July 10th, 2020

 Day 116: For all my ESA parents and ESA teachers! We got this!

. I feel better with a potential plan in place, unless otherwise notified, we will start our school year virtually! All though, I wish we could have our kids back in the classroom, I worry increasingly about the possibility of starting school and then spikes happen and then they have to be out of school. The on and off had me on edge so I like the consistency of this plan until we can get these kiddos back in the classrooms!

Day 116 continued: We hit one of those, everyone is tired, everyone is grumpy and no one can quite get along days. We started early with a call to the pediatrician and doctor appointment setup which prompted my 9 year old to try and lock himself in our room. He is totally ok, we just had a swollen lymph node that needed to be checked out. As the years have gone by, his sensory challenges have either faded and he has gained that little bit of maturity that helps him self soothe, except for when it comes to the doctor and sickness. His anxiety over the unknown in these instances is sizable. So once I sat with him, squeezed him, comforted him and let him know that I’m here to support him, I’m on his team and we will go there together just to give us the knowledge we need to help treat him. We moved on for a little while and talked about dinosaur fossils. We were able to get to the doctor and even enjoyed some laughs in the car while we waited to be temperature checked and once we got into the office room we made up animals for the clouds painted on the walls. I was anxious, he was anxious. I guess I am more like him than I thought as I do not handle bad news well, like at all. I still remember when mom was in the hospital for a fib and the doctor brought dad and myself into his office. I or my dad, I can’t remember, said, “if you have any bad news, we are probably the worst two people to receive this bad news!”. . The doctor was a rock star, like total rock star. As soon as she walked in, saw GC , saw when I tried to show the bump that he was not comfortable at all. I mouthed the letters SPD and she said that is great to know and the whole appointment was amazing. She even made the lump into a good thing because it was actually just a natural reaction to a bug bite! We were worried because he had complained of his neck/shoulder hurting after a rambunctious playing last week and the bump was still there. We did find out, in case anyone needs to know, if the lymph node is squishy and movable, that is a good thing. If it is solid, sore, and feels more attached and immovable that needs to be looked at. . Always something new to learn and something new to worry about!