Sunday, May 31, 2015

June's Mama's Mission of the Month



Another month, another set of goals. I'm sort of taking it easy this month, as in I didn't always put three tasks per subject. I'm doing it to allow for things like unplanned blood draws or knocks to the head for Landry, and pool time and fun time for everybody. This is, after all, Ryli's last summer not bookended by school. Wish me luck! 

PERSONAL

  • Read at least four books
  • Finish setting up my "office"
RELATIONSHIPS
  • Try and do at least one thing with a friend without the kids
  • Talk to each one of The Bigs
PARENTING
  • Chore Charts
  • Rewards for chore charts
  • Get them into a routine
HOMESCHOOLING
  • Start Moving Beyond the Page 4-5
  • Seriously curb the screen time
HOMEMAKING
  • Follow budget
  • Try at least 6 new recipes
  • Figure out ways to make things run smoother
MEDICAL
  • Keep everyone's appointments
  • Watch for platelet drops
BLOG/ONLINE
  • Blog regularly
  • Tweet about blog posts
  • Get FB page up and going
MISCELLANEOUS
  • Hide Tooth Fairy money
  • Landry's birthday!!!
  • Reboot FlyLady AGAIN

Saturday, May 30, 2015

So, here's the deal...

I have been nothing short of a piss-poor blogger. Quite frankly, it's been a crazy month and a half, between getting appointments finally rescheduled and all the trips to Children's for lab work. There has also been dealing with the side-effects of Prednisone in a three year old when Texas refuses to dry out. He's also been eating like a proverbial horse Good times, I tell you, so long as mommy has plenty of caffeine, Add to all that the week or so that the drain for my kitchen had an intermittent clog for about a week, DART train line closures and re-routes, and it was more fun than anyone should be allowed for any one single mom.

So, in the final two days of May, here I am, once again doing a reboot of sorts. Not just with the blog, either. Basically, with EVERYTHING. I'll cover the blog first, because that's what this is, after all. 

I'm making one change to how I do Mama's Mission of the Month for starters. On the last day of every month, I'll post the following month's goals. Tomorrow, June's goals will be revealed. Starting in June, on the last day of the month, I'll do the recap and reveal for July. That will be the way I'll do it, just so it doesn't eat up two days worth of posts.

"Life With/Life Without" will be getting a reboot. I'm basically starting over. I'm not going to just pull a copy and paste job on what's already been written, because, quite frankly, I'm unhappy with the previously posted product. I drafted them on the computer for the sake of time, and I'm an old fashioned girl that way. All my posts are going to be drafted with pen and paper and then typed out. The way I used to do school assignments. It is my groove, and I want it back, damn it. 

I will post updates on Landry's journey with ITP. Just to bring you all up to speed, the second time we went to Children's and he had a level of 28, they scheduled a follow-up in June. By early the next week, I was calling to ask for a draw. Mommy's instinct was spot on, as his count was at 7. I was given a ton of instructions and a prescription for Prednisone in the event that certain criteria were meet. We ended up in the ER for a few hours that night, as Ryli was running one way, Landry the other, and it resulted in a head on collision. The lower the count, the greater likelihood of a brain bleed, and it's far better to be safe than sorry. By Friday, I spotted purpura (a rash of purple spots on the skin caused by internal bleeding from small blood vessels.) in his mouth and called it in. Steroids started that day. With a dose left, his labs showed his levels were 118. We scheduled an appointment for the following week. Ten days removed from that beautiful, triple digit count, he was at 4. One more round of steroids while they finished up getting insurance authorization for IVIg. Two days after coming off Prednisone, his count was a whopping 217. Next appointment is nearly two weeks out, and its the original follow up appointment. They have slid it up to 9:30 in the event IVIg is necessary, to remove the need for two trips. I'm nervous. He's clueless.

The whole ITP thing has been a bit of a trip. I already know what to look for, and so far, since the diagnosis, my "Mommy Sense" goes berserk around 30. Ryli has been great. Landry is pretty good, other than the lab draws. At this point, I'm not sure if he totally hates them, or if he's putting on a bit of a show. He wears his band for as long as he can, which is cute. Right now, for a brief little bit, he can almost be normal. Still need to watch his head, though, because the drop from 217 to the range in which I can tell his numbers are dropping is huge, and right now, he's not all that far into the "normal" range of platelet level.

This summer, Ryli and Landry each get to go to a day camp. I could have put them both into the same camp, but I thought that it'd be a treat if I sent them separately. That way, they get two week's worth  little breaks from each other, and in turn get some one on one time with me. 

The homeschool curriculum that I bought over a year ago is no longer collecting dust. Copies have been made, and we will be starting Monday. It should be fun. I've already discussed not sending Landry to daycare of any kind in the fall until his ITP clears, so we will continue through after Ryli starts kindergarten in the fall. I'll post little schoolhouse recaps on Fridays.

