Monday, April 21, 2008

Utter Madness - But We're All OK

I've been the absentee blogger lately, I know...

In a nutshell, I left the job I've loved for four years and started someplace new. That was about 7 weeks ago now.

The new job is fine -- I have a decent life/work balance, which is critical for me. Obviously.

It is taking a long time to get ramped up though, which is frustrating. I don't really have a budget for my online marketing programs, and the two guys I work with, who have complimentary positions, are very, very smart, and very, very busy. So I feel kind of stupid and lazy right now. It's a little challenging.

At home, I'm still getting used to the routine of the new job. Different commute. Different stress level...scared to be late or to ask to work from home...but I do both anyway...

The kids are doing well regardless. I'm definitely yelling at them a little less. The stress of the new job is a heck of a lot lower than the stress of the old job as it was petering out.

The old job was so wonderful...loved every minute of it until the company was acquired. Then it was something like watching a beloved grandparent succumb to Alzheimers. Everything you love, all the memories just dying away, until you don't recognize each other anymore. I'm writing in a rush right now...but you get the idea. It was painful and horrible, but I know the company I loved really doesn't exist anymore. And I don't recognize -or trust - what's grown in its place.

So those last few weeks, with a new boss and a new CEO, were VERY stressful, and I felt like I was losing patience with the boys a lot in the morning. I'm not, by nature, a yeller, so it was weird for all of us to have me screaming at them (especially Ozzy, who's just going through a PHASE right now).

Things are quieter now, but it's still challenging. And I dont' feel like I have time for anything at all these days. By the time I've gotten those three guys off to bed, I want to go lie down myself!!

Anyway...enough about me! Here's the deal with the guys:

  • Ozzy: Coughing. I went to on my first business trip in a while - and my first plane ride in 8 years! - this past week, and of course he had a flare. I got called on my cell phone mid-meeting in Atlanta...he was being sent home from daycare because he was coughing so much! I called the husband and made sure he understood the action plan. Then called every two hours to check in. Sounds like it was a rough day or two, and he's still coughing at night, but he's doing OK overall. He was dropped from Flovent 110 to 44 about two weeks ago, and taken off Singular, so we'll evaluate the meds situation if he's not better in a few days.
  • B: Still coughing a bit. It's been about three weeks now, and he's doing MUCH better. Oddly, he's on Augmentin right now for (of all things) a severely infected hangnail. (So gross...) I suspect the cough is from a lingering sinus infection, so the Augementin would clear that up, if I'm right.
  • Ig: Bad diapers, a few sleepless nights, and digging in the right ear. Could we be en route to another ear infection? If so, we're down for new tubes AND an adenoidectomy. We'll see...

I *may* have heard a cough from Ig this morning, and he did insist on taking his blankee to daycare today. Never a good sign.

Sorry for the very long and poorly (quickly!) written post, but gosh it feels good to bring you up to speed!

Monday, April 07, 2008

Oz is FOUR today!

Happy Birthday, Monkey! I wish you a year free of flares and Orapred.

Technorati Profile

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Singulair: Believe the hype!

I hope by now you know me well enough to know that I'm no alarmist. I report, I offer my opinion, but I generally don't freak out over things.

So with the news of Singular and possible suicide ideation, along with other emotional symptoms, I followed the news, but I didn't react much. My kids are so young...is there really any risk or suicide, even of depression, in a six-year-old?

Apparently, there is. We went to the pediatric pulmonologist on Thursday, and she's taking all kids off Singulair over the next month.

Now, this is a woman who is against anti-bacterial hand soaps, who aggressively prescribes inhaled steroids...and someone I tend to think of as reasonable and level-headed.

For her to take B and Oz off of Singulair so abruptly was a bit disconcerting. The office is taking the new - and still unconfirmed - research very seriously. They even sent an email to their patient base about it.

B's been on Singulair since he was 26- or 27-months old, way before his ASD diagnosis. We never considered that the night terrors he suffered might be from Singulair. Nor did we consider that the lack of mirth we've seen in him since September might be related to the drug. There's been so much ELSE going on...Kindergarten, for starters! New friends, my husband's new job and new schedule....MY new job...so much. It would be hard to trace the changes in him back to just the Singulair.

But we'll see. He's got a cough right now - first one since the early fall - so he's on the stuff through May 8.

Ozzy's already off, and all I can say is that I'm HOPING for an improvement in behavior!! He's been on Singulair for as long as I can remember.

Lately, his behavior has been horrible. He's been tuning us out, talking back - he even HIT me yesterday. (He was tired, so I'll cut him some slack...but really, that's unacceptable!)

Maybe there's some small chance that the Singulair is behind that nasty attitude.

Maybe I'm totally dreaming.