Polotics, Family, Helping,what are your thoughts?

As I was surfing around the web this weekend, I ended up reading about the Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
Now do not worry, this is not my attempt at a political discussion, as I hate them with all my heart, mind and soul. 😉  Poor hubby, he so loves to talk about politics.
 

Image via Wikipedia

 
The story I read was about how he had taken some time off to be with his wife and three-year-old daughter.  His daughter Isabella was hospitalized with double pneumonia on Saturday.
 
How scary!    My guess is that this is not their first experience with medical emergencies.  Little Isabella was born with a chromosomal abnormality called Trisomy 18 and along with that diagnosis is a life of medical issues.
 
My prayers went out for this family as I read about their weekend.
 
I know firsthand what it feels like to hand your small child over to doctors and just pray that they know what they are doing!  Praying that the doctors can just “fix” your baby so that life can get back to normal.
 
What happens when the doctors cannot “fix” the problem?
 
My little Boogie Bear (the name I call my youngest child) was born with a grade 4 bleed on his brain.  He spent 3 weeks in the NICU and went home.  We were told that he would NEVER walk or talk.  So when he walked at 18 months old and was already babbling we knew we dodged a HUGE bullet.
 

too cute

However, when he was just 2 years old our lives changed drastically.  Boogie Bear had a seizure that lasted 3 hours and 45 minutes.  I am not exaggerating; he was taken by Care Flight helicopter to the nearest children’s hospital an hour from our home.  By the time my husband and I got to the hospital, Boogie Bear was on Life support.
 
As a mom, I was looking for reasons, what caused this?  The last thing on my mind was that fact that he had brain damage from the bleed at birth.  By this age he was talking, playing on the playground, running, he had met all the milestones that “they” told us he would never do.  So he was not a special needs child, he was “normal”. Right?
 
Well that day in May, proved that Boogie Bear had a long fight in front of him, and for his family for that matter.
 
That was not the last time that Boogie Bear would go into status epilepticus!  It turned out to be a monthly occurrence for the next 6 years.  Care Flight helicopters, ambulances, neurologist, emergency rooms, and a couple of more times on life support became his and our “normal”.  Boogie Bear’s longest seizure was 4 hours and 20 minutes.
 

helicopter that helped boogie bear the very first time

So what caused this?  We were told that it was due to the brain damage cause by the brain bleed he had at birth.  What, I just thought the doctors were crazy. He has been fine for 2 years.  Why now?    The doctors shared that the brain has a large growth spurt at two-year old and that the scar tissue from the brain damage caused by the bleed is what most likely triggered the events on that sad day in May.
 
So now we have a child with special needs, our lives and the life of Boogie Bear was and is far from “normal”.  Since that day in may boogie bear has been diagnosed with… Cerebral Palsy, Global Developmental Delay, Peri-ventricular Leukomalacia, irretractibal epilepsy with frequent status epilepticus, and a few more diagnosis that I will share at a different time.

 
So, that is why I stopped and prayed for the Santorum family.  I know many people prayed for us and I try to return the favor for other families who live with a special needs family member.  It can sometimes be a lonely place.
 
Let me challenge you…Pray for or encourage, or find ways that can help a family with special needs.  You will never know (unless you are one) how tiresome and emotional it is to be “on guard” for the medical needs of a special needs child 24/7.
 
If you are a “special needs family”, share here some simple, practical examples that would be helpful or encouraging to your family or your child.  Happy sharing, please only share in a helpful manner, this is not a forum for complaining or pointing out what people do wrong, thanks.
 

Related articles

• Santorum cancels morning events to be with child (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Children,Family Members, Best Friends, I think yes to all Three!

so are they cute or what?  i love them like family.

jaxon the big black one is a rescue dog.  he was abandoned by his owner’s. 😦  his family just moved away and did not take him with them.  he was left in the backyard to fend for himself.  who does that kind of thing?   oh well, their loss is our gain!  he is such bright dog!  he came house broken, he can eat off of a fork, don’t ask. 😉  he makes me laugh and smile because when he wants something, he does this moaning, singing noise to get my attention.  when he needs out, we ask him if he needs out and he will bark three times,  you know (((bark))) O, (((bark))) U, (((bark))) T.  well in my mind he is spelling.  any way… that is a little about jaxon.  oh one more thing, we gave to our youngest son for christmas last year (2010).

