Health Recap

HER - The last time I wrote we were in the process of investigating Emma's arthritis and increasing her medication. Well, that higher dose of Enbrel seemed to help for a bit, until it didn't anymore. A blood test revealed that the kid developed antibodies to her medication, so even if we increased the dose further, it was likely not going to work as well as it had in the past. It was time for a change!

Em switched medications about a month ago. She is now on two injectable meds: One is a different biologic (Humira) that will work much like Enbrel did to suppress the immune response that leads to inflammation and arthritis symptoms. The other is methotrexate, which will help with arthritis symptoms and also slow her immune system from making antibodies to the biologic medication. The cool thing about these two meds is they come in injector pens. Just press the cylinder against the skin, click the button and let go, and the needle extends, injects the medication, and retracts. Easy peasy. After a few weekly injections and little practice with a dummy practice injector pen, MY TEN YEAR OLD HAS GIVEN HERSELF HER OWN INJECTION (of Methotrexate) TWICE!!!!! I'm so proud of her. (What a sad and strange accomplishment.)

At this point, we're not really sure if her arthritis symptoms have resolved, but I think they have improved. These meds take several weeks to kick in, so we'll stick with them a bit longer and see how everything goes. 

HIM - As for the other child... I haven't written about this yet, but he was diagnosed with ADD in the Spring. We're trucking along, trying a lot of behavior management techniques and attempting to put procedures in place that will help him be successful in e-schooling and learn to better regulate his emotions. He has become quite skilled at opening additional browser tabs while attended his video classes. When his headphones are on I play a little guessing game... Is he listening closely to his teacher? Is he watching a YouTube video of someone playing a video game? Is he reading a book on Epic? At the end of my game, I lose no matter what because I have to sit next to him for the duration of his class and keep him on task. This is why, if we pursue ADHD medication, I want zero judgment from all of you. I regularly accomplish very little most days that I am home with the kids because my chores are constantly being interrupted to help my little students, or my chores are never begun because I am quite literally my son's one-on-one aide all morning long. I'm thankful for my elementary school teaching credential and my few years of experience as a classroom teacher. I'm also really grateful that my current job was super understanding back in March when I told them I needed to work less hours to be able to support my kids at home. If you are a parent working from home while your children do distance learning, I BOW DOWN BEFORE YOU. Ugh. Parenting during a pandemic is hard.

ME - I had a hernia! TWO in fact! Disgusting!!!

My hernia bulge showed up mid-October. It was officially diagnosed a few weeks later and I had laparoscopic surgery to repair it in mid-November. I'm doing really well over all. Surgery recovery was fast, thanks to laparoscopy. I still have some sore spots and need to ease back into exercise (Ha! When was the last time I actually exercised?!?!) but I'm pretty much back to normal! Hooray! 

I will say that this experience has given me a reason to educate myself quite thoroughly on the anatomy of the inguinal canal. I love the internet. This website was my favorite resource, if you're curious. In a person with a uterus, the round ligament of the uterus runs through said canal. My hernias were both on my right side, which is the side of my weird uterus where I carried my children during both pregnancies. I therefore blame my children for these hernias, naturally. Good thing those kids are cute. 

The Husband - He's fine. That man is as healthy as a horse. That's what you get when you have a career that is by default an all day workout routine. 

How the heck are you?

Pandemic Procedures and Prescriptions

 Oh Emma. 

After restarting medication back in April, Emma got some relief from the arthritis symptoms in her jaw, but not for long. Morning stiffness and a weird squishy sensation started happening in her right jaw joint, so she ended up getting an MRI in August. She was an absolute rockstar during that MRI - she endured an IV catheter like a champ and held still for at least an hour inside that noisy tube while it took pictures of her head. The MRI confirmed the good news that she DOES indeed have a brain AND the bad news that she does indeed have active arthritis, despite weekly Enbrel injections. 

So, we increased the dose of her medication by increasing the frequency of her injections! Try telling a ten year old that she gets to be poked in the arm every five days instead of every seven! It's so much fun!!!

