August 30: Ears, Parental Anxiety, and Zoom Bombing with Style

 A couple of weeks ago Sarah had her annual audiology check-up and her left ear was blocked for one of the readings. We did a follow-up with her pediatrician this week and her remaining ear tube wasn’t in place but was still in her ear so we thought maybe that would fix the situation when they took it out. Nope. Still blocked but not in a way the doctor could see. Sarah is now doing Flonase for two weeks to see if that will dry out any extra fluid that might be clogging her eustachian tube. I also need to make an appointment for her to see an ENT and have another audiology check-up. Since she will at some point soon get her appointment to have all of her remaining baby teeth extracted while being fully out with anesthesia, the hope is to have the ENT coordinate with the oral surgeon and be able to do a scope while she is out to determine if her adenoids are swollen. This all feels rather overwhelming to schedule and coordinate.

I have also noticed in the past month or so that Sarah’s hands sometimes shake. I asked her pediatrician about it and they recommended checking with her neurologist, so I have emailed them and sent in some videos of her moments of hand shaking. I do not like this. I am feeling anxious and nervous when I think about it (so I try not to). She seems happy and well and normal overall so maybe everything is actually ok, but it would be nice to have that confirmed.

Meanwhile, my parental panicking was in overdrive last Saturday-Monday regarding Amy. Upon reflection and talking with her pediatrician, we think she was dealing with heat exhaustion. As happened before when it was probably also heat exhaustion, her first night was miserable and her second night was better but still rough and the nights got progressively better. What is puzzling is why she can seem mostly better during the day and then at dinner feel crappy and nauseous and miserable. Towards the end of this experience I discovered the myriad of different products designed to help. Emetrol seemed to help, but I don’t know if it would have on the first night. I can only hope that we can make sure she never gets heat exhaustion again or if she does to give her meds right away. The doctor recommended chocolate milk (or ice cream) on hot days before and after being out in the heat. I wonder how many times we have inadvertently avoided disaster by getting ice cream!

It takes days for my heightened anxiety level to return to normal. Days of focusing on breathing fully and reminding myself that one child being unwell doesn’t mean they will die. It doesn’t mean we will all die. I mean, eventually, yes, but not all of a sudden. I know I already had some high panic levels around the girls being sick even before Covid 19, but now it feels extra intense. 

Everyone is well as of now (knock on wood!) Carl and I even left the house overnight without the girls because they really wanted to do a sleepover with sitter A and A was totally on board with the plan. Our only mistake was in having Sarah know the plan and that the sleepover started yesterday at 4pm instead of at 5am. Sarah had a VERY hard time waiting for A to arrive. Screaming and crying throughout the day at least every half hour or hour. I was pleased that for the most part I handled it easily and calmly. It wasn’t ideal, but it was ok. 

No luck this week with getting Sarah’s permission to wash her favorite shirt and shorts. She says she likes to be stinky and have food stains. She does sometimes wear other things but still doesn’t give permission for laundering. Sometimes in the middle of the night Sarah will want to sleep next to Carl and then I move to her room. When this happened I was sorely tempted to do a secret load of laundry. Luckily I stuck to my promise to her and didn’t. A few minutes after my moment of temptation, she came in (eg 4 am) and put on her favorite corduroy shorts and then went back to my bed.

Sometimes Sarah goes into Carl’s office when he is on zoom calls. This week she has done so with extra flair. Once she knocked the rhythm of “shave and a haircut” and then opened the door to deliver her “two bits” with Roger Rabbit style enthusiasm. Another time she knocked and said “Elsa?” and opened the door to begin singing “Do you want to build a snowman?” from “Frozen." 

We had the loudest thunder I have ever heard. Just twice in the middle of Thursday night. It woke us all up and the girls seemed a tiny bit scared. Normally they aren’t. I was even a little concerned because it felt like the thunder was right on top of us. There was no rain so that made the whole thing even weirder. Friday we had huge rainstorms and the girls had a great time having a rain party with A. How awesome to have a sitter who delights in getting soaked for the sake of a good rain party.

We have been making wooden marble runs this week for the first time in maybe a year or two. We used to make them all the time in the Sarah-Rise room. It is comfortingly familiar to build them again. Sarah is notably much better at following the pictures to build her creation, still with some help from Amy or a grown-up.