The Unexpected

(Note: I am adding links to resources as I find them useful)

Like many folks, we are just watching COVID-19 unfold around the world. I've been watching for awhile but really started paying attention about a month ago as epidemiologists and public health officials started seeing what this virus is capable of. I am not an alarmist and I'm not panicked. I am glad that the majority of folks I know are also treating this with the appropriate level of preparedness as possible (as opposed to folks I see in the comments section of news articles or in some community Facebook groups who somehow see the rising death tolls as manufactured by mainstream media).

Anyhow, I have little to offer in terms of COVID-19 preparedness that can't be found in a million better articles and blog posts online. The two pieces of advice I have is--think of what food and supplies you would like in your house today if you were to get sick and have about a 2 week supply of essential medication, pet food, and foods at home. This isn't doomsday prepper time. I really don't understand the rush to hoard toilet paper, in particular.

The major point I have taken away from the last 2 weeks is that it's important to slow the spread of this virus so that hospitals do not become overwhelmed to the point that sick and dying folks are turned away from or receive lesser services. I believe OSU made the right call by going online for the next 2 weeks (minimum...). I hope that others are heeding the calls to avoid unnecessary gatherings and are not using this time to jet off on lower priced vacations...(Here are two great articles with do's and don'ts of social distancing).

I'm not especially concerned about my immediate family, though we do have a supply of regular medicine and a few more snacks than usual.

That said, A is at a higher risk of upper respiratory infections because of her asthma. Her asthma has been harder to control this winter, with us having to switch back to a more powerful medication and use her rescue inhaler more frequently. Thus, we made the difficult decision that, barring unforeseen circumstances, even if our school district is in session, we are going to pull her from school for the couple of weeks after spring break. I briefly talked with her principal today and he was very understanding and reassured me that the district was considering these types of situations. It is quite possible (again, if they resume school as currently planned) there will be materials available online or as packets that can be picked up for students to have.
Because A was absolutely devastated to learn she would be missing her teacher and class at least 3 weeks, we discussed ways to make the days fun. I told her we could make a schedule and she ran with that. We created a table together in Word and she stuffed that schedule full (I learned she's becoming adept at MS Word shortcuts like copying and pasting!). I color coded it only for her to decide she didn't like that because she wanted to choose each activities' color. So ultimately we now look like a super overbooked family. I figure what we will learn most is how to deal with unmet expectations and falling short of one's best laid plans.

Given that I have to move lectures online and somehow manage to squeeze in clinical supervision meetings via phone or Zoom, keep writing, handle journal articles, and complete overdue reviews, I am certain this will just continue my lesson in failing all the things as gracefully as one can (I did like this article about not focusing on creating perfect online courses on the fly; I'm imagining some of my meetings will go as well as my favorite internet sensation). Between the teacher walkout 2 years ago and a delayed opening of her school this fall, I am feeling much better equipped to deal with the unexpected.

Because I know others are also dealing with similar struggles, I've compiled a list of things that might be useful in the coming weeks (by A's categories). I found this article to be super awesome and realistic--bonus that the author is in my beloved Harlan County, Kentucky. This is also a nice list of activities.

• Kid-Friendly Exercises:

https://www.cosmickids.com/category/watch/
https://www.gonoodle.com/blog/gonoodle-games-movement-app-for-kids/

(I will have to find more physical activity videos because most of the non-yoga one I have watched makes me want to poke someone in the eye)

• Research: 

So A wants to learn how to "research a topic" so I'm going to let her come up with questions and then help her find sources to read about them. I am guessing I will read a lot about squirrels in the coming weeks.

• Math:

A is obsessed with the math game Prodigy. Between that game and some Highlights/Scholastic workbooks she got this summer, she will keep working on it each day. One of her favorite activities is having me create math worksheets for her. I found a lot of "math facts" worksheets online that makes this easier. Once she is finished, I let her check her work with a calculator, which she loves.

