One Happy Boy!

I very happy to say that things are going very well for M at his new school!!

The picture below was posted on face.book by his new school and I realized that he is looking directly at the camera. At his previous school, we received a handful of pictures in his time there but realized he never looked directly at the camera/ipad when the picture was taken.

The change in M has been wonderful...he goes to sleep happy, he wakes up happy, is smiling and giggling on his way to school and we have not had a case of the "Sundays" since we told him he was changing schools. I am beyond thankful that we made this change!!

Changes

Where to begin...we pulled M out of his school where he was attending private kindergarten. We had been on the fence about this decision for a couple of weeks and made the decision last Thursday.
I'll see if I can make a long story a bit shorter for those who still keep up with us. :)

What caused us to finally make the decision was a safety issue last week at M's Halloween field trip. The kids went to a memory care unit for trick-or-treating. This was M's second field trip, because it was going to involve candy/allergens J and I decided we'd both attend. I am SO glad we did!! When the kids got off the bus I looked M's teacher and realized she didn't have anything with her to indicate she was carrying M's Auvi-Q (epinephrine), so I casually asked her if she had it. She replied "No, it's on the bus." I asked her if she could please get it, so it would be on her body just in case anything happened. She looked outside and said "Oh, that's the bus that just went back to school." SAY WHAT?!!? Thankfully, because J and I were there, J had the other set with him, so at no point with M without his medication. The reaction I received when she realized the medicine was on the bus was complete apathy...no concern, panic, remorse...none of that. It was pretty much at that moment we decided M was done with that school.

We had other incidents that led us to our decision surrounding M's happiness. In the past 6 or so weeks, his mood/behavior at home has changed. He has begged us not to take him to school and told us that he's going to sleep all the school days and only wake for weekends. One of the days I was taking M to school he screamed at me to not turn left onto the road that would bring us to school. When we got to the street for his school he again yelled at me...he saw a yellow traffic sign and said "See Mommy, you can't go - the sign says 'Turn around - don't drown!" (A common saying in our area during the rain - it had been raining for a week at this point.) It was heart-breaking.

J and I also had our own issues with the teacher. Her communication skills were lacking to say the least. She never told us in person how M was doing in school. At the beginning of the year we did receive a message telling us that M was doing great in class and she could not wait to see how he was going to grow during the year. If we tried to start a conversation, we received one word answers. It was just bizarre.

We did speak to the Director of the school, hoping she could shed some light on the situation for us. Unfortunately, she was as clueless as we were. She spoke with the teacher, but nothing changed. We met with the Director and the owner today to explain why we were leaving. I am glad we did but I am exhausted now...I feel like we've just gone through a break-up. Thankfully, I do feel like we got closure. For whatever reason, our family and the teacher did not click.

M is day #3 at his new school and is happier than he's been in a long time!

5 years later

The Red Sox won the World Series last night!! We are die-hard New England sports fans and have not given up any of our teams since moving to TX. We suffered some serious sleep deprivation this weekend with the games, but in the end it was worth it!!

When M went to bed last night we told him we'd wake him up if the Red Sox won...well, we got him out of bed but he did not wake up. I just could not see forcing him to wake up on a school night...so instead we just took his picture. :)
(He spent the majority of the post-season rooting against the Sox!!)

It was a lot of fun recreating the picture we took of M 5 years ago when the Sox last won the World Series and M was just under a month old!!

 

 

 

Update with Pictures

Instead of a bullet update, I'll give you a photo update. :)

Our boy turned 5!!! This was his cake at home...not one of our best, but still yummy! Most important...he loved making it and eating it!!

Grammie came to visit for M's birthday party weekend! In M's words "Of course she's coming to visit, she doesn't want to miss all the fun!"

 

 

 


Puzzle time - M and Grammie love doing puzzles together!

 

 

M loves watching American Ninja Warrior...this was him climbing to the top of Mount Midoriyama :) He had so much fun at the playground running through pretending he was on his own obstacle course!

 

 

Me, post-MOHS surgery on Monday. A bag of blueberries was a great ice pack! All in all, it wasn't bad at all...I was very lucky and was cancer-free after just one layer of skin was removed!

 

SO much rain in TX lately...we are very lucky, because we have not suffered the flooding like other areas have.

This is from this morning...first pic post bandage. It's a lot of stitches...the surgeon said that this way it will lay flatter in the long run when the area heals. I am just happy he used clear stitches!!

