Randoms… Just an Update

For those of you who didn’t know – our whole family has been laced with sickness for the last week and a half.  We thought it started with Alexander, went to Addison, then to Andrew, and then back to Alexander.  The reason there were no pictures of Alexander last weekend at the twin’s birthday party was – he was feeling so poorly. 

 

When it was all said and done, we ended up with 3 doctor visits in 8 days.    Each time we went to the doctor, they didn’t give us medicine because they said it was a virus.  SO…. we were hesitant to take Alexander out needlessly when they weren’t going to give us anything for it anyway.  We basically didn’t sleep all week because we were on fever spike / seizure watch.  Many times seizures are triggered by fever spikes.

 

Wednesday night, I posted THIS out of sheer exhaustion.  I could actually feel the cough in his chest.  I almost called the doctor several times over the night, but I knew they would have sent us to the ER… and if you aren’t sick when you go into the ER, you will be sick by the time you get out.  In the end, we decided to wait it out.

 

The next morning, I felt good about going to work.  Alexander’s fever seemed to break and I couldn’t “feel” it in his chest anymore.  I decided to call the doctor when they opened after I got to work to get some advice.

 

Thank goodness we have a nurse.  When she took his vitals in the morning, she heard congestion in his lungs.  She called me immediately.  Did I mention she is amazing?  This set off a chain reaction of events:

* I call the doctor immediately

* They want us to come in immediately

* I have to leave work again ….

Turns out… we were about as close to pneumonia as you can come.   And we were very close to being sent to Hershey to make sure it was controlled.  sigh

 

I forgot to worry about pneumonia.  That is the truth…. I worry about seizures, I forgot about the other things that could come attack his little body.  We are in this weird place – the twins know and want to do things.  The winter can be a dangerous place for kids with WHS.  Now I remember – all the posts – from all of our new WHS friends – about how they hate winter.  Now I get it.

 

We were ultimately able to come home… with breathing treatments.  and Thank goodness we have a nurse who could show me how to use everything and monitor his vitals for the rest of the day. 

 

As it turns out, Alexander turned a corner that evening and has been slowly traveling the road to recovery since. 

 

This wasn’t even the story I really wanted to tell.  You see – Alexander’s illness is really only the prolog to this:

 

I feel a little overwhelmed at work.  I thought this year would be different… no more rushing out.  The doctor’s appointments are less and less frequent…  The only thing I really think I’m doing right at work is reaching the kids.  But then I think… isn’t that what its all about?

 

Here is the letter I wrote to my students on Thursday morning.  I left before we were able to talk about it. When I returned, they asked me why I had left so suddenly.  I told them Alexander was sick, but now is better.  They then wanted to discuss the letter in the back … that directly related to our topic of the day deviance. 

I told them the story about when we received 9 cases of Ellacare instead of 9 cans.  I asked them what they would’ve done.  We discussed all of the options.  They wanted to know what I did. 

One girl who had me before said she, “knew.” 

I asked her how she knew. 

She said, “Because I know you.” 

I asked her what I decided…

She said, “You gave it back. Because it was the right thing to do… I know that’s what you did.”

 

How cool is that?

 

That conversation led us to THIS ONE about a limited number of resources and the drain on our economy.  Specifically the drain by people who might not contribute.  The deep conversation of people who want to change the world, who love my son, who know my pride, and can now grasp the reality of what we must look like to people who don’t know us… a vacuum on the economy.

 

I need to do this.  I know that lives are being changed.  I know that those students left that class thinking about how to be a better person.  How to solve the world’s problems.  How to see life in shades of grey.

 

So …. my question is … again – How can I continue to make a difference like this and somehow get around all the bureaucratic things that make me feel overwhelmed?

If you are reading this and have a suggestion – I would love to hear it.

** And by bureaucratic – I mean no disrespect to my specific place of employment.  There is bureaucracy everywhere….. this is sort of a universal thing **