So much to say...

There is so much to say, and so little motivation to post it. :) I'll start by saying that Ethan is better. He never ended up needing any kind of steroids. His oxygen levels got better after some breathing treatments. He had a follow up appointment with Dr. Cleveland, his allergist, on Tuesday. Dr. Cleveland was very happy with how Ethan is doing on his new asthma meds. He was very happy to see how he uses his peak flow meter and how his numbers have been. I'm confident that we have made the right move by going with this doctor and this treatment plan.

I also had to take Ethan to the doctor today to talk about ADD. It is an issue that I knew we would eventually be dealing with, and now was the time to talk about it. Ethan had a couple things happen at school that were just so out of character for him and caused him to get poor conduct grades for those days. After communicating with the teacher about it and what is happening at school, I just have a big concern about Ethan slipping through the cracks. He is getting good grades now because he is so intelligent, but there will come a point where the lack of attention will catch up with him and it will cause him to either have lower grades or even lower self-esteem than he already has. According to his teacher, Ethan struggles every day with just completing the worksheets they do. And even though she says that he is probably one of the brightest students in her class, and can do triple digit math problem in his head, he struggles with the most basic math worksheet they do called "Rocket Math" because it is timed and has to be done in one minute. They have to do a certain number of these problems before they can move on to the next set. It was after the teacher and I talked about Ethan's focusing problems and inattentiveness that I decided that it was time to see the doctor. I don't want to wait until his grades start to suffer because by that time I feel like you are dealing with more self-esteem problems. While I was at the doctor's office today, I talked to him about Ethan's sensory issues that we still deal with on occasion. I have never really talked to our pediatrician about them before because they were always dealt with through Ethan's occupational therapy when he was younger and then we just dealt with it on our own when he quit going to therapy. I explained to the doctor how Ethan sometimes gets these things pop up that we have to deal with like the paper aversion problem he had over the summer. He also has started mouthing stuff again to the point where I have thought about searching for his Chewy Tube that his therapist gave him when he was a toddler. Ethan is constantly chewing on EVERYTHING...his backpack strap, toys, the wrist strap to the Wii remote, pens and pencils, toys, paper, EVERYTHING! I talked about how Ethan often complains of ailments like tummy aches and lately even that his "spine hurts". I was concerned that maybe this is due to some anxiety over his constant concerns for Emily all the time or could it be something more. Our doctor felt like it would be a good idea to have Ethan see a psychologist/psychiatrist for an evaluation since we are doing an ADD eval on him anyway. He talked about how there are a lot of different conditions that go hand in hand with ADD and whether or not Ethan scores positive on the papers that he gave us and the teachers to all fill out, he thought it would also be a good idea to refer Ethan on for further evaluation. And while we were at the appointment, Ethan was able to get his seasonal flu shot. Thank goodness!!!! Now Emily is the only one left to get hers. And then we have to work on finding and getting the H1N1 shots!!!!

I need to quickly update about my condition. Yes, I'm still in pain. I finally had my appointment with the pain management/rehab doctor. Long story short, I start therapy next week. They will be doing a combination of traction and decompression therapy on me. It sounds promising. In the meantime, I was given some type of nerve blocking pain meds that were finally able to allow me to get some sleep. I'll post some updates after I start therapy.

And last, but certainly not least, today was report card day at school. Ethan and Emily BOTH made A HONOR ROLL for the first quarter!!!!!! I am so proud of them!!!! Now here is the funny thing, Emily is more like me than I ever imagined!!!! She made an S in handwriting. It was her worst grade, and was always my worst grade, too. I overheard Ethan being so concerned for Emily and he said, "Oh no! Do you still get to make honor roll?" He was so cute and so sweet to be concerned.

Here are their grades:

Ethan -
Reading:96
Language: 95
Spelling: 100
Math: 100
Social Studies: 99
Science/Health: 95
Conduct, Handwriting, PE, Art, Music: G

Emily -
Reading: 100
Language: 96
Spelling: 100
Math: 100
Social Studies: 100
Science/Health: 100
Conduct, PE, Art, Music: G
Handwriting: S