 

Follow-Up on Me

Last Wednesday I had my stitches out and finally received the results from the pathology report...not the news I wanted but I wasn't all that surprised either.

The mole removed from my forehead is basal cell carcinoma...next step is MOHS surgery. I need to wait for the official path report to be sent to my PCP and then she will refer me to a MOHS surgeon. I am hoping the report is received today. I want this off of me.

The other two moles came back as inconclusive...the pathologist thought they were bug bites. My PCP told her she highly doubted that but they are not sure what they are. My PCP is hoping the surgeon might be able to tell what they are from the path report or looking at the area.

I was looking at the list for people at high risk for skin cancer and I can tick off almost everyone item on the list:

A lighter natural skin color. - YES

Family history of skin cancer. - YES

A personal history of skin cancer. - NO

Exposure to the sun through work and play. - YES, I live in TX!

A history of sunburns, especially early in life. - YES, almost every summer growing up!

A history of indoor tanning. - Thankfully, only did this once!

Skin that burns, freckles, reddens easily, or becomes painful in the sun. - YES

Blue or green eyes. - YES

Blond or red hair. - Red hair isn't natural but light brown is close enough. ;)

Certain types and a large number of moles. - ??

Fingers crossed I am able to have the surgery within the next couple of weeks and start healing.

Hello from Soggy Texas!

It has been rainy in our corner of Texas since Sept. 3rd...we have seen so much rain! M wakes up most mornings telling us he's tired of the rain and wants it to stop. Thankfully, it looks like we are going to get a bit of a break this week! I just looked and for the next 3 days we have 0% chance of rain. WOO-HOO!!

I realize that most of my updates have been about M and not much about me. At the beginning of July I finally found a new primary care doctor for myself. I got myself back on my Syn.throid and back on the pre-diabetes meds. I was surprised how much better I really did feel after getting back into my meds routine. She highly recommended that I not go off them at the same time again and think that everything will be okay!

While I was having my initial appointment/physical the P.A. noticed a new mole on my forehead and asked about it. Then she noticed a couple on my chest - they were also fairly new. Which brings us to me needing to have them biopsied. I had them removed almost 2 weeks ago and I am still waiting for the results. I go on Wednesday to have the stitches removed and will receive the results then. To say I am anxious is an understatement. The cards are stacked against me in terms of skin cancer...I'm of Celtic decent, I've had sooo many sunburns throughout the years, I have fair skin and blue eyes. My fingers are crossed for positive results but I am also ready to face this head on if it's not positive.

On a positive note, on Friday afternoon J and I both picked M up from school. He was a bit crabby when we got home and decided he wanted to have a lemonade stand. I had to explain that we can do that once it's not raining...he didn't really take no for an answer so we had an indoor lemonade stand that was ready for when J got home. :)

Unfortunately, this is what our skies have looked like lately...silver lining is we have gained A LOT of water in the aquifer and are almost out of the drought!!

Hopefully later this week I can show you some sunny skies!!

Quick Update

I ran out of time during the week this happened so it's a bit delayed...

M is in Kindergarten!!! He missed the cut-off date for public kindergarten by a month and a day, so we looked in to other options and found a daycare that offers private, accredited kindergarten. J really wanted to have M tested out and try public kindergarten but I was really against that, so this seems like a good compromise. So far M is loving school...J and I are still getting used to the transition from pre-school to kindergarten. The communication with the teacher is not the same and I think we are both having trouble with that aspect.

I still have work to do with the school and food allergies, but (knock on wood!) no issues in the first week, so that is huge! The teacher did tell me that M created his own safe zone at lunch. He told the other kids they were not allowed to sit right next to him. I was so proud of him advocating for himself and setting boundaries!!

(PS - if you look at M's sign, it does indeed say he wants to be a housekeeper when he grows up - his Auntie Ester at the Sunbreeze in San Pedro is very proud! she's the head of housekeeping)

Happy Friday!!

What only 2 days since my last post not two years?!? I thought I'd try to do this a bit more often when I can find the time.

We took M in yesterday to his allergist for an in-office food challenge for peanut butter. It was a fail...not because he reacted to the peanut butter but because he would not taste it. I love our allergist...after about 45 minutes of waiting for M to taste the peanut butter she said that it was not worth it. She did not want him traumatized over the experience. He was in tears, red, puffy eyes and a runny nose...had he eaten the food his tears/runny nose could have masked any symptoms. So we've decided to wait a bit until we try again. We'll see her again in 6 months to go over how things are going. I am thinking of looking for a therapist for M. His experience in Belize really shook him and I would love to find someone that he could work through those feelings with.

