friday night thread....

[signandsmile]

Hi all, how has the week been?

We've been at the seaside, ds has loved the caravan, and we had a friend and her 3 kids for a couple of days too, which he coped with really well, weather amazing! picnic on beach with no coats on, much paddling in sea and digging big holes. .

second week of half term still to come, (visit to stay at nanny's and his first party with kids from school, I am thrilled he got an invite but really anxious about how he will do... (over anxious mummy...)

feel like i have this huge looming pile of 'things that must be done', about to topple over on me. my 'to do' list never seems to get any shorter... but next half term he gets to be full time, so hopefully more time to get stuff done.... altho I could be kidding myself,

Hello Sign glad you had a good holiday sounds like our kind of fun.

A good week here ds has done four visits to his new school this week and declared he'd had a good time Amazing really I was hoping he'd tolerate it without too much stress.

Half term here from now dd has lots of crafts planned and ds has the new football manager game as a reward for having a good start at school so expect him to be busy.

OK, I have the best news ever :)

DD (Y4, aged 8) is finally doing well at school! I saw her work yesterday, and it's like a different child has done it.

For the first time ever I could read what she's written! ( Her work was unreadable due to spelling, not due to handwriting)

She now uses vowels! and the right constanents!

I'm so thrilled, I can't tell you.

And the weirdest thing of it all is I'm convinced it's cutting out gluten (via the GAPS diet) which has caused this remarkable change!

Hello Sign and Insanity

Sign, glad you had a nice holiday.

Insanity, good to hear ds is positive and happy about his new school.

Am getting in early here, as i think I'm unlikely to last the night, soooo tired.

Another mixed week here. Ds1 continues to be a nightmare at home, but has also managed to be less compliant and sweet at school, - mainly because his teacher keeps being out due to meetings, so lots of supply teachers and lesson changes, but also because he's really tired. I think its been a bit of an eye-opener for his teacher though, as she was constantly telling me how good/settled/focussed he'd been up - until this week.

His teacher sent home a piece of his assessement 'creative writing' for me to see because she was so pleased with - although she hadn't marked/levelled it yet. I had to go in the next day and explain that yes, it did on the face of it seem to be an excellent piece of creative writing - that is if you didn't sit through the halloween episode of Pokemon with him the night before, because unfortunately, it was almost word for word the opening sequence - he hadn't even changed the character's names!

Ds said they were given a picture of a door and told to think of a story to write about it, but he just couldn't think of one single thing to write.

He's also had a run in with our old next-door neighbour/dinner lady at lunch time - again. I had hoped she'd back off since she moved out, not to mention they've all had ASD awareness training and are aware of ds1's difficulties. It does sound like he got very angry and was probably extremely rude to her, but in fairness, she was - yet again - out of order and seemingly singled ds1 out for no reason. She then took it upon herself to report him to his teacher. Fortunately, his teacher wasn't concerned about it.

Ds2 had his first ever migraine this week at almost exactly the same age that ds1 started with them and I've been going through all kinds of guilt that they both appear to have inherited migraines from me.

They broke up yesterday, so we've had a pj day today and the boys have spent much of the day lining flipping GoGos up all over their bedroom - seriously, you can't move in there for fear of causing a GoGo massacre.

I am just really tired, struggling to find words again and have a to do list as long as my arm (plus a leg for good measure). Unfortunately, as a direct consequence, ds1 pushed my red button at lunch time and I really shouted at him. Unfortunately dh was home for lunch and witnessed the whole thing, so I then got 'told off' by him and sat there while he stated the bleedin' obvious about ds1's rudeness not being personal, him being tired etc etc! Yep, I know all that, but just occasionally, when its been going on incessantly for weeks and I am yet again being treated with zero respect, I do this thing called 'being human' and forget to hold my temper.

Sorry, rant over. I need a nice glass of red and some chocolate. Unfortunately, I can have neither - hence the big fat grump!

Wow indigo, thats fantastic news.

Sign, I am glad you had a good holiday.

We are relieved to have made it to the holiday and are looking forward to going away for a few days.

Dd3 is going to be joining the nurture group at school after the holidays and I am going to be looking after DGD a lot less.

We had a good parents evening and are really pleased with how she has settle into her new class.