next in the picture is wattson.  he is a white miniature schnauzer.  he is our oldest dog and boy can we tell he is getting older.  he is crabby, gets startled easily, and can’t be bothered anymore.  oh, let me address the misspelling of his name.  when we got wattson he was about 5 weeks old and bright WHITE!  so my husband wanted to call him WATTson, in reference to the wattage of a light bulb.   another don’t ask…the more you read about my world the more insight you will get about my husband…:)

back to wattson, he loves to play soccer!  he is good too.  he dribbles the ball with his nose while running towards me and then when i try to get it from him he moves to the right or left and goes around me.  hehe,  he is better than i am with ball control.  wattson is somewhat of a romantic… he has been married to maggie the little dog next to him for 6 long years.  however, he loves to show his love to me too!  take a look…

wattson will often come to me and just sit his paw on my foot.  he just sits it there like we are holding hands.  so sweet.

so last but not least is maggie!  maggie is a salt and pepper miniature schnauzer.   she is so sweet, everyone who has met her just falls in love.  she is quiet and sleeps about 18 hours a day in her little bed.  i think she is so worn out from being a mother of 20.

wattson and maggie have had 4 litters of puppies with 5 puppies in each litter.  maggie did not loose even one puppy, she was such  great mom.  after her last litter we took her to the vet…so now no more puppies.  here is a picture of her last litter.  soooo cute!

look at those hears!!!  that puppy’s ears are still just like that…my therapy yesterday was playing with my doggies!  they bring such joy to my life.  when i am sick, lonely or sad maggie will come a lay with me to comfort me.  my plan is to have her certified as a therapy dog and let her hang around my office to bring comfort to my clients.

so this is my 6 article, give me some feedback, or just leave a comment so that I know you are out there and i am not just writing to the air.  thanks for stopping by.

One Sick, Two Sick, Three Sick, No More!

so the week started out with one child being sent home with a fever of 103.  off to the doctors we go!  what’s wrong you ask?  how would i know for sure, because the CDC has asked physicians not to test for the flu! just to treat clinically if suspected.   my guess is the doctor must have suspected or why would she bring it up right?  well it was not strep throat, that test came back negative, so no antibiotics.  the doctor gives him instructions to stay home for THREE days!  my big, strong football man is running a fever and we have no idea what it causing it other than a virus.?! let me just say here that three days home does not work for an honors high school student.  he cannot afford to stay home for an hour much less three days. oh and all absents are unexcused in my lovely district.  how they can get away with that i will never understand, it’s in the handbook though.?.   any way i digress…as hard as I tried, i could not get him to stay home and rest.  off to school the next morning to share his germs with other kids who have no excused absents either.  share and share alike i guess.

so the littlest is sick now, running fever, sniffing, sneezing, coughing, not as active as usual, yet still very talkative!  i enjoyed him being home with me though.  see my littlest is our special needs child.   just as i was starting to get frustrated that he was talking nonstop, ( i was missing my treasured quiet time while everyone was at work and school) he brings me his baby book and asks me to sit down and look at it with him. he is so sentimental!  the first picture in his album, he asks me about this one all the time, is the one i was given to look at, because he had been taken to another hospital across town to the NICU.     here is that picture.

he has an amazing story, but this is not the time for me to share it in detail.  i will share it one day.  i was looking at this picture when he was diagnosed with a grade iv inter-cranial hemorrhage. and that he was grave condition.  see a  grade iv bleed is the worst bleed a person can have, he only had 15% chance of survival.

Since he did survive, (praise the LORD)  we were told that he would NEVER, walk or talk, he was given a very dim prognosis.

here is another picture they took, this was the first time i got to touch him.

So MY THERAPY YESTERDAY WAS sitting on the couch hugging my little man, looking at his sweet baby pictures (he is 12 now).  i love looking at these memories, even though it was the hardest part of my life.  it was a miraculous time as well.  so, needless to say, my miracle boy can talk and talk and talk and talk!  by the way, he can walk too!  my GOD is awesome! if you want me to share about this time in our lives just drop me a comment.  when I get 15 comments I will tell the story or at least start it, because his story is not finished yet!!!

so back to the sickness,

well the third one sick is my hubby…he is so noisy when he is sick, moaning and groaning. POOR BABY!  😉  i pointed out that our little man had been home all day and did not moan or groan all day.

