Needed a break

Hi to all my bloggy readers.

I promise I didn't forget about any of you. I just had to take a bit of a break. I felt like my whole like had been on a roller coaster lately and I really needed to apply the brakes and slow it all down as much as possible. I needed to concentrate on my little girls in a HAPPY and HEALTHY way (in other words on THEM, not their illnesses). And I needed to concentrate on ME too.

Here's the brief rundown of my past week:

Monday, October 19th: Bug got her EEG removed, JOY!!!! I worked a 6 hour shift at work! :)

Tuesday, October 20th: We dropped off Bug's prescription which would need to be special ordered and we went to pick up Peanut and Duck's glasses. Duck had been so excited but then seemed almost unhappy about them. Peanut who had been a little more indifferent about them all along was still a little more indifferent but has accepted and tolerated her glasses better. Then I worked a 6 hour shift.

Wednesday, October 21st: I left for work for a 6 hour shift and BFF and the kids dropped off her DH at the airport for an overnight trip for work. That night I got angry, and I don't even remember what caused the anger, and barreled down the hallway in the dark and kicked a crate I didn't know was there. I apparently nearly removed the toenail from the big toe. I didn't realize this though at first. It took a few minutes til I looked down and saw copious amounts of blood on the comforter on the ground (at least it wasn't the carpet). Finally I accepted what had happened and BFF and I got me patched up and I took something for the then THROBBING pain.

Thursday, October 22nd: Foot in INTENSE pain, realize I cannot put MOST of the shoes I own on, including my Uggs. Or work shoes... Thank goodness I didn't have to go to work. But I could wear my crocs. I had to take Peanut to the doctor. I got her seat moved into the Sports car and off we went. She was seeing the Pulmonologist about her Respiratory Airway Disease. RAD is a catch all term for asthma like condition that isn't really asthma. In Peanut's case, when she gets sick, such as a cold, it gets BAD, she wheezes, til she can't really breathe and I end up giving her albuterol treatments. So anyway. The appointment went very well. She was extremely healthy this week which was actually a good thing. because we were able to get a good baseline HEALTHY chest x-ray, so if she does get sick there's something to compare it too. The doctor said if you tried to tell him this child was healthy he would tell you that you were CRAZY, but that if you told him this child was an RAD child he'd tell you this was a perfectly normal, healthy x-ray.

We discussed medication. He is happy with Albuterol for abortive treatments, as we have been doing. He and I discussed how many times she's been on oral steroids (fortunately not too many times, I am EXTREMELY opposed to having her on steroids if I can avoid it, as I worry about what they are doing to her, but I do see the need sometimes.) He suggested putting her on a daily inhaled steroid for maintenance. In many ways this goes against EVERYTHING for me. Because I HATE having my child on steroids. BUT... he and I had quite a lively discussion about it. It went something like this...

Albuterol is a steroid too. But I am totally willing to use it because bluntly if she's having an attack I HAVE to stop it. So... if she has a cold and it lasts, lets say 5 days, that's a good average for her, and I have to give her 3 treatments a day, that's 15 treatments per cold. Now then, if she has 2 colds per month, again, about average for her, she is receiving about 30 doses of the steroid in albuterol. Now then... the point of the maintenance medication is to hopefully keep her from needing as many if any treatments of albuterol when she gets sick.

So... if she gets one dose daily of the maintenance med (approx 30 doses per month), vs. 30 or more doses of albuterol in a month... well, she's getting the same, if not LESS steroid in a month... LOL At least that's the theory. So in the end I agreed that she was probably better off on the maintenance med, so we discussed which one and put her onto Flovent for the winter.

Come spring if she has had a good winter we will discuss other possibilities, such as allergy testing. Her environment from last winter to this winter has changed dramatically so I am concerned that she is possibly allergic to things that were present before and are not now. If that is true I want to know so we can avoid putting those things BACK into her environment!

The rest of Thursday was a kick back enjoy ourselves kind of day until late late late when we all went to the airport to pick up BFF's DH.

Friday, October 23rd: Despite an extremely late night for everyone we had an early morning as BFF, her DH and their DS3 has to get up pretty early for a doctor's appointment for DS3 in Boston. They were under the impression that it would be just a shorter morning appointment, but it ended up being 2 appointments and they were gone all morning. The kids at home were pretty good for me overall though and I suggested we take them all out for a treat! We dropped BFF's DH at work and went to Target to pick up a few things and the kids were totally different. They had been GREAT for me at home but then they weren't at the store. *sigh* Oh well.

Saturday, October 24th: Blessed Sabbath: Raining like cats and dogs. We headed off to church and enjoyed a wonderful Sabbath. It was nice. BFF and I spent part of he afternoon with a friend for her birthday. And then we took the kids to a birthday party that evening that evening for a little boy from church (after sundown). It was great fun. It was a bounce house facility. ALL the kids had a blast! :)

Sunday, October, 25th: We went to Tougas Farms to pick apples. We went with the Framingham Centre Church Adventurer Group, but our Twin Club was there as well. :) We primarily stuck to the Adventurer's as BFF and I are Little Lambs Leaders and 6 of our 7 kids are in Adventurer's. Plus, the Adventurer's were actually going apple picking as a group, the twin club wasn't. After the apple picking we did "make an appearance" at the twin club area and sign in. All the kids had a fun time. BFF's mom arrived in the evening.

Monday, October 26th: We had a fairly un productive morning in some aspects. LOL we got some stuff done but overall we did very little LOL BFF's mom left for NYC for work about half an hour before I left for work. I worked my shift, my toe hurt pretty good, but I made it through.

Today: I have phone calls to make and errands to run, then a 6 hour shift to work. Hopefully my toe will hurt less today. One can only hope right?

So that is my week (plus) :)