Ava was looking rather sick so I decided to check her temperature - 103.9; she had tylenol just two hours ago. I stripped her down and gave her a lukewarm bath and now she’s asleep next to me on the couch - her third nap of the day. Ava is my mystery child - when she gets sick she gets real sick and it happens quickly. Usually when she’s sick she’s still up and about doing her thing but today she has basically slept or rested the entire day. This is definitely not typical for her but I’m guessing it’s her body’s way of saying “hey, something’s going on here.” I can’t imagine how she’d be had we not given her the steroids last night. Thankfully she’s not wheezing or having stridor but I’m keeping an eye out for it.
When I was a child I would get easily congested and was plagued with constant sinus infections. The Ear, Nose & Throat specialist we saw said that I had narrow sinus passageways. My guess is Ava has inherited this. The other thing with Ava is if she gets any type of a respiratory ailment it quickly settles in her chest so she’s more sick than she should be with a given infection and it lasts longer. I have read of other parents who’s children have a Pervasive Developmental Disorder having chronic health problems as well. I wonder if there is some link between the two. When I have some free time I think I’ll do a little research; I’m always learning more about PDDs - I can just add this to my list of “things to know.”
Yesterday was a very busy day in the mindless mommy household. Not only did the kids have school but Ava was meeting with her new occupational therapist (the one contracted through the state) and Alexander was scheduled to meet with his play therapist. I’m going to start with the play therapist appointment; it went well. The whole family met with her and she is really a very kind soul and it felt like she was genuinely interested in the problems Alexander is dealing with. He was having one of his better days, he even had a twinkle in his eyes. Everytime the therapist looked at Alexander he’d duck inside a little play tent she had in her office. However he was able to answer some basic questions without shutting down. We all talked for a solid hour before dismissing for the day. The next two appointments will just be Alexander with Miss Natasha and then after that the entire family will reconvene for a session. She’s going to start with helping Alexander get the words he needs to describe his feelings and then from there work with us on little ways to disrupt his routine, in a non hostile fashion, to help him break out of his strict structure. We discussed a social skills group but near the end of our session she doesn’t think he’s ready for one yet since most of his pretend play is still so directed. I had mentioned that often-times I pretend ‘wrong’, for lack of a better word. He has a script in his head and if I don’t pretend the way he has it scripted out he’ll correct me. She said he needs to be able to roll with the punches and accept something out of his script readily before he’ll be ready for a social skills group. I hadn’t realized that it was such a problem but I’m glad we’re getting it addressed.
Alexander has a weird way of expressing himself at times and the counselor said she couldn’t definitely see why we were thinking Asperger Syndrome. On Monday as we were heading to his occupational therapist he said “my nerves are chasing the car.” I asked him if they were going to catch the car and he said no so I suggested he tell his nerves to go home and his response was “my nerves want to come in and watch me during therapy.” That is just an interesting way for a 5 year-old to express his anxious feelings. We are hoping that he is receptive to the play therapy and is able to grow from it. If the only thing we achieve from it is that he isn’t as awkward socially then I will feel like it is a success.
In Ava news she met her new occupational therapist, Miss Nancy. In typical Ava fashion she took right to her. Ava will go off with anyone without a second thought. It is really kind of scary to me - she has no stranger anxiety. She participated fully in her 50 minute session and the therapist was impressed with her skills. My guess is when this six months of OT is over she’ll graduate from occupational therapy. That will be a total of nearly 10 months; I just hope they can resolve the sensory issues not just the motor and praxis issues.
Ava woke up with a small cough yesterday morning. It was a weird one but I didn’t think much of it, it has been quite windy here and the wind has kicked up a lot of dust and pollen. As the day progressed her cough got worse and at play therapy the therapist suggested it may be croup. Ah hah! That’s what it reminded me of, a croupy cough. On the way home from play therapy we stopped off at the pediatric urgent care (our doctor’s office couldn’t get us in as it was 30 minutes before close); thankfully there was zero wait so we were able to get in and out with relative quickness. It is, indeed, croup. She was given a single dose of a long-acting steroid and we were sent on our way. I’m glad we went when we did because as the night went on the fever snuck up on us and the cough continued to get more frequent. Thankfully it sounded better but had we not received the steroid we most definitely would have been out in the middle of the night having her looked at.
The downside to the steroid is that it makes her just mean. About 45 minutes after she went to sleep she woke up and was just crying and making weird sounds. She was looking off at the corner in my room and was non-responsive for about five minutes. I kept saying “Ava, look at me. Ava, look at me” She was in her own little world and I’m not sure that she was completely awake. Finally her eyes turned towards me and I realized she was in there. Then the crying took on a new tone and a tantrum ensued. She was throwing pillows, hitting the bed, kicking me, etc. I called my husband who was still at work to see if he could talk her down; no - she grabbed the phone and tried to throw it. She then hit the phone several times screaming “no talk daddy”. After about 15 minutes she calmed down enough to lie down next to me and I rubbed her forehead until she fell asleep. She woke up about every 45-60 minutes last night crying and flailing about. She coughed in her sleep the entire night as well. It was just a rough night for the both of us. My husband took my son to school today so we could stay in bed until 8am and get that extra 1.5 hours of rest. I imagine she’ll take a good nap today - fingers crossed!
