Shannon Update

So Shannon went into work Tuesday though he was still having a lot of tooth pain. He would take the perkocet later in the day, after main lesson, to alleviate the pain and not be fuzzy through main lesson. His blood pressure was still high, but it's "normal" high, which was bothering me because he was now taking blood pressure medication but it still seemed to not be helping much.

Wednesday after school he went back to his Naturopath and caught her caught up on Monday's event, hoping she could help us figure out how to get his blood pressure down enough for his Endodontist appointment for Thursday at noon. She had him double his blood pressure medication for that night and again in the morning along with taking his perkocet in hopes that would bring it down enough (safely) that he could finally get the work done that he needed on his tooth. We also asked her to go ahead and refer him to the Md. at the same business to start working on what blood pressure medications will get all of this under control. So he had an appointment with a new Dr. on Friday after school.

Thursday at noon was Shannon's much needed and very stressful dentist appointment. He felt as if his blood pressure had to be incredibly low with all the drugs he had taken in under 12 hours. Alas, it was still high, but not as high as Monday, and with a little coaxing the dentist was willing to get the work started. So an hour later he had his tooth drilled and filled with antiobiotics to start killing the nasty infection he has deep inside. (WHEW!) He has to go back to the dentist in two weeks for them to take a peek and then two more weeks (if the infection is gone) to finish fixing up the tooth (root canal we think).

That afternoon, when we got home from school early and his novicaine had worn off but the antiobiotics were obviously starting to take affect as his nose wasn't draining 1/3 as much he checked his blood pressure again and it was at a new all time low! Though, the next morning it was back up, but still not as high as it had been all this past couple of weeks.

So today we just got back from his Dr. appointment, and the Dr. was not only nice, kind and intelligent, but he was willing to say that he wasn't sure which blood pressure medication he should be on so he wanted to refer him to the other Dr. in this same place, who has a lot more experience to help us make the right decision. So, he has yet one more Dr.'s appointment next Thursday to help us decide whether a beta blocker or an ACE inhibitor is the right path to go.

Yipee, we are on our way to a safe recovery and a happier healthier Shannon who will be around for another 50 years!

There was much craziness in the office at school every day this week since Monday but I'll write about all of that later this weekend. Just know that Shannon is doing much better today! He's back to his happy-go-lucky self! Yipeeee!

Emotionally Exhausting Day

Well, from last nights end of Dot kitty passing away to today I think I've squeezed the whole week into less than 24 hours!

Shannon has been having a tooth problem and I finally got him to see an Endodontist today, during school to start having the tooth worked on. After being sick almost all last week with a fever and cough, and then this tooth problem and then Dot dying last night it's no wonder what happened next...

The dentist decided that he needed to do some immediate drilling on his tooth to put some kind of antibiotic "fill" inside to get rid of the infection, and after announcing that he then needed to take Shannon's blood pressure.

It was so high that they thought their machine was broken so went and got another machine and took it a 2nd time, to no avail. They decided that not only were they NOT going to work on his tooth but that he needed to either see his Dr. or call his Dr. to see what they wanted to do. So they call his Dr.'s office, but she wasn't in, but they checked with another Dr. who said that he needed to go to a hospital right away.

Sigh

So, after getting a prescription for amoxicillan and driving directions to UNC Hospital and calling back to the school to say that Shannon would not be back for his next class because his blood pressure was so high....off to the hospital we went.

5 hours later with a 2 week high blood pressure medication and some sort of pain pill for his tooth we are now safely back at home.

Faculty and class parents were all very concerned...giving us quiche, soup and a casserole for dinner tonight and offerings of more food to come and even driving our boys to school tomorrow if we couldn't...all just an amazing community when emergencies are abound!

I had my first huge glimpse or flash of possibly loosing my husband...the man of my life...my soulmate...being gone...and it wasn't a lovely glimpse at all.

We will be resetting that dentist appointment tomorrow along with his Dr. and moving onto a regular Md. to get this high blood pressure undercontrol. I want Shannon around for another 50 years at least!

