There I go again... neglecting the blog. It's not my fault, really. My laptop died a long and slow death and I finally managed to get a new one tonight so I can blog again. I was feeling really disconnected from the rest of the world. So, whew. Thank you to my fabulous DH, Best Buy and Gateway for assisting me in securing a computer that actually works. Ha ha.So what's been going on? I am working my jabuti off at work. I am heading into my busy time of year which spans February through July. We are taking the Critters to Taos, NM during spring break, and are planning a summer family vacay to San Diego. We are excited about that! Otherwise, it's status quo in the Critter household. Thing 2, my little critter with Noonan Syndrome fell last night and clonked her head on the ceramic tile in our kitchen. She does this ALL the time. I am not exaggerating. At least once a week she falls. And she falls in such a way that her feet go completely out from under her and she winds up flat on her back, head hitting the floor. The sound her head makes when it hits that hard tile just makes me cringe. And everytime it happens, I find myself squeezing my eyes shut and yelling at DH "Oh God, is she OK?!!!" And finally when I hear her cry I manage to muster up the ability to run over and pick her up and calm her down and inspect her noggin for any lumps. The thing is, it's always been this way with her. She makes me a nervous wreck. She still has some gross motor issues with her mobility and is very, very clumsy. Plus, she has some visual perception problems. The Occupational Therapist told me she thinks what is happening is Catie's brain doesn't register what she's seeing as fast as she sees it. So things like the transition between carpet and tile trip her up and cause her to fall. A year or so ago, I put a long runner style rug at the entry to my kitchen, overlapping from the tile to the carpet. The idea was to give her a good runway in which she would have time to realize what she's seeing and therefore not fall. It has worked wonders. But the rest of the kitchen is like a giant landmine for her. I have to be dilligent in cleaning up even the slightest droplet of water and anything else that might land on the floor while I'm cooking. Anyway, the fall last night didn't result in a lump of any sort and she was fine. But everytime she falls, the whole ordeal just takes so much out of me. It seems like her falls are always so forceful and extreme. A few weeks ago she fell face first into the doorway at daycare. She hit the metal doorway with her eyebrow bone and landed so hard it knocked off about a dozen magnets that were lining the doorway. Her eye and eyebrow bone swelled up there was big knot there for a few days. And then, last week she fell and smacked her cheek on the fireplace hearth. Her cheek swelled so much she looked like a chipmunk and she developed a bruise that was remniscant of the Nike swoosh. The next day I went to Babies 'R Us and purchased new fireplace guards. Our old ones had come off and I was hopefull she was getting steady enough we wouldn't need them anymore. Clearly, I was wrong.It's just so frustrating. She falls so often and so hard. And every time it happens I literally ache from head to toe. It makes me so tense and so nervous I feel like I've been hit by a truck. Sometimes I get a headache and get sick at my stomach. The night she fell against the doorway at school, the girls and I just spent the evening laying in bed watching TV because I felt so wiped out. All the hospital visits and ER trips haven't made me feel the way her falls do. I think head injuries are just particularly scary to me. I'm embarassed to say I've Googled 'head injury' more times than I can count and I am well versed in what to look for and what to watch for. Here's the odd thing... back in early December, I was doing Thing 2's hair and noticed a fairly large lump on the back right hand corner of her head. It's about the size of a small lime--a key lime. It's kind of a slightly jagged lump. It's not smooth at all. At the time, she hadn't fallen in a few weeks, so I knew it wasn't a new lump. And it's still there. I check every day. It doesn't go away and it doesn't seem to change in size or shape. I think I'll ask the doctor about it when she sees him in a few weeks. But for now, it's just bugging me. Ugh. It's weird... money issues don't stress me out. Work typically doesn't stress me out. Life doesn't really stress me out. Most of the time I'm so calm I think I need to take my blood pressure to make sure I'm still alive. But head injuries... that stresses me out.
