Stream of Consciousness Sunday: Pass It On

April 7, 2013 By 10 Comments

Today’s (totally optional) Prompt:

What is something you have passed on (on purpose or not) to your children?

Or what did your parents pass on to you?

stream of consciousness sunday

When I was little, about to lose my first tooth, my very best friend told me that when you go to the dentist to have a tooth pulled, they gave you a shot with a GIANT NEEDLE and then used a HUGE drill in your mouth and it HURT LIKE YOU WERE GETTING STABBED.

Maybe it wasn’t so dramatic and all, but it scarred me for life.

I’ve been a bad dental patient all my life. Even though I have great teeth and all, I’ve cried and screamed at, bitten and puked on my dentist.

Looks like I’ve passed on that anxiety to my kid.

This week he had to go to the dentist to get the first of 6 cavities filled. (He obviously has my sister’s teeth…)

He did a great job once he was there, but the night before and morning of, he was a huge ball of anxiety. It made me sad because I couldn’t help him. I didn’t know what to say because, well, I hold the same anxieties.

The best I could do was reassure him that while it would probably be uncomfortable, I would NEVER let them do anything to him that I wouldn’t let them do to me.

Oh, and I told him he’d get $5.

A little bribery never hurt, right?

What have you passed on to your child without meaning to? Or if you don’t have children, what did your parent(s) pass on to you?

**********************

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post (in the sidebar). .
  • Link up your post below.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

 

Filed Under: Henry, SOC Sunday Tagged With: , , ,

July is Group B Strep Awareness Month

July 1, 2012 By 10 Comments

I struggle with being extremely vocal about Group B Strep awareness. I would love to scream, “DANGER DANGER” from the rooftops, but for me personally, I don’t like to frighten people.

I struggle with knowing when to step in and say, “You really should head to the doctor since your baby has x, y and z symptoms because those are signs of GBS.” I’ve done it a few times on Facebook and Twitter and in real life, but the bottom line is, I don’t want to say anything because I don’t want people to think their baby is going to die just because mine did.

I struggle with being able to spout statistics, because statistics are bullshit. Yeah, the chances of a baby contracting early onset GBS are slim. It’s even more slim to contract late onset GBS. And it’s downright rare for a baby to die from late onset GBS. But when YOU are the statistic – the rare one – it’s often hard to tell someone of your experience without causing sheer panic.

I don’t struggle with talking about grief. But I do struggle with talking about Group B Strep.

July is Group B Strep Awareness Month.

So I’m here to talk about it.

For those who don’t know and who may stumble across this page, let me first tell you about Group B Strep.

What is Group B Strep (GBS)?

Group B strep (GBS) is a type of bacteria that is naturally found in the digestive tract and birth canal in up to 1 in 4 pregnant women who “carry” or are “colonized” with GBS. Since levels of GBS can change, each pregnancy can be different. Carrying GBS does not mean that you are unclean. Anyone can carry GBS. (Quoted with permission from Group B Strep International)

When will they test me for Group B Strep and what does that even mean?

CDC’s guidelines recommend that a pregnant woman be tested for Group B Strep when she is 35 to 37 weeks pregnant. The test is super simple. It’s simply a swab of the vaginal area and rectum. Results are typically back at your next appointment. At that time you’ll be told whether you’re positive or negative.

A pregnant woman who tests positive for GBS and gets antibiotics during labor has only a 1 in 4,000 chance of delivering a baby with group B strep disease, compared to a 1 in 200 chance if she does not get antibiotics during labor.

Any pregnant woman who had a baby with GBS disease in the past, or who has had a bladder (urinary tract) infection during this pregnancy caused by GBS should receive antibiotics during labor.

What’s the difference between prenatal onset, early onset and late onset Group B Strep?

Prenatal onset of Group B Strep happens before your baby is born.

Early onset relates to cases from birth to 7 days old.

Late onset typically relates to cases from 7 days old to 3 months (or later in some cases, but that’s the typical timeline for GBS to infect a baby).

 What do I look for?

