what a week

Let me set the stage for you....
This is the last week before school vacation. I have exactly 5 days to get a ton of work done- registration for next year has started at my nursery school and we have 2 huge fundraisers that both are occurring as soon as we get back from vacation!

Needless to say this is a week that I HAVE to dedicate to WORK.

Somehow sensing my intense need for focus at work, God is again at work seeing how much stress he can throw my way before I throw in the towel.

Monday and Tuesday D comes home from school without earning "treasure". Now Treasure is something I detest- these are kids in a self contained special education classroom. My biggest hope for my son is that he will learn to do right because it feels good and makes others happy. I will be horribly distraught if my son learns to do right because some jackass is going to give him a 10 cent piece of crap. However, since the system in his classroom is that he will earn treasure daily for having proper behavior, it breaks my heart that the only time all year he mentions treasure to me is on Monday, when he doesnt get treasure.

Now if you read my previous blog, D has had a medication change, I am seeing all kinds of intense impulsive challenging behavior at home...this is the pattern for D- before a period of seizures, we see a behavior change. I have told his teaching team over and over and over again that this is the pattern....do I get a phone call? NO. Do they wonder....hmmmm could something be wrong with D? NO. Do they notice that his language is slower his processing time increased? NO....so needless to say, Monday and Tuesday go by and the little guy does not earn treasure.

Fast forward to Wed morning- we are now midweek in a stressful time- I am intensely aware that the end of the week is near and I want to be able to be on vacation and not think about work. Suddenly at 11:00 the phone rings and it is the school nurse- D has had 2 seizures.....I rush out of work to go see my little guy.

The only thing more pathetic than my guy having a seizure is my guy having a seizure without me there. I brought him home and he spent the rest of the day with my folks, after I spent an hour holding and loving him.He looked frail and scared all day long. At 3:00 I take D and J to the ENT for a check up- J's ear wax is so impacted that it takes over 30 minutes to vaccuum it all out- a nasty, disgusting process.....D is given a nose spray that will hopefully decrease the number of times he has a sinus infection and we get our stickers and head out the door.

No sooner are we in the car than I see that I have now missed a call from M's teacher. Luckily I check my message and it is enough to simply cause worry and concern for the night- nothing like a sleepless night after a crazy day like today!

Thursday AM I get in touch with M's teacher- basically she was calling to tell me that he seems super tired- thank you, he is very tired. The options are tired or overly rambunctious- no one was happy with the out of control, rambunctious M- even M was unhappy. Given that, our other choice is medication that help to calm him, but calming meds often make people tired! I note her concern, and promise to talk to the psychiatrist. I pull into the parking lot at school to drop off J and the cell phone rings- D has had another seizure on the bus and I need to come to school again.

Now let me please be very, very clear. If D is having seizures I want to always know about them. I want to most likely come and be with him, HOWEVER I cannot always take him home from school. Again, single mom, 3 kids, 2 with special needs. If I am not working, I am not being paid. If I am not being paid, I am not feeding the children....I have to work. D is a child with epilepsy. Children with epilepsy have seizures. After his seizures D usually rests for a while and returns to normal activities. So I rush back to his school again....my heart in my throat very worried about how he will be. Will he be able to walk? talk? Will he have more seizures?

I walk into the nurses office and he is happy, not easily communicating, but he is loooking at books and is very aware....so now comes the tough question- can he stay at school? Thankfully, after I agreed to hang out at school for another 15 minutes, they said he could go to class and see how he does.....and even better, D has not had another seizure since Thursday!

Today, Friday, I went with the entire school to a show, and then returned to school at noon to begin to work on the millions of tasks that had to be completed before vacation!

Thankfully, they are finished, the loose ends are tied up and we are on VACATION! Phew! A stressful, crazy week is over...now hopefully onto some rest and relaxation and recharging all of our batteries~!