I'm sooo sorry this has happened to you! It's extremely hard to see right now but this can make you and your marriage stronger but it will take a long time with lots of work. You might want to start journaling your feelings. Just write and write as the thoughts come to you. It will help you start to clarify your thoughts and feel a little more in control. My dh & I just had a minor version of what you're going through, and even though it was nothing physical, as I was finding out about it my heart pounded for hours and hours. I can't imagine how much worse it is for you right now. A book that also helped me understand my feelings and what steps to take was "Not Just Friends" by Shirley Glass. Not written with a specific Christian worldview (which I usually try to stick with in a counseling book), it is very helpful information from a secular POV. I would also second you and your dh seeking out a therapist to work with you at sorting out this mess and helping you know how to pick up the pieces. This is so hard on your own at this level. Again, I feel for you and will be praying for you.

A pediatric psychiatrist will do in depth testing and be able to recommend all options including but not limited to ADHD medications. (hopefully). My insurance is trying to tell me I have to go to a psychologist, not a psychiatrist, but the psychiatrist is the one who would have the option to prescribe the medications if needed and that is who my ped recommended. My ped office said they could monitor & refill the medication (if need be) after the psyc. eval. A psychiatrist (or even a psychologist) would have more detailed specific information on brain functioning in ADHD than the ped. in most cases.

It will depend on your pediatrician's willingness to be involved in the process. I went to my ped. for the same reason. She asked a couple of questions but then just basically gave me a referral to a psychiatrist for full evaluation. From what I understand some peds do more than that.

He is a very nice guy. He's answered several email math questions for us.

Heads up. Saw one inappropriate ad in the Games for Brain. Something about "Sugar Daddies" with a provocatively dressed woman.

Are there any openings in a private school (teaching or administrative) where you could at least have the 2 school age kids with you? Maybe there is a needy private school where you could point out a need for something with your skills and create a job for yourself? (When I say "needy", I don't mean a private school like you described above.) I'm talking about a school still developing its programs and hasn't yet seen all the possibilities open to it. There's a wonderful private classical school like that in our area.

Yes, I probably should ask for a neurologist consult despite her (the dr.'s) misgivings. I wonder if she'll actually give me a referral or if I'll have to ask our pediatrician. I guess we'll go ahead & try the pain clinic first though and see what the outcome is.

That helps to know how much the pain center helped and that I'm not the only one who felt it was a last resort.

Does that mean she's given up on us? For the majority of you that don't remember, my dd is struggling with abdominal migraines and it's gotten worse in the last 2 months despite the different medications we've tried. We've tried at least 4 different medications and right now we're on zoloft and Prevacid. I don't doubt the usefulness of pain management in general, but I can't help feeling like we haven't gotten to the bottom of what is causing her pain in the first place. I've gone over some simple progressive relaxation exercises with her which have helped a little. I'm waiting on the pain institute to call me back to make an appointment. But I'm feeling like we will go there without it really solving the problem. Hopefully, my dd may be able to cope better, but it's not going to cure this. I'm wondering what to do next. I don't really know what kind of doctor to seek out for this now. The dr. we've been seeing is a Pediatric Gastroenterologist. She doesn't feel neurologists would know how to treat this, so I don't know where to turn. I'm mostly just looking for sympathy and being able to vent, but if you have suggestions I'm listening. Jacqui

You know, Schnucks has gooey butter cake cookies now. They are even better than the cake!

I think this sounds good.

I would talk with the pharmacist &/or doctor about her reaction to Sonata. (I'm lucky, my brother is a pharmacist & talking to him helps a whole lot). Does it take a while for the med to build up in the system before it's effective or should it have been effective right away?

very lovely! Thanks for sharing this.

:grouphug::grouphug: I don't have any great advice as I am in the same boat as you & feel greatly for you and your daughter. My 14yo dd is having trouble with abdominal migraines which have been getting worse and also causing some sleep issues I think. She also seems to be prone to any illness going around, so if it isn't the migraine, it's something else. We're also sending our dd to a private school this fall so I have similar worries about it as you. Our gastroenterologist is sending us to a headache/pain management center to learn relaxation and other behavioral management techniques. I wonder if there is a behavioral type therapy for learning how to put yourself to sleep & sleep deeply (without waking up during the night). If you find something that works, please keep us posted as it might be helpful in my daughter's case. Jacqui

I have days like that. About one day per month I can count on being almost, gasp, an extrovert. Usually comes right after the first few days into my cycle. ;0)

I saw some clips. As the producers say, "This isn't your Father's Star Trek". The producer even discussed how he's being asked why he made a movie he wouldn't take his kids to. The clips that bothered me were of the actors pulling off clothes & literally jumping into bed with each other. That has made me not want to take my children to the movie. We love Star Trek here and we've been watching the original series, but we even screen some of those before letting our kids watch, so I know this movie wouldn't work for us. Plugged In Online is supposed to have a review of it on it's site tonight.

That's a good thought about using a different set of muscles. So far our training sessions are very short & consist only of forming single letters, writing a continuous line of them, slowly. We do maybe 2 lines (if I can even get him to do it). He is rather stubborn about not wanting to do it as well (which is why I had previously let go of this battle but his printing has gotten to the point where I can hardly read it). I don't want this pain to derail us from working on this.

but not with printing. We are reintroducing cursive with him (he's almost 11 yo) to try to rehabilitate his sloppy writing. He doesn't seem to be holding the pencil incorrectly or too tightly. I do find it odd that it doesn't bother him while printing though. He does say it hurts at other times as well like during baseball play. Could this be carpal tunnel syndrome? Either way, does anyone have suggestions on what we should try? Right now I've asked him to take a break from computer thinking maybe that has aggravated his wrist with too much repetitive mouse movement. Thanks Jacqui

Just got mine last Friday. So glad you posted about this so I was able to not waste time puzzling over it.

And a pretty good size carbon footprint as well.

What dictionary are you using? Ours definitely doesn't list this meaning.

R&S English 7 has a dictionary exercise to look up and write the meaning of the underlined word in this sentence "This morning the boys built a crawl."We can't find this definition in our Webster's Dictionary. Anyone else heard of this use of the word?

Thanks! That link is helpful. Is the Roomba noisy? Seems like a lot of the reviews indicate it is.

I saw them at Big Lots like someone here posted the other day, but I wasn't sure which one to buy. It looks like the 500 has a rechargeable battery and a wall "thingy" that I don't know what it's for. Can anyone enlighten me?

I've definitely heard this too. It makes me angry that we can't have a choice of what kind of light bulbs we want to use. I like the CFL's in our basement (even though I'm afraid of when one gets broken), but I hate them upstairs. Walmart seems to have quit making it's cheaper version of regular light bulbs so I if I stock up then it would be the more expensive bulbs. On the side, has anyone noticed all the new "watt" level of bulbs? i.e. 57 watts, etc. not just the usual 40, 60, 120. I'm actually not sure if those are the regular bulbs or CFL. I never know what to buy anymore. Sorry about the rant:D