Symptoms of Prenatal Onset Group B Strep:

    • decreased fetal movement or no movement after 20 weeks
    • unexplained fever in mother — signals infection

Once born:

    • High-pitched cry, shrill moaning, whimpering
    • Marked irritability, inconsolable crying
    • Constant grunting as if constipated
    • Projectile vomiting
    • Feeds poorly or refuses to eat, not waking for feedings
    • Sleeping too much, difficulty being aroused
    • High or low or unstable temperature; hands and feet may still feel cold even with a fever
    • Blotchy, red, or tender skin
    • Blue, gray, or pale skin due to lack of oxygen
    • Fast, slow, or difficult breathing
    • Body stiffening, uncontrollable jerking
    • Listless, floppy, or not moving an arm or leg
    • Tense or bulgy spot on top of head
    • Blank stare
    • Infection at base of umbilical cord or in puncture on head from internal fetal monitor

What is the outlook for a baby who contracts GBS?

Babies can be infected by GBS before birth and up to about 6 months of age due to their underdeveloped immune systems. Only a few babies who are exposed to GBS become infected, but GBS can cause babies to be miscarried, stillborn, or become very sick and sometimes even die after birth.

GBS most commonly causes infection in the blood (sepsis), the fluid and lining of the brain (meningitis), and lungs (pneumonia). Some GBS survivors have permanent handicaps such as blindness, deafness, mental challenges, and/or cerebral palsy.

(Quoted with permission from Group B Strep International)

Now we’re all caught up on what Group B Strep is. So here’s where I’m honest with you.

I don’t believe in scaring people. I believe in educating people and arming them with the information that will allow them to make informed decisions.

Unfortunately, I can’t make decisions for everyone. If that were the case, nobody would ever have their membranes stripped, internal exams after finding out they were GBS+, scalp electrodes during labor, long labors without c-sections, or choose to not have antibiotics during labor with a positive GBS status.

In short, I would put everybody in a GBS-proof bubble.

As long as there is life on Earth, there will be baby loss. There will be mothers dying during labor, babies taking one breath, babies spending weeks and months in the ICU because of life-threatening conditions. As much as we want to eradicate it, it’s a fact of life.

I’m armed with more information about GBS than most doctors, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t talk to your doctor about Group B Strep. Because the incidence rate is smaller and smaller, a lot of doctors do the test at 35-37 weeks and just throw out the positive or negative results without much of an explanation. Make them explain it to you. Talk to them. Understand it.

Use your mommy and daddy instincts and USE YOUR PEDIATRICIAN. That’s why they went to high-dollar schools for a bazillion years. To help you when you need them.

The baby does something you don’t like or understand? Call them. Go in.

BE THAT MOM!

I can’t underscore this enough. YOU know your baby better than anyone and have to follow your instinct. If it says, “call the doctor,” then by God, call the doctor.

Your gut is rarely wrong.

Anyway, in honor of Group B Strep Awareness Month, I want to answer your questions.

Leave a comment (or Tweet it to me or ask me on Facebook) with any question about GBS you may have. If you don’t want to do it publicly, email me at janasthinkingplace@me.com.

I’ll post a few times this month with answers to them. And together, we will make the world AWARE OF GROUP B STREP!

Filed Under: Charlie, Serious Stuff Tagged With: , , , ,

When Migraines Go Wild

January 25, 2012 By 17 Comments

Yesterday I took a self-imposed and much-needed social media and Band Back Together holiday. I didn’t turn on Twitter (except to check on Susan who is fighting a tough battle with cancer and has hospice in. Check out her site. Her story is inspiring and heartbreaking. Also, her struggle makes this post seem very insignificant.) or Facebook. I didn’t turn on Instagram or Google + or Linkedin or anything. I barely even checked email.

There was a very hefty list of amazing things I was going to get done. I was going to work on some Buck Jones Nursery stuff for about 3 hours. I was going to run pick up prescriptions. Mopping, laundry and dishes were on the list. This place was going to be so freaking clean and amazing by the end of the day.

Except. Enter the Migraine. Gone. Wild. (Did you read that like Girls Gone Wild? I hope you did.)

