In Which We Have A Rainy Day

It was all cold and rainy again, so no Christmas lights came down.  I'm sure I'll take them down by, oh, July.  That's a realistic goal.

Due to the aforementioned cold wet weather we spent most of the day all snuggled up inside.  The cats thought this was a pretty good plan and offered themselves as official leg warmers and purr boxes.  While Connor and Jer hung out I had important work-- a nice stack of books to go through and a cup of tea to drink.  It was a real hardship, but I struggled through.

Connor's rash is completely gone except for one nasty area on his cheek, and we're not entirely sure if that's left over from the allergic reaction or if he's got a new skin rash going on.  Fun times!  We'll see what it looks like tomorrow before we decide whether or not to take him back to the doctor.

So really not too much happened today, which was kind of a relief to tell you the truth.  Connor's been keeping us on our toes entirely too much lately; it was nice to relax and have some quiet time!

~Jess

In Which Connor Feels Much Better And We Find A Therapist

Connor is feeling so much better today!

His rash looks dramatically better, and he didn't throw up a single time today!  The Benedryl did keep him pretty zonked, but he seemed to be way more comfortable anyway.  Sleep is probably just what he needs to help him recover. 

The plan today was to take down the Christmas lights now that the snow is all melted (yes I know it's over a month after Christmas-- don't judge me) but it rained.  So instead I took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill and Jeremy made another dump run.  Apparently the line for the dump was out of the facility and down the street because everyone was dropping off the tree limbs that had during the ice storm; our dump takes yard waste for free and makes compost and wood chips out of it.  So we're going to hold off taking the one small tree branch that came down in our yard and our Christmas tree (don't judge!!) to the dump until Monday, when hopefully everyone will be at work and I won't have to wait for two hours to drop them off.

Other errands today included a trip to the bookstore-- which sadly takes over half an hour to get to now since the one near us shut down-- and a visit to the post office to restock my supply of boxes for Ellen's care packages.  Ellen's Christmas and birthday letters finally came back from translation, so I can put her care package in the mail first thing tomorrow morning!  I ultimately decided to whittle down and combine the two care packages rather than send her two separate boxes really close together.  We don't want to overwhelm her with stuff, and she'll be getting a February package in a few weeks.  Hopefully our adoption agency will be visiting her orphanage soon as well!

Speaking of Ellen, I made an exciting discovery last week!  I found a marriage and family therapist nearby who specializes in adolescence, has experience with adoptive families, lived in Thailand for a number of years and is fluent in Thai!  Ellen is an extremely resilient, intelligent and brave girl and she wants to be adopted, but any child who is adjusting to a new country, culture, language and family-- especially a teenager-- is likely to have a difficult time (who wouldn't?) and we want to have resources immediately available for her should she need them. 

I called and spoke with the therapist, and not only is she more than happy to see Ellen should she need a listening ear, but she'd also be willing to meet with us before we leave for Thailand to help us figure out the best way to ease our daughter's transition into our family.  I'm really thankful that we've found someone who Ellen wouldn't need a translator to communicate with and who is extremely familiar with Thai culture.

Can't wait to get our daughter home!

~Jess

In Which Connor Finds Some More Polka Dots

So yesterday Connor started breaking out in what I thought was a mild case of hives.  He'd been throwing up a lot, and sometimes when he gets sick he ends up with a bit of a skin reaction.  So I was a bit unprepared when I walked in his room this morning to discover that he was completely covered, from feet to nose, in a morass of raised, bright red spots.  When a hefty dose of Benadryl failed to have an effect, I loaded him in the car and we were off to the doctor's office for the fourth time in the past three weeks.

I am getting really tired of going to the doctor's office, by the way. 

Anyway, they took one look at him and told me that he was sporting a textbook case of sulfa allergy rash.  Apparently he's developed an allergy to Bactrim, the antibiotic he's been on for the last ten days to treat his impetigo.  This explains all of the vomiting we've been seeing too.  Luckily today was the last day he was supposed to be on it anyway, so we're just missing one dose of the medication and hopefully his impetigo is gone.  It's kind of hard to tell right now since the kid currently looks like he's been splatter painted with red ink. 