After the last 4 years where the first term has always been wasted it has made such a difference to have staff around her who actually care about her and not just their targets!!

Moose - :(

You mentioned something about you having cognitive problems last week as well. What's up with you? Do you have a dx? :(

Sorry Indigo, crossposted with my usual humungous post.

Fantastic news! Well done your dd!

How long have you been doing GAPs for now? I really wish I could do it with ds1, but it just seems too hard at the moment.

Started 'GAPS lite' 4 or 5 weeks ago?

We are only doing:

• Lactose Free
• Gluten Free
• Lots of fatty meat
• Probioitcs

She still gets very bloated, and still has constipation, so I know we need to cut more stuff out of her diet. I'm just trying to work out what to cut out next.

(On the full GAPS diet a lot more stuff is prohibited)

Xposted with moose then, but wanted to say we had exactly the same thing with extened writing at Dd3's old school, she rewrote a whole episode of Tracy Beaker once and the dim teacher tried to tell CAMHS how good her imagination was, using it as an example.

We had a bit of a giggle over it though with the MH nurse.

Sorry to hear about dinnerlady though.

No, no dx Indigo. Have seen a neurologist and am booked in for an MRI of the brain, neck and spine in the first week of November.

The MRI is to compare to one I had about 6 years ago, when they found lesions and evidence of encepalopathy (sp?) but were unsure of the cause.

Basically I have parasthesia down my left side, memory problems and problems with word recall. The dcs think its hilarious, because I keep saying completely the wrong word in the middle of a sentence. Am also having to spend ages proof reading my posts if I don't want them to have very odd words thrown in here and there and the ends missing off a good proportion of the words.

Physically, I have been having problems with the sight in my right eye, they couldn't find anything structurally wrong, but when my sight was tested it was normal and I have been having odd short but super-painful pains in my head also on the right side at the back of my eye and just above my ear, but deeper in my head, iyswim and my left eyelid seems to have a problem with being told to open.

I was really bad last winter and spring, a lot better over the summer, but now seem to be going downhill again, although in fairness I am really tired at the moment so that could just be exacerbating what was already there.

Am actually starting to wonder whether SADs could cause these symptoms as it started this time last year and went downhill from there, then improved as the days got longer and sunnier.

Cross posted again - sorry its the proof reading. Maybe I should just type and apologise in advanc for all the errors!

Dinnerlady thing is an ongoing issue, she's just not a nice person, not much we can do about that really. We had lots of incidents with her last year, but this is the first one so far this year.

Lol, at the Tracey Beaker creative writing! You've gotta hand it to them, they may not be able to write creatively, but their certainly creative in their problem solving abilities!

Moose - that sounds awful.

Make sure you push as hard to get your own problems looked at as you push for your DS.

Really sounds like the cause needs to be found :(

moose sorry you got a lecture.... you are allowed to be human!
needalife hope you enjoy the few days away.
insanity new school sounds fab
indigo sounds like a fab development

ds is in full 'justin adoration' mode this eve. (anyone else having to watch eternal repeats of justin's house?)

Thanks Indigo, not sure I have it in me to fight for myself though.

Neuro said if there's nothing on the scan they'll discharge and put the symptoms down to 'extreme fatigue'. In other words, she thinks I have ME, but doesn't want to actually say it.

I was diagnosed with Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome waaaay back, before CFS/ME became widely known and have had discreet episodes all my adult life, but this time was different. I've never had the cognitive problems before and it was pretty scary, as over the winter I was having attacks that seemed very much like TIAs, where I couldn't communicate and would be in a sort of semi-aware/conscious state for a few minutes at a time. Dh videod one and showed it to the neuro and I think that's what convinced her to do the MRI. If we hadn't had the video, it would have been a "we'll see you again in 6 months unless anything changes" type conversation.

I absolutely hate MRIs but am hoping it will show at least something up, so they will take me seriously. Its scary for dh and the dcs as well when I have one of the episodes and I can't risk collapsing while I am in sole charge of them.

Sign, dd has only seen it once - sadly, she's forsaken CBeebies for repeat episodes of Fireman Sam, accompanied by ds1 loudly complaining that its been ruined by CGI animation and then going on to decry the entire animation industry as animation sell-outs!

