Category: health

Christmas, health, NaBloPoMo, transcription, work at home

Decorating almost done – and apparently sickies coming back

criscollrj

I’ll have to post a pic of our tree decs tomorrow (2 strands of lights still not working – I haven’t had time to pursue it really). 

But got breakable ornaments up out of Harm’s (Ryan’s) way today and Rog bought a new star for the top of the tree that I’ll put on tomorrow.

Chris got sent home from school yesterday and Colleen the day before. I took them both to the dr. yesterday – believed to be viruses. They finished their meds for sinus infections last week.

Now Ryan was coughing most of the evening and I’m wondering if he’ll make it to school tomorrow.

So far I’m healthy (knock on wood) but feel very very tired tonight. I did nap for a while. I am going to just go to bed, and hope that Chris goes to sleep (he’s pacing). At least he’s not taking 89 baths like he did Tuesday night!

I am getting a lot of nice legal cases to type – finished one and proofing it now and have another for tomorrow and early next week. Then I received a long speech transcription project for late next week and week after (hopefully they’ll accept it then as that’s when I can do it!!!) that is a referral from a local company I used to work for!! Word of mouth recommendation is nice!

Yawning and my eyes are watering so shall try and sleep and hope Chris doesn’t drag me up over and over again…

health, NaBloPoMo

End of sickness?

criscollrj

Finally made appt. for the dr. for my bronchitis.

I keep thinking of canceling the appt. and then I cough more. I have long hours between coughing sometimes but when I cough again it’s often a long drawn out spell.

So I’ll let you know when I come home what they’ve said – I’ve been sick since October 29.

Chris and Colleen are now both on antibiotics for sinus infections after their bouts with this virus. And Ryan is coughing again after not coughing for 1 week so I think he’s next to go back in.

LATER –

Well, I have an antibiotic but she said to wait a few days as she’s not convinced I actually have bronchitis yet. She said this virus is bad lasts over 2 weeks, and that combined with my asthma could be why I’m still coughing. So I’m glad I went and got the antibiotic to fill if I need to.

 

children, health, life, NaBloPoMo, sleep

What I’ve been up to:

criscollrj

Directly from my post to my transcription board 🙂

I have had to take a bit of a posting break. I’ll probably try and get back to posting regularly after Thanksgiving.

What’s keeping me so busy:

* Everyone being sick, including me, going all the way back to early October. I’ve scheduled a drs. appt. in case this cough isn’t better by then and also plan a chiropractor visit for this afternoon.
* Because of all the sick days for the kids, I had gotten so behind on my work I could do nothing else, not even sleep. I got a serious sleep deprivation there and last night actually fell asleep at 8 and got to sleep until 5 (just getting up once with my son at 11 who was still up….) sleep finally! I’m just praying I don’t get a migraine from all the sleep schedule switching.
* I also need to file and finish cleaning my office. (I did clean the desks and switched desks with my daughter over the weekend and am now proud to say I have a resting shelf for my feet to transcribe on and can even easily switch feet – yay! I’m also the proud owner of new speakers with a headphone jack, as well as the aforementioned new ergo keyboard and the new external hard drive to store my hefty space-grabbing audio on…
* I’m going to take next week off of work (probably just do British QA in the early morning) and just focus on cleaning my house well for the Thanksgiving dinner we’re having here. Then I’ll be back hard at work the next week, though I MAY schedule another few days end of next week to finish Christmas shopping and start wrapping (lest you think I’m some kind of holiday guru, we have cut WAY back this year and are only shopping for the children – our children, our relatives, and a few close friends. That greatly cuts the list down.
* And I want to try and get more rest so I can focus on getting better.
* Prayers still appreciated for our family’s health in general and for Lisa specifically.
* I haven’t started this yet, but next week I need to sit down and do tons and tons of paperwork and stuff for the kids that I’m behind on.
o I have to schedule also two sedation appts. for the boys for hearing tests they do on the brain while they’re sleeping, and for my oldest to have his blood tests he needs for his meds, and for them both to have good teeth cleaning.
o I also need to schedule Ryan’s concluding genetic tests (They probably think I forgot about them, it’s been so long).
o I also need to fill out two autism scholarship forms as we’re considering possibly trying to have them attend this autism/deafness school in Florida if there’s any way we can arrange it (probably for next year) but it will take a lot of planning and research and special miracles from the Lord. (And possibly me moving down there just over the school year – sounds very complicated but if it’s what the Lord wants for the boys it will work out – I’ll post the site soon).

I hope we have a good family gathering here on Thanksgiving – that’s the first time I’ve ever tried to have one. I need to go shopping for my turkey, etc., and plan the meal.

I also plan over the next few weeks to update all my sites for the holidays – one of my favorite things to do!!

