Sick of Sick

Dane's missing another day of school due to sickness. He and Aubrey have missed a lot of school again this year -- I"m afraid to count how many days. Anyway, Thursday he was diagnosed with an ear infection. He's got a cough and sore throat, too. He's been on antibiotics since then and he's not contagious, but he's still dragging, so it's another day home.

Here's the kicker: When I called the school today, the secretary said there are 14 kids out from Dane's class today with the Flu! That's half his class! And his teacher's out, too! Dane doesn't even have the Flu (he was swabbed for Flu and Strep on Thursday and came up negative), but wow.

The nurse also said she had 2 pages of names of kids out for some reason or other today.

What's the scoop in your area? Are kids getting sick, too? Do they all have the same symptoms? Sheesh.

The Lame, The Lazy and the Lovely

Alright, I'll start with the lame:

Two love letters this week. One from Skirt! rejecting an essay I wrote for their F-Word issue (Feminist/Fashionista/etc.) about facial hair, and another from Brevity, rejecting "Write in the Attic," a short nonfiction piece I hoped they'd love.

For the record, my work has been rejected by both of these publications on more than one occasion. I'll keep submitting to them, though -- maybe someday I'll get it right. I'll also keep submitting those pieces to other publications, because I think they're really good, and maybe someone else might think I got it right.

On to the lazy:

This one's mortifying: I submitted a flash fiction piece to SmokeLong Quarterly this morning - and I forgot I'd taken out a word to replace it with something amazing later! So yes, I didn't proofread well enough - until after I sent it - to put the amazing word in! Yeah, I'm mortified. I'll be expecting an immediate rejection from SmokeLong - and won't be submitting to that mag for a while. (They limit one submission per quarter, I think.)

Time for the lovely:

I finally got the hard copy of (and payment for!) my essay in Underwired's April issue - and it's gorgeous. The layout, the ads, the font -- it's all spectacular and I'm so happy about that publication. I'm going to frame the cover for my home.

And a final note:

I read recently that I should have at least a dozen, if not two dozen, items "out there," submitted at any given time. I'm sitting at seven out there right now, so my goal today is to submit to another four (woops, five, bad math) publications by afternoon.

Then I have to squeeze in house cleaning, grocery shopping, and caring for a little guy at home (for the third day in a row!) who in all likelihood has Fifth Disease, which has been running rampant through our school. (This sounds scarier than it is. Look up Fifth Disease here.)

UPDATE ON THE 2010 WRITING GOALS

Nine submissions -- for four essays and two poems -- are floating around cyberspace or drifting through snail mail as I write this. Nine!

It's April, and so far I've achieved my writing goal of one publication or acceptance per month for the year, and now I'm coming up on May.

May could be the month of love letters... or love letters. Who knows which will be which? I'll keep you posted.

In other news, Drunken Boat emailed me that the galleys will soon be ready for their issue that will include"Bar After Bar." Needless to say, I look forward to that!

*P.S. I'm home with Dane today. He's got symptoms similar to what Aubrey had last week. He's reading The Lightning Thief and will later watch a Discovery Channel video on dragons; I'm reading segmented/collage essays so I can try to give form to an essay topic I've been thinking about for years...

the FLU with FLAIR

Saddled with fever, chills, sweating, headaches and dizziness for 5-7 long, rotten days? Why not paint your nails?

That's about as creative as I got last week when Aubrey and I were bitten by the bug.

In the picture above, Aubrey is on the upswing. My Flu started a couple days after hers, so at that point in the week, I was in the throes. Hence, no picture. We took one, but it's so bad I can't bear to post it. The pain crease between my eyebrows would fill a plastic surgeon with glee, and, well, I'm not wearing a bra under my t-shirt, so I spared you all -- all three of you who read this.

Fortunately, Dane and Mick haven't gotten it. I'm not sure they'd go for the pink/red nail thing.

Mick's inhaling an anti-viral every day, specifically prescribed by our doctor for this strand of Flu. And, Dane? Well, I guess we've just got our pretty little fingers crossed for him. So far so good...

