Back to the Bath

Well, I've reached a stumbling block with my bathroom. . .

white.

You see, when we started my quest to paint the house, I chose a slightly off-white shade of white called Quail Egg. But then I bought this towel bar, which has a white/white little piece on it. I've held the paint sample up to the towel bar about a million times and I don't like the way it looks.

So.

I've got a couple of options:

1. I can paint the bathroom a whiter shade of white, but that would mean two different whites in the house and then I start to get tense wondering about the ceiling and what if I want to paint the trim and on and on.
2. I can paint the bathroom a different color, but I'm not sure what.
3. I can embrace the different whites and just go with it.

I think it's time to consult with some of my magazines and see if I can get some ideas.

Fun Fact Friday

Well, Tales of the Cocktail is going on in New Orleans and The Gambit just printed their 50 Best Bars of New Orleans edition, so I'm going to go with the theme and make this FFF the Bar Edition.

1. I started going to bars when I was fifteen. I was pretty clueless--I wasn't there to drink--I just wanted to play pool. Didn't occur to me that what I was doing was illegal.
2. My husband started going to bars when he was two. He'd go after his dad's rugby games. He remembers being frustrated because the dart board was so high up.
3. When I turned eighteen I started going to this Country and Western bar to dance. My friends who were still seventeen would have to sneak in.
4. The first time I went out in New Orleans I went to Fat Harry's. It's been there forever and still is.
5. I drank a Malibu and Seven Up.
6. Fat Harry's is also the only bar I've ever stayed at all night. Like til the sun came up.
7. Being from New Orleans, I taught most of my friends how to open a tab and tip properly.
8. Also being from New Orleans, I spent a lot of nights physically dragging my friends out of bars.
9. I've never been thrown out of a bar, but a lot of my friends have.
10. In Texas we used to go to bar that let you bring your own alcohol. They sold beer and mixers, but that was it.
11. It did cost five dollars to get in, though.
12. People from New Orleans generally hate cover charges.

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy a cocktail if that's your thing!

Highs and Lows

Well, I'd like to put up a big ole post, but I went to type it and found myself blank. I guess days away from the computer can make you blank.

Anyway, the good news these days is that Charlie has started to pull himself up onto low steps. He does it from a prop sit and he also does it from the belly-crawl position. His PT is over-the-moon excited about this new development and so am I.

We are managing the tantrums. Time out in his bed seems to be effective. We're also pretty much glued to our schedule, but it's working and that's the important thing.

On the downside, my PT is ready to have a medical equipment vendor come out to the house and help us figure out a good wheelchair option for Charlie. You see, before we know it, Charlie will be going to school and we're going to need a good, supportive option to get him through the lessons. Right now I just cart him everywhere in an umbrella stroller, which probably won't be an option for very much longer. I'm not upset about the wheelchair part. There's this handy chart that helps put kids with CP into distinct categories. Charlie is easily a III. If I follow III all the way into adulthood I can see that he may need to use a wheelchair--especially for long distances.

I want to be clear about something--I do believe that ABR and Feldenkrais will help him make gains that this chart doesn't account for. We're already starting to see him make reciprocal movements with his legs, which is more common in II's than in III's. He's also pretty good at playing in the sitting position although balance is definitely an issue. But, he's still got a long way to go, and I don't think it does him any justice to keep him from interacting with others on their level.

So pretty soon I've got to pick a chair. And that's the yucky part. I wish there was a manual! I imagine it's very hard to decide these things and insurance companies only pay for one wheelchair every couple of years, so I better get it right. The pressure! Gah!

Still Alive!

I'm still alive, but my modem is dead. I'm getting a few minutes here and there, but most of those are being eaten up by processing orders for my store. Busy busy! I'm working on a new post, though, about Charlie's improvements, so hopefully I'll have that up soon. Fingers crossed!!!

No Time Like the Present. . .

. . .to go shopping! I'm having a big sale in my online shop, so if you were thinking about picking something up, now is the time!

Happy Fourth to you all!!! (I am ALL about the exclamation point today).

To Whom it May Concern

Dear Hospital Billing:

1. When you make a coding error, I don't think that I should have to waste hours of my time straightening it out. You are actually receiving a pay check for dealing with billing. I am not. Also, I have a toddler screaming in my face because I'm ignoring him.


2. Sending multiple bills for the same procedure is a horrible practice--I don't know who came up with it, but it sucks. Surely with the gazillions of dollars streaming into you facility you could find some way to put it all on one bill.


3. Charging 1200 dollars for a "room" when my son had out-patient surgery seems like a bit of a stretch. Plus, it wasn't so much a room as it was a rocking chair a bed and a curtain. Rooms have walls.


4. When I agree to pay in installments, please don't call me every five days about my account. You're getting my money--now leave me alone.


5. I am not a moron. I understand the terms of my policy. I know I have a deductible. You, on the other hand, seem to be confused about the entire process.


6. When I call YOU about my billing, please don't act like I'm a degenerate who doesn't pay their bills. I'm trying to straighten it out--do degenerates do that?


7. And finally, please do not expect me to blindly pay an UN-ITEMIZED bill for $300 dollars from 2008.

Thank You,

The Mother of a Special Needs Child

PS: Going to see the neurosurgeon next Wednesday, but we're managing the temper tantrums pretty well around here. It may just be a case of the terrible twos.

Worry

So. . . I've already mentioned the problems we've been having with Charlie and the tantrums. Well, I've been really diligent and we're having less, but the Hubs and I are starting to wonder if maybe it's something more than the terrible twos.

You see. . . he's never inconsolable. . . for long. That was the big watch word when they discharged us is the very beginning--inconsolable. And we've been very good about bringing him in when it gets like that.

But it does seem a bit weird to us that kid who was formerly a human beam of sunshine. A child who is entertained by a particularly musical paper crinkle and who jumps for joy at the sound of his relatives' voices is suddenly less so. I find myself apologizing a lot because he's "tired" or "not in the mood" and that's just so strange.

Tonight was another mega-blow up. Night time has been a little tough, but tonight we stayed late at my MIL's house watching The Closer and when we got home we put Charlie straight to bed. Big mistake. The tantrum went on and on and finally we pulled him out of bed, did the evening routine two hours late, and put him in bed. Still rough, but better. It worried both of us, though. So the Hubs and I sat down tonight and googled all sort of things with regards to his little brain and we came up with this very interesting statistic: %30 of kids who experience shunt failure have mostly behavioral symptoms. Not the throwing up, the seizures, and the lethargy that they warned us about. At the end of last month the neurosurgeon adjusted Charlie's shunt to a setting that he preferred.

So tomorrow we're going to hit the ground running. See if we can get an appointment with the neuro for Wednesday and if not, we may just take our happy asses down to the emergency room and hang out until we get some service.

Could it be the shunt? Maybe. It could also be totally normal childhood development. I don't normally complain about having a kid with special needs, but at times like this I would LOVE to know someone else in the same position. Someone I could call on the phone to see what they think. But for now. . . we'll just worry.