Really though, Emma is a good sport. She is starting to participate more and more in her medical decisions. She wipes her arm clean and mixes her medication for me before every injection. I haven't been able to convince her to give herself a shot, but we'll get there with time. 

She has been on the higher dose of meds for a couple weeks now. It's hard to tell if she is sensing any improvement. She *thinks* the squishy noise and stiffness are happening less often, but she also thinks that maybe she has acclimated to those symptoms so she isn't really noticing them as often. When the arthritis is in her knee it's REALLY easy for me to assess swelling, heat, and stiffness with my own eyes and hands, but her temporomandibular joint? Not so easy. 

She'll get some lab work done in a couple of weeks to see how her body is handling the higher dose of Enbrel, to look for inflammatory markers, and to make sure she hasn't developed antibodies to her medication. Fingers crossed that those results come back favorably. I don't really want to have to switch her meds. 

Juvenile Arthritis is dumb. 

Also, my kid looks really cute in a hospital gown. 

Pandemic: Poor Personality

Blah. 

That about sums up my general disposition for the past two months. Although life was monotonous from March to June, we had the hectic fun of online schooling! We had a schedule! We had daily tasks to accomplish and a reason to get out of bed! Since the first week of June, when school ended for the summer, Pandemic life went downhill for me and I haven't really been able to pull myself out of this slump. 

I have been taking our Shelter In Place extremely seriously since the beginning. The first few months were pretty okay. The extra time at home gave me more time with the kids, lots of opportunities to be involved in their educations, more time to plan and cook yummy meals for dinner. The past two months have been different because I feel so terribly drained. The kids play A LOT of Minecraft, they watch a lot of YouTube videos of other people playing Minecraft (something I NEVER allowed prior to Pandemic Life), and they generally spend way more time on screens than normal. Emma is still reading a ton and Liam will get sucked into LEGO building and playing, but we are all sitting around a ton more than we were even a few months ago. As the Mom and enforcer of rules, I know a large part of the blame for our sedentary lifestyle goes to me. 

There are many ways we could enrich our days while at home. We could do crafts, science experiments, baking projects, and all kinds of hands-on activities. However, as the adult at home, it falls to me to motivate myself and the kids, set up, teach, lead, guide, and enforce clean up for all of those projects. I don't have the mental or emotional capacity for that right now. For the past week I haven't even have the attention span to read a book, and that is a very sad thing. Despite being a complete zombie myself, I usually try to plan an outing in nature once a week. Those adventures involve getting people moving first thing in the morning, which is a fight. Then, once out among the birds, fresh air, and trees, the older child complains of boredom and just wants to go home. Really? Really Child?!!? THIS is boring? I give up! One good routine that has stuck with us since the beginning is to take a neighborhood walk every day. We even got Pokemon Go for the first time ever to make our walks less monotonous! This morning the kids and I committed to jogging around our block instead of just walking, so we'll see how that goes. 

There are some good changes in the past two months. Our county has relaxed some restrictions despite rising numbers of COVID-19 cases. We now have a friend "Social Bubble" and a standing weekly outdoor playdate that gives the kids a chance to play with two other kids and me a chance to chat with one of my best friends face to face, or should I say, mask to mask. The easing of restrictions has also allowed for outdoor sports, so Liam gets to attend a very small outdoor martial arts class once a week at a park. I am extremely grateful that our library is providing curbside pick up now, because the public library is one of the greatest loves of my life. Even as my town has eased restrictions on things like outdoor dining and non-essential stores reopening, I haven't participated in those activities. I still order ahead for pick up and take out when it comes to supporting local shops and restaurants. 

I don't really know the point of this entry other than to document the way things are right now. As of today, Alameda County reports a total of 11,909 and my city is up to 519 cumulative COVID-19 cases. Life is strange and full of drudgery and I am emotionally and physically tired all the time. 

I am actually looking forward to online distance schooling starting in exactly three weeks because it will bring us some much needed structure. Ugh.