Sad

It's always a little confronting when you realize you're in a little bubble of oblivion and security. Last night we had a great time at the JPR Wine Tasting and Silent Auction Fundraiser, held at the Ashland Springs Hotel. We didn't bid on anything, but we had a lot of fun mingling with old and new friends - and eating more hazelnut cream puffs than any human being deserves. We could afford the entry tickets, we could afford the babysitter, and we have gainful employment and our health.

Meanwhile, 500,000 Americans were laid off last month, and Zimbabwe's political impasse has created 12,000 cases of Cholera with at least 600 deaths.

That's hard to stomach.

Peace,
Anjie

An A/Typical Pre-Thanksgiving,
Pre-Houseguest (Disinfectant) Kind Of Day

The Not-So-Typical Part
Aubs is home with a stomach Flu. Bummer. Fortunately, though, it only lasted a couple hours this morning.

She spent the day on the couch reading books and listening to Move and Groove with Paints Pots on the pink Hello Kitty cd player. Later, she watched Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a ridiculous spin-off cartoon movie kids love.

She said it made her feel queasy to sit up, so she laid there with all those fun things until about 2pm - when she felt like dancing to La Bamba.

The whole day she kept an old dishwashing detergent bucket at her side - no complaints from her about the bucket or the potentional for puke. Just matter-of-fact. I like that about her. I'm not-so-much that way, which gives me all the more reason to admire it.

The Typical Part
A kid on the couch in a pre-guest Thanksgiving house cannot slow a mom down. I've spent the day (can you guess?) CLEANING. Lots of ammonia, lots of Windex, lots of scrubbing, sweeping, rinsing, laundering, vacuuming, mopping. And a big fat To-Do list with little boxes to check off along the way.

And I'm not even hosting the Thanksgiving dinner!

It all feels pretty good - since I've let it go around here for a good week or two, knowing I'd have to spiffy it up exactly the day before guests arrive, so it would feel fresh. Any sooner might mean doubling up and doing it again, heaven forbid. Apparently, that's just my way. It's how I trick myself into believing I'm no slave to the sponge, the broom, the paper towels, the toilet scrubber, day in and day out. That probably makes no sense, but we all get by somehow, don't we?

HOME WITH A TUMMY ACHE

Aubrey's been home for two days. I'm sure she'll be back to school tomorrow -- she seems to be on the mend now.

If I may be so bold, though, having her home has cramped my style a little bit! I actually don't have to go to work today, so I'd planned to get groceries, shop for upcoming party presents, take a walk, etc. HOWEVER, I will also admit it's been nice to have this down time here with her as she watches Scooby Doo, reads Angelina Ballerina, eats light snacks, and takes long afternoon naps. In fact, it forces me to slow way down, even giving me a chance to sit down and look for places to publish, and to make (more) lists of stuff to do for Mick's graduation and our life thereafter.

Hey, stop at that last part! you say. Where're all the blogs on that stuff? the life thereafter stuff?

Well, the honest answer is that it's just not that fun to write about right now! It can make one feel so wishy-washy. The truth is, we're in stress mode, get-finished-with-school mode, get-an-interview-where-we-want-to-live mode. That requires a lot of waiting, being patient, researching, being persistent. It's sometimes easier to hold those cards close rather than keep everybody updated on the constant glitches, hurdles, victories, and changes.

Do I sound jaded? I don't mean to. I've just got to be practical about how I spend my energy. You know, with a sick kid and all.

Dane, I found this picture of you from when you were in Kindergarten. It makes me smile. I wish you weren't sick right now, and I wish I were there to cuddle with you and take care of you and play Fusion Frenzy. I miss you.

I also miss you, Aubrey -- and I can see you behind Dane in this picture! I can't wait to see you and cuddle and play Polly Pockets with you, too. I had fun talking on the phone with you for SO LONG.

Just a few more days, darlins.

LoveLove,
Mom

An Activist In The Making?

