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Winter ills
We are nearing the end of winter here in Perth and it seems our household has finally succumbed to full on illness. A week ago, Game Fanatic came down with a nasty sore throat and cough. The sore throat was gone within a couple days but he’s still got the cough. The good news is that it’s mostly a night time cough only. Not that that’s particularly nice but it’s good he gets some break in there. Lego Lover got the sore throat next and seems to be mostly clear of that now but has some mild laryngitis. He’s had the cough, too, but it’s not so bad as his brother’s cough. There was a time when he’d be on asthma medication at this point but he hasn’t required it. The same cannot be said for older brother though.
While the boys have been passing their germs around, I’ve been under constant threat of acquiring the sore throat but haven’t actually gotten worse than a scratchy throat and some fairly usual ear/nasal/sinus problems. I figure it’s just waiting for me to let my guard down to strike. The Scientist has been been in a similar situation. The two of us have, however, been hit with some sort of stomach bug(s) over the past few days. It got me today and while not incapacitating, it has been rather unpleasant.
We are rather fortunate at this point to have not acquired the lovely H1N1 flu thus far. According to news I heard on the radio last night, 92% of the flu cases in Western Australia are the H1N1 virus and only 6% are H3N?. I just went searching for any news source online for these figures but can’t find anything to substantiate what I heard. Very frustrating! I did wonder how they were sure of the percentages because only a small number of cases are actually tested. I can only presume they took these figures from those who were tested. Regardless of the figures, we have managed to avoid it thus far and hopefully will stay clear of it until flu season is over.
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Arghh!
I seem to be troubled by pelvic pain far more than in the past. I’m not talking about pms or dysmennorhea because I’ve had those pretty much since my early teens. I’m presuming this is ovulatory in nature since it seems to occur around that time of my cycle when it does occur. It seems to bother me about every second month and almost always just the right side. So presumably it’s related to ovulation from the right ovary. Sigh…Usually the pain lessens and goes away within a few hours but tonight it’s continued for about six hours. I’ll probably finally take a painkiller since I’m off to bed shortly and I’d like to get to sleep sooner than later.
Since I’m due to see my gp soon, I’ll probably discuss this. I’ll just add it to the list of other mostly minor complaints.
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Hives
The night after our 4th of July picnic, Lego Lover came to me complaining of itchiness. This is a relatively common complaint from him and seems to mainly be caused by dry skin, I guess. But on this particular night, I happened to look at his arms and saw there were raised bumps all over them. This was no ordinary itchiness. Further investigation showed spots all over his arms, upper legs and chest with angry looking red patches under his arms. My first thought was hives but I wasn’t completely sure of it so I woke the Scientist and he wasn’t sure either. Then I called a health advice phone service available locally to speak to a nurse. After much discussion, she seemed to think it could be chicken pox. Since Lego Lover had this many years ago, I was somewhat doubtful about that being the cause but we operated under the assumption that it could be a second case of chicken pox just in case. What kept running through my head was that if this was chicken pox, it was going to a really awful case. He already had hundreds and hundreds of spots. After giving him Zyrtec and putting lots of cream on the itchy spots, I put him to bed.
Sunday morning I noticed that some of the spots had faded so presumed it probably wasn’t chicken pox. But I did take him to see a local gp, who confirmed that it wasn’t chicken pox but hives and apparently some eczema. I was told to keep him on the Zyrtec and use calamine lotion and/or whatever was recommended by the pharmacist. What a relief to confirm it wasn’t chicken pox and it wasn’t contagious. Fortunately we didn’t have to alter plans to go to a family lunch that day.
Over the past week and a half, the hives have faded considerably but are still there. We’ve no idea as to the trigger but I’ve noticed they get a bit worse for a while, especially at night, but then they get a bit better too. We haven’t been to see our regular gp as yet because they haven’t been bad enough (after the first several days) to warrant further medical attention. Hopefully they will simply resolve and disappear on their own in near future.
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Melatonin wonders
There have been ongoing sleep problems with both the boys for years now. Lego Lover started on a prescription medication to help his sleep a couple years ago. We had some success but the effect seemed to wear off after some time and he had maxed out on the dosage for his age and weight. He takes another medication to help with irritability and anxiety that is supposed to cause sleepiness. Not with our Lego Lover though. It keeps him awake and we had to change the timing of doses to accomodate that. Lately it has been a struggle to get him to sleep before midnight. Game Fanatic more recently tried the same medication for sleep and has had mixed success so far.
I’d heard about melatonin and its sedative effect. But it’s not available for sale in Australia, except by prescription. A month’s supply will easily cost $60-70 for one child. Through the grapevine I’d heard several parents had ordered it from the US quite successfully, even in large amounts. I finally made an order for eight bottles of tablets, which worked out very cheaply. The shipping was another matter but altogether it cost about the same as a month supply on prescription here in Australia. The package arrived about two weeks ago and I started both boys on it.
The effect for Lego Lover has been incredible. We were able to eliminate his prescription medication completely. He’s been asleep before midnight most nights and I’ve even managed to get him to sleep before 11pm a few times. I’m hoping to eventually shift the time to around 10pm. The effect hasn’t been so great for Game Fanatic but he did say it made him feel sleepy a few times, which is far more than he’s said about anything else. In my view, it has been very much a success for Lego Lover, so the risk of such a large order was very much worth it.
