Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Life is Crazy!

I'm so behind on telling what's going on around here! I would have to do at least a post a day, but I'm too busy living it. The kids are back in school and still adjusting. This year may be a bit of a difficult year for a few of my offspring- just adjusting to all the changes. Life seems to really speed up with the school year too. No time, no time for anything! And I got myself sucked into doing a birthday party for Gigio. Silly of me to say he could have a party when he was ten. What was I thinking? We've put it off two weekends so if we can just deliver the invitations tomorrow, we will do it Friday afternoon. I have a lot to get ready in the next 2 days.

Someday I may sit down to write at the computer that has my photos of our last camping trip on it. Maybe. Since I didn't even bring a camera to the pool party last weekend, I will never post those pictures. It was mostly just me running around making sure that no one was drowning or cracking their heads open while they insisted on being on the four opposite corners of the park. That was after being late over a series of mishaps that totally got under my skin for some reason. It's quite the tale, but I just can't relive it right now.

The weekend flew away before I could grab it, and then it was Monday. I had to take Carino up to Primary Children's for the big craniofacial team appointments, where he saw the ENT, speech pathologist, orthodontist, plastic surgeon and social worker. Results, it would help his speech and eating to get some biofeedback and strength therapy. Will the insurance cover? We shall see. External cues are the best way to work on his memory. I was mistaken for a teacher for bringing up questions too intelligent to be answered by man about memory issues and my understanding of the connection between language and memory.(?) I said I was an interpreter, and interpreters come to know too much about various and sundry things. But then, I thought, it's really because I'm a mom and so these things become pretty obvious in my position. Next, carino has to get full mouth x-rays, but probably we will hold off on braces (yes!) His mouth is too little. The therabite gets an F. There is an online support group and the social worker thinks I'm the coolest mom because I went and did presentations at the beginning of each school year in Carino's class to help with the teasing situation. Then, as for the ear reconstruction and all: Have we considered prosthetics? Yes, but we need to find out more. However, they have to be replaced every 3 years. We are concerned that with someone's track record, that might be more like 3 months. I mean, the kid comes home from school with cuts in his clothes and hair, so if he can't feel this ear, I'm afraid it would soon look like Edward Scissorhand's ear. It's expensive. And this is a plastic surgeon telling me it's expensive. And I've seen HIS bills. The reconstruction can be done, it's just not the ideal skin where he needs it and since you never know what your cartilage harvest will be, the reconstructed ear will not be as defined as a normal ear. Probably, it will look alright but won't noticeably match the other ear. SO, do we want to bother? His operations have been ordeals. On the other hand, he will feel it so he will probably take better care of it and it will last forever. Either route, we have to do laser therapy to get rid of the hair where the ear should go. Another option would be to just wait. When he's older, like for Jr. High, get a prosthetic. Hopefully by the time that wears out, we will have some advancements that will improve the outcome of the reconstruction. Maybe not, in which case we wasted time. As for his jaw, as long as he manages to talk and eat, they will wait till he stops growing, between ages 16 and 19, to do a big final reconstruction. This means between now and then, his face is going to get more and more crooked all the time. It will be at it's worst all through high school. I am cringing here. How do I prepare him for this? I don't want him to change and become introverted and lack self esteem. Oh holy train wreck! How do we stay upright through this one?

