhat near future for me. My surgical consult appointment keeps getting moved, so I have no clue when.

— 4 —

Biobehavioral Therapy for Daniel. We’re apparently at the top of the list now, so it might be in July or August? We’re hoping it’s late July because we need some tools for parenting and working with this kid. Autism tends to throw all the normal kid rules out and his developmental issues mean that I have a 3-4 year old in a 10 year old’s body.

— 5 —

Camp NaNoWriMo. I’m aiming for 50,000 words of a story written in July. I’m sorting out plot stuff and working with characters right now. It’s something creative my brain can do now that it isn’t full of Accounting or Microsoft Office things.

— 6 —

Family time. My nephew turns 1 this weekend, we have another family thing next weekend, and we’ll be headed to the pioneer cemetery to bury Grandma at some point this summer. I’ll definitely be seeing a lot of family members and I am actually pretty excited about it.

— 7 —

Look for jobs. My resume is up on a few sites and we’ll see what shakes out this summer.

— Bonus —

Here is a picture of me in all my graduation regalia with my honor cords, tassel, and medals. I was also eligible for a stole from Phi Theta Kappa, but I did not get it ordered in time.

Me in graduation regalia with honor cord, tassel, and medal.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.