Thursday, May 10, 2012

How do you do it?

First of all I want to say sorry for not posting every day like I wanted to. Life kinda got away from me for a few days.

I have been asked one certain question over and over and over again. Most of the time it is when somebody sees what I got threw. Like the teachers at school when David has a seizure. That question is " HOW DO YOU DO IT?"

The answer to this question differs due to the situation.  If we are just having an off day and nothing is going right for any of us...just take a deep breath. This is what I have learned...If you complain it isn't going to help and fix anything. It might just make things worse. So I take a deep breath and think of other people that is going threw worse...like childhood cancer.

"How do you deal with David having seizures?" Once again take a deep breath and push threw it. It is not something that I done wrong or something that his daddy done wrong. It just happened. Even though David isn't the "normal" 7 year old ( what ever normal is ) he is perfect in his own ways. Yes he is different from my healthy daughter but he is perfect in his own little ways.

"How do you deal with going to a children's hospital?" To my opinion I would rather take my children, yes both of them, to a children's hospital where I know there is going to be nurses, doctors, and staff that understands children and knows how to help without forcing them to do something. David don't like for his blood pressure to be taken but the nurses at the children's hospital that knows how to distract him long enough to get a reading or at least try so they can put down that we tried.

"How do you deal with all the health problems while your husband is driving a semi over the road?"
This is no different then him having a local job. Health problems ( seizures, fevers, falls, everything) is going to happen rather he is home or not. Just because he is home doesn't mean that nothing is going to happen, even though we love it when that is the case.

"What do you do to release stress? Meaning what do you do for your "ME" time?" This one is a fun question because I like to do several things.
I like to crochet, bake, make candles, and make hair bows/ hair bands and holders. I also like to pain but I don't do it often.
I have an online shop that has a little of everything in it....June's Pretty Things. You will be able to find ready to ship items and you can always customize items.
So to answer that question...I, most of the time, do one of my crafts. I have a few things I need to add to the shop that is ready to ship.

Those are the most common questions I get. If you have any other questions please leave them in the comments and I will answer them next Thursday on Q&A day.

Tomorrow I will have a guest post on autism :) Kids with autism is some of the sweetest kids that I know. So please check back tomorrow and read it.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

The Move

When I was growing up I always said that I would never move away. When I had both of my children I was still saying I would never move away. Well something changed and on March 3, 2012 we moved 6 hours away from home. Why you ask? To be close to some good doctors and David's neurologist.
My husband and I talked about it since 2007 when David had to have his first brain surgery to help with his seizures but to be honest we wasn't ready...mentally and financially we wasn't ready. We went threw a lot as a family since then. My husband was able to find a job and we got where we was financially ready to move. But that isn't what really got us ready to move. All of David's doctors is great but when it came to him getting sick or having a seizure all the local doctors, even the ER doctors, acted like they were scared to touch him. David's pediatric would get David over his sickness before he got to the point where he would start having seizures. But when it came to David having seizures we had no local neurologist and the local hospital wasn't set up to deal with pediatric seizures, I actually had a doctor to tell me that one day.
 A couple of years ago I had to call an ambulance to come get David because he was having seizures back to back and I didn't fill comfortable driving him to the hospital with his seizure activity like it was. That day was the day I was told that the local ER wasn't set up for pediatric seizures. I thought that the ER and ER doctors was taught to handle it all but apparently not this hospital and doctor ( either that or it scared him). That day I also had to tell them what the needed to do to get David out of his seizures and I actually had to allow them to use our personal medications because the doctor told me it would be up to 30 minutes to get an EMERGENCY medication to pull him out of the seizures. That did not go over good with me at all. Yes I could have done everything at the house but I already gave him a pill that would normally pull him right out of his seizures and relax him to where he wouldn't have seizures AND I gave him a round of an emergency  velum that would, any other time, so I felt safer taking him to the hospital so a doctor could give him more medication or do what ever they may need to do. That day he was almost transports to MCG in Augusta that was 6 hours away.
Back to the topic....so my husband's job improved to the point to where we could move to Augusta to be closer to his neurologist. We went up to Augusta a few times and looked for somewhere to moved and finally put in an application at an apartment complex and then we had to head home. When we got a couple hours away from our house the people from the apartment complex called and said that our application was approved and we can sign the papers and move in..ummm no we can't we are about 4 hours from Augusta at this time so we had to wait a couple of weeks so we could have the gas money and my husband can have time off. On March 3, 2012 we moved. It was a long process of me packing because we was going from a 3 bed room trailers that had an office room, I was using for my crafts, to a 2 bedroom apartment 2 bath apartment with no extra room so I had to go threw stuff and decide what I really needed to take. We was up until 1 AM packing and loading the moving truck and my truck with everything, 6 am the next morning we left out and took a very long 6 hour stormy ride that day. That is also the day that there was tornadoes and funnel clouds spotted in south Georgia.
We finally made it to Augusta and signed the papers for the apartment around 3pm. and got over to our new home and my husband and brother in law unloaded the trucks and set everything up. The only thing we forgot was the power cord to the tv...yea my husband and brother in law went out and found one the next morning. So everything was inside and we went shopping the next day ( March 4th) for stuff that we needed...food, new dishes, and anything else we needed. Lunch time my husband, brother in law and sister in law had to head out to get back to south Georgia at a reasonable hour. My husband had to go back to work the next day. So that left me unpacking and putting everything up while he was working for the following week which is what I wanted cause I already knew where I wanted stuff at. Sure it was a major downsize for our living arrangements but we are closer to our son's neurologist and a new pediatric for him and a great dentist which we have seen all of them now.
Sure I still have stuff to unpack and organize but it will all happen with in the right time.

