In So Many Words

What a busy, but good week!  For those of you that liked the scrapbook preview, I posted a slideshow of all the pages over at Another Piece of the Puzzle.  I was so pleased that Michael really liked it.

We also ended up with a surprise birthday present – a new cat!  When I was at Moms In Action Tuesday morning, there was an announcement that one of the members had a four year old white cat they needed to find a new home for.  Michael had been asking for a cat a while ago, and we had almost gotten one at Christmastime but weren’t 100% sure about it, so let the matter drop.  This seemed like the perfect scenario and great timing, with it being Michael’s birthday that day, so I called Bob to see what he thought.

He suggested we go over that night to see the cat, so we did, and we ended up bringing him home with us on Tuesday!  The cat has been renamed Prince Wallace, or Wally for short, and he is settling in pretty well.  He loves to be petted and brushed, and he also enjoys playing with the little toy mouse on a string that we bought for him.  Another great “toy” that he like to chase is the flashlight beam!  White hair is definitely a change from the black-haired cat we had before.  He shedded too, but this is more obvious on our clothes.

Michael woke up sick today.  He climbed into our bed this morning and was complaining that he was trying to wake up but his eyes wouldn’t stay open.  At first I thought he was just still tired, but then I felt his forehead and he was burning up!  I tried to take his temperature but neither of the thermometers we have are working, so I just gave him some Children’s Motrin.

He is feeling a bit better now but still a little warm and very emotional.  Bob has been reading to him from the Chronicles of Narnia, hoping that he will drop off to sleep.  He is very disappointed to have missed soccer, as today was the second of five practices in the winter session of TOPSoccer.

We got several things done around the house yesterday, and I am hoping to keep the momentum going today.  Plus Bob & I have a movie from Netflix to watch – One Night with the King – and then there’s the Amazing Race tonight.  I may even get a couple of blog posts written; we’ll see how it goes.

First of all, to anyone who has ever told me they had a migraine and I made some sort of useless sympathetic noise, please forgive me – I had no idea!!

Actually, they don’t really think I had just a migraine because they was also a cough and a fever and nothing got better until I finally was given antibiotics, but frankly, the pounding head was worse than any of the other symptoms I have felt over the last week and a half, even throwing up repeatedly when the pain wouldn’t go away. I am not back to 100% yet, but just being able to get out of bed and walk around without fear of my head exploding is pretty good.

I don’t have much to say because I have done less than nothing the last several days, but I am so thankful I haven’t taken on a bunch of new commitments that I would have had to go back on.  In fact, I just said no to two more things that came my way, and I am feeling pretty good about it.

My time will be well spent – working on the agency to find a new TSS since our current one has decided that her grad school workload has increased to where she can only fill 6 of Michael’s 21 hours each week.  If they don’t get a new person soon, I don’t know if I should switch to another agency or just let things slide and see what happens.

Then I found out that the summer program he attended last summer has been cut from eight weeks to five weeks.  Which means there will be five weeks to find childcare for instead of two.  I was so happy to be done with daycare, but here we are again.  Problem is they can’t tell me what the dates are yet, so I can’t really start calling daycares yet because I don’t know what I am looking for.  Then we will need to amend his psych eval to request TSS hours for the summer – he wouldn’t need one at the program but would at a typical daycare – UGH!

I know I called this blog Autism Interrupted, but it seems you just can’t get away from it.  Although I guess this is more about the scheduling nightmare we call social services and maintaining my job!!!

Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day everybody – we celebrated by going to the library as a family.

Often when I am asked this question by coworkers on Mondays, I don’t really have a good answer. The weekend often seems to be a blur of random activities or just completely uneventful. This weekend however, I had lots of plans for fun times with Michael and accomplishing many of the Christmas-related tasks still pending. (Bob was away at his sister’s house for an adventure, which I will share more about later.)

Unfortunately, my well-laid plans were not to be. We did have fun on Friday afternoon going to see the movie Bolt (which Michael loved!) and also a brief visit with Santa when he came through our neighborhood with the fire trucks Saturday morning, but by Saturday afternoon, this was the scene:

I’ve just read an entire issue of Good Housekeeping in one sitting. It took about an hour.

Why did I do this, you ask? How did I find the time? And, more importantly, why wouldn’t I spend a free hour finishing up my holiday to-do list or catching up on my blog reading?

The answer is that I am sitting in the waiting room for the walk-in clinic at my doctor’s office. After finally getting over a cold that started the day after Thanksgiving in time to attend the ASA Christmas party last weekend (which I shared about over at 5 Minutes for Special Needs on Friday), I woke up Monday morning with a sore throat. By Wednesday, it had turned into congestion and by Friday, coughing, but then I noticed a rash on my stomach and chest.

So this morning when I woke up and realized the rash had spread to my neck and face, I thought I had best get myself on in to the doctor’s office. And after only 1 hour and 45 minutes, my turn to see the doc has arrived. Wish me luck!

You can probably guess that the outcome was not good. I have scarlet fever. Yes, you can still get that. No, it’s not only for children. Apparently, it is a strep throat, but a viral version with a rash (a very, uncomfortable, itchy rash). I am now on antibiotics and sending up prayers that no one else around me gets sick.

One of my very good friends took Michael to her house while I went to the doctor and then decided to keep him overnight so I could rest. I spend last night and most of today laying in bed or on the couch resting and am so incredibly thankful for her kindness to me.

Although I do feel better than yesterday, I find I get tired very quickly when I get up and try to start doing things. (Thus, the lack of a picture at the top of this post. My neighbor took a great one of Michael with Santa and printed it out for me, but the thought of going downstairs to get it, turning on the other computer and scanning it is just too much for me right now! I’ll try to post it later in the week.)

So, how was your weekend?

As you probably know, 5 Minutes for Mom is one of my favorite blogs, and not just because they have great giveaways. Although that’s not a bad reason!

Seriously, with the holidays approaching, take a minute to enter for any or all of these amazing giveaways:

• Dirt Devil KWIK Vacuums (enter once a day through December 12th for a daily drawing)
• My Family Meal Planner Bundle (enter by December 12th)
• Special Edition Sleep Number Bed (enter by December 19th)

Okay, that’s it for now – go forth and enter contests while I continue blowing my nose and coughing my lungs out.

Yes, we have been sick, but enough about that. I am so happy to have made it out of the house today, even if it was to go to work! Tonight I heard a wonderful presentation about feeding issues at the ASA meeting (monthly support group for the Harrisburg chapter of the Autism Society of America, in case you wanted to know). I will post more once I digest my notes a bit more (pardon the pun) – I can hardly wait to try some of his ideas at our house.