Hospital-ity - Blogging Advent Calendar Day 18

There is nothing fun about having to take a kid to the ER. Add autism to the mix and that makes it all that much less funner.

We had to take Bianca to the ER… again. Last time it was a broken foot, this time it was a REALLY infected finger. I just hate it. Nothing makes me feel worse than having to hold Bianca down while she is freaking out as doctors and nurses do stuff to her.

Yuck. It was bigger by the time we got to the ER.

Kudos to the ER staff who fast-tracked Bianca because they were sensitive to her autism and didn’t want her to be in a place that she was not comfortable.

It goes against everything in my makeup. I spend the vast majority of my time with Bianca working towards avoiding meltdowns. There is no option in the ER though. She is going to meltdown. She is going to get upset. She is going to hate me. I just hope that she forgives me.

A Break in the Routine: Part II

Did I mention that I am NOT a morning person?

The appointment with the orthopedic pediatrician was at 7AM. I fought through the fog of sleep and got up. Thank goodness I set 5 alarms on my phone… I needed all 5 of them. Bianca needed several more. She was NOT moving. I got her dressed and carried her downstairs and out the door to the man-van. I strapped her into the car seat as her sleep remained undeterred.

We got to the specialists office and of course I had to fill out paperwork. Bianca was awake now, so I had to keep one hand on her and try to fill out the forms with the other hand while being tugged in every which direction. I felt bad handing it in because it looked like a serial killer had just filled out a form, but then I remember that they read “doctor” so I figured it was OK.

The staff was incredibly pleasant. Everybody was very concerned about Bianca and they were very in touch with the fact that she is autistic. They fawned over her, complimented how pretty she was and marveled at bond between us. It really made me relax. I was already nervous about the appointment and on edge because I had no idea what was wrong with Bianca.

A Break in the Routine: Part I

Since we could not really afford a big family vacation, I decided that I would use my remaining vacation time to take off a bunch of Friday and Saturday nights. I work a 4 day work week, so this would reduce my work week down to 2 days and allow me to enjoy some time off with the family. You may not be aware, but Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (my normal nights off) are not exactly HOPPING. So, we scheduled a bunch of outings that we normally would not do and treated my time off as a bit of a “stay-cation”.

For the first time in our 13 years together, we actually went to a bunch of adult Halloween Parties that our friends hosted. It was a nice break in the routine for a couple that works opposite schedules to reduce babysitting time and costs and share a bed with a 2 year old that refuses to sleep in his own room anymore.