Reflections

Cassidy turned 12 today.   12!!!!!  I cannot believe how fast time is going.  The storms tonight made me remember the storms when she was born. Twelve years ago I was in the hospital in the middle of a huge storm and Cassidy decided to come.  What a stinker!  The power went out in the hospital for about 30 seconds and life got really interesting.   Cassidy has made my life wonderful in so many ways.  I would not trade one crazy day for anything. All of the hospital stays, the Girl Scout meetings,  and complaints about being the only girl have made life so enjoyable.

Cassidy has been so excited today. "Guess what?  It's my golden birthday, mom!"  That puts things into a 12 year old's perspective.  They get excited about the little things.

WOW

WOW!!  It is amazing how quickly time flies!

As of my last post we have had a hospitalization, 4-H (county fair), Boy Scouts, and school starting very quickly!

First:  About a month after I last updated everything, you guessed it ~ Cassidy was in the hospital.  We went to the ER on Saturday night, mainly to get a refill of nebulizer meds.  (I did not want to risk a problem with running out.)  When we left the ER at 12:30 am, Cassidy's pulse ox was 98.  I thought we had managed to catch whatever was going on early enough. Boy was I wrong!  By 8:30 am (eight hours later), I knew things were not so good.  We went back to the ER and Cassidy's pulse ox was 79!  The biggest problem was that even with breathing treatments, it would NOT go up.  I knew then that we would be going into the hospital, but I did not know which one.  I was given a choice ~ Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis or Memorial Children's Hospital in South Bend.

Restart of this post:

Somehow I did not actually finish or publish this update.  (Today is June 8, 2013.)

So let's try again.

To be honest, I do not remember the exact date I started this post to begin with.  So I will try to update everything.

The hospitalization was in May.  We ended up going to South Bend Memorial Children's hospital (May 2012.)  Cassidy was there for a week.  I cannot imagine a better hospital.  It is so much closer than Riley's and the doctors and nurses were fabulous!  (Rileys is a great hospital also, but Memorial is so much closer, so I like it better.)  Cassidy hated being in the PICU, but things could have been so much worse.  I saw so many kids much sicker than her and I am so grateful that she is not worse.

The 4-H fair was a lot of fun.  Cassidy was there everyday, because she had to take care of her horse.She did really well and made a lot of new friends.   Chris and Barry had one project in the fair ~ Legos.  Cassidy also had a scrapbook in the fair.  It was a nice slow introduction to 4-H and fair craziness.  They all got A awards in their projects.

Chris is now an official Boy Scout.  He really likes his troop and they do activities every month.  He has gone white water rafting, backpacking, and helped at winter fest.  He also went to a survival "training" weekend, where he did not sleep in a tent and learned to start a fire without matches (kind of a scary thought.)  Barry will join him as a Boy Scout next March.

We have made it through another school year.  Barry was in his last year at Yost (fourth grade).  Kind of a sad thought.  I no longer have a child in elementary school.  I was the PTO president at the school this year.  Very crazy!  I loved every minute, however I now know how much volunteers make all the difference.  Cassidy was a fifth grader at Westchester Intermediate.  She had some trouble with teacher's understanding her IEP and following it.  Because I come from a family full of teachers I am totally on the teacher's side when my children do something wrong, but when it comes to their ability to learn I have to fight for my kids.  Cassidy did fine until she was in the hospital again in November.  Because she was sick, her teacher gave her  an F in a project she was unable to finish.  I was angry!  I was able to get Cassidy in the class she needed to be in and she did really well through the rest of the year.  Chris decided that as a sixth grader, he was on a home work strike.  His grades definitely reflected that.  He still managed to pass his classes, but his grades were lower than they should have been.

Now we are at the end of this crazy update, well, no not yet.  :)

Chris was diagnosed with Asperger's.  This has helped explain a lot of what goes on in his head to me, his teachers, and people who know him.  It has also made it easier to figure out what kind of help he needs.  He now gets group counseling and individual counseling.  He really enjoys group counseling.  He reminds me that we have to go.  :)  Makes my life a little easier.  He seems to be more willing to think before he acts which is a great thing.  Still have a long way to go, but we are on our way!

Cassidy now sees an asthma specialist and because of this she only was in the hospital one time this school year, although she spent Thanksgiving in the PICU.   She still has flare ups, but now we are starting to get a handle on things.  She has gone through one part of her allergy testing and she has two more to go.  So far, no allergies yet.  :)

Barry is my calm, healthy child.  I think God knew that I needed a break after everything I have gone through with Chris and Cassidy.  Hopefully Barry will continue to stay healthy.  :)  All three kids have projects for this year's fair.  We have a lot to do!

