This is what I’m doing instead of writing a post:

rawr

∗ Posted by bluepaintred on 10.28.2009
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OK, First the ZOMG news : Logans doctor called and his blood labs all came back in the  normal range so whatever we are dealing with is probably a regular run of the mill allergy and not something devastating like leukemia.

Now the Woot news : First round of layoff papers went out, half of Micahs section is gone, but he is still there. No word if there will be more layoffs in his end of the plant yet, but so far, so good.

And now, for the SPARKLES: HELL YEAH!  I finally got to meet a blogger! LateFines, AKA Gwen, drove all the way down to my house on Sunday so that she could take me out to meet EDWARD FUCKING CULLEN!

I am not joking here people, see, there was this band, Flogging Molly, That Gwen wanted to go listen too, but she didn’t want to go alone. Since she knew I lived ten minutes from where they were playing, she invited me to go too. Obviously, by this point in the story, you are aware I said yes, mostly due to the previous paragraph where I said I met Gwen, but also partly becuase you are so SMRT.

So we got there and I found out Gwen is a vegetarian, so not only did I meet my very first blogger, but also my very first vegetarian! Coolness! AHNYway. I was talking about Edward, not Gwen. (Sorry Gwen, but you know my heart belongs to Mr. Sparkles)

So we get to the place after getting lost then getting found and we wait outside in the cold making fun of people and reassuring each other that we are indeed NOT serial killers with plans for murder that night, we go inside, Gwen buys some shit, and we head to the stage area. And that, My friends, is Where Eddie comes into the story.

The opening act comes on stage, and true to form, they sucked ass. Worse then ass, to tell the truth. I’m positive the singer wasn’t actually singing, that he was having a seizure and I tried to convince Gwen that we needed to call 911 but was distracted by the fact Seizure Man had left the stage to pour water on his head so he could spray dirty, sweaty head water on people while he “head banged” (AKA : Had another seizure)

Then, I saw him. Edward Cullen, in the flesh. (He wasn’t sparkley, becuase it was night time,and vampires don’t sparkle in the dark so STFU)

(LEFT)   Edward           (RIGHT)   The dude who Plays Edward in movies

I didn’t see Bella anywhere, but I wasn’t going to take the chance that she and her little doggy friend were hiding back stage ready to bash the unlucky girl brave enough to go offer Edward their neck, So I stayed and listened to music with gwen and got annoyed at people shoving me and shoved them back, made bets on whether the dude who almost cried was gonna pass out and fall down (Spoiler : he didn’t) and came back to my house to have cake.

The only bad part was morning, becuase 1. morning means I have to get out of bed, and 2. It also meant Gwen had to leave

(Edward Cullen goes by the stage name  Justin Bosso, and as far as I know, he is not related to Robert Pattinson, Who plays Edward in the movies.)

∗ Posted by bluepaintred on 10.27.2009
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• After this many days, with this amount of shit happening, the only logical way - read: the only way I could do this and stay sane- is to use bullets.
• Logan went a full 24 hours without hives and without benadryl, but at 8pm today, he had hives again. I should never have gotten my hopes up over a measly 24hours free of hives.
• His doctor has not called back with the results of his WBC count, and I am hopeful about this as he had a rush order for those numbers. If something was seriously off with those results, he should have called by now.
• Right?
• My sister goes in for her angiogram to clamp off the bleeding vein on November 11th, and will have surgery to remove her kidney on the 12th.
• Micah;s company announced that 300 men will be laid off, effective November 23, indefinitely. While he is confidant due to his seniority that his job is safe, I am worried. Super worried. Heart racing short of breath on the verge of puking when I think of it worried. The first 50 layoff papers go out Monday morning.
• I won’t be able to stop worrying until November 24th comes and Micah has a job. And even then, the fact that the company is laying off so many employees is a very bad sign. There is a definite risk the company may declare bankruptcy and everyone will be laid off.
• Parker turns ten (WTF? HOW) on the 29th of October. He has friends over tonight for a sleepover to celebrate a decade on earth.
• They are noisy, but good.
• So far.
• So many things on my mind, so many bad things on my mind. I’ve tired to keep busy with mindless tasks, becuase everytime I think of anything, Logan, Micah, My sister, I just want to sit and cry.

∗ Posted by bluepaintred on 10.24.2009
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Short sweet and to the point, becuase I need to get up and eat before Logan wakes up and sees me eating.