So now Connor has a whole new class of drugs to add to his Avoid At All Costs list, along with amoxicillin and colace (and lavender of course, though that's not a drug).  I'm really glad that I decided in the end to take him into the doctor; I really debated about whether or not it would be beneficial when I figured it was a case of hives and there's nothing they could do.  I was right about that part-- the poor little guy just has to wait out the effects-- but once you get a reaction like that the allergy tends to really ramp up the next time you are exposed to the drug, and so if Connor had gotten his evening dose of Bactrim tonight things could have been really, really bad. 

So we returned home with instructions to watch Connor over the next day and make sure that he doesn't start having airway issues, and to keep dosing him with Benadryl to help with the itching and burning he's probably feeling.  We're supposed to get as many fluids down him as we can to help flush the drug out of his system.  The doctor said that hopefully the rash will be gone in three or four days.  The Benadryl is making the little guy drowsy as all get out, and he spent the entire rest of the day asleep.  I have to say that's probably for the best-- he looks extremely uncomfortable while he's awake. 

He's just been having a rough time of it lately!

~Jess

In Which Jer And I Go Out On The Town

Jer and I just got home from a date!

Jeremy brought home tickets to an ice skating performance (Unforgettable Moments of Love on Ice!) from work, so we got all dressed up and went out on the town.  It was lovely to get the chance to go out just the two of us; it's been a while since we've had the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time together.  I think the last time we went out was in early December, so we were definitely past due.

The show was pretty awesome-- a number of Olympic medalists and world champion skaters did some amazing routines, and Gladys Knight gave a stellar performance.  Kenny G was also there doing his smooth jazz thing, which I'm sure was a fantastic performance if you are a fan of smooth jazz.  He actually spent some time out on the ice and was a pretty good sport about the whole thing.  I had a really hard time not visualizing the skaters performing in elevators during his numbers, but that's not his fault. 

It was a little odd because the performance was being filmed for television; apparently it's going to be on NBC the first Saturday of February (you should check it out because it was a fun performance to watch live.  I'd watch it again if I had TV reception-- and not just to see if Jer and I make an appearance on camera).  After the show was over they had us keep our seats and they reshot some of the jumps and routines to make sure they got enough good footage.  That was actually a lot of fun because the skaters cut loose a bit and joked with the audience while they waited for their cues. 

We had VIP passes to the afterparty, so when the performance was over we went upstairs, grabbed some dessert and coffee, and watched from afar as the skaters and Kenny G were completely mobbed by the other guests.  I'm sure they're used to it, but it didn't look like a whole lot of fun from our perspective.  We figured they had more than enough people to talk to, and we're not really the "meet 'em so we can say we met 'em" types.  But I will say that Sasha Cohen is just as pretty in person as she is on the screen.  Oh, and I now have a bit of a crush on Ryan Bradley.  He has got some serious muscles, ladies.

Also he does a mean back flip.

Anyway, it was a fantastic evening and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  It was just so great to get the chance to spend some quality time with Jer!  The performance was not something we'd normally think of doing if we hadn't received tickets, but we ended up having a great time.  Hopefully we'll have the chance to go on more out-of-the-box dates in the future! 

~Jess

In Which Connor Is Sick And We Resend Some Letters

So it seems my Internet is only going to cooperate before noon in fifteen minute intervals right now.  Expect erratic blogging until things settle back down to normal over here. 

Connor's potassium levels came back normal yesterday, thank goodness!  So that means he's probably got a GI bug.  He did a little bit better yesterday-- only three seizures-- but he's still throwing up all over the place so he stayed home from school again. It's just been one thing after another for the kid this winter.  He seems to be feeling better again this morning, so hopefully he'll be back in school tomorrow for the first time in over a week.    

We resent Ellen's Christmas and birthday letters to the translator; it looks like she might not have received them originally.  No wonder it's taken so long!  So I'll either combine Ellen's Christmas and birthday care packages or she'll get two in close proximity.  I'm putting together her February care package right now too (Conversation Hearts, anyone?) but I'll send it towards the end of February so we don't overwhelm her with mail.  Our adoption agency will be making their annual trip over some time in the next few months, which is always exciting!  Our dossier will have been over in Thailand a year in March, and the process for first approval seems to be taking between 18-24 months right now.  So the earliest we could expect to hear anything might be around September.  We'll just have to see how things go, but it would be fantastic to have her home before she turns fifteen!

~Jess

In Which Connor Creates Laundry And I Am A Bad Mommy

Hi again!