The Writing Mamas published another blog of mine. Aubrey's recent hospital stay stretched me to think a little more politically, which shows up in "Emergency," the April 11 blog at

http://www.writingmamassalon.blogspot.com

I wrote another call to action blog for the Writing Mamas on April 4, but you'll see I was just getting warmed up at that point.

HOSPITAL RECOVERY

We're recovering from quite a week. We had to return to the emergency room on Tuesday night (after the 2 trips Monday night/Tuesday morning) because Aubrey's body wasn't responding to the antibiotics and fever reducer for her kidney infection. All the sudden at 9pm on Tuesday night (at home), she was having additional symptoms like vomiting and uncontrollable, high fevers. I got her to the ER at 10 pm.

She and I spent the night in the ER -- I think we slept on the little bed from 1:30 am to 5:30 am -- where they worked on her fever. She vomited again that morning, and still had a high fever around 102/103 degrees and then we were moved to the Pediatric floor. The doctors were concerned about her worsened symptoms, and still didn't like the fact that she had continued pain in her right side. They still suspected appendicitis. The thought that these two things, kidney infection and appendicitis, might be occurring in her body seemed unlikely, but then seemed particularly awful if that's indeed what was happening.

So we stayed two more nights. A second ultrasound revealed fluid around the appendix but nothing too suspicious otherwise. The surgeon came and examined Aubrey, but Aubs wasn't in pain then when her right side was pressed, and the surgeon said it would've been more obvious. She also said that high of a fever wasn't characteristic of appendicitis.

With that, Aubrey seemed to be doing better, but they wanted to continue to observe her. When the pediatric doctor returned the next morning (yesterday) and checked her side, Aubrey still spoke of pain in that area. The doctors didn't want to dismiss what Aubrey was saying and decided to go for 90% accuracy with a CT scan.

The CT scan (taken yesterday evening) was negative and it looks like Aubrey's symptoms were the result of a gnarly kidney infection, particularly in her right kidney (hence the pain there and the appendix concern).

It was a challenging (often sleepless) time. (Let's see, with the IV bag flushing her system 24/7, I woke up in pee next to Aubrey 2x the first night and 3x the second. Let me just say, there's nothing quite like waking up in someone else's warm, wet pee. I TOLD the nurses she was a really hard sleeper, and I was HOPING to be, so if they could please "pee" her throughout the night, I would greatly appreciate it. I could do that since Aubs was the only patient on the floor, and they were happy to oblige anyway. But, apparently checking her every 4 hours wasn't enough. I should've asked them to check every 2...)

That said, the time there wasn't as bad or scary or awful as it could have been. Not only did Aubrey get to watch more TV than she's ever imagined watching, read new books, and get uninterrupted one-on-one time with Mom, but I felt like we were constantly in good hands, with experts determined to get to the bottom of things, listening to what a little girl said and leaving no stone unturned. That made it a lot easier to be strong about all the uncertainty and precarious health situations.

Now, Aubrey's home, perky, and playing like crazy with her brother, so that helps everything feel OK, too.

Speaking of brother, he REALLY missed Aubrey. He said a number of sad, sweet things about her absence and LOVED visting her each evening when he came in with Mick and Jan.

Fortunately, Jan was down here visiting so she took care of Dane in the mornings and after school. It doesn't get much more convenient or comfortable than that. It made it nice, too, that Mick got to keep his school schedule, since the new quarter started Monday.

ER Trip(s)

Last night at 5 pm, I woke Aubrey up so we could go get Dane at school. She had a raging fever (103.9 -- her whole body felt so hot) and terrible pains in her "waist". She had gone to sleep next to me an hour earlier saying her waist hurt then too, but as I massaged her a little, she fell asleep. When she woke, though, it had all escalated so quickly I thought something serious might be up. I quickly got a ride home from school arranged for Dane and hauled Aubrey to the ER.