In exhaustion...Me

Audieu to our Dot Kitty

It is with great sadness that I make this post tonight. Our most favorite, sweet, kind, loving, soft, happy, purr-fect companion, Dot Kitty has passed away tonight.

No traumatic car accident, no injury, no illness as far as we can tell, just her time to go. We thought she might have a cold as the past 24 hours she has not really been eating, which is completely not normal for Dot. But about 15 minutes ago Mary came into the living room with a frantic, "Come here now!" to Shannon. Dot was just outside her door and she was laying on her side, not moving. Shannon picked her up and as we talked about whether we should call an emergency vet Dot made one last kind of cough sound and stopped breathing...in Shannon's warm arms.

I don't have a photo of her on the PC but will put one on this blog later (probably tomorrow) in honor of the little kitten that Jared so badly wanted us to keep.

She was our boys first pet that has been with us for 10 years, from her birth until death. She will be greatly missed by all of us. We love you very much Dot!

Bragging Rights

Okay, Alex just did a babysitting stint for a parent at our school and we received the following email:

Hi Kelley and Shannon-

I just wanted to let you know that I was quite impressed with Alex last night. I hesitated when he asked for $10/hr because we usually have a neighbor babysit for us who is the same age as Alex and has 6 siblings. I paid him $8/hr. He got the job done, but not much more. Alex, on the other hand, made dinner from scratch, had the kids in bed before we came home, emptied the dishwasher and cleaned up after dinner, and when Brian asked me how much to give Alex, Alex expected us to pay him less for the time after the kids were in bed. Wow! He was polite, the kids enjoyed his company, they listened to him (at least by Alex's report) and there was only one plastic spoon caught on fire (I haven't gotten the full story on this one yet). You did good!! Alex did, too.

So, I am wondering if there is a chance to set up a regularly scheduled "date night", once a month. And I will happily pay $10/hr.

'Nuff said.

Update on Ankle's and Volunteering!

So we went back to the Dr.'s on Wednesday this past week after school and were advised that Jared was lucky. No fracture, no salter fracture, just a bad sprain. There has been no damage to his growth plate either. So he is supposed to wear his "boot" for 2 more weeks, then high tops tied for 2 weeks, then regular tennis shoes tied for 2 weeks and will be all set! Unfortunately that means no more basketball for the season, but he can go to practices and just practice shooting and go to any more games to cheer on his teammates - GO EAGLES! Fortunately we use arnica - which is a homeopathic miracle as far as I'm concerned and it's helping heal his foot up quicker than just ice and ibuprofen. So he may get a last chance to play in early February if he takes care of his ankles!

The boys had an SAC meeting two weekends ago but I'm not quite sure what's new. I am glad that they are a part of this event as I think it will be a great educational piece for themselves personally, for social issues, but also for any college entrances they may want to make in the future! I'll let you guys know more when I do.

The last piece is the volunteer time at the Orange County Animal Shelter. Alex and I went to our orientation last week and will be going to our training tomorrow night and then after that we can start volunteering 2 or 4 hours a week. The best news is that they are having a new building built less than 1 mile from our school. This should be done and open by the end of March and then we can walk from school to the shelter, and, eventually Jared can start volunteering if he wants too.

I have a piece of parent proudness but I wanted to copy and paste the email into the blog so that will have to wait! So for now, we hope everyone has had a good week. Happy MLK Jr. birthday! Tomorrow is another historic event - Hope and Change!!!!

Lazy or Just Busy?

It feels like I just posted something on my blog but it tells me that it's been since January 2nd - 9 days ago?!?!

I wish I could say we have just been lazy but as I reflect back on this past week it seems that is not the case! This is not going to be one of my story posts about one particular event or happening this time. It's just about this past week in general which really isn't all that exciting, except the end of the week. So you can always scroll down if it's too mundane! :)

School started back up for all of us on Monday and it started off with a bang for me. We were without internet and email and we also have a very important letter that needed to go out to the parent community by the end of dismissal that day. On top of that there was projectile barfing from a 1st grader on our office carpet (she managed to miss BOTH trash bins that were next to her). So, needless to say it was a very long hectic day for me.