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Previous acquaintance
Last month I was at the local library, with the Scientist, when I happened to see the mother of one of Game Fanatic’s former classmates there collecting books on reserve. I couldn’t remember this woman’s name and did not approach her. But we ended up next to her at the self-checkout machines and I noticed that one of the books she was checking out was about using art as a therapy for children with Asperger’s and a few other conditions. Her family moved to another part of our suburb and her daughter changed schools many years ago. I think I may have met her once in all the years since, probably at the grocery store. The daughter was in my son’s class for pre-primary (kindergarten) and grade one and she was a good kid but she definitely wasn’t an average kid and was very quirky. I wouldn’t have known anything about Asperger’s then, but I suspect that maybe she is on the spectrum. It might make some sense of the quirky little girl I once knew. Of course, I only making some assumptions based on what little I recall of them and the fact of that book. It also highlights how little I recall of people and events from eight, nine or ten years ago.
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My amazing son
I cannot believe the amazing things done by Lego Lover in recent times. He has made so many leaps in his social interaction that it’s very much like having an almost different child. Emphasis is on almost. Several weeks ago we were at a family lunch and the normal behavior for Lego Lover is to keep a wide berth between himself and just about everyone else. This has always been especially true for the cousins. This particular weekend was the occasion of my nephew’s birthday and it just so happened he received two different Lego sets. Enter Lego Lover and his expertise with Lego. What eventuated was a certain amount of interaction between Lego Lover and the cousins. We adults all watched with dropped jaws as he carried on some conversations. It continued to be amazing because he joined in at the playground for a bit and then sat comfortably with his cousins on the swing out on the back patio for awhile.
We thought this could have been a one-off event but it was repeated to some degree not long afterwards as we visited the home of the cousins. Only the uncle and the two younger cousins were at home but Lego Lover again joined in with some of the play and was very comfortable. I think Lego Lover must have allowed some of his self-imposed restraints to be eased a bit on that first time and so he has had more confidence since then. We’ve not had a further occasion for him to visit with his cousins but I feel somewhat assured that he will continue to be more at ease in their presence, at the very least.
So this brings me up to a visit last week with another boy with Asperger’s. Lego Lover has “met” this boy a few times in the past but would never have anything to do with him. The other boy recently started homeschooling and his mum has been in regular contact in hopes of working out some sort of relationship between the boys. We didn’t have any particular expectations on the first visit but we made sure both had their Nintendo devices and their Pokemon games. The other boy has problems understanding about personal space and was a bit too far into Lego Lover’s space at first. But after a while both were playing their games and eventually talking to each other. Again, I was quite please but it was a jaw-dropping moment. That’s not to say all went smoothly. The other boy has a whole collection of cheats he has used to level his Pokemon to what I guess is the highest level. Lego Lover isn’t happy with that and refused to battle him after a while due to the unfair advantage carried by the other boy. It wasn’t an issue that was immediately resolved but we two mothers mediated to some degree. It worked out to be a learning experience for both. We are hoping to have regular meetings of the two boys and they have now exchanged a couple messages by email.
As a side note, I would also like to point out the amazing thing the other boy did. We went into the cafe at the park and this boy went up to the counter on his own, ordered his serving of chips (fries) and paid on his own. He did a beautiful job and was extremely polite. He was on his own, with me just behind him in case help was needed. It was also very impressive.
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Protected: a bit looney
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Protected: Appointments
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Brain scattered far and wide
I decided to cycle up to the video shop to return some dvds this evening. I arrived there, five kilometres later and was locking up my bike when I realised I hadn’t worn my helmet. This is the second time this has happened but the previous time I hadn’t gotten nearly so far away before I realised my mistake. I also discovered upon entering the shop that I had left the second disk in one dvd set in our player, thinking I would watch a short film that was included. To fix this I was planned on telephoning the Scientist, however my phone was lacking any battery power. I am really not so great at keeping that thing charged. I went to the closest pay phone and popped my fifty cents into the machine, then dialled. When the Scientist answered, he couldn’t hear me and he eventually hung up. A second fifty cent piece was used with the same result. I ended up going across to the markets where another phone existed and had the same thing happen the first time. I was feeling a bit paranoid by this time because I think I do know how to use a pay phone. Fortunately my fourth try succeeded and the Scientist was dragged away from the depressing cricket match to return the second disk and my helmet. So much for saving fuel but the return trip was uneventful.
I think my brain became rather muddled earlier in the day when I took Game Fanatic to the gp in order to get referrals to a doctor and a psychologist for this year. Normally the referrals are done just for him but the new doctor he’s been referred to requires that I also be on the referral for reasons unknown to me. I also had to get a referral to the psychologist in order to get support for working with both the boys. It all has to do with getting partial funding from the government health care program. For one of these, it was necessary to to do a mental health plan for me. This is where things got murky because I was being asked many questions about my mental health. I wasn’t feeling particularly anxious going in, having experienced a number of similar appointments for my kids before. But I must admit to feeling highly anxious by the time we left. Because of the way everything has to be done, it felt like my mental health was being questioned and while it’s probably not optimal, I think I am doing pretty well overall. The really weird part, though, was when the gp started talking to me about my general medical history and that felt uncomfortable for me. I see another doctor in the practice for my own medical issues and it kind of felt like he was invading that territory. Eventually it was worked out to leave the medical part to my regular doctor when I am due to see her in a few weeks for a regular visit. My brain was feeling overwhelmed by this time and it was a great relief to be finished with the appointment.
It would seem that the anxiety and brain fog that struck me during the appointment stayed with me through the afternoon and into the evening. I must have been very distracted to be so scatterbrained when I went out. Hopefully a good night’s sleep will put me back in good form and spare me any more errors in my thinking processes.
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Protected: First of many appointments