A bit more about what happened when M had his reaction...
After M had his reaction we took him back tot he restaurant where it happened so that he could feel safe going back - it was just for a visit the first time, not to eat and to let the staff see him. They were extremely upset when they heard he had gotten sick. I think it was really good for M to do that because he had a lot of big feelings about what happened. When one of the staff was chatting with us M said under his breath "I'm mad that you made me sick!" I was happy he could state his feelings but also happy the server didn't hear him. She would have felt horrible.

Almost forgot! the best part of going to see the allergist yesterday was when I relayed the story of the reaction in Belize and said "we made a mistake and did not use the epinephrine"...the doctor looked at me and said it was not a mistake it was an oversight. She let us know that she too, as an allergist, has made mistakes with her own kids. She said it's a really hard role to be in and to forgive myself and to stop beating myself up over it. I think I am finally beginning to do that!

Today is M's last day at Pre-K...he's a bit anxious about going to a new school but we had the open house/orientation the other night and was able to meet his teacher and classmates. Are you ready for this?? He's going from a class of 30 to a class of 3!! He's a bit puzzled about it but I think it will be good for him. As J said he'll basically be homeschooled at a school. :)
We have not loved his current school and with hindsight being 20/20 I wish we had found a different school. He did grow socially and only had a few close calls with his allergies, so that was good, but J and I are definitely ready for a new school!

I leave you with a pic of M from this morning :)

2 years and 2 months

I can't believe it's been that long since I've posted anything!! Wow...wonder if anyone remembers me?
Well, I thought I'd randomly pop in and say hello. :) I guess it will be easier to post some bullets about our life from the last two years rather than a proper post at this time...maybe, just maybe I can try to keep up with this for awhile.

• I'm a working Mommy now! I don't love it, but I do love the people I work with. I could not have asked for better supervisors/co-workers. I am an admin. asst. for a company that owns medical office buildings. The company is based out of Nashville and has an office here in San Antonio. I went back to work last November. I miss being at home but M seems to be doing well with having both of us working.
• J has another new job...he lost his job last June of 2017 and was out of work until January of 2018. He works from home most of the week, but does have quite a bit of travel with this position. The office is just north of Austin so he is up there 1-2x a week and then up to Dallas a couple of times a month. We do not love all the travel but it does give me some M and Mommy time while Daddy is away.
• M is starting kindergarten at the end of the month!! He misses the cut-off date for public kindergarten but while searching for new preschools we found a school that offers accredited private kindergarten with a cut-off date of November 1st. Both J and I were very happy with this development. J really wanted to consider having M tested to enter public kindergarten but I was dead-set against it. So this was a great compromise!
• We are still dealing with all of M's food allergies. We are going in on Thursday this week for an in-office food challenge for peanuts. His numbers are so low for peanut that his allergist thinks it's not a true allergy. We had him tested for peanut a couple of years ago and when it came back positive his allergist at the time told us to avoid peanuts/peanut butter. I am anxious but also quite excited at the possibility of taking a food off of the allergy list!
• We had our first anaphylactic reaction while we were on vacation in Belize this past April. It was scary and I am still dealing with some PTSD/guilt from it. We did not use our epi-pen when it happened and M made it through just fine but I still get upset with myself for not using it. We have talked with M about it and explained that we made a mistake by not using it and how he would have felt better sooner if we had used the medicine. I think he understands but it still afraid of how the pen would actually feel.
• The other downfall of this past trip to Belize was that we left with Maddox still recovering from strep throat. I think the allergic reaction made it difficult for him to recover from the strep because his system was working overtime. :( Not our best trip to Belize. Fingers crossed we go back in November for my birthday!
• The dogs are both doing well...Garnett is almost year seizure-free...last seizure was Aug. 24, 2017. Knock on wood he stays seizure free even longer!

I've attached a few pictures for you...until next time. :)

M loves to bake! This was a day he wanted to do it himself like he was on a kids cooking show.

M also loves any arts & crafts projects right now. He loves to say "You didn't know I was such an artist, did you?"

We finally made it to the TX coast a couple of weeks ago...don't know how M grew up so fast!

After a much needed haircut!

In Belize on one of the days M was feeling healthy!

Building with dominoes at breakfast.

Building with one of his favorite people at the SunBreeze.