Blessings, dori

health, NaBloPoMo

Still sick sick sick

criscollrj

I just called Dr. to see about going for my cough (two weeks now – I think I got sick on the 29th). I still am hmm’ing and hawing about going ($100 or more for the appt and meds) and got an appt. for Thurs. I am going to the chiro tomorrow and see what he says and if I’m still sick Thurs. I’ll go in.

Colleen is home sick and I’m taking her to dr. today at 1.

Chris and Ryan aren’t great but they did go to school. Ryan actually threw up last night but we think it was just all the mucous and that maybe he ate too many mashed potatoes and mac & cheese (we went to Mr. Chicken).  I was going to keep him home but he was fine this morning!

He has been getting up at 3:30 every morning and it’s driving us CRAZY! I managed to keep him up until 6:30 last night but couldn’t keep him up any later. He went to bed at 5:30 the night before and I tried to get him up at 8 p.m. and couldn’t.

Chris is congested but not sneezing or coughing.

Colleen has a sore throat again.

I switched desks with Colleen yesterday and washed her desk really really good and got my stuff in there all set up for work. My foot pedal is much more comfortable on the bottom shelf of that desk. I also had to go get speakers yesterday as I’d found out my sound card wasn’t loud enough and had to proof my last job on Colleen’s computer. So I got some $20 ones at Best Buy yesterday. They’re nice!

health, NaBloPoMo, transcription

Yesterday – migraine day from you know where —

criscollrj

All chronicled on the transcription board —

“Great. Up at 5, starting my day, to finish my 15 pp of proofing, a little British QA, and then planned to take a nap.

I now have a migraine aura. I can see the screen right now but in about five minutes I won’t be able to — the flashing lights are going all over it and soon I’ll have the black “spaces….”

crap.

I can lay down in 2 hours once my kids are all gone – I pray I don’t throw up. I hate throwing up migraines.

Off to take 2 Excedrin Migraines and quit looking at computer screens …
Well, thank God for that extension I got —

LATER
I took two Excedrin migraine and laid down while my daughter got ready for school. I think that kept this from being a killer headache, though I still feel it and have sensitivity to light. But don’t feel nausea at this point and the aura is gone.

Unfortunately because of my laying down my daughter missed her bus, and when I went to drive her my battery is dead. So she’s home. She’s sick, too, though.

at least my boys are in school.

* proof my 15 pp

* Do British QA

* get car jumped

* nap — well kinda, but I couldn’t really stay asleep. It was weird – every time I was about to drop off a vehicle went by and woke me up. Sigh. I also took a shower.

Now – I want to EAT – I really haven’t eaten all day.

I have had 3 places offer me more work and I can’t figure out which to take and balance with what I already have scheduled next week, both work-wise and appt-wise – I almost want to take a little breather….

 

health, NaBloPoMo

NaBloPoMo who?

criscollrj

What?

Ha ha. I’ve seen this but never checked what it is. Now I know. Get some new readers and make some new friends by joining this group that is for posting every day in November. Cool idea!

I just noticed too that I posted already 3x in November and didn’t even realize it, after being absent for a while, so — that’s a good thing!

Now, to get here every day, while I have kids sick at home tomorrow being day 11 straight and finish how many more minutes of my hearing? Probably about 45, which I really need to do tonight and may be just too tired to do…

So off of here I go — I guess I COPY this over there?

clueless—

 

autism, autism Ryan, children, deafness, health

Appts.—

criscollrj

Ryan had some new appts. this week. These are copied from a post I did about them – the first one is yesterday:

“Don’t know if I ever mentioned but we had a long-awaited genetics appointment today. At first, I was going to be tested for connexion 26 (an inherited hearing disorder – my dad had hearing impairment, I do, my boys do, and so does my cousin and possibly her brother). I never got the test because our insurance expired [our kids all still have insurance through Healthy Start].

Anyway, when I called about the test, to try and get it in before the insurance expired in May, they asked me more about our history, and after hearing about the boys and their autism spectrum, etc., they decided to instead test Ryan first. So we brought him in today.

He had a hard time being patient but did do some nice artwork on the board with markers!! We were able to give the dr. & assistant all our history, etc. He was supposed to have a preliminary blood test today but then he got so upset and was screaming in his stroller, so we put that part off for Monday. We were there about 1 1/2 to 2 hours already by that point.

There are more complicated tests, now, I guess, for ASD’s and other disorders, where they test different chromosomes and stuff. There may even be some syndromes that involve autism and deafness. So Tuesday we’re going back and Ryan is going to have blood test (s?) and we’ll see what they find out. [poor baby!] This will also tell us probably if my hearing loss is genetic.

They seem very interested in finding out what caused all these things to happen in our children. They also seem very knowledgeable and professional.

Eventually Chris will be tested too – he’ll have to be put to sleep for it.

Everyone knows us there too — we’re famous at the Cleveland City hospital systems…..

