When it rains...

In my updates on Ethan, the part I never mentioned was that when Ethan started getting his symptoms on Sunday evening, I also started getting symptoms with a cold then, too. It was just a cold and I was just trudging along dealing with it while handling Ethan's issues until yesterday. I'm not sure if it was just a matter of my immune system being down or what, but I thought I was dying yesterday. By late afternoon I was running a fever. I felt like my eyes were burning out of my head. Emily, who brought home her AR book to read to me, sat next to me on the bed while I was barely breathing, and read to me Fox in Socks. Dr. Seuss is not the kind of book you really want to hear when you are trying to sleep. After she was finished reading it, she announced to me that she will NEVER read another Dr. Seuss book again. She HATES Dr. Seuss books. They make no sense to her and they are ridiculous stories because they are really no stories at all. What was I supposed to tell her. Personally, I never much liked the books either. I just suggested to her to choose different books the next time. She told me that it is just a bunch of silly rhyming words with no story to it. What kind of AR test will they do on something like that? Even this morning she was still mad about it and even told her brother not to ever pick out a Dr. Seuss book to read.



Yesterday I had called the school nurse to see what the protocol is regarding the situation with Ethan and his somewhat low oxygen sats, but otherwise he is feeling fine. I asked the nurse if she had a pulse oximeter at school to check his sats and she said they did not. Ethan also does not have new prescriptions from the doctor for his nebulizer treatments for the school. At the beginning of the school year he was still on the inhaler. She said that if Ethan is needing his sats checked then he needs to be kept at home. Also, he has already missed so much school because of his illnesses that she said it won't be long until I'll have to be going to court. It may be too late this year, but we really need to do a 504 plan for Ethan for next year to protect him for the amount of time he misses due to illness.



Ethan was ready to go to school this morning and got ready without incident. He packed his snack of chocolate pudding and apple juice. I said, "Well, Xander will be happy, won't he, Ethan?" He said, "Yeah, and so will Cole S----." I asked him what he was talking about. He then told me that he trades his apple juice with Cole's water because Cole doesn't like the water that his mom sends him. I said, "Well, Ethan, if you want water, why don't you just take a water bottle instead of juice?" You see, Emily prefers water over juice and so I almost always have water bottles on hand. Ethan says he knows he could take water, but he takes juice so that Cole can have it. Who knew snack trading was so big in Kindergarten?????

As I was typing this update, the phone rang and the caller ID said it was from the school. I silently said a little prayer before I answered it and then I took the call. It was, of course, the school nurse. She said that she hated to call me so soon in the day, but that she had Emily in her office. She said that Emily's eye was all red and itchy and that it looked really bad. Well, it wasn't like that at home this morning, but then again, I am not feeling at my best and their daddy is the one that got them ready for school this morning. I asked her if she thought it was pink eye and she said yes. I said that I would be on my way to pick her up. While driving to the school, I called the doctor's office and got an appointment to take her there right away. So, today Emily and I are spending the day at home together. I started her on the Vigamox eye drops and she can go back to school tomorrow. I'd hate for her to miss their Valentine's Day party at school tomorrow. I will be glad for this week to be OVER!!!!!!!