We spent 5 hours there, ultimately getting an ultrasound to check for appendicitis and kidney infection. They sort of ruled out appendicitis after the ultrasound (but not fully -- I was supposed to keep monitoring her for symptoms like increased "waist" pain, nausea, vomiting, headache, more fever, etc.); her urine tested positive for kidney infection, and her blood test showed her white blood count up. They also found enlarged lymph nodes in her belly -- all of these things a possible reaction to the antibiotics she was on last week for Strep Throat (and a medical condition often confused with appendicitis).

They gave her a shunt early on and ended the visit with an IV drip of antibiotics. The shunt was the worst part for Aubrey. She cried in anguish -- and that's no understatement. She's usually good about shots and stuff but this was too painful for her (and scary looking, even though she tried to look at me while they inserted it and they covered it for her with gauze afterward). She kept saying it felt like it was on fire, and it was in her arm for 3 hours.

We eventually got to come home around 10 with Mick (he showed up about 8) with a prescription for antibiotics for kidney infection and instructions to come back if any symptoms increased.

She woke up at 3 then with a terrible headache, a fever that wouldn't come down with fever-reducer, nausea, and more pain in her right side. So, I decided at 4am to take her to the ER again. When we got there, she realized it was the ER and not just the doctor's office and she broke down begging me not to take her in because she didn't want another shunt. After lots of conversation, we decided to go in and tell them we wanted to avoid another shunt, if possible, but we understood they could help us. (The nurses earlier had been so proud of her -- they said she was "agreeable" even though she had to get the shunt and a suppository, which she later said wasn't that bad because it "wasn't a shunt and it felt cold and slippery like an ice cube.")

The doctor checked again to make sure there weren't signs of appendicitis and he thought she was okay to come back home with Motrin and Tylenol switched off every 3 hours to relieve the pain and reduce the fever. We got back at 5am and she slept soundly then, until just now (10 am). She's in good spirits, taking a much-needed bath and eating a popsicle.

Whispers
(from 11/30/06)

“Hold me?” Aubrey whispers from a pile of blankets in the middle of the hide-a-bed. She’s been out here in the living room for 24 hours now with a flu bug.

First, she’d been pale and stoic, retching so often over a 7-hour period that I quit counting after she hit the double digits.

Next, she and I spent a steel-bar-in-the-back kind of night side-by-side on the hide-a-bed while Mick and Dane slept together in the master bedroom, steering clear of our makeshift infirmary.

Today, with cheeks flushed and forehead hot, she’s laid on the hide-a-bed alternating between short naps and long stares at different objects in the room—-the Christmas tree, the guitar, the fish tank—-, scaring me with the questions she whispers: “Are the fish going to live very long? And if they die, are we just going to get new ones?”

Between cups of coffee and trips to the laundry room, I lean over her and kiss her warm cheeks.

“Hold me, momma?”

There it is again.

I sweep aside the blankets, stack some pillows behind me, and stretch my body the length of the bed.

“Come here, darlin’,” I say quietly, pulling her toward me and curling her against me. And with her head tucked under my chin, her ear to my chest, we’re back to that familiar position we established in her infancy--back to the ultimate comfort, that first whisper, the heartbeat.

Winter Fun

Dane spent Friday night of Thanksgiving break very pale and throwing up, hitting the double digits for use of his little bed bucket. Had to cancel our much-anticipated Saturday plans. He's better now.

Aubrey spent noon-8 yesterday very pale and throwing up--also hitting the double digit mark with her little bucket. Today she's flushed and sleeping hard on the hide-a-bed.

Mick has the van today, which meant we had to ride bikes to school this morning. It was cold and sunny with frost on the ground. (Forty degrees maybe? Smells like snow, but that can't be possible, can it???) Aubrey rode in the trailer cocooned up in blankets--a perfect little quarantine hut for school/Dane drop-off time.

Dane was delirious with happiness that we'd had to ride--he has his new dragon bike horn bought with birthday money from Mema and Papa proudly mounted on his handlebars.

Will download pics soon--of just bike and horn, not the bucket, unless I get special requests.