On a good day, parenting will test the integrity of your character. On a bad day, parenting will test your will to live. Parenting children with trauma histories will cause you to test the integrity of everything and everyone you thought you knew, for the rest of your life.
~J. Skrobisz

Friday, April 9, 2010

sick again

I took my last antibiotic for the strep last Saturday. By Tuesday almost all of the symptoms returned plus some. So I went back to the doctor yesterday. Seems I'm either harboring the strep bug or I've got a sinus infection, or both. He checked me for mono and I was negative (thank goodness!) Now I'm on the Z-pack with a refill. 20 more days of antibiotics. I haven't been this sick in two and a half years!

Aspie Boy is sick too, acute allergies. So the doc put him on prednisone. Heads up. Steroids and Asperger's doesn't mix. If you think the boy can stim without steroids, you should see him stim ON the steroids! At 12:30 a.m. the poor dear came into my room and asked a very drowsy me, "did you give me my sleep medicine?"

"uh... yes."

"are you sure?"

I looked at the clock. "Son, have you slept at all in the last four hours?"

"I don't think so."

"I'm sorry baby. It's that new medicine. Try to sleep, ok?"

I gave him his second dose first thing this morning hoping the affects would wear off before bedtime tonight.

And surprisingly, Sissy has been a peach! Two weeks ago with all of us down for the count, she was escalating toward violence with very defiant behaviors some bordering on the psychotic. But this week, after Monday's mayhem, she's been positively perfect. It makes me shake my head. I swear, some days I think I'm the one that's going insane. I can NEVER predict her. When she's this lovely[1], I feel so bad about being keyed up and emotional over her unrelenting challenges. But the truth is, lovely for three days will equal dreadful for the next few weeks. At least.

So I'm trying very hard to enjoy every minute. Lots of opportunities for loving, caressing and meaningful affection happening! The Dad and I even had a nice long chat with her last night about what it means to show love and earn trust. And I think she soaked some of it up (at least, it felt like she did. you never can tell.)
Next week when I'm on this blog crying to ya'll again, remind me of this post, will you?

[1]lovely as defined for Sissy would be: minimal lying, minimal screaming, minimal defiance, easily talked through escalating situations, very little rebuffing when asked to do something, maybe even offering to assist (OMG! WOW!), minimal issues with personal hygeine, very little manipulation and I can decrease my vigilance when I supervise her with her siblings. Oh, and her room stays relatively tidy. Relatively. lol

3 comments:

GB's Mom said...

Steroids frequently push a Bipolar person into a mania. I am glad you are enjoying Sissy while you can!

FosterAbba said...

I can so relate! Sometimes my kid makes me feel like I am the one who is crazy. She can be SO nice at times. Other times, she can be SO awful.

What's the most crazy-making is that she rarely shows the awful to anyone but us.

stellarparenting.com said...

May you have a calm and happy weekend... but whatever you do don't say that phrase aloud or it can't happen.