I miss watching my kids do their activities..swim team, karate, horseback riding. I miss chatting with other parents. I miss ice skating weekly with my daughter. I hate the feeling that everything is contaminated, like groceries and mail and packages. I miss normalcy. It is nice to have a reprieve from feeling like there is never enough time and everything is rushed, but the circumstances aren't allowing me to enjoy it that much. My brother is a doctor down in New Orleans too so I have an underlying worry about him.

That sounds tough! I hope you are able to find some support as you adjust to fostering. Best of luck!

Pen, I stayed home from the trip.

Thanks for checking in! This whole thing has been frustrating. She has an appointment with a GI specialist, but not until September 18. This has been going on for 3.5 weeks now, and now we are looking at another month until she is seen. I have called other specialists, but they require a physician's referral even though my insurance doesn't. I just called the pediatrician's office yesterday to ask if there really isn't something else they can do in the meantime, and the only thing they offered was to take another x-ray to see if she's still constipated. As for her symptoms, drinking water is much, much better now. She still can't lie down without feeling very sick. In addition, she now has stomach aches that comes and go all day. Each one lasts for up to 2 hours and they vary in severity.

Wow, this is beautiful! I think I might have to try this.

Thanks!

At my husband's insistence, the pediatrician's office is giving us a referral to a pediatric gastroenterologist, just as you suggested. If they don't get back to me in the next day or so I am just going to call myself as we don't actually need a referral. Thanks for your advice!

Thank you for the suggestions! I was talking with her again last night about the possibility of stress contributing to her symptoms. I have some Calm powder, and I will start to give her some in the evenings again. Great idea. I also would think that we should complete the course of antibiotics, but the doctor said to stop immediately, and that it wasn't doing her any favors for her stomach. She has not been to a gastro doctor. I am hoping we'll get a referral if her symptoms don't improve! I don't know if she's experiencing spasms or not. She says there is a sharp pain and an "overfull" feeling when she drinks, but lately it's been less pain and more the discomfort. I agree that I want the other symptoms looked into also! We are trying ex lax right now to see if she can get some relief. I think at this point she is getting enough fluids. She is back to urinating several times a day. And yes, we are on Day 13, heading into another weekend 😞 She is eating fairly normally, but drinking less than normal.

I just wanted to give an update to say that my daughter had an abdominal x-ray that showed constipation. They said to give her 5 capfuls (!) of Miralax to do a clean-out. The problem is, she could not choke down the mixture because of her symptom of pain when drinking fluids. Someone asked if it was just water, and it is not. Everything she drinks is bothering her. My husband called the nurse line this morning and told them what was going on, and they said to try half a square of ex lax, which I just gave her. The thing is, she says she is not constipated at all! She says she has been having a normal bm every day, without struggle. I truly appreciate everyone's thoughts, and I'm sorry I have been distracted and haven't replied before now. This is day 12 of ongoing symptoms, and now we're heading into another weekend with no relief. I have had discussions with her about stress, and she did report feeling stressed out the night that this first happened but not sure that would last this long, and only in certain positions? I'm still holding the idea of it being a UTI in the back of my head. Spryte, thank you for the name of that radiology site.

It boggles my mind too! No imaging has been done at all. I was so frustrated by her putting me off until Monday, because each day feels like forever when she's suffering. Also, 8 days is too long for these symptoms to be going on without being looked into further. Th doctor was going with the idea that she doesn't really have a UTI, and that the staph was from her skin. I will be pushing for more thorough investigation. I can't believe your daughter suffered for so long! Thank you so much for your insights.

Thank you for this. I will ask the doctor about this.

My husband works from home and would care for her and take her to any appointments.

I would love an outside perspective. Last Saturday a week ago), I went for a hike with the kids. My daughter was great, full of energy. That evening I read her a chapter from a book. Said goodnight, then at 10 pm she sent me a text from her room that she's feeling shaky. I assumed her muscles were tired from the hike, gave her water, went back to my room. I checked on her about 15 minutes later and she was shaking and said her stomach was hurting. I got her to the bathroom and sat her on a stool, and her legs were shaking so hard she couldn't keep them still. After a few minutes, my husband came up to help. We took her temperature and it was normal. Because she couldn't stop shaking, we called the after hours nurse, who said to take her to the ER. In the ER, they took a urine and blood. We were there all night. My daughter said her stomach hurt whenever she took a sip of water. When she tried to lie down, the shaking got worse and her stomach hurt and she felt sick. The shaking got better throughout the night. At 5am, the doctor said her blood looked great but she had a UTI and prescribed her antibiotics. The next day, she was able to doze while sitting upright but was unable to sleep in a reclining position because of the discomfort. We started antibiotics and cranberry juice. The symptoms did not improve over the next couple of days. I called the nurse who said that the urine culture tested positive to staph and to continue antibiotics. On Wednesday, she was not better and I brought her to the doctor. At this point, my husband and I were worried about dehydration because her fluid intake/output was so low.The doctor said the current urine sample looked good but that since her symptoms didn't fit the story of a UTI, we were going to stop antibiotics and try Pepcid and Tums. She said to call back Friday. My daughter is chipper and has energy but is still experiencing upper abdominal pain when drinking and lying down a week later. When I called the office yesterday, they said to call back Monday. I am scheduled to drive with my boys and sister down to North Carolina from Maine next Wednesday, but don't want to leave my daughter without knowing what's wrong. It seems to be a mystery what could have caused this to come on so suddenly and not go away. And I don't know what to do about my trip! What do you think?