Of course, basketball continued so we were back to the late evenings again. We also found out that there were 2 new games added to the week on top of the one that had been planned for awhile. So Tuesday, Thursday and Friday were game days for Jared.

On Tuesday not only did we still not have internet and email at work but the database - which I use constantly - was not working. Talk about the week looking like it was going to last forever! There were also three different students coming in to share their sore throat germs with us...sigh. Luckily I had our wonderful parent volunteer get the database back up and running at some point during the day. But because of the wait I had work to do that went past my 4pm end time. Shannon had an even more interesting day as we he was supposed to be at a meeting after school, he now had Jared's basketball game that he should attend, and the one he ended up having to do which was help someone pack up all their stuff and load it up in their vehicle to take away.

So, sadly, we all missed Jared's Tuesday basketball game but Alex and I went and picked him up and went home, leaving Shannon behind because it was still going to be a couple more hours before he was ready to go home. Needless to say it was an incredibly long Tuesday.

Wednesday seemed to just build on the last two crappy days, at least in the office for me, with things only piling up and people around me seeming to be using software and technology that just shouldn't be allowed too! So, by 12:30 I was so incredibly frustrated at everyone's "stupidity" and the fact that the internet and email still weren't working that I had to just go for a very long walk. It was the best 2 mile walk and relieved all of my stress (thank goodness because I really was feeling the desire to just go postal)! And finally our high school Spanish teacher, who is also our IT tech support came in and fixed the internet and email, or at least we hoped. I also did my 2 mile walk again - and boy, what a difference it makes!

So I was able to finish out that day with patience and calmness until Shannon was done with the weekly faculty meeting and Jared's basketball practice was done. Yet another late evening home again.

(Mind you, the weather here for these past 3 days have been incredibly fun ((sarcasm here)) almost cloudy all the time with tons of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday it was cloudy with a lot of wind and in the low 60's!)

Thursday was mostly uneventful. I went around and helped administrative staff with using software. While doing this I have decided I need to find a way to make time to give classes this summer for both Excel and CRM (our database) - I just have to find the time.

Jared's basketball game was back in Bahama, which is almost an hour from our school. So by the time Shannon's weekly College meeting was done and we drove up there we missed the first half of the game. This is the team of hairy large thick young men that they played before the holiday break (my first basketball post). I found out that this team is all seniors, so varsity, not junior varsity like ours, and that they have been playing together for 4 years. So I actually felt proud that our team could even score points at all, let alone 25, which is what they did this time. Go Eagles! Home late again.

Finally Friday! It should have come much faster but, at least it got here! And with it no database and then no internet and email before 9am at work. Our IT guy was back and needed to use my computer so that left me, at first, twiddling my thumbs, and then eventually helping our Admissions with stuffing folders for enrollment - stuff, stuff, stuff.

By noon everything was back to normal and work went on as usual. The sun was finally out that day as well, so it just felt better in general. I also did my 2 mile walk yet again and then it was another basketball game to attend after school was out. Luckily this one was just up the road at Carolina Friends School.

So Alex, Shannon and I get over there just in time for the start of game and we are cheering on our team. A few more parents from both schools slowly started trickling in as the game continued. The Eagle's started off well but as time went on it seemed their stamina was wearing down quickly. They were not used to 3 games in one week.

Shortly after half time Jared is back out on the court and we were all following the ball action, which did not include Jared and when we looked back to where the ball action was heading there was Jared on the ground, trying to reach his left ankle and making an excruciating face and we were all trying to figure out what exactly happened?

After a few moments, when it was obvious he wasn't getting up the refs stopped the game and one of the coaches came over and helped him off the court. They put him on the bench for a few moments with some ice, but we could tell from the faces he was making that something was not right. The coach moved him into the room behind them where they can use a whiteboard to work on plays and closed the door. Alex asked if he should go check, and trying not to be a mother hen and go run and find out what was going on, I said that would be a good idea.

