Jul 25 2010
A Little Less Talk and A Lot More Action
Wow I am behind. I am behind on my reader, it’s mocking me I swear! I am hoping to go get caught up here in just a few! Things have been really good here but really busy. Well, fairly good and really busy!
Joey is doing well on his Guanficine. He is on 2 mg a day as of yesterday. He started out on one a day and then moved up. We haven’t had anything burned or stabbed in over a week so we are hopeful. He gets a bit mouthy, no scratch that he gets REALLY mouthy when he’s tired so we’ve seen a LOT of that the past week. The meds kind of knock him out and he is still resisting naps so we’ve had a few talks about his mouth. He’s been spending the days at my mom’s house but he’s taking a golf class in the mornings so he’s only there from noon to 3 or 4 when Joe or I get home. At times his tics are completely gone and at other times they are really diminished. When he’s tired you see them but otherwise you don’t. You can also tell when he’s tired because he just looks like he hasn’t slept in a month. I am hoping that levels out before school starts. I have had no luck finding a psychologist our counselor in our area. The closest is two hours away. My mom offered to drive him back and forth for appointments when he got really bad, but now that he seems to be leveling off we’re going to wait and see how it goes when he starts school. If he struggles in school we’ll go ahead and find one in Casper but if he does OK we’ll just manage as best we can. One of the drawbacks to a small town. Even if we got a child psychologist on staff here we’d be hesitant to use them because they tend to not stay here. There’s just not enough to keep them busy. For now his pediatrician is managing his ADHD and Dr. Ross from Denver is managing the Tourettes. Dr. Ross comes to Gillette every other month and to Casper every month and he’s always available by phone so we think we have a pretty good system in place right now. Unfortunately his school doesn’t have a counselor they have a “social worker” and there’s a HUGE difference between the two in our district. His first school this year had a counselor and if I could bottle her up and keep her in my house I would. She was amazing with Joey. She was very, very good and he really connected with her. The schools that have “social workers” don’t allow them to focus on counseling the kids. They’re more for helping with situations like low test scores, problems in the home, etc… I think his counselor said it best when she said “we are the touchy, feely, huggy ones and they’re the let’s get down to business ones”. They’re not uncaring or unprofessional, they just have different job duties. We want the counselor back please! Other than his mouth we’ve seen an improvement in his impulse control which was our goal with this medication so we are happy. We’ll see how long it lasts before we have to move up the ladder. He is very happy the tic is diminished. Socially he was really struggling with it and that didn’t help with his impulse control problems and his acting out. My mom has been really good for him. She’s able to deal with him in a calm and reasonable manner which is something I was starting to really struggle with after months of his outrageous behavior. She’s going to Colorado for two weeks sometime around the 1st of August and I am nervous. I deal with him every day so it’s not like I’m worried I can’t! It’s just that she’s such a calming presence for him! We are keeping him very busy. I told my brother the other day, part of the reason I actually went back to work is to supplement his activities. They are expensive but they keep him busy so he doesn’t have time to get in to trouble. He has golf again next week and then football starts very shortly followed by hockey and school starts in the middle of all of that. Hopefully he’ll be so busy with the things he loves, he won’t have time to get in to trouble.
Elizabeth is LOVING me being back to work. Some friends have a 14 year old daughter who is sitting with her during the day. I was a little nervous at first because she can be a ball of fire and she’s used to being the center of my attention. She didn’t love when Joey was out of school and home all day! Apparently I worry too much because Elizabeth is having an absolute blast. From what I can gather this girl pushes Elizabeth on the swing ALL DAY LONG. I have offered to adopt her. They have so much fun together and it’s been really good for Elizabeth to be away from me during the day. My friends won’t let me have their kid (party poopers) but we are planning to use her a bit more once my office is moved over here. Maybe go out to dinner more as a couple and things like that. The last teenager I hired was when Joey was Elizabeth’s age and that didn’t go well. I was really nervous about this whole scenario but this girl is SUPER responsible and just all around great and Elizabeth loves her. I even hooked her up with my niece who is the same age and she was a good influence on my niece who can be a bit spacey.
Elizabeth is going to be really crushed next week when I move my office home and I don’t need her sitter anymore, but they’re taking a trip home to Michigan and then school is starting so we’re just going to have to make sure she gets to babysit on some Friday evenings or something. Elizabeth is starting pre-school and dance in the Fall so hopefully she’ll be busy herself.
I am LOVING my job. It’s such a laid back atmosphere. It’s a small company run out of my boss’s home. There are 6 or 7 pumpers who I never see, my boss, and myself. At first when I was looking at maybe going back to work it was to get out of the house around adults and get some space from being home all of the time with a really challenging kid. It was also to help with my PTSD, just by getting me out of the house and having to work through the feelings that come with that for me. When this fell in my lap it was not what I was looking for but it was perfect. No daycare expenses which is a HUGE deal. The jobs in my field are hard to just walk in to and just don’t pay well enough to afford to put a kid in daycare full time. This one pays extremely well and I don’t have to have daycare because I will be working from home. It turns out I didn’t need the time out of the house around other adults as much as I just needed something else I could focus on besides my sick child. We are moving my office over here this week and I’ll just go in to the main office once a week or so to drop off files. It’s a 3-4 hour a day job when done correctly so I will be able to do everything I need to do while the kids are in school and some in the evenings after dinner and baths if I have to. My boss thinks I should take on a 2nd set of books for someone else but I just want to live through his first! It’s much different than anything I’ve ever done. I’m a fast learner and I have most of it down but there are still things I have to ask him about! Thankfully my husband does the exact same job for another company so once we move it here if I get stumped I can enlist his help. Today I am getting my office all cleaned and sorted out so my personal stuff is put away and I have room to work out of there. It’s really all around the perfect scenario and I’m so glad I said yes!
Because I am not interacting with adults at work and getting over that hump with my PTSD, I have been spending more time with friends. We have dinner, or drinks, or a bbq, etc… just so I am out around people. It’s been really good. I feel really well right now mentally. I had a rough couple of weeks when the basement flooded and the roof leaked (stupid Wyoming weather) but even that isn’t getting me down so much right now.
It’s not been all roses. There is a bit of a family issue I may or may not write about. I haven’t decided yet. I’m not sure who all in my family reads my blog. I know my grandma does but I’m not sure if the other person does or not. Part of me thinks it would be therapeutic to write it out and another part says it’s a bad idea so I just haven’t decided. Also I am sick. I have some weird virus I picked up in Denver. I get sick EVERY time I go to Denver. They thought I had strep because I have big blisters on my tonsils and tongue but the culture was negative so now they’re thinking viral. I have heard of a few other people with the same symptoms so I am hoping they’re right and it will go away soon. Mostly I just get really tired around about 3 or 4 PM and my neck, head, and shoulders ache and my mouth and throat hurt. It’s an odd thing. Leave it to me to pick up some obscure virus!
I think that’s about all! I will try to keep more up to date now that I’m settling in to our routine with work! Now I’m off to catch up on my reader that’s seriously mocking me!!