Health

Germies Germies Germies

Every year around this time, I get really wound up about viruses and germs (or viruses and germies)

The first year that the little girl was with us, we almost lost her to RSV. This year my adorable little illness vector managed to catch a cold, the flu and have it progress to pneumonia in short order. My anxiety was, and is through the roof.

She passed it to both her father and I, and on top of the flu, I have an ear infection. So yep, coughing, sneezing and being unable to hear. Two big thumbs up there. /sarcasm

For me the flu is dangerous as I’ve got asthma. It’s under control, but as the flu is a respiratory infection, I have to watch my lungs like a hawk.

Kiddo has been out of school for a week because of the pneumonia. We decided to let her heal before sending her back for the next round of “what virus next”. She didn’t have much of an appetite until today, and today, well, if I didn’t know better I’d swear I have a pack of teenagers eating me out of house and home. But no, it’s just a four year old returning to health, and I’m glad to see it.

I’m happy to see her rebound. After the stint in our local children’s hospital four years ago, every day is a blessing with her.

Now I hope everyone can heal up so that Christmas can be celebrated without us coughing up a lung or two!

Adventures in Autism

October 17, 2019 ShinyMommy Autism Kiddo Preschooler

I’ve been putting this entry off for a while, because I’ve needed time to digest, to sit and actually feel the emotions that come with this.

The little miss has been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, because there is a large genetic component and as her father is on the spectrum (Aspergers), as well as other family members. But it did surprise me. I’m not going to lie. It surprised me for the fact that, as one of her speech-language therapists put it, there is no hard fast line that divides ADHD and ASD from each other. They are a Venn diagram. They overlap and it is entirely possible to be diagnosed with both. The treatment for a lot of the ASD issues is the same as ADHD issues.

Another component of what “surprised” me is dealing with my own educational trauma. I did not have a good childhood when it came to school. I was bright, but flighty. I was labeled as Bart Simpson before he existed (an underachiever and proud of it). Now I know I’ve got a high IQ (genius level, which means sweet eff all in reality other than I can rock standardised tests), ADHD, dyscalculia and a variant of hyperlexia. But the hell on earth I went through damn near dimmed my love of learning. It certainly has had knock on effects in my life. So when being told that my daughter, who by all measures is an intelligent, funny, loving child, has a developmental disorder… it sat me back on my heels and right back into a time where I was being physically bullied.

I’m dealing with that. I’ve talked to my doctors about it, and we’re taking it one step at a time. We are advocating hard for her, her father and I, and we’re not letting autism be the label that defines her when there are so many other things that she is. We’re letting her be our tour guide into her world. She has come leaps and bounds in a short time. I know I’m biased, but she is amazing. I see her grow and change every day. I hope her future is as amazing as she is.

Sleep My Little Toddler

October 6, 2017 ShinyMommy Health Toddler

Little miss has been having a hard time with sleeping lately. I don’t know if it’s a cognitive leap or a physical growth spurt, but she’s really having a hard time with getting to sleep and getting up from sleep.

Which means Mommy and Daddy are having issues with sleep.

Which means everyone is tired and on edge.

Ugh. So much fun.

We all just want sleep. However, none of us is really getting the sleep we need.

Right now I would kill for a magic potion that would put us all to sleep for a full eight hours. That and dogs that understand that sleep is a good thing.

Hemangioma Baby

August 29, 2016 ShinyMommy Health

My daughter has a hemangioma. Well, she was born with three. One is very small, less than the size of a dime. But she has two on her face, which, evidently is normal with hemangiomas.

What is a hemangioma? In short it’s a benign blood vessel tumour. They don’t know why the show up, but they think that heredity plays a role. They’re fairly common, and usually resolve on their own by the age of 10. But, as our daughter has two on her face, we decided to go with treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) . She was referred by our family doctor and has been seeing a paediatric dermatologist since she was about 3 months of age.

We elected to treat with beta blockers. This is now the most common therapy for them. We have talked to many people who have had treatment in the past and this is very much an improvement compared to freezing them or other surgeries. Laser surgery may happen down the road, but we will see how things go. Right now the smaller of the two has almost completely resolved.

I refuse to hide my daughter away from the world until they’re gone. I have been stopped and asked what they are, and I use that as an opportunity to educate people.

The child in the picture is not my daughter.

Viral Sensation

December 14, 2015 ShinyMommy Health Kiddo

I’ve just gotten home from a week in hospital with my daughter.

She had bronchiolitis caused by a virus called RSV. She was the youngest baby admitted last week with the virus. We spent a week with her hooked up to wires and tubes. I have never, ever, been as scared as I have been this past week. I cried for the first half of the week. I seriously believed that I was going to lose my baby girl.

She got this infection in the hospital where she was born. The first person to tell me that we should’ve gone to a birthing centre… silence. Please. I was a moderate risk pregnancy with her and could not have done that, so I chose the best hospital I could.

I am very glad that we have a hospital like CHEO here where we live. I am hoping that we don’t have to go back for a long long time.

The Breast Question

December 24, 2014 ShinyMommy Health

I take a bit of flack over my choice to not breastfeed the baby I’m having.

Yes, I’m aware that breast is best. I would love to be able to, but…

First, I’m on psych meds. Right now kidlet has no option to ingest them. When kidlet operates in the atmosphere, I have the choice as to whether I want to continue essentially forcing psych meds on a delicate new life.

Second, as I’m on psych meds, their side effects are that of lowered milk production. I don’t want to, in essence, start something I can’t finish… If I were to breastfeed, it would be until the child is on solids. Right now, research tells me that I’m likely to get three months if I’m lucky.

I applaud mothers who are able to breastfeed. Hell, I out and out envy them.

Sick, Sick and Tired.

December 19, 2014 ShinyMommy Health

I am exhausted.

I’ve got a sinus cold with a mild fever. Mild as in a degree. Single degree.
The sinuses. OMG. The sinuses. Forget pregnancy rhinitis. This is hell. I can’t sleep because I can’t breathe. I just want to be able to breathe out of both nostrils. And I can’t take half the meds I’d normally take with the kidlet having a cosy one bedroom apartment set up.

So I’m suffering through it.