Should We Be Quarentined?

I know, I know, I never call, I never write, trust me - I can do Jewish guilt with the best of them.  And I have so many different things that I can (and will) write about.  But as FLYlady says, jump in where you are.  I have so much going on right now that is running around in my mind, and it helps me to write it all out, so that's what I'm going to do.

Twin A is pretty sick right now, though he is recovering.  He woke with a fever on Thursday which continued through Friday.  Things took a strange turn Friday night when he began complaining that his legs hurt and started refusing to put any weight on them.  He can be dramatic, and I didn't want to make too big a deal out of it and show him my concern, so I downplayed it.  I tried to get him to stand in a variety of ways, but even when I picked him up under his arms, he curled his legs up and refused to even straighten them.  After talking with the doctor a couple times during the day on Saturday and trying Ibuprofen and warm baths at home, we took him to the ER.  Ultimately they discovered he had something called Myositis.  Now I don't know about you, but I never ever heard about that before.  Here's what I learned:

In all people with myositis, lymphocytes (white blood cells) attack muscle. The body generates antibodies that attack healthy tissue in different parts of the body. These autoantibodies and some of the lymphocytes turn against the body’s own tissues and damage the muscles and skin.

This can be caused by a simple virus.  Woohoo!  They figure out if you have it based on the symptoms and by a CK test.  Didn't know what that was either, so here's what I learned about that:

Creatine kinase (CK):  A blood test to assess levels of creatine kinase will be ordered. CK is an enzyme found mainly in muscles. When muscles are damaged, it leaks out into the bloodstream, causing CK levels in the blood to rise. CK levels tend to go up with increasing disease activity and go down as the disease improves.

The CK is supposed to be around 100.  Twin A's CK was 2200.  Ouch.  Really, really ouch.  And I feel so bad for not taking him to the ER earlier, trying to make him put weight on his legs even when they clearly hurt.  Oh yeah, I'm a great mom. 

What I'm not describing is how hellish "challenging" it was for Twin A to even BE at the hospital, let alone getting blood tests, an IV, sleeping there, dealing with the change in his routine.  I'm still dealing with the trauma from trying to get him to sleep at all during the two day stay - he knew he would be getting a blood test each morning so was awake most of the night moaning, shaking, and crying out, "Nooooo!  No blood test!" 

One of the times Twin A had visited DH in the hospital, one of DH's monitors started beeping.  Unexpected noises seem to scare him the most, and when he something scares him, he generalizes that fear and expands it so it encompasses so much more than the original even that first scared him.  What that really means is that event made Twin A terrified of hospitals.  He was also now terrified of monitors and tubes and wires in the hospital.  Let's just say it was a fun weekend for us all and leave it at that for now.

So it's Tuesday.  We declared that today would be a "doctor-free-day" for Twin A, something that he has been repeating so many times I'm ready to scream a few times since yesterday.  I guess Twin B's body didn't get the message.  He woke with a fever, which, coupled with the major coughing he's been doing, made us take him to the doctor because I didn't think I could take it if his asthma escalated and made us go to the hospital yet again this week I am such a caring mom.  It turns out he has pneumonia. 

Are you @#$% kidding me?!!

And The Princess woke up early this morning complaining that she didn't feel well.  No fever, no major symptoms, but it was pretty clear she was crying out for some attention, so we let her stay home too.  That turned out to be a really BAAAAAD decision as she has been whining and crying MORE than her two brothers who actually ARE sick.

SERIOUSLY?!!

On the plus side:

• The Princess has not whined for the last hour (I hope I didn't just put a kinahera on it!)
• Twin A was just able to take tiny, straight-legged steps over to me - HUGE improvement!
• Twin B's pneumonia was caught very early, so hopefully the antibiotic we just started him on will knock it right out before it escalates.
• I was able to take this week off so I could take care of Twin A.
• DH was able to take yesterday, today, and tomorrow off to help with the house and taking care of Twin A.
• Twin B was thoughtful enough to get sick THIS week.  It might not feel like it, but this is a blessing in disguise.  Normally one kid is sick so DH or I have to take off until they get better, and by the time they are well enough to go back to school, another kid gets sick so DH or I have to take even MORE time off.  This way, the illnesses overlap.  See what I mean?  Very thoughtful.

And that's what is going on in this crazy lady's house.  Now let me make those three kids lunch, push some more fluids on all of them, unload  and reload the dishwasher, clear off the table and the counters, do some more laundry . . . . .

Mother of the Year

Friday I earned my nomination for Mother of the Year.

Me: Hey, guys, I need to tell you something.

Kids: Yeah?

Me: Well, unfortunately, we will not be able to go to Pizza Bingo (A.K.A. The Social Event of the Year at the kids' school). 

Kids: (All three faces fall.) 

I have learned that the best way to give my kids disappointing news is to offer a great alternative at the same time.

Me: So I decided that we should all go to Chuck E. Cheese's instead.

Kids: (Cheers!)

Yes, I voluntarily decided to bring my children to that loud, flashing, beeping, screaming kid mecca.  Aren't I a good mom?

I am amazed to report that it actually was not as bad as I thought it would be.  It's always hard to predict how Twin A will react to a place like that.  The noise overwhelms ME; I can't imagine what it's like to someone who has any kind of sensory issues.  Both boys put their hands over their ears when we first walked in, but were able to relax within a few minutes.  I gave everyone their own cup of tokens, went over the boundaries with each of them, and then we all went our separate ways.  The Princess and I walked around together since she was a little hesitant to walk around by herself.  She and I had taken only a few steps when we saw a sight that stopped us in our tracks:

 
Now most people would look at this game as simply one more part of the flashing lights and clanging noises that are omnipresent within Chuck E. Cheese's.  But The Princess and I knew better.  Twin A, for reasons that usually only make sense to himself, has developed incredible fears that paralyze him with fright for a variety of things.  The game Operation is one of them.  I suppose it's the buzzer that makes loud noises unexpectedly, but Twin A is so terrified of this game he flips out if he even sees the closed box in someone's house, not settling down until the game is moved into another room.  We both knew that this could result in needing to leave much earlier that we had planned.  I swore The Princess to secrecy, making her promise not to tell either brother that this game was here, and we continued on our way.

Next time we ran into Twin A, we found him completely immersed in his all-time favorite arcade game: Guitar Hero.  Life was good.  He stayed under the Guitar Hero spell for the majority of the time we were there, even once playing against another kid's dad, beating the pants off him and then telling him, "Good game," with a thumbs up.   I knew instantly when he became aware of the offending game; I looked over and saw Twin A on the opposite side of the place, hands over his ears, shoulders raised defensively, still trying to put a token into a diferent game.  That required a great deal of dexterity!

As we left, Twin A requested that next time, I should make sure not to play Operation.  Sure, it was okay for everyone else there to play the game, but he really minded when I was the one playing. 

Whatever.  I still think I have earned my nomination.  And then some.