I've decided to ride it out a bit longer here. Moving would be a logistical nightmare, and right now, where we are may not be the best neighborhood, but it is very convenient to pretty much everything. Ryli's future school is just across the street. There are several major bus lines that go down our street, and they both have stops that cover three of the four train lines. There's an after school enrichment program that Ryli has been dying to start. It's close to every store I really need, and I've also made friends with the kids' friends' parents, plus there's Nicole, our resident teacher.

Expect to see more food on here as well. I have been a tad berserk in finding recipes, and June will be a month of trying a lot of new things. I am hoping that they will all be successful, but odds are there will probably be a minimum of one epic fail. 

To sum all of this up, I am back, and I don't intend to fall off like I did before. You have been warned!


Thursday, May 14, 2015

Introducing Rex and Arya

Ever since we temporarily housed little lost Tag back around Easter, Ryli and Landry have been relentless on the fact that they wanted a pet. They have also been pulling at the old heartstrings, reminiscing about Percy, Zeke, and Katy. Then came Landry's diagnosis of ITP.

Thursday, I was looking at craigslist, and I really don't recall why. I came across an ad for free kittens. I thought that it just might make it easier to keep Landry inside when the neighbor kids are doing things he can't at this time do, if he had someone to stay inside for. I contacted the lady, and sent a message to Nicole to see if maybe she'd give us a ride to pick one. 

In the ensuing simultaneous conversations, Nicole said she'd take one, and the kitten lady said that she had three of the five advertised left. At that point, I decided that we'd take two. So, when Nicole got off work on Friday, we trekked off to Plano.

Originally, I was supposed to take the boy and one of the girls. Unfortunately, when we returned home, there was a mix up, and we got two girls, it would appear. Since they're going to be "fixed" in July, it doesn't really matter that one of them is named Rex, right?

Arya is by far the feistier of the two, just like her Game of Thrones namesake. Rex is a laid back cuddle monster who likes to climb up on my shoulder from time to time, and perch as if she were a parrot. Rex is also crazy about Landry. And, just in case you were wondering, Rex is short for T-Rex. Landry is still obsessed with dinosaurs.

Ryli and Landry are both doing wonderfully on keeping them fed and watered. Landry has sort of surprised me by voluntarily taking up Poop Patrol. I say sort of simply from the standpoint that he is all about toilet humor, so he thinks that scooping poo is fun. I will gladly supervise and enjoy him willingly taking Poop Patrol while it lasts!

So, our family of three is now a family of five, and so far, so good. When I manage to sneak a picture of the kids with the kittens, I'll put one up. I will say, however, having them around has definitely been helpful in contenting Landry to stay inside as opposed to trying to go out and jump on a scooter. 

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

My apologies for the derailment...

I was doing pretty damn well with blogging fairly regularly. I was almost proud of myself. I planned on taking a few days off when we went down to Georgetown, and that was all. What I didn't plan on was the entrance of ITP into our lives. That has been the bane of my existence as of late, although thankfully, Landry seems to remain blissfully unaware, except for those pesky blood draws.

He held at 28,000 platelets for over a week. The petechia started to disappear.Then came the morning that they started to come back, followed by the day that they were worse, and there were two or three in his mouth. I called his hematologist, and they scheduled us for a lab the following day, followed by an appointment.

The doctor came in when the results were back. Seven thousand. That was it. We were almost sent straight home with a prescription for prednisone, and instructions on when to use it. Strict orders that ANY bump to the head was an instant call to hematology and a trip to the ER. We didn't make it past check-out before we had to go back to the room, as Landry went and headbutted a waiting room chair. They iced his noggin and watched him awhile, then sent us on our way. 

We ended up in the ER that night, while our neighbor Nicole watched Ryli. After four hours of observation, they let us go home. Ryli and Landry had slammed into each other running opposite directions through a doorway, and they were on the floor crying for a few minutes after. As they gave us the discharge information, they said that it was far better to err on the side of caution with his platelets as low as they are.

Thursday was uneventful. Petechia, purpura, and bruises have become old hat. Friday, however, was different. On my check of his mouth when he woke up, Landry had no petechia inside his mouth, but two of their larger cousins, purpura. That was one of the reasons we were sent home with that "just in case" prescription of prednisone... so I called the hematologist for the official go ahead to start them. Just before noon, Landry started his five day course.

Day four of Landry on steroids was lab work. The trip there and back was nothing short of hell on earth, between the thunderstorm induced closing of all the downtown DART train stations and the subsequent shuttles and  waits, and the various, ridiculous meltdowns over the pettiest of petty reasons. The sole bright point of that whole adventure was the knowledge that the steroids are working. His count was up to 118,000. 

We are a few hours of the last dose, and then, its labs again on Wednesday. Hopefully, they stay up. Hopefully, if they do drop, they drop slow. There really is no way of telling. Once again, we wait. That's all we seem to be doing with this whole ITP thing.


Saturday, May 2, 2015

My apologies...

With all the doctors' appointments, the trip to see GrandmaMom, and everything else, my showing here has been pathetic. I'll get back on track before the weekend is out. Also, the page is now purple with Landry's diagnosis. It will stay purple so long as he has ITP.