Next, we had to stop by the cafeteria. This is a ritual not to be tampered with if you want to live with Carino. So, I may be a mom and an interpreter and some people might think I'm smart, but me and Papi and the kids all know the depths of my air headed-ness. That is why I can't eat and breathe at the same time. Carino was not able to keep himself in his seat and he did something that cracked me up and I cannot for the life of me remember what it was due to oxygen deprivation, because he did this whatever just as I stuck a tortilla chip in my mouth and I inhaled too fast and the thing shot down my throat and got stuck in my neck. I tried to talk but nothing came out, not even air, then I tried to breathe in and nothing much came in. So I'm making this squeaky sound trying to get at least an oxygen molecule at a time through that windpipe and it was not comfortable. Carino started freaking out, he started to head back to the cashier, then back to me, like he didn't know if he dared leave me, but he didn't know what to do, and I'm grabbing my neck and trying to swallow the dang thing down and breathe a little, then I decided to stand and raise my one arm while hitting my diaphragm with the other fist. There were people farther away in the room that started to notice and ask if I needed help and just as they were coming up, a nurse approached (much to their relief, I am sure) and asked if I needed the Heimlich maneuver, after which, luckily, I got in a breath and managed to croak something out, then she said to try to drink, and I got some down. She asked again if I was alright and this time I could answer. "You sure?" She asked. "Well, if I'm talking, I assume I'm breathing" I said.
After that I only had to cough about 200 times and drink about 20 ounces of juice to soothe my scratchy throat. Not only was it uncomfortable, I felt like the biggest dork of the century. I was just reading to Enigma the other day in her Biology that you can't talk and swallow food at the same time. I wasn't talking, even so I feel really uncoordinated. The only thing that made me feel any better was that by a split second I was saved the humiliation of watching the chip fly out of my mouth and across the cafeteria. Even worse, I scared the bageezers out of Carino. We had a little discussion on the Heimlich maneuver after that, and I reassured him that since we were in the hospital, there were plenty of people who could help. Just the night before, he had gotten all sentimental and said we were the best parents in the world, we take him camping and we help him with things and teach him, and sob! I'm going to miss you! I asked where he was going. "No, I don't want you to die, Mom!" I told him I most likely wasn't going to do that for a long time. Heck, probably I'll be so old and Alzheimer ridden, he'll be glad to let me go. Plus, we are sealed together forever, so I'll always be near. Then I nearly croak on him the next day. What a ditzy mom.

Next, in our never-ending day, we went to see my neighbor who is at rehab across the way. She's made a lot of improvement. Still lots of work ahead, but she is enthusiastic. The meds were making her break out and all itchy though. We didn't stay long, because meanwhile, Enigma was calling a lot because she was having a bad day. She was supposed to give blood, but when she got there, they wouldn't take a note from her parents. No, we had to sign a form. She thought the guy was rude that was helping her, so she was rude back and said something to the effect of "Then someone will just have to die since I couldn't give them blood, all over a paper!" And then she marched off. None of us got home in time to go over and sign so she could do it. She was in a tizzy about this. Plus, when she went to pick up her brothers, her radiator leaked that green stuff? (brain freeze) all over. Actually, it shot out like a hose. So the next day we had to take it back to the shop. They couldn't find anything. Papi thinks the cap was loose, since he did look at it when he got home. We shall see.

On the way up, we saw a fire in the hills. The fire got bigger. People were evacuated and some roads blocked so traffic was even worse than usual. It took FOREVER to get home. We made a pit stop at my brother's to pick up a food order and a "pit stop", because I'd had way too many liquids as you may recall, and then we had to wait for a train before we could get home on the last leg of our journey. I thought we would never get there. Enigma had various and sundry other issues to report, things like she would be interested in a sophomore if he can cook like a god, and boo hoo her senior friends from last year are not here and there's a whole issue over changing some classes and everything hurts and her brothers were out of control and bottom line, the house was a wreck. I just tried to get everyone fed and to bed.

SO today I work and shop for the stupid birthday party, which will be fabulous after I kill myself to put it on, but only 3 people will come because I invited them only 2 days in advance. Then I try to work some more and go pick up kids and listen to more sob stories all while slaying the wicked TV set and cracking the whip to get kids to quick like do their homework and chores and then I had people over to dutch oven cook, for Young Womens, but Enigma was now crashed on my bed, so I had a crazy evening, looking for some work space in the kitchen and all. It was fun though and we got some food out of it. There is a list of like 10 urgent things I should be doing instead of party stuff. Did I mention how thrilled I am about this party? Actually, it's going to be so cool (for all 5 of us). I just don't know what's wrong with my partying soul. Somehow in all the commotion, I got school clothes washed and invitations printed, so all is well.

Now it's getting too late so I can't tell you about my other little adventure in progress that started last week. No matter what you hear, I want you to know, I didn't inhale. Well, technically I did, because I'm addicted to breathing, but I didn't touch the stuff at all, honest! You believe me don't you?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW Shellie! you have been BUSY!!!

Elizabeth said...

Yikes!!!
That is one heck of a day.
You must have had an extra Guardian Angel with you!
Blessings, E

4boyzmdmom said...

You have such a gift for making things sound funny that really aren't. I was laughing like crazy, forgetting that you were describing a life threatening situation!

Virtualsprite said...

Wow! That's about all I can muster now. What an incredible day.

caramama said...

That is crazy! Good luck figuring all that out for Carino. I'm glad you didn't die! And I hope the party goes well.

chelle said...

Like Elizabeth, I am glad you had a few guardian Angels with you. m

Carrie and Troy Keiser said...

So glad you survived the chip!
You've got a lot on your plate!