Let's Play Catch Up!

Man oh man, it’s been a while, and I’m sorry about that. I’ve been swamped!

Let’s play catch up! We’re going to do a Chloe AND Rayne update that goes all the way back to October.

So, yeah Halloween. We had a freaking blast! Mike and I decided to do Batman and Harley Quinn, and the kids were Anna and Elsa!

 

And did I mention the 23 lbs of candy? Because… 23 lbs of candy.

November, mostly uneventful. Happy late Turkey day, by the way. Unfortunately November and Early December are my busiest times, hence why no new updates. But we had a few things.

First off, Chloe got a diagnosis, finally. She is definitely IGA deficient. All of their tests showed unreadable levels of IGA in her blood, meaning she has none. Makes sense, when you think about it, and fits everything. I’m just glad that almost a year later, we finally have an answer.

However, the downside is that sometimes, kids with IGA deficiency and ending up on the Autism spectrum go hand in hand. She’s being tested for that this month. That, also, makes sense… she has begun a lot of behaviors typical of a child who has Autism, specifically what used to be known as Asperger’s. She lines up toys, flaps her hands when over excited or stressed, rocks obsessively in her father’s or my grandfather’s rocking chair, doesn’t sleep well, and has sensory issues, such as texture problems with soft, mushy foods (she chokes on them) and issues with things like water touching her head (Bathtimes are no Bueno once we get to the hair…). She is in therapy though, so we’re hoping to get better as time goes on.

Rayne on the other hand has been in school, and has been hell on wheels. I hate that school… she is picking up some poor habits from her classmates… And her behavior has suffered for it. Maybe part of it is the age, but my little girl has become a complete sass mouth these last few months, and I do not like it.

That said, the last five weeks have been hell in their own right.

Chloe has been sick again. What was a cold, is now close to pneumonia. And I’ve taken her to the Dr. for it about 4 times… only after the last visit to a new pediatrician (her old pedi is closing her doors) did we get some relief in the form of Bromfed and Clairithromycin. You see, her old Dr., love her to death, was not a believer in medicines for children… so Chloe was just suffering through these viruses… and while I see her point, I was also tired of my baby suffering… and this time, she needed the meds that her other Dr. was simply not prescribing. Clairithromycin is an antibiotic that is so strong, it’s commonly used for Cystic Fibrosis and AIDS/HIV patients to fight off infections and keep them from getting pneumonia. It’s stronger than Azythromycin, Amoxicillin, and Cefdinir, all of which she is becoming resistant to. And the Bromfed is actually to dry up the mucus, because apparently her IGA deficiency also causes abnormal mucus production in her nasal passages.

Luckily, she is now perking up, but she was very close to a hospital stay. And that would be the second time in a month that she almost ended up there, because 2 weeks ago, she had a stomach flu so bad she was puking and had diarrhea for 48 hours and refused to eat or drink, and was throwing up water. She ended up in the Danville ER, passing out in my arms, and they told me it would be ‘a while’ before they got to her… aka, a 10 hour wait. I grabbed her, and my other half and I rushed her to South Boston/Halifax. It’s bad when the best care is 30 minutes in ANY direction away from the hospital that is literally 2 minutes down the road from me…  Rayne had the same thing at the same time as Chloe, so she was puking up her guts at the same time, but nowhere near as severe.

Chloe needed fluids that day in the hospital, and meds.

I AM planning to get back into this while on my winter break from classes! So expect some updates for the next month! I need to do this and get back to writing my fanfiction!! (Don't judge, I like to write.)

I’ll update on how Chloe’s doing soon! In the meantime… stay awesome, people! 

When it rains it pours...

We need prayers, positive thoughts, and whatever you have to offer.

On Wed last week, my grandfather had a spell. I knew it was bad, I was on the phone with my grandmother when it happened… I suspected it was really bad, but I called my mother and told her to call them in 15 minutes to check up on them. Well, he ended up in an ambulance to the ER, covered in sweat, heard a pop in his head, and dizzy, unable to walk, and weak. He was so weak…

I finally got to see him after being in the ER waiting for 3 hours. I’m one of those grandkids who will head to the hospital when my grandparents are in the hospital, I’ll be damned if anyone will stop me. It was the weakest I have ever seen him. He was so tired, slurring his speech, in and out of consciousness.

I suggested heart attack or stroke. I was rebuffed.

A day later, he’s not much better. He’s still weak, dizzy, sick… slurring his words a bit more… I visited twice, and he was never any better… That was the day my baby girl started school by the way…

My baby visiting her Poppie.

A day later and there’s talk of sending him home. No diagnosis, just, well, we’ll send you home, your heart seems better. What the fuck. I talk to my grandmother… tell her that he hasn’t even been made to walk yet, so how can they send him home? She says that the Dr. is monitoring him, that they know what to do.

They try and get him to walk and he almost falls all over the floor. He’s shuffling, not lifting his feet, and has no idea he’s doing it. He needed 2 nurses and a walker to even move a small distance.

Well, he wasn’t going home.

A day later, they FINALLY do an MRI to check for stroke.

Guess what. It was a stroke.

So, he’s not doing well. In fact he has damage to the part of the brain that controls his motor function, hence the weakness and difficulty walking. We don’t know how much he will recover, if he will recover. He will have to go to a rehabilitation clinic to regain his strength, and then after that, either home, which we hope, or possibly a nursing home, if he cannot regain the ability to walk and is still extremely weak.

We do not know the final outcomes of any of this yet. All we do know is that things are not great.

And add onto that, my youngest is about to have surgery to put tubes in her ears tomorrow, and a week later she goes to her immunologist for what we hope is a final diagnosis determining what immunoglobulin/immune disorder she has.  So we have that tacked on.

And we’re broke this week, due to all the hospitals and Dr. appointments we have to go to. So there’s that too.

All in all… I don’t normally ask this, but please send my grandpa, and my youngest kiddo, some prayers and some positive thoughts. They sure could use them…