Mutterings Of A Mindless Mommy

The Great Arizona Snowstorm of January 2010

Melissa — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:17:51 +0000

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Massive January 2010 Storm in Arizona – Tornado Warning and a Downed Cactus, we’ve had some nasty storms here this past week. The storms dumped quite a bit of snow at my grandmother’s house, which is about a 25-30 minute drive from my house. Yesterday, my parents, nephews, and the Mindless Mommy clan decided to go play in the snow. After about an hour and a half (or thereabouts) it started to snow kind of hard so we left. We wanted to visit the snow but we didn’t want to get stuck in it!

Here are some of the pictures that my dad took. I need to download my pics from my camera still.

Massive January 2010 Storm in Arizona – Tornado Warning and a Downed Cactus

Melissa — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:40:47 +0000

Last night was rather exciting here at the Mindless Mommy household. California has been pounded with storms this week and as they’ve left Cali they’ve migrated into Arizona. Yesterday was a whopper of a storm and we actually had a Tornado Watch issued in the late afternoon. Now I lived in Arkansas for two years and I’ve been through my fair share of tornado watches and warnings but they are rare here in Arizona.

Sure enough, later in the night three different tornado warned storms marched through Phoenix. Two in the northern part of the metro area and then one in the southeastern part – this southern one was headed our way. Now I must state that there is not a report of a confirmed tornado out of the storm but it was doppler indicated. Dave and I took the kids and hung out in the laundry room from 9:10 to 9:30 pm.

We had the laundry room door open so we could hear the TV and all of the sudden we heard wind like we’ve never heard before (and we’ve been in microbursts out here) and Dave actually closed the laundry room door. Alex got a little frightened and hid under the sleeping bag. After about 45 seconds, the scary sound was gone and then about 5 minutes later the wind died down. We all came out of the laundry room and proceeded to go about the task of trying to fall back to sleep.

When I woke up this morning and looked out back, I noticed that a 20 (ish) foot tall saguaro cactus had toppled over and crashed through our fence. In previous storms, we’ve watched this cactus kind of sway a little during the massive wind gusts but last night was the cactus’ last stand – literally.

I’m pretty sure the HOA will cover the cactus removal and fence repair because the cactus is from a common area of the neighborhood and the HOA is in charge of the view fences and common walls. I’m waiting to hear back from the community manager though.

Now on to the pictures. I must say that I feel a little bad for all of the birds that made their home in the cactus. We loved watching birds fly in and out and today they were just kind of hanging around the area wondering what the heck happened to their house. I think some rabbits may have had their den in the area as well because I disturbed a bunch when I walked out there to take pics.

I Suffer From a High-Information Diet

Melissa — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:44:16 +0000

Yup, that’s right, I suffer from a high-information diet. I’m a self-professed information junkie. Although I’ve enjoyed knowing a little bit about a lot of things for my entire life, after I noticed Ava’s developmental delays I became a full-fledged information junkie. When a doctor tells you that your child is on the autism spectrum, how can you not get on a high-information diet?

So today, as I was reading through my various news site subscriptions, I came across an article titled “The dangers of a high-information diet.” This was obviously an instant click title for me. With the Internet, we are exposed to more information at any given point in our day than at any point pre-internet. As a student, I also have access to hundreds of peer-reviewed journals and other subscription-based online resources. Heck, I put ‘reading medical journals’ on the first part of my 50 Fun Things list. It is easy to go into information overload, really easy.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“[W]e live in the information age – and the stuff that risks doing the damage is information itself. As certain scientists and philosophers see it, the discovery and dissemination of knowledge is far from being an unqualified boon. We might be in danger of knowing too much. “Information can potentially be extremely dangerous,” says philosopher Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. “The effects arising from knowledge can be momentous.” Source: NewScientist

Do you suffer from a high-information diet? After reading the article, do you think that too much information may not be a good thing?

Photo: dalbera

Happy New Year

Melissa — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:36:41 +0000

Happy New Year! Although 2009 met us with many visits to specialists, the emergency room, and the local children’s urgent care centers, it was still a good year. As the year came to a close, Alexander was closing in on two months seizure free and Ava was growing by leaps and bounds – literally. She grew about 1″ in the last six weeks of 2009.

Today, we start a new year and I’m relaunching one of my websites that has been dormant for some time – Six Figures and Broke. I’m tired of having consumer debt and so I’m opening up this old domain to host my personal get out of debt journey as well as write about something I’m passionate about – personal finance.

Thank you all for supporting me in my parenting journey over the past year and wishing you all a wonderful 2010!

Three Years Ago Ava was Diagnosed with Autism

Melissa — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:00:20 +0000

Three years ago, on November 20, 2006, a local psychologist told me that Ava has autism. I can honestly say that I wasn’t completely surprised, I’ve always been an information junkie and kind of expected it but the words were still a bit of a shock to my system. However, I didn’t have much time to dwell on things, as November 21, 2006 was Ava’s third birthday.