Mind you, I notice today that Dirt Girl World is back on, so perhaps some time without CBeebies isn't such a bad idea after all!

don't get me started on CGI, dh is horrified by new thomas, and also new bob the builder, he complains they are not the real engines, 'real'

Hi Everyone,

A good week here. Dcs have been on holiday. They've been pretty good. DS wasn't good at beginning of week after tooth op last week, but much better now. I have improved enough in my health to be up all day and go out with the family to a couple of Nat Trust places. DH has had the week off too, so I'm continuing to get the chance to rest. Went to dental hospital today and everything in mouth looks healthy, so just working on sinuses and energy levels now.

Sign sounds like a fab hol.
Insanity great news on the school front.
Indigno passing you some bubbly. Definitely something to celebrate.
Moose sorry to hear you're still not feeling great. Have you thought about one of those light boxes you can get?
Ineedalife hope you have a good few days and great news on the schools front.

Hi creatovator

Glad to hear you are feeling a bit better and have been well enough to enjoy some days out.

My Mum has offered to buy me a lightbox, have looked at a few, but there's a bamboozling array of different ones on the market and all I know is they need to be over 1,000 something-or-others and should have zero flicker to be effective.

I have read the SADs website, but from what I can tell, not all my symptoms can be explained by it. I still think it might be worth trying a lightbox though, even if it only helps with some of them.

Hi All. trying to minimise typing still as still recovering (feel like I say that every week)

:) Sign, Insanity, Indigo, Ineedalife, Creatover

:( for Moose. have to say OMG another Fireman Sam obsessionist. If I leave DS to himself as I have been as I'm still not fit for much, he will watch back to back Fireman bloody sam ALL DAY. FGS today he even changed the channel from Disney to Disney +1 so that he could watch the same programme he had just watched of whatever he had been watching. I watched Phineas and Ferb movie twice in one day the other day .

Seeing the paed for the 2nd appt on the 30th November and we've had all of the other professionals. I have to say that if they say he hasn't got HFA or AS then I will literally eat my hat and knock my head very very hard on their desk

Hi Ben10, hope you are recovering well.

The Fireman Sam thing is the boys' fault. Ds2 brought all their old Fireman Sam dvds downstairs and ds1 then found the new series on Cartoonito and put in on for dd. She now has ds2's old pintoy wooden fire engine as well and has a whale of a time putting fires out with it!

Good luck for the paed appointment.

Almost forgot, ds1 does the +1 and on-demand thing so he can watch the same programmes over and over as well. He will watch an entire series of his favourite programme all the way through and then start again given the opportunity.

Although, bizarrely (oh heck just tried to spell that 3 times and am sure its still wrong ) for a child who refuses to let us change the decor in his bedroom from when he was a toddler - he was watching episode after episode of some programme about children redesigning their bedrooms when I got up this morning.

My recovery feels very slow to me but my 2nd op was only 3 weeks ago, 1st op 6 weeks. I am anaemic from the huge blood loss so very tired and my wounds from the 2nd op have an infection so waiting for them to heal up at the moment.

TBH I don't mind Fireman Sam but Bananas in Pyjamas I hate. Somehow DS has regressed in what he will watch on TV. He now quite happily watches what I consider to be toddler programmes whereas when he was 4 and 5 he watched all sorts on Cartoon Network and Disney XD .

Love the Changing Rooms TV! We have just done DS's room with vinyl to get rid of the urine smell and painted it all white and got a giant Spiderman decal on the wall - 4 foot square!

1st op was actually 5 weeks not 6 so even less healing time.

I'm enjoying DS being at my parents and DH being out in London so have the evening to myself even though I normally have all day to myself anyway.

Hi Ben10, Sorry not been around for most of summer, what were ops for?

Hi Creatover, I had my 1st rib out which is behind the collar bone and one of the neck muscles as they were pressing on my main artery and nerves into my arm.

Unfortunately while in the HDU I had what they call a haemo-pneumothorax. ie the space in my lung filled with blood and air, collapsing my lung. I had to have another operation 2 weeks later to clear it all out.

All a bit . DS hasn't really noticed

I'm glad it's half term!
Dd2 finished at her SN nursery this week and I'm very sad they were wonderful
Dd1 is struggling alot and school aren't doing much to help.
I'm off put with group of SN mums and have plans to drink aleast a few glasses of wine