Begone Germs, Go Haunt Another Household!

Good Grief!

I know this is the worst cold and flu season* in years. I know I should have gotten the whole family flu shots.** I know that the first year of school/daycare is a sickly year while kiddos "build" their immune system.***

My husband is blaming our new house, my son is just made he can't go back to school, and I'm going bonkers trying to keep both of them from driving me nutso! A cold I could deal with , the flu I did deal with but in the last few months Alex has had a chronic sinus infection, a CT Sinus Scan for that infection, Sinus surgery and his adenoids removed and then this week an unknown viral bug that sent his temp up to 103 scary degrees. Meanwhile during that same time Eric has caught the flu, a cold and currently has either a stomach virus or food poisoning. I'm pretty healthy and have gotten away with some wicked laryngitis, a massive sinus infection, and possibly the flu. As I said GOOD GRIEF!

Tomorrow Alex can finally go back to school and while Eric is sleeping this off upstairs I'm airing out the house. My luck and Murphy's Law**** says that this will blow out the current germs and out luck bring in some new ones.

*According to our pediatrician :)
**Not only do I hate shots, but the few times I have caved to pressure and gotten the flu shot were the only times I got the flu. I'll take my chances thank you!
***Don't get me started on my soapbox about this. For the record I am from the school of thought that kids have an immune system (we're born with one!) and frequent exposure to kids who don't belong at school due to sickness but are there anyways due to our screwed up work system that doesn't take kindly to parents being parents when their kids are sick tears that immune system down rapidly.

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What a Week

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So it's been a CRAZY few weeks. The flu, Alex's surgery, general chaos at work and possibly worst of all, dealing with Dell Customer Service :(.

So about a month ago we found out that Alex had incredibly blocked sinuses that 2 months of antibiotics had done nothing for. A Sinus CT Scan later we were meeting with a pediatric ENT. He spent the first 10 minutes telling me how we would probably need a stronger course of antibiotics and possibly some nose spray and in most cases that clears everything up. I gave him a quick rundown on everything we had tried and he left the room to review the CT scans. A few minutes later he was back asking me to come check them out. Turns out every sinus cavity he has is blocked up and we're now looking at sinus surgery. A few more scan views shows he also has adeniods 3 times the normal size and they need to come out too. I went into denial mode and didn't even think about having to put my little baby in surgery until the week before.

I didn't have much time to dwell on it anyways since our entire family had come down with the flu. Eric canceled his travel and we all camped on the couch and bonded to WAY to many Diego and Dora episodes. Fast forward a miserable week and we were only left witha week to prepare Alex. We visited the surgery center, talked about how much better he would feel, did everything we could to make it less scary. And then all my hard work was worthless when they gave him versed. It helps keep them calm when they take the kiddos back to surgery but no one warned us that he would be hysterical coming out of surgery. It was a horrible experience but we kept telling ourselves that in the end it was for the best since it would make Alex healthier.

So two weeks later he's been sick the whole time, and now after a marathon week at the dr's office (we've been to six different doctors offices in 5 days between the two of us) we're due in tomorrow for another flu test. BAH

My experience with Dell is worthy of a whole other post, and a pictures and video post is coming soon staring lots of Alex, so stay tuned. You can stay updated by "subscribing" to the site, or click the link when we send out update notifications by email!

Days That Make Me Want to Homeschool

What a week. So much has happened I don't know where to start. 

Alex's teacher at school, Ms. Paine and I, have been working very hard with Alex on potty training and lo and behold orange gummy bears were the secret. :) That and a special new potty with a cushie seat. Yep no kidding, my kiddo won't do those hard plastic potty chairs. We had to go find special ones that have a ring of foam cushion for his pottying comfort!  About a week ago he went potty on it and it was a once a day thing until yesterday when we ran out of diapers and pull ups at the house. Like a crazy person I decided to go with regular undies instead of running to the store and I couldn't believe it when he went all afternoon and evening with no accidents and going potty. Then this morning he was right back into them and with only a small accident at school I think it's been a bang up start to a future without diapers! :)

That's the good side, the bad part of today started as I walked into school with Alex and the director pulled me aside to ask if I had gotten her email. For a moment I felt like a 9th grader in the Asst Principals office again and thought, oh no what did I do. It wasn't about me though, it was Alex's wonderful, loving teacher who we adore! She and her fiancee are expecting and since Alex attends a Christian private school that's a rule breaker that apparently her talent, devotion and plans to marry (put on hold right now for financial reasons) can't surmount. I'm pretty furious right now at the church and whoever it was in the church that cared more about their rules than they did about our kids. Neither the kids or the parents were given any warning regardless of the fact that the church knew of this for several months. No warning was given to his teacher and therefore no warning or transition was given to the kids. For most kids this might be a minor bleep on their radar but Alex has had 5 teachers since he started there in May, a grandmother that travels and is sometimes here and sometimes not, a father that travels regularly, and lots of far off relatives. I worry that he is not going to understand why some people disappear and never come back, some come and go, and some disappear for a while but show back up randomly.  Add that to the fact that he is having surgery on Monday, which I'm sure with my drama king will be a walk in the park and you begin to get an idea of how grateful I am that tomorrow is Friday!

Ahh yes now you are saying, "Surgery?" As most of you know Alex has been sick for months. Nothing contagious or debilitating but a constant runny nose, congestion, and cough. It's gone on so long that he comes to us and asks for medicine to make him feel better. I'm not sure what age Betty Ford starts treatment at but I refuse to let Alex be the first toddler on their roster! :) After several rounds of antibiotics, home remedies and many torturous sessions with saline solution and  a bulb syringe we finally are moving forward with a permanent solution. :)

Get Me Out of Here

A post from Alexander's point of view:

So I haven't been feeling well the last few days since Mom and Dad brought me home. I have tried to let them know by lots of crying and very little sleep and yesterday they finally got the message. I went to visit this really nice lady and she thought I looked a "little off." Thanks a lot lady...I've been through a lot in the last few days...you would look off too!

Well like I said, she was pretty nice but she poked and prodded me and sent me to a really mean lady who stuck my heel to draw blood. Boy was I mad at that. Mom kept crying and saying she was so sorry that I was going through this. The heel stick was over pretty quick but what really made me mad was being put in the carseat to go to the Dr, in the carseat to go get blood work, in the carseat to go home, in the carseat to go back to the hospital, all before lunch!

Apparently I have jaundice and need to go get a tan. Well I don't mind that but this constant room service IV thing sucks. Took them forever to get that in and I screamed and fought it the whole time. Once they finally got it in, weighed me (6lbs 9oz) and got me in my room, I was exhausted and happy to wear thier designer shades and nap in the light. Mom finally got to rest too, now that I was feeling a little better each day.

The first day or two of this was okay, but we are going on three days and I am tired of these crazy nurses waking me up at all hours. Tell them to let me go home and leave my poor heels alone!

oh and here is a video of the hospital that I was in while being treated for my jaundice. It was really neat and had very cool paintings.