So, after a few minutes of Alex being gone and not returning I asked Kimani if he could go find out what was going on and report back to me. Kimani came back out and said that the couch thought Jared needed x-rays!

At this point I went over to the room and took a peek. Jared's left ankle was already completely swollen and starting to turn a light blue shade and he was really in a lot of pain - coming from my tough boy (high tolerance for pain). The coach said that he was concerned because of how quickly it swelled and also that Jared said he heard a popping sound that something just might be broken.

So we gathered up his things and Alex helped him out to the truck. I asked around to the parents where the best place to take him would be as this was our first emergency and luckily one of the parents said there was an urgent care just up the road that did x-rays. So I called to make sure they were open and then we headed on our way.

An hour later, of mostly waiting, it seems that there is something between a sprain and a fracture, called a "salter fracture". You can google it if you'd like. It seems that this is a very common injury for kids this age, especially when they plays sports (like basketball). But because the Dr. on duty was not an orthepedic Dr., only a general practician, he wanted Jared to come back later in the week during the normal operating hours of the place (which is an Orthepedic office) and have another x-ray done and the orthepedic Dr. to take a look.

So for now Jared is hobbling around with a "boot" (looks kind of like a ski boot) and is taking ibuprofin for when it hurts and we are using arnica and ice when needed. He will get to go back in on Wednesday after school and see what is really going on. In the mean time he has to wear the boot when he's going to be up and moving around (which is most of the time) and take it off for showers and bed.

To top it off we had Sasha and Kimani over that night after the game for a sleepover and then on Saturday they had to go to their S.A.C. training at the high school from noon to 3pm (this is part of that Social Inclusion program I wrote about a couple of months ago).

So, today is Sunday and now that I'm done writing about the past week I still wish I could say I was just lazy and didn't feel like writing but that wasn't the case.

New Year and Life Happenings

So the big hit in the Wiley household is a computer game called Spore. For those who are not into computers or computer games you can go to Spores website here to learn more if you want. This is a mixture of a few different types of games that the guys love all put into one. We got the fancy space one so you can start out as an amoeba and evolve to the point where space travel is possible. It really is quite a fun and funny game - though not one that will be sucking my life or brain cells away any time soon. This is yet another game of multi-tasking, which I can't stand! I guess I do enough multi-tasking in my work life, and home life, that escaping into a multi-tasking game just isn't for me. But the guys all seem to be enjoying it so I think it was the number 1 gift from Christmas!

Alex is Mr. Socialite. We had a goodbye party for one of his classmates who was only in the class for a few months and is now returning to Austria. That was a couple days before Christmas. Then they had another goodbye party for her because two of the classmates were not here when we had our party. Then it was ice skating with K.T. for 3 hours (my ankles shudder in fear of that thought).

Then New Year's Eve both Alex and Jared went to a party to ring in the new year's with some of their classmates and friends - it was a party for families so we were invited as well. But, because our boys have to hang out with us so much of their lives - at school and when we are running and chaperoning the dances - we felt it was best to give them some social space.

So resolutions are always a big thing for New Years for a lot of people. I used to be one of those people but over the years have realized that a lot of the resolutions were to lofty or maybe I just did too many? Then I would be disappointed in myself when I didn't do them all or keep them. This time around I think instead of hitting myself with a lot of resolutions all at once I will just work on one thing at a time - baby step resolutions - to help myself grow and change. I'll let you know how that goes.

My first baby step is to try some volunteering OUTSIDE of our school. Because animals have been a long time passion of mine that is where I'm going to start. The Orange County Animal Shelter is near the school and because basketball is keeping me at school late every night I figured I could be using my time more wisely. Alex says he is interested in doing that as well so we are going to put in our applications and hopefully go to their next training session and go from there.

Only 3 more days and then it's back to the rat race. This has been the first time in 7 years that I have been able to spend the whole holiday vacation with my family and it has been the best! No having to take vacation time to do so or, worse, having to work while they are all home relaxing. I could get used to this! :)

Happy New Years to everyone. More to come later.