As They Grow Up

Alas allergy season is upon us and poor Kanga is once again experiencing symptoms. Last spring I asked her doctor if there was anything I could do to ease her nightly stuffiness and coughing. Last fall she got a horrible cough that we were sure would turn into croup. This spring, she got stuffy right before her birthday party, and hasn't been run free since.

Well, last week, on Wednesday, her cough got bad enough for me to seek medical attention, so I had the option of an emergency room for 3-4hrs, or a walk-in clinic. You can guess which one I chose! She was just in for her 1 year check up the week before, the cough was there, and the runny nose was at 4 weeks, but her doctor said she was fine. Maybe she was, but my own allergies went crazy the weekend between, so I can understand hers getting worse too. Her runny nose was never yellow, green, etc. so that makes me think it was always allergies.

Anyway, Wednesday we went to the doctor, and he said he was worried about her, listened to her chest for about 5 minutes, her crying all the while (good inhalation that way though!), asked if she has asthma or any family history of it, and carefully chose the medicine he wanted her to take from his book. He gave her azithromycin for her cough (thought she had bronchitis) and a Ventolin syrup for her tightness.

Off to the pharmacy...Well, they had the azithromycin no problem, but no Ventolin syrup. We got an alternative, and it was delivered to our house after she got to bed. As soon as she woke up I gave her medicine to her, and back to sleep she went.

In the morning she had her medicine, well wore it more accurately. She got enough of her Ventolin wanna-be to be able to breathe better, and her breathing had only gotten worse as the night went on. I had to give her a second dose of the azithromycin though (good thing there was an extra!) because she spit out ALL of the bright red syrup.

Anyhow, the doctor also said he wanted us to bring Kanga back to the office in 3 days to see how she was doing, and prescribed 3 days of the Ventolin syrup. On Saturday, we got another pediatrician, and she recommended we continue the Ventolin. She was not congested at all, but still had tightness in her chest. I said we would need more as the first doctor had only prescribed 3 days worth, and mentioned that the pharmacy had given us an alternative to the original script as they didn't have any Ventolin syrup in stock. She asked us to get the pharmacy to call her, and I brought up the fact that Kanga wasn't really taking it! We would try and she would spit it back out... This is when inhalers were brought back up. It would be much easier to get the medicine into her if she took a huge crying breath in while fighting an AeroChamber rather than spitting syrup in my face that has to go all through her body before getting to her tight bronchioles.

Off to the pharmacy! :) We picked up her inhaler and AeroChamber, gave her the first dose, and there is a definite difference. The second pediatrician also briefly talked about if the cough doesn't subside quickly enough, then we may have to start a steroid inhaler as well. Sounding a lot like my baby girl has allergen induced asthma, but only time will tell.

Well, I had a taste of working full time. I was worried about that point in time, and was sure that I only wanted to work part-time until Kanga was in school. JK at the least. The change in Monkey when I went to school full-time was huge! He was 3 1/2 and the behaviour, the self-esteem and such that I saw was just sad. He's been recovering from that over the past year while I've been home with him, and he's been doing much better knowing mommy loves him, and having mommy and Monkey date days once a month. He loves it!

Now the truth of things. While I was at work full time, Monkey's behaviour didn't change. He had one bad day, and that's not unusual when you're 6! Kanga took a couple of days to adjust and was clingy on the weekend, but really, can you blame her!

While at work however, in the class situation that I ultimately want to achieve, I felt so accomplished, and just ready to be me, ready to move forward with life! That's not to say I want to drop everything I've set up, and as all working mom's do, I felt guilty for feeling this! How ridiculous is it to feel guilty at feeling fulfilled! What has society done to us!

I've decided I'm ready to apply for LTOs (Long Term Occasionals) in the fall. The change is that instead of ideally half days every day, ideally it would be full days every day financially, and because I think my kids and I can handle it. We had home cooked meals every day, got to the activities fine, maintained routines, and best of all, I was making money, not shopping! *lol*

It's strange, but the week that I found myself in this unexpected position was the week that my maternity leave officially ended. I'm now in the position where if I don't work, we don't have money. Just like everyone else. I didn't get any calls on Monday, was sick so that was okay, but that's money I didn't bring in. Tomorrow I have to take a 1/2 day to get the house ready for Kanga's 1st birthday party on Saturday, and I'm taking Monday off for a mini-vacation. I hope I can get consistent calls for the rest of the school year! I won't have worked enough to get EI for the summer, so we need to find magic money to get through 2 months and then that LTO will come and I'll be doing what I've always done. Teaching kids to be themselves, and be productive in society, and I suppose some math and science in there too!

I've also found out how much my friend support me. Berry watched Kanga for 3 days, Donna for 4, and Donna has a full-time spot for Kanga in the fall too. It does take a villiage to raise a child, and I am so lucky to have found such great friends. Friends at Monkey's school watched him for me, took him to and from school and everything. Thank you so much to all!

Well, it's that time of year when I start worrying about summer work! My friend Berry just started a company cleaning houses called Earth-Friendly Maid Service www.earthfriendlymaidservice.wordpress.com to check out her services! If she can find enough work, I'm going to help out and try to get some bills paid!

On that note, I worked every day last week! My mentor had surgery and needed me to cover her special needs class. It's been a riot! She has great kids, and it's always a privledge to cover for her.

Who knew it would be so hard to get a full day! I have had about 8 jobs since that last post, and although it seems like I'm getting calls regularly, when I really look at it, I have barely scratched the surface. My total days worked is 5. 3 full days, two from my mentor, and 4 half days. That means that I still need to get 11 more before the school year is over to get off of probation (I had 4 last year)! Time is running out! 20 days of probation is not that much, but when I can only work two days a week, and keep getting half days instead of full, it's tricky. There are 18 days left that I can work in the school year. Keep your fingers crossed for me! :)