A Little Reflection

I was re-reading some of my older posts. It is amazing how much my kids have changed, yet still stayed the same. Chris still has his issues with anger, although the tantrums/meltdowns have gotten further apart and less scary. Cassidy has not had any hospital visits since last June and we are finally seeing a doctor close to us that will hopefully mean some answers. And Barry, well is still a little boy with huge dreams.  And me, well, I am not 100% sure exactly how much I have changed, but I know I have.

I find myself caring more about the hurts of other people. I have always cared and been more than willing to pray for other people, but now I find myself much more impacted by stories I hear. The illnesses of people I have never met, the damage done in a tornado to people whose names I do not know, the soldiers killed in battle, while these always bothered me, now I cry for them. I am not complaining at all, but I did not realize how much this changed until I re-read the posts of not just me but others' too.

With my life, like so many people around me, SO incredibly busy, I find myself shocked that I care so much more. I am not whining about this, but I would have expected to be more jaded toward the hurts of others. I have seen people I know and care about getting more blasé about life and what is going on in the world and it really bothers me.  I get discouraged to see people close up and quick caring.   Why is it that the only time people seem to care is when something drastic occurs (tornado, earthquake, death)?  What happened to the people how care about the little things (illness, depression, loneliness)?  Not that to the people experiencing these things ever feel like the issues are small. 

 

Every once in a while, someone will surprise me and do the opposite of the rest of the world.  I have seen the people who smile even when they are in terrible pain just to make someone's day or give every penny to a friend when the friend needs help.  I am glad I feel more for others.  I would hate to be one of the people who do not care anymore.  I hope I continue to care.

Long Time In Coming

Well, I did warn you that it would be a while before I posted again. I have found myself slightly overwhelmed will volunteer stuff. (I think I need to learn to say NO!) To be honest I have no idea what I said in my last blog, so I will start fairly early in this school year. In September, Cassidy and I went to Riley Children's Hospital. She saw a specialist there and I was excited to maybe start getting some answers. Unfortunately, we did not make it to another appointment. My car broke down and my mother was in an accident, so we did not have a way to get there. We kind of muddled through the fall and winter, no hospital visits, but may bouts of illnesses. In March, Cassidy got sick yet again. The doctor put her on an antibiotic and oral steroid. The following week we were back at the doctor and he put her on another 5 day dose of oral steroids. We were at the ER that Saturday night (which just happened to be my birthday) with her breathing trouble. The doctor there said she had a viral sinus infection and he put her on a nasal spray and benedryl to dry her out. That did not work and we were back at the doctor on Wednesday of the following week. The doctor then decided that she needed to refer us to an asthma specialist here in Portage and she had her nurse make us an appointment for the first available time. We ended up back at the ER that Friday. The doctor there put her back on an oral steroid and almost admitted her. Thankfully her pulse ox went from 89 to 100 after two breathing treatments and a dose of very powerful medicine. We went to the specialist last Thursday and he said that her problems probably are immune system related and not an allergy issue. She is getting a CAT scan done on Friday of next week. Hopefully this will get us some much needed answers.
That is the major update about Cassidy. Now for the minor stuff. Christopher has bridged from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. He went on his first official overnight camping trip with them the weekend of my birthday. He had a very good time and is excited about going on another trip. Barry is now a Webelos Scout. He has two more years in Cub Scouts before he bridges to Boy Scouts. He is kind of glad that his brother is not in his pack anymore. Both boys are doing well in school and things are pretty smooth in that area of life. All three kids really like school and that makes me a happy mom. Cassidy is a Junior Girl Scout. Her troop has done quite a bit this year. They wrote and acted out a play about roles women play and they had a really god time with that. Now they are making a "Life Quilt" that has panels with words like bullying, acceptance, friendship, etc. On the quilt are also the words the girls came up with to describe these words or the feeling that they feel when they here the words. The quilt is being given to the principal to hang in the school.
I do not know how much you all want to here about me, but here it is. I am the PTO vice-president (not a job I ever expected to have.) I am the Girl Scout coordinator for our school. That means I answer any questions from the other leaders and I had to find the leaders in the first place. This job I like :). I am on the Cub Scout committee and do a lot to help them out. I run Market Day for our school and don't really mind this job. I almost feel that I live at the school. It makes for an interesting adventure.
My family is doing well. Jenny surprised us on Easter. No one expected to see her since New York is pretty far away. Nick and Krista and Andrew are doing well. Matt and Becky and Gretchen and Lucas are fine. Lucas really likes the beach. Mom is visiting Maria and Joel right now and they are fine also. Elena is teaching ceramics classes at the studio where she does her art work. Alex and Jackie and Alexis and Felicity are still in Azerbaijan. I haven't seen them in a while. I hope to see them when they come home for the summer. :) I know this a bit of a rambling account, but it seems to be the easiest way to update everything. Hopefully it will not be this long before I write again.