I started Mutterings of a Mindless Mommy, in part, as an outlet for my emotions. I never thought of autism as a death sentence and I’m not generally a doom and gloom person by nature, but navigating the healthcare system, the educational system, etc in order to get services for my daughter was stressful and so I needed an outlet.

Every year at this time I like to look back at the growth that Ava has made. Just as I did last year, I want to start off with excerpts from my previous two reflection posts.

Reflecting – The Autism Diagnosis

It has been a year of tremendous growth, lots of backsliding, and a whole heckuva lot of fun. All-out meltdown at Sea World complete with judgmental parents telling me my child was spoiled. Numerous parents commenting on public freak-outs and diapers on a “child her age.” Lots of dirty looks, rude comments, and nice enlightening conversations on my part (depending on my mood hehe). What I do know is over the last year not only has *my* understanding and impression of autism and all spectrum disorders changed but so has that of all of my friends and family. My daughter is a happy, affectionate, and loving little girl and I am so thankful to have her in my life.

Two Years Ago was Diagnosis Day

The past year has been filled with more ups than downs. She figured out how to go potty and aside from a few accidents a week, spends her days out of diapers or pull-ups. She’s still in pull-ups at night but hey, this is a huge convenience to have her in panties all day. She’s come a long way with her language and actually tested out of her IEP at school. She is still about a year delayed in vocabulary/receptive language but it isn’t quite enough to qualify for speech therapy.

Although the growth between her fourth and fifth birthdays was amazing, my baby girl will be six on Saturday and this past year has been an amazing year for her. She is in kindergarten now and is starting to act like typical kindergarten girls. She has this sassy little attitude that I know she picked up at school. She talks about how the girls chase the boys and the boys chase the girls. She is also reading.

Yes, that is right. Ava is READING. She is up to 30 sight words now. The funny thing is, she had a really difficult time memorizing sight words when they first started to learn them. She couldn’t memorize the words but she could certainly sound them out. Then something clicked and she is memorizing sight words like crazy. She’s not just learning sight words though; she sounds out any and every word she sees. We were in line at Chipotle and all of the sudden she exclaims “Chicken Burrito!” Yes, that’s right, that big sign says Chicken Burrito on it.

As was the case last year, she still has her quirks. Yes she still smells everything. Yes she still has problems with emotional self-regulation. Yes she still has an odd language processing delay. Yes she loves to line up things including cars and the miniature pumpkins on Auntie’s driveway on Halloween night.

But yes she still greets everyone with a warm smile. Yes she still does a fantastic job in dance – we’ve gone beyond ballet and tap to include jazz, hip-hop, tumbling, and technique classes this year. This may sound like a lot for an almost six year old but Ava absolutely thrives in the dance environment and I truly believe that dance is responsible, at least in part, for the amazing growth she’s made over the past year.

Happy birthday baby girl and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings us.

Blast From the Past – Adam Jasinski Busted for Reselling Oxycodone Pills

Melissa — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:39:21 +0000

I peeked at my Google Analytics stats for today and noticed that my blog was getting a massive influx of traffic, way more than I usually get on a single day. The majority of the traffic is coming in via Google searches related to Adam Jasinski. So what’s a net sleuth like myself to do? Google Adam Jasinski myself to see what is up. *wink* Sure enough, the former Big Brother winner is back in the news amidst new controversy. Adam Jasinski was recently busted for using his Big Brother earnings to buy and resell Oxycodone pills. Yes, our favorite “retard” loving Big Brother winner is also a drug dealer.

Adam Jasinski, 31, of Delray Beach, Fla., has been charged with attempting to sell 2,000 pills in Massachusetts to a government witness.

Federal prosecutors said Jasinski was arrested Saturday after he flew to Boston and showed the witness a sock containing two plastic bags filled with oxycodone, a powerful painkiller that is a popular street drug because of its euphoric effects. Source: Huffington Post

It looks like he could be facing some serious time, up to 20 years in prison.

The H1N1 Fairy has Visited the Mindless Mommy Household

Melissa — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:20:37 +0000

With all her germy sparkliness, the H1N1 Fairy has visited the Mindless Mommy household – not once, but twice. While on a flight to Atlanta last weekend, I wrote about my daughter’s experience with H1N1, Asthma, and a Severe Case of Croup. Last week was relatively quiet in our house but Alexander ended up getting admitted to the hospital Friday night after the Ativan they gave him to stop his seizures caused him to have some seriously hard-core hallucinations.

Unfortunately, the pediatric floor of the hospital was full. As in no…beds..available. The new children’s hospital doesn’t open until next month so they are also working in a smaller pediatric emergency room. We ended up staying in a private room in the ER for the duration of his hospital stay. All around us were children sick with the flu. My hands are still dry from washing them so often but alas, our efforts were for naught. Alexander went from a happy kid yesterday morning to a miserable kid with a 103 fever within two hours.

So now the H1N1 fairy has bestowed her germy sparklies on Alex. He’s in the other room now hacking away but playing video games. Yes, I know, bad mommy, letting him play video games. Hey, he’s sick and so he deserves a little treat, right?