But it was a tiring day. It’s also emotional to think of everything that’s happened. It’s all for a reason, but it’s hard to go through it all–explaining how Chris lost his words twice, how we didn’t know he was deaf until he was 14, how Ryan’s developed mild symptoms (which breaks my heart over again) and even Colleen’s struggles with concentration.

Then we were going over all of Chris’s digestive problems he had as a young boy, and his weight gains and losses, and all the ups and downs of his health, and his skin infections etc (a lot of this is detailed early on in my blog).

I’ll keep you up to date as we get results…”

Then today:

“Today was Ryan’s appt. with behavioral center. He was assessed and we were told that they WOULD find someone to come help us at home with him some, but that they couldn’t promise they could find someone that really specializes with spectrum disorder. This lady (nurse/counselor) also suggested that perhaps we pursue something like risperdol for him. Chris was on risperdol for years – it actually did wonders for him – but I just wasn’t ready to accept that Ryan actually needed anything like that. But, maybe he does… we do have TONS of behavior problems with him, and —-“

 

autism, medications

I remember when it was always like this—

criscollrj

yawn. Chris has switched meds from Geodon to Abilify, and is not sleeping as well.

I should have been keeping an official log, but really haven’t. BUT — today is early Sunday morning. LAST Monday night, about 6 days ago, was the last night he had his Geodon med. But for some reason he stayed up all that night even though he had the Geodon. So the next night, the first night without the Geodon, he did sleep. Continue reading “I remember when it was always like this—” →

adhd, autism, autism Ryan, medications, transcription

3 with autism diagnosis —

criscollrj

Ryan was diagnosed today with ADHD and also suspected PDD (pervasive developmental disorder, the umbrella term of autism that is most mild). He went ahead and gave the PDD diagnosis [which he suspected but didn’t know how much of the behaviors could be from his hearing loss] to enable him to have the most schooling and therapy. He should be able to go to all day school next year now for kindergarten in an autism class. I’m relieved about that in one way because I know he really needs the structure. On the other hand it breaks our hearts to have three children on the autism spectrum though, again, Ryan’s diagnosis could change as he gets older and more verbal and maybe it’ll change to Asperger’s like his sister who is just about typical with some vague shadow syndromes.

His ADHD seems rather severe and although he is only 4 he’s been prescribed medication – FocalinXR. I need to do some research on it. I’m afraid to give it so young- Colleen didn’t start on Ritalin and then Concerta until she was about 9, but she was never as hyperactive. He actually does very dangerous things – he has run into the street before and just yesterday he plugged in a waffle iron in the living room while I wasn’t looking for a minute and just left it heating. He didn’t ask me about it, just went, got it and plugged it in. He has become extremely hard to handle and even though he’s only 50 pounds it’s exhausting. 50 pounds is still 50 pounds. and on a day when 200-pound Chris is pulling me around – watch out.

They have always prescribed new meds for Chris that again I’m afraid to try. we think we’re going to try and hospitalize him to enable the med change – his last med change he had a psychotic reaction in 2004 (I think that’s the right word?) similar to tardive diskenysia (sp?) and it was horrible. I have to make an ASAP appt. for him Monday.

Thanks for prayers for us!

Prayers also appreciated for our financial situation – we’re doing okay but we got so behind both when Rog was laid off and I was on the one working, and then when he was working but I took a break due to the severe situation of the kids, that we are pretty behind. I’m about to put all our back bills on credit cards just to start with a clean slate because I don’t want any shutoffs. But you hate to do that too…

In the “small potatoes” category I really want to get my house cleaned up WELL by Tuesday afternoon for my weekly assignment wed. with RT. I worked a lot this last month with two unexpected large assignments (YAY!) from individuals (direct pay) and it was very worth it!! But I had never even caught up from Christmas [still have a Christmas tree up in the basement family room] and just need some time now to breathe and try and clean all the rooms well. I’m tired of tripping over things! To keep our sanity we just need to get our surroundings organized and I’d appreciate prayer that we could do that and keep it that way with everyone’s help in the home.

I also have temporarily (I hope only temporarily) lost my autism/deafness family picture blog due to moving servers (the new server so far has been unable to access my old servers files) and we’ve been unable to load the database even though it looks on paper simple as pie. This is 3 years of work (including old journals from another web site) and I had a lot of friends comments on there and some people who had asked for help with autism/deafness whose contacts will be lost if this blog is lost. I had just made it onto google and was getting some comments [though small and far between[ and now they’re getting a blank page. And i”m not sure whether to leave it blank and as is for the techs to work on or to make a new blank blog – not sure how to proceed. I know it’s a small thing but was so important to me – prayers on that appreciated!

And I have a bad headache today – had aches and pains yesterday half the day – and 3 people in my family have had a bad cold or flu and I’m surely hoping I’m not catching it.

I’m glad you are all here and that I still have this journal 🙂

(2020 as I’ll probably see noted in here later I did find all those blogs — they are pretty much merged in here now!!)