• Science:

Science will be the most fun, of course. We still have tons of experiments we can do at home (how is our bread *still* not molded, by the way? we started that experiment on 2/28 to drive home the importance of hand washing--still not a speck of mold). She will be missing her first couple of weeks back to Tech Club so we will definitely need to find some fun coding activities we can do at home. We still have geodes we can bust open, and we might do some reading about climate science and about viruses since she has had a lot of questions about that this last week. And of course, I have 234 Pins on my Science Pinterest board...here is the site I am most excited to dive into.

https://mysteryscience.com

• Bake:

I would have never thought to add this to our list. I am excited to see what A decides she wants to bake.

• Read/Write:

I might find a few journal prompts but otherwise, reading, writing, and drawing will be entirely up to her. 

• Computer:

This google document provides a list of a ton of educational resources for free for the next few weeks. Scholastic is also offering some really cool free lesson plans. She also uses iStation at school and could choose to play on that or Starfall for a bit.

• Social Studies:

I'm thinking we will do more on global citizen and perhaps pick a country to learn about each day. She has enjoyed similar studies at art camp and at school. Additionally, we get a box with snacks from a different country; this month will be Brazil, I think! (February was France and that was a huge hit with the whole family!)

• Art/Music:

In addition to letting her draw or do other fun artistic projects, I saw that 12 museums offer virtual tours for folks so we might watch some of those. Unfortunately I think that might bore her a bit. However, we might also learn a bit more about her favorite artist, Frida Kahlo. I also am ordering her a tie dye kit and we have lots of rainbow loom bracelets and chokers to make. 

We also discovered that many amazing symphony orchestras and operas are now available online which might interest older kids.

Metropolitan opera

Berlin Philharmonic

Seattle Symphony

• Library:

I'm not exactly sure what she wants to do for library time but perhaps I'll just let her use that time to peruse the books available to her through the e-library on her tablet. Maybe? 

• Creative/Play:

See above. I'm also hoping she might want to spend some time building LEGO or putting together a puzzle. We will see. If she chooses to just play with toys during those times, I'm fine with that too.

• Unfun Friday:

So this is kind of a funny joke because A's school does "Fun Friday." However, she absolutely hates it so much. I really have no idea what they do in there and I don't know what she will want to put during this time but it's sure to be unfun. ;) 

~

Anyhow, in reality, like I said, I don't anticipate that we will stick anywhere near this schedule. I also am comfortable with more screen time than usual as these are unusual circumstances. In general, if she does some reading, plays on prodigy, plays with her toys and does some physical activity most days we are out, I will be happy. Hopefully, she will be too. I know she's going to miss her teachers and the staff at her school so much. So lots of lessons on emotion identification and validation planned as well. ;) 

Day 14: teacher gifts and asthma interruptions

I keep forgetting to snag a photo of the elves. This morning they were camped out in our gingerbread village. That village is looking pretty quiet and cozy right now as Chad and I were up most of the night with A coughing a lot. We tried all our tricks to no avail; just waiting for the sun to come up. We kept her home for the day, for better or worse. We've upped the dose of prednisone and will be giving that for a few days. It makes us all a little crazy (see the video below!). 

We worked on teacher gifts last night, in an attempt to thank the people who love and care for A every day. I also continued working on Christmas cards. 

Tres médicos

Between the ear infection(s), the random febrile virus, and a regular pulmonology check-up, we have spent a lot of time in the company of medical professionals this week. We are so fortunate that A loves doctors and takes medication like a champ. Luckily, tomorrow is her last day on omnicef. Hooray! She even really surprised the doctor and nurse by saying she wanted a shot (more like she wanted the sticker and sucker!). She did really well with her flu vaccine, though and I am so glad I don't have to go through the hassle of scheduling yet another appointment. Hopefully we are set for awhile on visiting doctors. I do need to reschedule her dentist appointment, though...

