1.
Today I take Mr X to the school for his speech evaluation. He talks in full sentences all the time, but is so terribly hard to understand. They have to evaluate him before they can tell us what services he’ll qualify for. Next month is the last one for in-home ECI.
2.
Still waiting on the referral for Mr P. He’s got to see a neurologist, probably get a new MRI with contrast this time, then get yet another referral for a neurosurgeon. At the rate things are going – it’ll be summertime. Unfortunately, his quality of life is degrading, so to speak. Daily headaches, blurred vision and dizziness (only occasionally, thankfully), and definite personality changes (though, that could just be crankiness from having a headache all the time.)
3.
Positive news, Baby A’s tests were all normal. Though I did have to get her blood taken twice because the first one showed elevated potassium (7.3); it turns out the sample was damaged. Her potassium is just a teensy bit high but everything else is great.
4.
This girl already stands alone. She’ll be walking before she’s 9 months old, I’m sure of it.
5.
I've got teeth and I know how to use them!
She is driving me nuts with the biting. She was biting “for fun” but I cured her of that. However, when she breastfeeds and gets drowsy, the sleepier she gets the more she clamps down. It’s not uncommon for her to be asleep, and for me to have teeth marks where noone should ever, ever have teeth marks. But if I unlatch her, she wakes up, tries to nurse, gets drowsy, clamps down… lather, rinse, repeat.
6.
Went to another furniture store with all the kids. This saleslady was great, and wasn’t thrown off by my comments, such as:
“Looks like a row of molars”
“No, uggh. They look like bear paws cradling you before eating their dinner.”
and
“Those throw pillows look like dumpy little pinto beans.”
Sorry, I have strong opinions about furniture design, apparently. And hold my tongue? I know not how to do such a thing.
7.
I simply must share this website with you: The Journey. Katie moved to Uganda, and now is mothering 14 orphaned children with grace and humility. Her story is inspiring and her posts bring tears to my eyes. You’ll notice her button on my sidebar.
Veronica (3)
kat (2)
Kristin (2)
Raso @ lasagnarec... (2)
drew (1)
Elise (1)
Grandma Margie (1)
Heather (1)
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Your furniture shopping comments absolutely crack me up. If I still taught ELA, I would use them in a simile lesson!
I am also always moving towards more real foods. This week, for breakfast. Have you read the post about cereals? I linked to it at my 7 Takes this week. Yikes!
Actually, he doesn’t have a tumor, but thanks for playing!
I think someone doesn’t understand the difference between a cyst and a tumor.Then again, I also think someone is just trying to be snarky towards you for some reason, so they are picking on any little things they can.Un fortunately they are only making themselves look foolish.
Typical dumb response.
Playing? That’s what you are doing, playing with your child’s health. Cyst or tumor, your son needs a neurosurgeon and you are taking your money and buying a couch. That is unspeakable.
“…his quality of life is degrading…” How long are you willing to wait?
You were willing to fight for food stamps, but you will sit on your bum till summer regarding a condition so important that it calls for a neurosurgeon.
How were his symptoms today? What if he wakes up one morning and the symptoms are gravely worse? You have already admitted that his condition is degrading, is that a chance you are willing to take?
Get your rear off the computer and HELP your son!
You are either lying to your readers about your son’s condition or you are the worst Mother not in jail.
And, no, Maggii, foolish is buying a couch when your son needs to see a doctor. THAT is foolish.
Those of us who love our children use our money to pay for health care when our children are sick. We don’t buy new couches when our son needs a neurosurgeon. PATHETIC!
I hope all that free steak, free lobster, and free organic food is good because you were willing to fight harder to get that food than for your son’s health.
I’m not sure why you are angry. Are you angry because we have lots of kids? Because I was on food stamps? Because we were on food stamps but now we’re doing better, so we’re buying a couch with our tax money? Because you have nothing better to do?
I do appreciate your concern for my son. Since I’m not lying about his condition, I’ll leave you to Dr. Google so you can continue to vicariously prescribe treatment through the internet.
Unless you are a neurologist, in which case, if you email I’ll send you the MRI.
ETA: We had food stamps, then we didn’t (when I wrote this) and now we do again. Paperwork and recerts are finally in order. Just wanted to be clear that we are, indeed, on food stamps again.
Trollzilla Abbey,
You have a point about the new couch when a child has a medical need. However, what you fail to appreciate is that the cost difference between a couch and neurosurgery is one to two orders of magnitude. (Don’t know what that is? I’ll just wait while you look that up.)
If MHM were buying 100 new couches at full retail, or a couple of Hummers (hey, they’re about to be collector’s items), or a bridge in Manhattan, your criticism would make a whole lot more sense. In the meantime, since the family (including the uncomfortable child in question) is one “traumatic couch injury” away from sitting on the floor, a replacement is pretty reasonable.
The child’s life is not in any danger. In a way, that’s the problem. There is more charity help available for kids with life-threatening illnesses than for kids with headaches.
If you were really interested in convincing what you see as a misguided mom make wise decisions, rather than in giving yourself nasty little thrills by flinging insults anonymously via teh Interwebz, you would have taken a completely different approach. So don’t get all defensive and righteous, mkay?
Abbey,
Your concern is appreciated. Maybe you can see that other caring parents are not as alarmed because the situation isn’t as alarming as it sounds.
I agree that any health concern in a child should be a concern for the parent and I’m confident MHM will make sure her son has the help he needs.
These blogs, these family journal types of websites, these can be seen as extensions of our living rooms. We invite people in and we expect a certain level of civility. If Abbey was sitting in your living room, would you tolerate being spoken to this way? And would Abbey have the guts to speak to you this way in person? We’re not obligated, as bloggers, to entertain everyone who stops by our cyber-living rooms. She doesn’t have any free-speech rights here. It’s okay to delete her and pretend she never happened.
