Swine flu and general misery…

What a week…basically, our entire house is miserable.  I guess that is usually the way it is, but this is particularly bad.  I have bronchitis and swine flu (possibly), my husband has swine flu (possibly), my daughter has a very bad cold, my son has a cough…and my uncle died today.

If things like this don’t make you want to just curl up in bed and pull the covers over your head, I don’t know what will.

I really dream of feeling normal again…lol, whatever that might actually be.  Seems like this has lasted forever, even though it is just a week now since it started for my husband.  I know this will pass, and really fairly quickly, given the medicine we’ve been given, but it sure doesn’t feel like it when you are going through it.  I will say that I am much for grateful for small things like clean laundry, peace and quiet, a good nap…

Updates on my children

Well, it has been a long time since I’ve written anything here.  I am seriously hoping to change that for a variety of reasons that I’ll get into eventually…but not right now.

I’ve got two children, a four-year-old and a two-year-old.  They are almost exactly two years apart.  Our son is the oldest; he’s smart as a whip, but speech delayed.  Our daughter is the baby; she’s also speech delayed and she has seizures.  We’ve been through a lot with both, trying to get them caught up and to determine what’s going on with our daughter’s health.

Our son has been in special education for a while now; this is his second year.  He’s now talking up a storm and is really coming along very, very well.  His teacher is now preparing him to go to non-special education kindergarten next year.  We are so thrilled to see how well he is doing!

Our daughter is also doing very well – she has physical, occupational, and speech therapies (each one once a week) and is walking better, paying more attention to people and things around her, and so forth.  She also attends a preschool program at a local church.  We are working on the process to get her into the same school program that has helped her brother so much, but as with any agency like a public school, there is tons of paperwork, meetings/evaluations/hoops…etc.  We think she’s going to start in January…

She continues to have seizures.  In fact, they’ve increased recently, which is disturbing to say the least.   Her doctors are now taking her off one medication and trying another.  I just hope tht it helps her and that she doesn’t suffer from any of the major side effects; the last drug made her incredibly hyperactive, which affected her ability to work with the therapists, focus in preschool, or pay any attention to anyone.  It also seems to have dampened her emotional response to things, because now that she is being weaned off of it, she giggles more and responds more normally emotionally overall.

All in all, things are looking up all around.  I want more answers in terms of my daughter’s health, but I am learning to be grateful for smaller things as they come…

I think perhaps I understand now…

Well, I think the emotional upheaval I’ve been going through recently is actually not abnormal, nor is it a sign that I’m losing my mind – no, really!

I think three years of being on an antidepressant then coming off of it has been catching up with me and I am simply having to adjust to being off the medicine.  Yes, I went off of it carefully and deliberately and yes, that was definitely the right decision.  I am apparently just completely unused to FEELING just about EVERYTHING.

I’m doing much better now and things seem to be settling out a bit.  I think that I am responding much more normally to things both good and bad now; we shall see if that lasts! (lol – family visit coming up in a day and a half!)