I'm Impressed!

With my Kenny-Dude that is. He is such a little trooper. We took him for his blood work yesterday after school. I mean who does like having a needle poked into their arm. But especially for a little boy that doesn't understand what's going on and doesn't get the explanation either.

So with him sitting in Daddy's lap, and me holding his arm still and straight (that was a fete(sp?) in itself) he had 8 vials of blood taken. 8. That's a lot of blood from a little guy. I'm so proud of him. We took him to the store "I Love Chocolate" after and I bought him a chocolate lollipop (and Maddy too for being a good girl). He really enjoyed that, as you could tell by the evidence all over his face. :)

I'm thankful that it is over now. Unless something comes up on the tests, he shouldn't need anymore blood work done. At least for now.

And a small update on me. They now want me in for an MRI instead of a C-Scan. So I had to go back to the hospital to have my eyes x-rayed for metal flakes since I worked with metal machining. I haven't heard back about that yet so I'm hoping that is clear and can be scheduled asap for the mri. This is getting nuts. I need a vacation away from myself and my life!

I'm hitting the end of my rope.

Yep, how much more can I take without going completely and totally crazy.

I just got off the phone from the Dr's office and found out that I have an extremely bad case of osteoarthritis in my neck/shoulders. Really. Gee, so how much more can I fit on my plate. Between Kenny and his issues, our lack of money and now this added problem, what the hell. I'm so ready to curl up into a ball and cry. Actually I just want to, well I can't do what I want to do. Rob can't get the time off and we don't have the money anyway.

I really have to get off my fat lard ass and get moving. I've spent too much time lazing around, somehow waiting for life to fix its self. Why does it feel like I've been kicked in the teeth repeatedly since I quit smoking. I quit, became an insulin dependent diabetic and now have developed arthritis in my neck. Bad enough that my Dr is really surprised and wants to send me for a CAT scan ASAP. Damn. Maybe I should start drinking again. At least that should numb the pain, or at least make it so I don't care anymore. Hmmm, has potential.

It's Official

Yep, it's officially official. Kenny is on the autism spectrum. Somewhere in between mild and moderate. This is something we already knew right? So what's the big deal, you're asking? Well the 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper that states he has an official diagnosis is our 'ticket' so to speak to a bunch more services and help for him.

So now we start a long journey into a world I never thought I'd see. Hopefully it will be as smooth as possible.

It's been a long time (sing with me!)

Ok maybe not.

Where to begin. I don't think Kenny had seen Dr Carter the last time I was here. That appointment was on Dec 15 and went well. She asked a ton of questions, watched him play, played with him, interacted with him, checked his vitals, that kind of stuff. The total time was just over 2 hours total spent either talking to me or directly to Kenny. He was very good throughout the whole thing. Made trains out of all the toys and referenced everything else to trains. But for Kenny that is typical. She did mention that she wants a ton of blood work done to rule out some things like Fragile X Syndrome, hormone issues, iron issues etc. But other than that said he is one very healthy little boy! At least that is one very positive thing.
We decided on holding off on the blood test until after the holidays, so not to stress him to much. And we made an appointment for Jan 19th (next Monday) for just us adults. I will have to update when I can on that. There definitely is something not right. But what? We don't know yet.

Christmas has been hell. Most kids get extra excited and spun, right? Kenny just takes that to a whole new level. His whole schedule was thrown to shit. No school, no daycare and no regular programs all through the break. He was so confused, asking everyday what was happening. Could not get that it was Christmas Break and all the normal things and activities were closed. By the last few days, the potty accidents started. And they haven't stopped. At least for us at home. Both school and daycare don't see it to much, but here, crap it's constant now. He will NOT! go to the potty. Either Rob or I have to take him upstairs and in some cases forcibly hold him down. Not fun. He has also gotten more violent towards me. I have bite marks on me where he has broken skin and bruises from him hitting, punching and kicking. I'm not aiming for a pity parade but he has had me in tears all week. I'm at my wits end on dealing with him and the issues that are with him. I still love him. Really, really love him and try everyday to wake up and think, ok, it's going to be better today. I tell him (and his sister of course) that I love them with all my heart. I don't think that I'm up for this most nights. By then I feel like I've completely failed as a person and a parent. He nor his two sisters deserve a parent like what I've been. Sounds horrible. But oh so true.

Other than that pity parade, if you know us, you know what has been happening over the last few weeks. Christmas is over!!! Yippee!!!! Now I have to beg for forgiveness from my Dad for forgetting his birthday on Jan 5. Oops. Just chalk that up to complete stupidity. Tana's birthday is coming up next Tuesday. Are you all sitting down? She will be 21. Legal to drink in the States. Old enough for everything now. Where in the living hell did the time go????? 21. How is that even possible? Ugh. I'm getting to old for this. Time for the nursing home for me. Or at least a mini vacation to a nice padded room. Or even a couch in Columbus. I really need my laptop fixed.