JUST SAYIN.

it is kinda funny that the two girls in the house are not sick…  wonder why that is?  well any way i am glad i have not gotten “what ever it is”  yet…  well that’s all for now i need to go play nurse maid to my boys, thanks for reading. 🙂

Happy Birthday Mommy, I wish you were here.

yesterday was my mom’s birthday!  i did not feel like writing so i will share with you today. i did not feel up to writing yesterday because my mom is no longer with me to share special moments, like birthdays, anymore.  it has been six years since she quite quickly, passed away from kidney cancer.  i miss her every day but especially on birthdays, and holidays.  any one who has lost a loved one knows what i mean.

however, i want to share about food, comfort and other things that make me happy so enough sad words, let me tell you what i did to comfort myself yesterday…

so my therapy yesterday was making authentic scottish tablet.   it is a very time-consuming activity.  i patiently stood over the sugary, buttery concoction and constantly stirred it for 45 min while it was bubbling hot, careful not let it burn! then once removed from the heat it had to be constantly stirred as it cooled, about another 15 minutes.

the end result is this super sweet, buttery fudge that just melts in my mouth, YUM!  a cup of hot tea is my beverage of choice with this confection. the hot tea clears away the sugar in my mouth, then i am ready for another indulgent bite. today i enjoyed the tablet and hot tea in my mom’s favorite tea-cup.  i am so happy i have this mug.  even though there is sadness in my heart still, just pulling out the mug to use puts a smile on my face!

as i was making this treat yesterday i used the time to reflect on memories of my mom and i making tablet together.  although i did most of the hard work and she supervised! 😉

above is a picture of my mom and i in the kitchen together. see the dark spots on my shirt, on the left arm? well my mom and i had just had a small water fight while doing the dishes! i was in junior high school, you know the awkward but fun years. gotta love the 80’s!  i guess this was the age that i started being interested in learning more about my scottish heritage and wanting to learn to cook traditional scottish food.

here is a little background on the scottish heritage…my mom was born and raised in scotland and came to america with my dad after they were married in scotland.  my dad was in the u.s. navy and was stationed in scotland for a while.  so he married my mom and brought her to america. their per-marital relationship was about as long as the story i just told you, yet they were married until death parted them.

one of my favorite scottish meals that i learned to  make is mince and tatties.  this is my ultimate comfort food! yum.  (pictured below)
my mom would make this and the whole family would come together at her house and eat it all up.  i am the only daughter out of 5 that ever learned how to make this meal while my mom was still alive.  i think some of them have now learned.  i learned from my mom because i loved being in the kitchen with her and my gran (her mom) for that matter!

some of my best memories growing up is when my gran and grandpa would come over from scottland and stay with us for months at a time.  i loved the  time i spent  with gran in the kitchen.   i would follow her into the kitchen trying to learn scottish cooking.  i just loved learning to cook with the two of them.

i guess cooking with my mom and grandmother was my way of connecting to my scottish roots!  i love being 1/2 scottish, well to tell the truth i wish i was full blood scottish, but i will take 1/2!    i bought a great shirt a few years ago at the clover scottish  games that reads… made in america with scottish parts!  i love that shirt.

Sunday Dinner

yesterday my therapy was cooking for my family. i spent the evening creating homemade pasta with my kitchen-aid pasta attachment i received for christmas. the pasta i made last night was for a homemade lasagna. the pasta would accompany the homemade spaghetti sauce i made last week. all the ingredients were layered and tucked away in my refrigerator waiting to be cooked today after church!

i have never attempted to pre-make a lasagna the night before. my prayer is that it holds together and is wonderful when it’s done. i have been known to have some epic failures with lasagna. once i made it and told my family it was lasagna soup, they ate it right up 🙂

as i was finishing up the lasagna my 16-year-old son came in and asked ” are you making home-made cheese sticks with the left over mozzarella?”. being the great mom that i am ;), i agreed to his request. so i formed and dipped and double dipped the mozzarella like the recipe i saw on the food network. they are now in the freezer awaiting to be fried in to a wonderful golden brown gooey treasure. i guess all i need now is a great salad and we will be set for our after church lunch!

what is therapy?

welcome to my world

Therapy ~ Random House Webster’s College Dictionary
1. (n.) therapy: the treatment of disease or disorders, as by some remedial, rehabilitative, or curative process
2. therapy: a curative power or quality.
3. therapy:any act, task, program, etc., that relieves tension.
for the purpose of this blog i will be referring to definition # 3 !

over my life time i have engaged in many forms of therapy:

• prayer
• cooking
• eating what i cooked
• shopping  love some shoes)
• isle therapy (in the grocery store by myself)
• trying to sew
• trying to knit ( still have a scarf i started 2 winters ago)
• going to the beach
• tried my hand at a vegetable garden!  loved it.
• i even tried exercise for a day! that turned our NOT to be therapeutic for me.  he he he.

well you get the point, there are many therapeutic activities out there.  my therapy activities change often, that could be my ADD though! 😉
my goal or resolution for the new year 2012 is to blog and share some practical ideas that i use or try to use to reduce the stress in my life.  i hope to inspire you to try some along the way and let me now what you think.