Major Update

I have decided that as a single mom with no internet at home, I will just write this blog as often as I can and not worry about missing time. I will of course update everyone on the things that were missed, but until I get internet at home I will not be able to blog very often.

So. . . I really have a lot to catch you all up on. Here we go:

The last time I wrote was in March. Almost six months ago and so much happening, I will try to remember it all. As you know I am a Girl Scout leader for Cassidy's Girl Scout Troop. As third graders, our troop was responsible for the Me and My Pal Dance. Our theme was "A Knight to Remember." We decided that we would include a catered dinner with the dance which made for more work, but it was so worth it. The dads/pals were dressed in suits and the girls all wore very beautiful dresses. Cassidy went with our next door neighbor, Jim. She had a blast. The dance was a huge success and the food was great. The other leaders and I worked very hard on making the dance fun. It was a blast watching all the girls, dads, pals, and other leaders dancing to the Cha-Cha Slide. Very funny! As much fun as we had, I am very glad that we do not have that responsibility next year. :)

I am also on the Cub Scout Committee for the boys. Chris only has one more year as a Cub Scout and then he plans to go onto Boy Scouts. (Not sure what I will do in the Boy Scout troop to help.) Barry has a couple more years before we get to that decision. Anyway, I am in charge of the Cub Scout scrap book. I am going to pass it on to another mom when Barry is done with Cub Scouts. I love to scrap book so I do not mind the job at all. The only problem I have is that I do not have enough pictures, but I will remedy that when ever I can. I am also responsible for setting up a summer activity for the Pack. The past two years we have had the pack at my mother's house to see the airshow and have a picnic. It made for a long, but interesting day!

All three of my kids went to Twin Lakes Camp this summer. Cassidy had the same counselors as last year, so she was very excited! Barry and Christopher were in the same cabin only because it was Barry's first year at camp. (Next year they will be in separate cabins.) They all had a really good time. They got to stay at camp for a couple of extra days because my alarm did not go off. I was not a happy mommy when I woke up. My mother ended up driving down to pick them up for me because I had to get everything ready for the Cub Scouts to come enjoy the airshow. Next year my neighbor's and mom are all going to call to make sure my alarm gets me up. :)

In April, Cassidy was sick with pneumonia again and she was in the hospital again! She was in for about 4 days, absolutely no fun. This time she decided that she was old enough to be there alone at night. My family doctor finally said he was going to start doing the tests that needed to be done that the allergist/pulmonary doctor would not. We found that she is very highly allergic to dust mites. (Fun right? You cannot avoid those things!!)

My sister Maria got married this summer in Denver. Most of my sibling met in Vale, CO before the wedding at my cousin Anna's house. (Beautiful house!!) We had a great time. We went white water rafting which was a blast. However, Cassidy decided to get sick again. We went to the ER on Thursday (before the wedding). The doctor sent her home with oxygen and said hopefully when we went lower down the mountain to Boulder, she would do better. She did a little better on Friday during the day, but she had a horrible time Friday night. I took her to the Rocky Mountain Urgent Care, where they gave her three back to back double breathing treatments. When the third one was done, her pulse-ox was still 77, so of course that meant we were on our way to the ER. When we got to the ER, they were really busy. They were telling all the people waiting that it would be a while before they were seen. I went to the counter with Cassidy and told them where we started and what was going on with her and the nurse did not believe that a girl that looked as good as she did could be that bad, but he took her back to the triage area and saw that her pulse-ox WAS 77. They took her straight back. We were in the ER for about two hours. Then Cassidy went upstairs. We were only in her room for about 5 minutes before the doctor came in and said we should probably go to the Denver Children's Hospital. We went two different ways. Cassidy was life flighted to the hospital in a helicopter. She got to see everything. She thinks it is cool that no one else in the family has ever been in a helicopter. The Boulder Hospital gave me a voucher to get to the Children's Hospital because everyone else was at Maria's wedding, so the trip did not cost me anything. Cassidy was in the PICU for 5 days. She got bad enough that they put her on a B-PAP. That is somewhat like the C-PAP that people who have sleep apnea use. She was unable to eat anything for two days because her breathing was so bad. She went to the regular floor and was there for 3 days. While we were in Denver the doctors tested Cassidy for everything from Cystic Fibrosis to HIV. All the tests came back normal. There are some other tests that can be done, but we will have to have them done in Indiana. When she was released the Children's Hospital, they gave us vouchers to fly home on Southwest Airlines. (My mother and the boys went home on Tuesday, while Cassidy was still in the PICU.) We flew home and our luggage ended up in Indy. Southwest got our luggage sent back and we got it back a couple of days later.