See that is another problem of mine right now. My laptop is fubar, something to do with the electrical connection within the computer itself, not the cord. So it is not charging the battery or even showing it is plugged in at all. Sucks cause I can't access any of my pictures! I can't even really take anymore right now cause I have no idea when it can be fixed or get a new one and Rob's PC is not working right either. So I'm screwed for taking or printing any pictures. And I got me a brand spanking new macro lens for Christmas! And I can't even see my results!!! :(

Anyhoo, that is all for now. Lets please all cross our fingers/toes and anything else that Kenny will finally use the potty regularly now that things are back to normal. All scheduled programs are running and there won't be any more major disruptions until Easter.

Mark this day down,

cause I think that we will see snow from now until spring :(

Oh what a week.....

It has been. Lets see, where should I start. Well last Friday due to circumstances beyond our control both kids were out of school. So we had been planning a trip to Toronto anyway to drop off some important paperwork and figured this would be the perfect time. So to the Go Train we went.

Rode the train into Union Station in Toronto. Then walked to the offices we needed to get to. Both kids were doing fine. We also promised a subway ride and a streetcar ride so down to the subway first, then back to the surface to ride a streetcar. Oops, rush hour, packed streetcar, sardines, two high spirited children, not a good combo. But we bore it out and made it all the way to the Longbranch Loop. Then hopped on a bus and met up with Auntie Cathy at my favorite, all time best burger place, Apache Burger. Yummmmmmm!

Had a nice, albeit short visit with Cathy (gotta hook up again soon girl!) then back on a bus and to the train station for the ride home. It was much later than planned, but figured that tomorrow is Saturday, we can all sleep in. Boy did that go out the window.

We got home at 11:30 pm. Got both kiddo's in bed, then we went to bed a bit later (like for me around 1am). I was woken up just before 3am by the sound of Maddy crying. Went in to find she had been sick on her bed, pillow, Ruff Ruff and of course herself. Fun. Got that cleaned up, only to have her do it again (fortunately in the toilet this time). So got the bucket and headed her back to bed (fully changed of course).

The poor girl continued until after 10 in the morning. Then pretty much slept all day Saturday. She had one more episode at bedtime, but slept all night. Relief, we are done. Nope. Shoulda known.

Kenny was the next victim. He started at 2am Monday. Continued until around 7, then slept pretty much the rest of the day. Hubby also started about 7:30am Monday and tried to go to work, but ended up coming home early and he slept it off.

As for me, I didn't escape it either. Mine started Tuesday, early afternoon. But I still managed to take the kids swimming, although ended up sitting in the bathroom most of the time. Made it home after that and collapsed. Not to be seen or heard from again until almost 8 am yesterday (Wednesday). Yes the kids were late for school, but hey life happens.

So it is now Thursday and I'm finally feeling more human than I have in a few days. Laundry, I gots it. Messy house, I gots it. Willingness to clean, Hell to the no!!!!!! Do I have too, yes. Blah.

Keeping fingers, toes and anything else crossed that there is no more sickness. We need some healthy time!

Halloween

Went pretty good. Especially the great weather we had. That is the first time in recent memory that it has been warm enough to walk around withOUT a winter coat and freezing our bums off.

We stayed local. Just walked around our neighbourhood, making sure to visit our friends places. And of course a stop for the adults at Timmy's. But still, we managed two bags of pure sugar. Now comes the fights of limiting the candy to one or possibly 2 a day. Fun stuff. And now we can't go into a store without being reminded that Christmas is coming. I just want to crawl under a rock and ignore it right now.

And to make matters even better, we have a clogged drain. There is about a ft long section of pipe that drains the kitchen sink and washing machine that is clogged. How did I figure this out? Easy, I tried to do some laundry yesterday morning and ended up filling the kitchen sink with the laundry water and creating a fountain in the laundry room from the drain pipe. Fun fun here, let me tell ya!

The only semi positive thing is that we can still flush our toilet and use the bathroom. They don't seem to be affected. So just means no dishes or laundry. Which means that we are not calling a plumber until Monday. Way to expensive to call on a weekend. So long as the toilet is working, I'm good with that. We did try to snake it out. Didn't work. We tried dumping stuff down the drain. Didn't work. Plunging. Didn't work. So now we will have to suffer with paying someone. Blah. There is always something.

We will also be renting a dumpster this week and start clearing out some of the junk and horrible fake wood paneling. We have a basement full of stuff we need to sort through. Two closets upstairs that need tearing down and rebuilding/replacing and a bunch of junk in the back yard that needs tossing. Lots of work to do. Fun fun.