Now I’ve started coughing a bit more and my throat is starting to hurt. However, I don’t have any openings in my schedule until next summer so no H1N1 Fairy, you will not pay me a visit.

Super Nanny Supports Asthma Education Campaign

Melissa — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:50:09 +0000

If you were only to look at the title of this post, Super Nanny Supports Asthma Education Campaign, then you’d likely think that this would be a positive post helping raise awareness about asthma. However, the new educational campaign – ASTHMyths, which is sponsored by the Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA), is also co-sponsored by Merck & Co, Inc. Yes, the makers of SINGULAIR are partnering with the Super Nanny and a nonprofit to raise awareness about asthma.

This isn’t the first time that “Big Pharma” has joined forces to create an awareness campaign about “insert disease du jour here”, but since I have a vested interest in the negative side effects of SINGULAIR, I wanted to post about this.

SINGULAIR is known to cause depression in its patients, including children as young as five years old. Yes, that’s right, my five-year-old daughter suffered from depression as a result of using SINGULAIR. We thought it was a wonder drug as it cut our trips to the ER for asthma flare-ups in half. However, when she started talking about dying and no one caring if she was dead, I began to worry.

After a call to our pediatrician, she suggested that we stop the medicine. If the problem persisted, then the pediatrician wanted to see Ava. If the problem stopped, then we were advised to never give her SINGULAIR again. The problem completely stopped and within a week she was back to her happy self. However, we are still dealing with the significant anxiety that started shortly after she started the medication. Right now, we have no end in sight to the end of this sometimes-crippling anxiety that she experiences.

One other point I wanted to make is that I’m not really fond of the Super Nanny. If she had been called to our house to address my daughter’s nonstop crying…for hours every night…she’d have likely placed her in time out to “fix” her manipulations. Only a parent, truly in tune with their child, would be able to see that my daughter’s episodes were not her trying to manipulate me. Instead, it is obvious that something was very, very wrong. Sorry for the tangential Super Nanny rant, not a fan of hers, never have been.

I want to thank Jenna from Parents for Safety for the heads-up on this new project. Jenna works tirelessly to educate parents on the neuropsychiatric side effects of Singulair. Thanks Jenna!

Mitochondrial Disease Awareness Week 2009

Melissa — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:51:55 +0000

I just saw a post on one of my “special needs parenting” message boards that this week, September 20-26, is Mitochondrial Disease Awareness Week. She is the mother of a sweet little boy who has a mitochondrial disease. I remember her first posts two or so years ago when her boy was just an infant and she was beginning the road of figuring out what was causing her son’s symptoms. He’s a beautiful little boy and has an amazing family and I’m in awe of his mom’s strength.

In recognition of her dedication to her son, and to mitochondrial disease awareness, I am sharing this with you, the readers of Mutterings of a Mindless Mommy. Please take the time to pass this on, awareness is key!

The mother featured in the video above is not the mom I know on the message board, but this is one of the videos from the UMDF website.

FDA Warns Against Use of Certain Asthma Medications Due to Tampering

Melissa — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:43:42 +0000

On September 17, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised consumers not to use certain respiratory medications purchased after Sept. 8, 2009 and manufactured by Dey L.P., a subsidiary of Mylan Inc., because the medications might have been part of a shipment being transported on a tractor-trailer stolen in Tampa, Fla., on Sept. 8, 2009.

The respiratory medications, Ipratropium Bromide Inhalation Solution, 0.02%, and Albuterol Sulfate Inhalation Solution, 0.083%, unit-dose vials, have not been recovered and may be dangerous to use because the drugs may not have been stored and handled properly.

Dey issued an advisory on Sept. 11, 2009 regarding the theft. Although FDA is not aware of any reports of adverse events, the agency is advising patients who use these respiratory medications to check to see if products received or purchased after Sept. 8, 2009 are from one of the following lots:

Albuterol Sulfate Inhalation Solution (892,000 doses; all lots contain 3.0 ml vials and display the brand name “Dey”)
Lot number 9G04, NDC # 49502-697-29
Lot number 9FD8, NDC # 49502-697-61
Lot number 9FD9, NDC # 49502-697-61
Lot number 9FE1, NDC # 49502-697-61

Ipratropium Bromide Inhalation Solution (432,000 doses; all lots contain 2.5 ml vials and display the brand name “Dey”)
Lot number F09089, NDC # 49502-685-31
Lot number C09119, NDC # 49502-685-62
Lot number C09120, NDC # 49502-685-62

Advice for Consumers
Do not use Albuterol Sulfate Inhalation Solution or Ipratropium Bromide Inhalation Solution if it is from one of these lots above and was purchased or received after Sept. 8, 2009. Replace it with the same product from another lot.

Notify your health care professional of any adverse effects you may have experienced as a result of taking these medications.

Bring products from these lots back to the pharmacy where you received the medicine to exchange for products from a different lot or call Dey customer service at 800-527-4278. Contact your health care professional if you must switch to another product for any reason for possible dose adjustments.

Report any information regarding the stolen Dey products to FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI) by calling 800-551-3989 or by visiting the OCI Web site (http://www.fda.gov/OCI).