Thoughts on My Family

There are times when I worry about my son's future as an only child. He'll be alone. He won't have a sibling. Even though I planned to just have ONE child, these thoughts go through my mind. But then I think of my own poor relationship with my sibling. And while my husband loves and gets along with his brother, they certainly aren't close. So a sibling doesn't necessarily guarantee a good relationship and friendship into adulthood. But I guess I also worry about the fact that I had Little Man when I was 39... he's going to have elderly parents earlier in life. And no matter how well my husband and I may plan, when we are ill, everything will fall on him. That's assuming Little Man grows up to want us in his life as an adult. But I'll just go on that assumption based upon our relationships with our parents.

Families are complex. While I am pretty close with my aunts and uncles, I don't have much of a relationship with any of my cousins. Only two of the five are actually in touch with me (via Facebook, but they're in touch). And they both live far away so we couldn't actually get together anyway. Two are pleasant to me, but it's obvious we'll never reconnect. One considers me to dead to him for nothing I actually did. C'est la vie. I know I have done nothing wrong and my circumstances are what they are. But that has affected things and it's too bad. I am almost like an orphan, because nobody in my family has me over for holidays because of past actions made by someone else--but I get blamed, I guess.  My husband's family embraced me, but for some reason we just don't manage to connect any longer. A lot of it has to do with geography. It is what it is. But at least I know they have my back. At least I hope they do.

There are days when I feel lost. With my parents' health issues, they really aren't any support to me emotionally. My one aunt tries, but her life is so busy that she barely has time for herself and her two children. So I have nobody from "my side." And while I know my husband's family is there for me, it isn't quite the same.

Catching Up

Where to begin? It's been a good two months since I've actually posted something of interest. I guess I'll break the months down in sections and go from there, because a lot has happened.

MARCH

In our case it came in like a lamb and went out like a lion. Yikes. We finally made it to the dentist for Little Man's first check-up and it wasn't that great. He wasn't a fan of the chair and sat ON me the entire time. The x-rays weren't easy to get. Then I find out that Little Man has four cavities. FOUR! So I make appointments for him to get fillings. Fun times.

The first issue was my dog Casey and the chicken bones. He got into the garbage and the rotisserie chicken carcass. He ate the entire thing. After diarrhea and vomiting, I took him to the vet. He had gastritis and got meds (and lots of blood work, as he also has canine kidney disease). A quick $300 later and he recovered. But honestly I was worried. He was a very sick dog for a few days.

Then the week before Passover/Easter we had the "mystery illness."  He had a fever ranging from 100.7 to 102 for a full week. I ended up using 3 out of my 5 annual sick days (that I only got in March, after 3 months of employment) and my husband was off on Good Friday, when he finally felt better BUT came down with an ear infection.

Since Little Man has tubes, we did antibiotic ear drops (Ciprodex) but they did nothing. Took him back to the pediatrician and he got a prescription for a Z-pack. That finally did the trick and I made an appointment with his ENT for mid-April to follow up.  More on that later.

APRIL

That first Monday, after Little Man was finally better, I felt awful. I went to work with a fever. Bad call, but I only had 2 sick days left and felt like I could handle it. That evening I even went to my allergist for a check-up. But by dinnertime I felt AWFUL and my throat was on FIRE.  I had a 103 fever and felt like death. Of course sick day #4 was taken on Tuesday and I wen to my primary care doctor.

Strept Throat. That sucked. And led to sick day #5 (of 5) being taken on Wednesday. Plus a bad reaction the the generic Biaxin I was taking for the antibiotic. A switch to a sulfa drug did the trick, but I was on antibiotics for 12 days and that wasn't fun. Thank goodness my boss is a nice guy and gets that life happens. I am so grateful for being hired there.

Then Little Man's appointment with his ENT came on April 24th.  Apparently the one tube in his left ear (the one that got infected) partially came out and wasn't functioning. Plus I found out that his adenoids and tonsils are so large that he is unable to breathe through his nose. And he had another hearing test and he has loss in that one ear of >25 decibels. So the recommendation was another Myringotomy (tubes) and surgery to remove his Tonsils and Adenoids.

I have to admit that I'm freaking out a bit. I've read that the recovery from a tonsillectomy is NOT easy. And I'm expecting the worst. I'll post more about that later and probably will keep a record of his recovery. Surgery is set for June 10th.

We ended the month a bit better, with a trip to the Bronx Zoo. We're members and we go as often as we can. Little Man loves animals.

MAY

So far so good.

It was my husband's birthday. We saw Iron Man 3. We're planning our Fall vacation to Walt Disney World. I'm hoping this month is a good one.

I guess tha't all for now.  Sorry for hiatus again. I always start out with good intentions of blogging but then never follow through.

Wordless Wednesay