I took HL to the corner to school at 7:30, came home and made myself a cup of chai. I drank about half of it while thinking about what to have for breakfast and BOOM. Like a fork (see image above) into my brain, a migraine hit. Usually they come on slowly and are fairly mild these days.

This one, however, was like a small bomb went off in my head. For a minute I thought maybe I was having a stroke or aneurysm. I don’t know what they feel like, but I can imagine now it must be worse than that.

So forget breakfast, I’m going back to bed. Pit stop in the bathroom to take a Relpax (which normally works instantly) and within 5 minutes, threw it up. Went back to bed with the sheets over my head.

A morning of sleeping, throwing up, taking advil and throwing up more. I looked up and it was noon. I texted Jason through very blurred vision that I was so so sick. More throwing up. More advil. More throwing it right back up. Crying. More crying.

Oh my god, the pain. I can’t even describe it.

Somehow I managed to wake up in time to get Henry. I stood on the front porch and when he saw me, his little face panicked. He said, “Mommy are you ok?” I told him no, I had a really bad headache. He said he would eat his snack and watch cartoons while I would go back to bed.

He’s really so so good when I’m sick, which is rare. I didn’t hear a peep out of him except the few times he called up the stairs when I was throwing up to ask if I was ok. (Adorable, I know.)

Around 3, I got panicked. I hadn’t eaten all day. Was in more pain than I could imagine — this was the worst migraine I’d had in at least a decade. Maybe longer. I got scared that I would pass out or maybe die from the pain and would be there with Henry and he would get scared. And since I don’t have Life Alert, I couldn’t say, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

So I did what I NEVER do. I called Jason and asked him to come home. He said hello and I couldn’t even speak. All I could do was cry. He asked if he needed to come home and I got out a very weak, “yes.” He must’ve driven 100 all the way home because in no time he was home, getting HL’s shoes on and whisking us out to the ER.

I threw up most of the way to the ER, but luckily not again once we got there. I shuffled Henry and Jason out after about an hour because I didn’t want them having to wait on me. We’re only about 10 minutes away so they could come back and get me when I was done.

I’m going to hold my comments on the wait at the ER because a few who got ushered in ahead of my during my 3 hour wait were legitimately ill. Some, however… well, I’ll leave it at that.

I was finally seen after 3 hours. I was given a gown, blanket, dark room (so I could finally open my eyes), an IV and a wonderful nurse.

A bag of saline, and then a cocktail of 5 other meds were hooked into me. I don’t even remember what all… steroid, pain stuff, benadryl, nausea stuff and something else. Within minutes I was dozing off in a benadryl-induced haze and the stabbing in my head was subsiding. I could open my eyes. I was going to live to see another day.

Jason and Henry came to get me around 9 and I went straight to bed. I woke up this morning feeling like a new person.

I’m going to be stepping back from things that are stressing me for a little bit. At least the rest of the week. Stress is the trigger for my migraines for the most part so I’m going to focus on ME and MY HOME above all this week. I’ll toss a small bit of work in there for good measure, but I’m going to watch my stress level.

I missed everybody yesterday. Let me know if I missed something fabulously important!! I am super proud that I didn’t even tweet or FB or anything from the ER. I mean, it probably helped that I couldn’t open my eyes, but still… I stood my ground and kept with my hiatus.

 

 

Filed Under: Family, Serious Stuff Tagged With: , , , , ,

Jack Has A Bully

January 7, 2012 By 9 Comments

I have a friend. Her name is Crystal.

Crystal has a son. His name is Jack. He’s five.

Jack has a bully. A very mean one.

Only this bully isn’t at school or in the neighborhood.

We’re telling Jack that it’s ok to fight back against a bully. He can hit, punch, kick, bite… whatever.

Jack’s bully is leukemia.

Jack was diagnosed yesterday, and it was confirmed today, with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Luckily this is a very highly treatable type of leukemia and has a very good success rate.

You can follow along with Jack’s treatment on their CaringBridge page. If you’d like to send him an email or e-card, you can do that at the.jackonaut@gmail.com.

They likely have a long, tough road in front of them so any prayers, positive thoughts and whatever will be appreciated.

Here’s where I tell you a story.

