The Male Northern Red Cardinal

Jay has to do a report on this. It's due tomorrow. He had a pretty good start on it. He left his "good start" at school. I didn't know whether to scream or cry. I cried. It was an honest mistake and he felt bad so there was no need to yell at him. (And beyond allowing me a way to vent, it wouldn't have helped.) But I did make a modest deduction from his allowance.

He had an hour of tutoring tonight with Katie. She's good for him so far. And he likes her (maybe because she's a blonde!), so all is well. Poor Katie got to help write the report. Again. They worked on it together last week.

I may give some of that allowance deduction back though because at the moment, 15 minutes past his bedtime, he's working his butt off in his room typing away. He hasn't complained once. Katie was thoughtful enough to type it as he wrote it and emailed it to me, so he's typing based on his notes from the library and Katie's email - which are actually the same exact words, but her typing is easier to read than his writing!

He didn't even complain when he didn't get to watch Survivor. Though he was doing so well that I invited him to watch the immunity challenge with me. Then he happily went back to his work. Honestly, the kid freakin amazed me!

What makes this all worse, is he has to be up 45 minutes early tomorrow (that's 6 o' freakin clock!!) because he has orchestra practice for the Spring Ensemble which is Sunday night. He has to be at school by 7:00.

So here we are at 9:43 and he's done with the report (YAY), it's proofread, printed, stapled and ready to go. I just hope we don't forget it in the morning!

I absolutely do not condone this, but at the same time, it made me giggle!

Dyl's Gastroscopy

The drive to Riley today was filled with shrieked demands of "ba boo!!" but since she can't eat before the procedure, we had to placate her with her favorite stuffed puppy, which mostly worked. This puppy has gone with us to Riley almost every time, so I think we will start calling it the Riley Dog or something like that! She actually fell asleep in the car, which is unusual for her, but when we had to stop for gas she woke up screaming "ba boo!!" all over again. But she quickly found a picture of an apple on the building and started saying "Apple! Apple! Apple!" which actually sounds more like someone holding their tongue with their fingers and saying "Apple."

10:10 AM - We are are Riley Radiology now and her appointment is in 5 minutes.

10:45 AM - All done!! We went down today with the expectation that she would be under anesthesia and would have the tube stuck down her throat with a little bitty camera and they would have a look around. After all, isn't that what gastroscopy usually means?!? Nope, not today! Instead, they gave her some barrium to drink and x-ray'd her while she swallowed it.

The good news is that they did not find any evidence of structural abnormalities in her esophagus or stomach which means she is likely not aspirating her food. Rule that one out.

We have a follow up appointment at the end of May, so I guess we will just wait until then and see what they want to do next.

The Beginning

Ok, so I know I didn't start this blog "at the beginning" like I'm sure I'm supposed to, but hey, that's a working mom's life. Besides, inspiration is a funny thing.

Let me give you a bit of history, then we'll get to the present.

My name is Michelle, but most people just call me Chelle. I live in the (usually boring) midwest and am a nurse. My husband is Bryan and we've been married for 5 years. I/we have 2 kids.

Jay (not quite his real name, but what he prefers to be called!) is my 10 year old son from a previous relationship. He is in 4th grade. He plays violin (God bless him for trying anyhow!) and loves to do anything outside. He is a typical boy in that he is constantly a mess. And let's not talk about his room!! He's my buddy - we've been through a lot together! Oh, and one minor detail that makes life with him interesting...he has ADHD. One of his favorite jokes is,
Q: "How many kids with ADHD does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
A: "Wanna ride bikes?".
If you can't laugh at yourself, then who can you laugh at?!? He's a perpetually happy kid and exactly 1/2 of the reason I find to smile each day.

The other half of my reason to smile is Dyl (as in Dill pickles!!) - our daughter. She is 18 months old. She was actually my inspiration for starting this blog because of problems we've faced with her health. I'm sure you don't want all the details, so I will just give you a brief run-down.

At 3 months she was hospitalized for 4 days for respiratory distress. She was tested for RSV, twice, and was negative both times. Since that hospitalization she has had a chronic cough with lots of junk that comes up, wheezing and kind of a general bubbly/rasping sounding chest. She has seen different pediatricians and Immediate Care doctors for problems with breathing and we've always been told that A) it's a virus and it will go away or B) it's bronchitis and here's an antibiotic.

As any parent knows, you can only be brushed off so many times before you lose faith in The System. I was talking with another nurse/friend of mine who works for an allergist and she stuck Dyl on their schedule for the next day. This doctor diagnosed asthma and gave us medication to alleviate symptoms. We saw an improvement and were encouraged. Then she got a cold (or some virusey type thing) and we saw the same symptoms again. This time the symptoms didn't go away no matter how many nebulizer treatments we gave her. There was mild improvement, but only for an hour or so.

Then back we went through the gauntlet of antibiotics, but this time they added a twist. They threw in some prednisone. Even that didn't make much improvement. Eventually, Bryan got frustrated enough that he called Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis and asked if we needed a referral or if we could make our own appointment. As it turned out, we didn't need a referral, according to Riley, and our insurance didn't require one either, so we were directed to Dr. Greg Montgomery, a pediatric pulmonologist/allergist. Now, it's been pretty boring reading so far, so let's throw in some trumpets for fan fare and in my biggest booming voice, I shall announce...

The Riley Chronicles

Dr. Montgomery is a fantastic, personable, warm man. He instantly set us at ease and matter-of-factly told us that he would form his own opinion based on what we told him and what he saw. I know, that's his job, right? But in our experience some docs don't. It's worth mentioning that on her first visit with Dr. Montgomery, which I was unable to be at, she was tested for Cystic Fibrosis. Bryan quite casually sent me a text message saying only "Cystic Fibosis." It's also worth mentioning that he had no idea what it was and so wasn't nearly as alarmed as I was. Alarmed isn't really the right word...more like TOTALLY FLIPPED OUT! Thank God the test was negative, so that's one thing off of the Possible Problems Checklist. So The Riley Chronicles will be updated as required by our visits there. Today's visit will be a separate post entirely.

If you've made it to this point, just let me say thanks for sticking with me this long!