Thank you Jennie, Kaira, and Ginkgo.
FWIW, because it is “nonurgent”, that’s part of what’s taking so long, I think. The physicians we are to see are booked up for months, and see patients in order of priority. It’s not as simple as demanding an appointment. Three different doctors/primary care providers have given him a basic neuro exam and told me it can wait. I’ll take the opinion of people who have been to medical school and have actually seen the kid over an internet troll any day.
The child in question, BTW, is happily annoying his sisters, went snake hunting yesterday, and is trying to finagle a way to get more Bionicles (the discontinued ones), so he seems fine.
Please tell me how you got Baby A to stop biting for fun. My 11 month old has been biting for months and nothing seems to stop him. He learnt to never bite me while breastfeeding because he is removed and placed on the floor with temporary loss of feeding rights but unfortunately he still bites anywhere else he pleases.
Abbey,
Couch shopping… you are a funny one. I haven’t sat on my couch but for maybe an hour in the past 2 weeks. And I certainly wasn’t shopping on it.
MHM – what a blessing that the doctors (plural) have stated that it isn’t critical!
The different MRI would be with contrast, not because he needs an updated one. The original one was ordered without contrast. This is speculation based on what his primary care provider told me and internet research.
Abbey, I’m curious as to what you would do. Specifics. How would you get into a pediatric neurologist without a referral? How would you pay an MRI cash, out of pocket, without any kind of insurance? How would you convince a neurosurgeon (if needed) to perform surgery you couldn’t pay for? You say you “would be living in the waiting room of the best hospital to treat him until I was helped.” We’ve been to the hospital, twice. How would staying in the waiting room, annoying the staff, possibly being arrested for trespassing help anything? Guess what – the hospital gave us a referral for primary care so we could get a referral to the neurologist.
We don’t have $3-5k in cash to pay for the test, let alone the doctor fees involved. But if we wait for insurance approval, those costs will be taken care of. I feel that we can get the best care through insurance (we will have an HMO Medicaid plan) once we get in the system. It’s just taking longer because it is non-urgent. Just because it’s not urgent doesn’t mean it’s not important or benign; it does mean we have to go through the traditional paper route rather than being admitted to the hospital through the emergency room.
One reason I blog about these things is so that others who may be googling similar search terms can find they’re not alone, and hopefully we’ll learn from each other. So, if you have any info to offer please post it. People will be more likely to listen to you if you do it without the hatefulness and attacks.
Not sure what furniture you’re talking about, but whatever. We bought two bookcases from Garden Ridge and a couch. My Twitter stream is pretty open and not hard to find, anyone can read it and find that out. (Actually, I don’t think I tweeted about the bookcases, but now everyone knows. I bought two bookcases. Whee!)
By attacks I meant when you called other commenters on this site crazy and dumb, called me selfish and self-centered, accused me of lying or being the worst mother not in jail, etc.
Mama Says… name calling’s not nice and if it or your antagonistic tone continue I will not be approving your comments in the future.
On second thought, Abbey, I’ll be removing your antagonist posts. If you want to post something helpful, resources, or can engage without name calling, you are more than welcome to post.
It is clear that you don’t want to help, have no suggestions, have nothing productive to add to the discussion, and instead are just using my site to vent at … I’m not sure what.
I tried to invite you into a dialogue, but you persist with your odd obsession about couch shopping. I really think you should consider seeking out someone who knows you IRL to talk about this. If you can’t afford someone or don’t have a willing friend, most pastors or priests would be willing to help. Try a local church.
Not sure what furniture I’m talking about?
Do you remember writing this….
Lisa’s tweets:
# @PeggyBristerHS And you know what? We bought a new couch, AND new bookcases AND new curtains with our tax money. I’m a horrible mom. 5:56 PM Mar 2nd via TweetDeck in reply to PeggyBristerHS
# My troll is back http://bit.ly/d1AY8c Thinks my son has cancer (he doesn’t) but that I don’t care and we’re spending all our $ on couch. 5:54 PM Mar 2nd via TweetDeck
# Hmm, she’s still beating the dead horse. Angry because we are buying a couch. You find all kinds on the internet! http://bit.ly/d1AY8c 5:53 PM Mar 2nd via TweetDeck
# @Sheepmama He has a cyst and has had headaches. Think troll just jumped to conclusions in her haste to tell me what an awful mom I am. 3:39 PM Mar 2nd via TweetDeck in reply to Sheepmama
# Oh, a TROLL taking me to task for not getting my son’s cancer treated. Except, my son doesn’t have cancer. ???? http://bit.ly/ajosMF 3:33 PM Mar 2nd via TweetDeck
I never said he has cancer. His condition is “degrading” (your words), which is more than “headaches”. And you don’t buy furniture and curtains when your child needs medical help. That you can’t understand that explains why you have so little money to meet the needs of your children.
Name calling is not nice? What about speaking the truth, even if others don’t want to hear it?
What would you classify not getting your child medical treatment, but buying furniture and curtains? Is that beyond “not nice”? I call it crazy and people who know that it is happening and say nothing (your readers) are crazy, too.
Grow up and take some responsibility.
You are a self-centered and selfish woman. That’s not name calling, that’s the truth.
You are a fraud as a parent and won’t hold a mirror to your actions because you have no defense.
You and your husband have no concept of what it is to be good parents or good Christians. Bringing a child into this world is the easy part, taking care of them requires work.
The next time you realize that your son’s condition is “degrading” even more and you have done nothing about it, I hope you are comfortable on your new couch. Oh, wait, the government is supposed to take care of YOUR children, right?