Our Internet is blinking off and on right now, and it's driving me nuts.  I shouldn't complain too much though-- there are still about 50,000 people in the area with no power.  A little forced down time with my books isn't going to hurt me any, though I'm not sure I'll ever get caught up on e-mail.

Instead of school this morning, I took Connor in to get his potassium levels checked, as he's become increasingly nauseous and fatigued over the past few days and is now gagging at the drop of a hat.  This is not particularly pleasant for any of the parties involved, except maybe the water and power companies. 

I've been running my washing machine a lot.

Anyway, it could be that Connor is coming down with yet another GI bug, it could be a side effect of the antibiotic he's on, or it could be that the antibiotic is reacting with one of his heart medications and driving his potassium levels way up.  So we went in to rule out the potassium, which is the only one of those that could potentially be really serious.  The lab at our doctor's office is still recouping after a week without power, so his sample had to be sent out.  We'll find out tomorrow morning what his potassium level looks like.

Connor did not have a particularly good day.  Not only did he end up having to be stuck multiple times on both arms before they could get a sample, but he also had five seizures.  This makes me lean towards the GI bug theory on why he's throwing up a bunch, but heck, everything lowers this kid's seizure threshold so it's not exactly conclusive evidence.  I was persona non grata today due to the Multiple Needle Poking That Mommy Didn't Stop Incident, so instead of napping on me like he usually does after a bunch of seizures he had a meltdown, told me I was a "Bad Mommy" and asked for Jer until he fell asleep on the couch. 

Fun times. 

I read him a bunch of books after he woke up and he forgave me.  He never holds much of a grudge, thank goodness.  Otherwise doctor's office visits would be significantly more difficult by this point. 


~Jess

In Which We Were Snowed In

Hi!

I am extremely happy to say that our Internet finally came back on this morning.  Our power flickered off and on this week but thankfully mostly stayed on, but our Internet has been down since Thursday.  Apparently a tree hit something important. 

Trees hit a lot of things in our neighborhood; our house is actually one of the only ones on the street that didn't lose at least one tree to the heavy load of ice and snow.  A few pine trees bent and broke in half, but it was the maples and cherry trees that suffered the worst damage-- most of them either lost huge branches or in a few cases, simply fell over.  We ended up getting about eight inches of snow, and then we got freezing rain for two days, which formed a thick layer of ice over the snow.  If you were careful you could actually walk (or more accurately, skid) along on top of the snow without leaving footprints.  It was crazy. 


We got off pretty lucky; I'll need to go up and check the roof because some of the neighbors' overhanging trees dumped a massive load of ice and snow on it once temperatures rose and it started melting, but otherwise we didn't have any major issues.  We're on high ground, so the flooding currently going on shouldn't affect us either.  Connor has been off of school since Tuesday, and Jer ended up home from work most of the week too, so we kind of had a miniature vacation. 

The temperatures are back up above freezing and the snow and ice are melting (hence the flooding issues), so the streets are mostly clear now.  The biggest issue is the downed trees-- many of them blocked roads and did a lot of damage. 

The pets had a bit of an adventure too-- a couple of days ago Jer and I were startled awake by a tremendous crash.  At first we thought a tree might have gone through a window.  After searching the rest of the house and coming up with nothing, I opened the door to Connor's room.

The gerbil tank was on its side on the floor shattered into several hundred pieces.  Loki was balanced on three legs on the plastic frame of the tank.  He was using the fourth to fish around in the shavings inside.  Apparently he'd snuck into the room when Jer went in to give Connor his medication, managed to wedge himself between the tank and the wall and then shoved the whole thing off the table.  He's nothing if not persistent.

I leaned over as far as I could to avoid the broken glass on the floor and grabbed Loki, who was too busy trying to catch a gerbil dinner to try and get away, and deposited him outside of the room.  Then I went back to play a fun game of "Stick My Hands In Paper Shavings And Broken Glass" to see if the gerbils had survived their unplanned aerial adventure.  Amazingly, when I clicked my tongue at them like I usually do before I feed them, two little heads popped out of the shavings.  Cranston had a tiny cut on his heel, but otherwise they were completely unscathed.

Those are some seriously lucky gerbils.

So they spent some quality time together inside their gerbil wheel while I cleaned up the mess and braved the weather to find them a new tank.  They're lucky the worst was over by that point, or they would have been stuck in our bathtub or something until we could leave the house again. 

Crazy cat.

~Jess