I have all the kids get eye exams every year. My eyes are horrible and Brad wears glasses also. Chris has been wearing glasses for about 3 years and Cassidy got them last year, but she does not need them all the time. This year the eye doctor saw that Chris's optic nerve was swollen, so we went to a neurologist on the 4th. Chris now has to have an MRI, EEG, and some other tests to see what is going on. The doctor thinks that he looks good, but she just wanted to make sure everything was good.

On the 5th, I took Cassidy down to Riley Children's Hospital to see a pediatric pulmonary specialist. After our latest adventure in Denver, I decided that we needed to get a different pulmonary doctor and allergist. Once that decision was made it was easy to decided to go to Riley's. Got a different medication that should work better than her old one. Dr. was happy with how much we are doing to prevent issues, but even though she looks healthy her lung function is not great. Therefore the new meds. We go back in a month. Hopefully we will get the answers to help keep her healthy.

Bigger Update

I forgot some stuff that happened between December and February and then I have to update you on what has happened since February.

In December my brothers, (Nick and Matt), Maria and her fiance Joel, and I tore out the wall and floor in Cassidy's room and the bathroom. (I have taken pictures of the whole process and hope to post them soon.) It took a lot of work to get it done. We ended up having a plumber come in and fix the shower fixtures and a handyman to come in to do the finishing work. It is wonderful to have no more mold and freshly painted rooms. Cassidy is in love with her room. It is pink, very PINK! With white furniture, it is definitely all girl. :) The boys also got a freshly painted room and new floors.

The rest of January and February were fine. Until Cassidy got sick again. She started coughing on the 10th of February. On the 11th, I took her to the ER and she got three breathing treatments in 3 hours. No x-ray or meds. On the 15th I took her to her doctor and he put her on an antibiotic. He said given her history he was going to treat her like she had pneumonia again. On the 19th we were back in the ER, a different one. They did x-rays and saw she had pneumonia (again ~ for the third time this winter season.) She was admitted (AGAIN.) She saw an infectious disease doctor. Very nice woman. She had Cassidy tested for MRSA, and a bunch of other issues. Cassidy tested positive for myco-plasma pneumonia. It is the most common childhood pneumonia and very contagious. I looked it up and a person can be exposed 3 weeks before symptoms start showing. Cassidy was in the hospital for 6 days. I am a little frustrated with the fact that Cassidy keeps getting sick, but the doctors and I are trying to figure out what is causing all of this sickness.

My car is back ~ new engine and radiator. Both head-gaskets went out. When the mechanic took the motor out, they punctured the radiator. Fun right? These problems are fixed, but now I have another problem. When my friend was coming to pick me up, the heating system went out. The heating system in my car is one system with dual controls for the front and back. The hose leading to the back collapsed. I am waiting for the parts to come in. The car is drivable, but still needs work.

Man, when it rains it pours. However life could be worse and I am happy that we have doctors who have the ability to heal people and mechanics that can fix cars. Mostly I am grateful for a God who takes are of all of us.

Time to Catch You Up On Everything

I have not forgotten you all, but I have been very busy. I kind of left off with Cassidy at Riley's. She came home the night before Thanksgiving and has not really had a problem since then. Chris and Cassidy started getting acupuncture the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it seems to be helping. Chris is gaining weight (finally) and Cassidy is feeling better. I had three finals, 5 small papers and three big papers to do before the end of the semester Dec. 15th. Crazy busy, right? Life since Christmas has not slowed down at all. I have been "snowed in" for about a week. Well, not really snowed in, but car less. My car went into the shop about 2 weeks ago ~ the first time. It went back into the shop two days later ~ the second time. The third time I took it into the shop, we finally figured out what was wrong. Both head gaskets in the engine broke. So until the engine is replaced/fixed, I am with out a car. The same time my car broke down, my mother's and neighbor's cars also broke down. With what problem you may ask? Both of their cars need, you guessed it new ENGINES. A little frustrating to say the least. Northwest Indiana got about 2 feet of snow last Tuesday/Wednesday and another 7 inches today. So not fun! I am so looking forward to SPRING. Talk to you all later!