Same exact thing here! One day.... @soror, congratulations! Are you certified to teach all levels or do they still just give a couple of levels to start with? I'm so happy for you!!

Good luck @soror! I did not enjoy the Mock class at all. It's a lot of work, but now it's behind you!

We are trying to figure out what to do about painting the exterior of our house. We got one estimate of 11k for scraping and painting. Another company kept not showing up when they said they would to give a quote so they are off the table. A third painter came and took measurements last week and I need to make time to call him and see what his estimate is. My husband started scraping and painting the worst parts on his own, but it is taking him hours and he keeps going to Home Depot and spending a couple hundred each time for supplies. We want to at least get any bare wood covered before cold weather sets in. I am almost done ordering school books. I ordered a couple more Light Units for my 4th grader for math, and luckily that only came to $10. I am thinking about purchasing a download of notebooking pages for my 7th grader for history. Then I need to go get a few binders and folders. Our dog is 12 and has been dealing with an infected cyst. He was on 2 weeks of antibiotics which helped but it's still there and he won't stop messing with it. I am worried we will need to do minor surgery and I don't even know how much that will cost. I am still trying to decide about art classes. I have 4 kids and my oldest doesn't like to do any classes but I feel like maybe I should insist. But classes are $15 each per class. I also have the option to send them every other week.

I hope you're feeling better! That sounds awful. I also have had stomach issues for the past 6 months, and have been wasting a lot more food because I'm usually the one to eat up leftovers and now I have to be more picky about what I eat. I made a double batch of a new soup recipe (why do I do that?) on Wednesday that the kids didn't eat much of. It didn't agree with me and I ended up giving all the rest to the chickens! At least it didn't totally go to waste. I am contemplating art classes for 3 of the kids starting in Sept. but it's $15/kid/class. I think she might give a sibling discount but it's still quite a lot of money added together. I have purchased most of our school books for this coming year and I'm in the organizing stage. I still have to buy the next level of Right Start math for my 7th grader and a supplies like binders. I made the most money I've made yet with VIPKID which is great, but we have so many things to spend money on that it seems to just disappear as soon as it shows up in our account! At least birthday season is over in our house.

Hello! I hope you don't mind if I join in the conversation. I am always trying to figure out ways to be more frugal, but it's hard! We moved from an old house to a not-quite-so-old house in Maine 2 years ago, and the expenses are neverending. Our most recent expense was $4000 to have some rotten clapboards repaired on the house exterior. We are also saving for braces and exterior painting, and a thousand other things. I am going to try that muffin recipe! I just got some frozen berries yesterday. @soror I started working for VIPKID last September and it felt like I did nothing but prepare for a solid week! It was worth it though. I'm about to go teach a class now. Good luck with your Mock class!

I'm kind of going through the same thing...I feel like I haven't even had a summer yet because I'm plugging along with their lessons on the days we don't have other stuff going on. In your case, with only 3 weeks left, I think you should definitely follow the advice of other here and consider yourself done and focus on other things for now!

Hoping your son gets the help he needs. :grouphug:

So sorry to hear this. I hope your grandfather is found safely today.

She did recommend counseling. We've been using Right Start math and it has been wonderful! She also said we might want to get an OT eval because her visual-motor skills were at the level of a 7.5 yr old.

Hello! I just wanted to report back and thank everyone SO MUCH for giving me encouragement and advice regarding my daughter. Her new pediatrician referred her for psycho-educational testing, which miraculously was covered by insurance! A psychologist who specializes in LDs performed the testing. Here is the diagnosis part: Other Specified Neurodevelopmental Disorder (traits of Nonverbal Learning Disorder) Specific Learning Disorder with impairment in written expression, impacting clarity and organization of written expression Specific Learning Disorder with impairment in mathematics, impacting accurate and fluent calculation Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Anxiety and Depressed Mood I'm so glad to have this info. My 12 yr old is due for the same testing in January.

Well I sincerely appreciate all this information. The whole vision aspect never even occurred to me. I guess I will have my work cut out for me in the new town- my 12 year old daughter has always had issues of all sorts and is also very resistant to any kind of evaluation. My 7 year old son has extreme sensory issues regarding food and clothing, and my 5 year old hums non. stop. which is a bad combination when the other kids are very easily distracted. I just did a search for a COVD dr and it looks like there are a couple in Portland ME that I will contact.

See, I never even thought of getting her vision checked with an optometrist. She's never had a problem at her annual vision screenings at the pediatrician so it never occurred to me! I didn't even know there was such a thing as a developmental optometrist! And being covered by insurance would definitely be a plus. I think visualization is definitely an issue with her for both math and reading. Did you find VT helpful? Yes, I found the school in my current town very helpful with my oldest daughter even though she is a tough case, and I'm hoping the new one will be just as open to homeschoolers using their services. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm going to see if I can find some samples to look at online. That is very encouraging! I'm glad you found a good math program for your boys :) I will do this right after she's done playing with Legos :)