On Thursday on Facebook, I posted a story about a woman in Macon who met her marrow donor. They had both contacted each other after their information was released (12 months post-transplant). Their story is actually pretty amazing. Here’s what I posted:

So then I go to tweet about how frustrated I get when I get a Be The Match email. I always think it’s going to be “THE EMAIL” saying that it’s time for me to go and donate for someone.

I long to get that call. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it once a month at least. I got super jealous when my friend Jana said that she’d had the honor of being a donor about a decade ago. I want to do this. I want to help somebody in this way.

And then the next morning (Friday), I wake up and open my email. This is what I tweeted after:

Yes, I got a Be The Match email saying I should update my information and congratulations for being on the registry for 5 years. First of all, I can’t believe it’s been five years since I helped with a Bone Marrow registration at Fort Valley State in honor of a young man waiting for a transplant.

On Friday afternoon I was chatting with my friend Crystal. She was concerned about her son and had an appointment to take him to the doctor that afternoon. His symptoms sounded strange to me and gave me flutters in my stomach. We talked about mono and growing pains and stuff, but my tummy wasn’t settled. Later that night, the word Leukemia was used.

My heart broke.

Today that was confirmed. ALL. One of the “good” kinds to get.

But a childhood has been tarnished. Jack’s little life will be forever changed.

It’s time to rally around them. It’s time to take a minute and get on the donor registry. It’s free this month, thanks to American Express. All you have to do is go here and give some information and they’ll send you a swab kit. It can’t get easier.

Do it for Jack. Do it to kick his bully in the ass.

Do it for the thousands of people waiting for a match.

Do it because giving a little of yourself will save another person’s life.

 

Filed Under: Thoughts Tagged With: , , , , ,

My Tipping Point

October 27, 2011 By 5 Comments

My body has decided that at the ripe old age of 35.9 (so close to 36) it’s going to desert me. It’s going to just up and quit and start acting like it hates me. Right now I weigh more than I ever have. It’s not fun. And it’s not pretty. And I’m not happy in my own skin.

I know it’s not completely to blame for the extra 25lbs I’ve got on me or the fact that my only real exercise is walking Henry to school, but it IS to blame for the insane swelling and joint pain. And for the random rashes on my lower legs. Oh, and the fact that my hormones are way out of whack. Yeah, Body, I’m talking to you.

Body, I’m putting you in your place.

Monday I see my doctor to try to figure out why I’m swelling like a puffer fish. Something is going on in my body and I’m determined to get to the bottom of it. My feet and hands and elbows and knees shouldn’t be as swollen as they are. And no, they’re not just fat. I can feel the difference.

I’m tackling the fat, too. All those extra rolls around the middle — UGH.

Starting today, my sweet friend Bonnie at Simple Nutrition and Health is putting me back on track to take my Body back. I’ll be very open and honest, though. My real plan won’t start hard core until Monday. (Tomorrow is Henry’s birthday party and all weekend we have Halloween stuff, so I’m out for one last – in moderation – hoorah!)

Anyway, Bonnie’s whipped me up a meal plan based on my body, what it’s doing, what it’s NOT doing, how I feel and what my end goals are. I have a simple, but powerful, workout plan that I can do at home without spending a fortune on a gym.

Her approach is great. From her website:

We want to make eating right as simple as can be, so you can enjoy your life without it revolving around your diet.

Simple Nutrition and Health’s entire purpose is to give you the knowledge and tools to be the healthiest, happiest you can be. Whether it’s taking control of your health or providing the best nutrition possible for your family, we want to help you!

I saw the words “simple” and “happiest” and that’s what sold me.

She can do this all via Skype, email and chat and is a dream to work with. I’ll be updating y’all on my progress. Monday will be my kickoff day, complete with a picture and all that!

Stay tuned!

ps: Go follow Bonnie at Simple Nutrition and Health on Facebook! She gives out great recipes. Also, contact her if you’re interested in her services. Her rates are great and the support is even better!

Disclaimer: All opinions here are mine, however, Bonnie is providing me with her services in exchange for my posting my results and generally pimping her business out! 

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Filed Under: Food, Thoughts Tagged With: , , , , , ,
« Older Posts