On Friday, we went to her very favorite doctor, Dr. Droemer, in Tulsa. Their office was decorated for Halloween, which was very exciting and matched A's dress.

Sweet pea remains petite at 35.83 inches (2nd percentile) and 28.4 pounds (13th percentile). Her lungs sounded good and her ears were looking less inflamed. The pulmonologist recommended starting Flonase more regularly right now when she is coughing related to colds or allergies. He concurred that her ear tube was just hanging out in the canal. Over the past week, we have noticed that she is having significant difficulty hearing regular conversation, music, or television so we plan to take her to an ENT or audiologist to see if it was just the infection/congestion.

We like getting food that we can't get in Stillwater when we go to Tulsa. We had planned on going to a local place called Dilly Diner but at the last minute, decided that we really wanted Cracker Barrel. It was an excellent choice. And A ate an entire pancake and part of a grilled cheese sandwich. The doctor talked with us a bit about her eating (or mostly, lack thereof) and recommended he wasn't really concerned about her but that we might consider getting one of the "game" plates for her. I am not really a fan of things that reinforce the 'clean plate club' (though I think her new class does this; she often talks about making 'a happy plate') or using food as a reward (though we definitely do) but she would probably love this so we may try it.

She was really fighting sleep on the way home.

She lost.

This Cinderella light & sound wand is the most annoying toy we've ever had.

This morning we were excited to make it out to the Wondertorium for a fun birthday party with a very sweet (almost) 2-year-old. Such a cutie.

Celebrate! Commiserate!

This is my 300th post. I don't even know what to say about that. 300 posts later and I still don't really understand blogging or the friends and family who may read my random ramblings. 300 posts in and I still don't have a voice or a reason for writing other than a repository of memories and photos of A. I know that I haven't been updating as much lately. Since the last post, we have attended 3 adorable birthday parties (and I had a friend's birthday lunch and another friend's birthday dinner), one of my closest and dearest friends came to spend the weekend, I traveled out of town to give a research talk, I've attended or led more committee meetings than I can count, and read or sent hundreds of emails.

On Friday night we took A to Urgent Care because she was complaining of ear pain. She had a low grade fever related to a double ear infection. It appeared that one of her tubes had fallen out (no surprise given it was February 2013 that she got them) and the other ear tube was displaced and sideways in her ear canal. She seemed to respond really well to the Omnicef but on Sunday she spiked a fairly high fever (ranging from 102-104.8), complained of dizziness, refused to eat, and went to bed hours earlier than usual. However, on Monday morning she woke up happy and her temperature was 97.8. We hung out at home and were considering going to gymnastics but her temperature popped back up again. Tuesday was a repeat of the same so the pediatrician wanted to see her. She said she thought this was just a secondary virus so Chad stayed home with A on Wednesday and fortunately, her temperature stayed normal all day. Tomorrow we go to Tulsa for her pulmonology appointment.

In other tough news, the vet called us this afternoon to let us know that, after running more tests on Jasper last week, she is confident that he has Cushing's Disease. While some of his lab work was inconclusive, his presentation is prototypic--polydipsia, increased hunger and food scavenging, fatigue, increased urination, hair loss, thinning of the skin, etc. I have not hidden the fact that I have been incredibly frustrated with both dogs since having A and gaining more responsibilities at work while they become more dependent with increased medical needs. However, I do feel bad that he is struggling. We will be talking with the vet to determine our options (which likely will involve chemotherapy but may instead involve medication, surgery, or radiation) as Cushing's Disease seems to respond well to treatment and quality of life can be regained after a few months of the correct plan. Separately, I am going to attempt to think of things I can do to appreciate both dogs more often and to offer them extra love because they really have been a part of our family for so long.

Batman party at the park:

Fun mermaid surprise party, with special guest, Ariel (who A was obsessed with)!

Safari party at Lost Creek Safari:

 

Urgent Care visit

 Sick days sweetness

Curly Sue