Tomorrow I will have a guest post on here about Autism so please come back and check that out and ask any questions your wondering mind might have. Friday is Q&A day so get those questions to us and get educated about childhood illnesses.     

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Welcome to Random Thoughts From A Mom Of A Special Needs Child. This blog is going to be a really random blog.  First off lets get to know each other.

My name is Christy and I'm a stay at home mom while my husband drives a semi over the road. We have 2 children....David(7years old) and June(6 years old). Both of our children are special to us but David is our special needs child. He has ADD, ADHD, ODD, has a weak muscle behind his eyes and has seizures that he has had 2 major brain surgeries for.
My family and friends tell me that its not good to keep everything bottled up inside me and they are right...so that is how this blog got started. Its just a place for me to be able to "let it all out". Sometimes it will be good and some times....well it won't be so good. So you are probably sitting there saying/thinking something like " If it is so hard for her then why isn't her husband there every day and night to help her?", that is because we have our good days and we have our bad days. Not every day is good or bad. Lately we are having more good days then bad days but that is never a promise that tomorrow will be a good day. So how do I handle the bad days when my husband isn't here? Well we just take it one second at the time. I know that sound unrealistic but thats really what we have found that works. We don't really plan on doing something cause we never know if something, like David having a seizure, will happen and land us at the house for a day or two or even in the hospital.
I have even had some people ask me "What do you do to stay calm and have "me"time?" and the answer to that is random things such as, right now the kids is in their bedroom playing and watching t.v. since we had an early dinner. During the day, when I'm not cleaning or doing mommy/wife duties, I either crochet, or knit using my loom set ( never with the 2 needles. I can't figure it out), or bake, or tinker around on the computer. See there is different things that I do to help me relax and "stay together".

I think it would be fun for ya'll to ask me questions, being nice, and me to answer them in a blog lets say on Fridays. So Friday will be set aside for "How do you do it? What is it like? Question day. " so if you have any questions you can post them in the comments here or email me at christywiggins1986@gmail.com and on Friday I will answer them.

I just wanted to say Thank You to Crissy Weldon for blogging and inspiring me to blog to help me "get it out". She has a great blog here. She is awesome and her blogs always makes me smile.

On that note I think that I have done enough random posting. I know this blog may not make since but I told you it was going to be random thoughts.