I took Logan to the city to see his pediatrician this morning. Because of the swollen lymphnodes (all of them) Dr.P ordered a blood test to get a white blood cell count. He told me that he believes it is unlikely Logan has anything like leukemia, but he has to rule it, and other such things, out before we progress.

Logan is going for his blood test, a 12 hour fasting one, at 7AM, hence me eating before he wakes up. I get dizzy when I don’t eat, and I refuse to eat in front of a hungry child. But dizzy + driving is not a good combo.

As well as the WBC count, Logan is doing a glucose test to check for diabetes.

Dr. P is scheduling appointments for Logan to see an allergist. It may take a few weeks to get in.

And lastly, Three weeks ago Logan had an ear ache. I took him to the clinic and the doc refused to treat him, saying that his body needs to learn how to fight off germs and that I was free to bring him back in 48 hours if his ears still hurt. His ears did not hurt after 48 hours, subject closed.

Subject reopened. Dr.P thinks Logan may have fluid behind his ears or in them or wherever the fluid goes. The body can treat this as an infection. Infections make lymphnodes swell. When your lymphnodes swell, sometimes you get hives, its your body’s red flag to say “Hey, Somethings wrong here”

As such, Logan is also being scheduled in to see an ENT specialist. This could also take a few weeks.

AHNyway. I’m heading to bed now, so that I can attempt to wake up before the boys.

∗ Posted by bluepaintred on 10.20.2009
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I worry. I like to say “It’s What I Do” when people get on my case about the things I worry about. I feel much better when I worry, when I plan for the worst and the next to worse thing happens, life is so much better because I was expecting something just a little bit..well..worse.

I worry about everything, but mostly, I worry about Logan.

This past month has been bad. He is getting headaches three or four times a week. A cookie or children’s Tylenol will take care of it in under an hour and they do not return. That day at least. I won’t even get into my worries about his blood sugar. Instead, lets worry, together, about his hives.

Yesterday, Sunday, at about 5pm, Logan was standing in the living room talking to us. He casually put his hands in his pants and began to scratch. I asked him to remove his hand from his pants and he complied, but said “It’s itchy down there”. I pulled down his pants, which was easy to do becuase he was wearing Blakes pants and no belt and both his thighs were covered in hives. And also his one butt cheek. from hip to knee he was one big hive.

I gave him an antihistamine and told him not to scratch and within an hour all was well again.

Until bedtime tonight when I noticed Logan had the start of another set of hives. I gave him another antihistamine and sent him to bed. Half an hour later I saw his light was on and went in to yell at him for not being in bed, and I couldn’t help but see his hives had, despite the antihistamine, gotten worse.

Hives that do not respond to treatment are not good, FYI.

I took him into the hospital - I’m taking literary license here, our hospital is a 10 room clinic with x-ray, blood lab and three doctors on staff.(one doc at a time)

I told the doc about the hives and we talked about how he hasn’t been exposed to any new food, and that none of our soaps or detergents had changed either. He wasn’t too concerned and told me to give Logan childrens Benadryl four times a day till they went away.

I told him about Logans headaches and we discussed that they are not in the area kids get eye strain headaches, so glasses are not the problem. He did some fancy follow the light/ look at my nose movements with Logan and told me that so long as the headaches are responding to Tylenol, it is OK.

Then the doctor checked his lympnodes in his neck, armpits and groins and suddenly, it got a bit tense in the room. He measured two nodes in Logans neck, and one in his groin and told me that swollen lymph nodes are not usually considered a problem at this size (think : pea) that concern comes as they grow to 1cm or larger, but the fact that he has so many swollen nodes, combined with the headaches and the hives concerns him. He mentioned something along the lines of an autoimmune uhm something, and how hives are like the immune systems way of waving a red flag that something is wrong.

He decided that we should continue the antihistamine route, except asked us to change from the no name adult strength I was using, and use benadryl instead. Hopefully the hives will respond to treatment. I was also told that a headache that does not respond to Tylenol, weakness, joint pain or trouble breathing were signs to drive him into the city to the ER.

Left unsaid were all the mights. Or what we do if the hives don’t respond to treatment. Or that I should never ever Google swollen lymph nodes, hives and headache and read the pages upon pages of horrifying results.

So worry with me, but also feel free to hope that the hives are gone by morning, never to return.

I’m not too hopeful. The above photo was taken at quarter after nine, five minutes after he took his benadryl.

This one was taken just now, at ten thirty.

*worry*

∗ Posted by bluepaintred on 10.19.2009
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