Chicago Moms Blog

Lousy Lice

When I was a kid, before the F word stunted my vocabulary, we used far more descriptive language to express our feelings. For example, if the ball went over the fence during a kickball game and it was your turn to retrieve it, you would mutter "Dirty, rotten, stinkin', lousy fence." Those four words, in that order, seemed to cover all the negative bases.  It wasn't until this weekend that I connected "lousy" with "louse" and then "lice."

This will teach me to be a good Samaritan. I took care of an ailing friend's two boys on Saturday, one of whom ended up spending the night. Sunday afternoon, I got the call. "Don't scream," she said, "but K (not his real initial) has lice. Don't use the chemical stuff. We read on the Internet to use a combination of petroleum jelly and tea tree oil." I did not scream, but dutifully stopped at the drugstore to pick up the necessary supplies, all the while thinking: "Dirty, rotten, stinkin', lousy, f-ing lice."

Sarah Palin is a prime candidate...for urinary incontinence

Sarah Palin is a prime candidate for uterine prolapse or urinary incontinence. I know, this seem like a hit below the belt-way below the belt if she wears mom jeans. But now that Sarah Palin has a very platform from which to discuss special needs children and teen pregnancy, maybe her time in the spotlight can also be used to highlight something that affects about half of all women- urinary incontinence.

I don't want to focus on her specific lady parts, but, my gosh, she's given birth to four five children, and there's no denying that those very natural processes mess with those delicate parts. Seriously, you can't fit something the size a watermelon inside your body even once for a just a few months without rearranging your internal geography a bit.

How I spent my summer vacation

This was a summer like no other. And thank goodness for that! It started out with a bang-literally, when my car was hit in the school parking lot on the last day of school. Fortunately, the offending parent notified me and I was able to get the car fixed through the other party's insurance.

Speaking of insurance, the same day my boys finished school my husband was home sick. By the time the boys and I got home he was feverish, only mildly coherent and was experiencing painful stomach cramps. Off to the ER we went. They poked him, prodded him and kept him for two days, thereby capping off our $5,000 deductible. Wa-hoo! We met our deductible in only six months.

Dressing The Bumps And Bruises

The hubs and I are attending the Wings Of Hope Benefit next Friday at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in honor of the American Epilepsy Outreach Foundation. The E word. Not something very popular or comfortable to talk about, but Epilepsy is real and more common than you may know. We went through the darkest of times when our son was diagnosed just over 4 years ago. Thankfully and miraculously, our son is seizure-free and medication-free now, and we are honored to wear Noah's success as a badge and share his story, one that continues to bring hope to parents wishing the same for their child. This benefit is sure to be emotional and uplifting and will not only raise awareness (with special speaker Hunter Tylo and People Magazine in attendance), but from the proceeds will also provide educational initiatives and support programs to those living with Epilepsy. And this event also has this preggy Mama wondering just what am I going to wear?

Extremely honored to be able to attend such a special night, I want to look my best. I am the face of a mother that has been through watching her child have 200 seizures a day. I saw him drift away before my very eyes and drift back and drift away again. And now I have him back for good. I want to show everyone what a survivor looks like. I didn't end up a haggardly mess rocking myself in a corner (as I seriously thought just might happen.) I made it. I'm not saying that I'm totally together, but I think I have been able to move on with life. And even if we still had the seizures as part of our everyday, we would still go on living. Life- it has this incredible ability to keep going on with or without us.

Not So Sound?

I was approached by one of those 3D ultrasound places to come in for a little "look see" of the new babe. I admit that at first I was a little hesitant about it- would I want to promote something like an ultrasound for entertainment purposes? Surely if it could replace the medical ultrasound, I'd consider, but no- it's just for a family keepsake. And so, I'm just not so sure.

I have had the heebie jeebies about it ever since Tom & Katie bought their own home ultrasound machine. How much ultrasound exposure is truly okay?

I started to dig around on the Internet about it, and I know that you can probably come up with anything to support your conspiracies online, but some things I am finding are making me think twice or thrice about it all.

You see, when I was pregnant with my first child, we had an ultrasound around 8 weeks to determine his due date. Then we had the standard 20 week ultrasound and during this one they couldn't get a good

An IUD horror story with a happy ending

December 31, 2004: I wake up in a hospital room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. I'd had emergency laparoscopic surgery the night before to remove an IUD that had been inserted incorrectly (causing me to scream and cry in pain). The copper coil had perforated my uterus and come to rest behind my kidney. The doctors and midwives at the downtown OB/GYN practice realized their mistake immediately and rolled me--in a wheelchair and cradling my baby--through the snow to the nearby hospital to have the device removed.

So there I was, hazy from the general anesthesia, gazing at the 6 week old daughter resting next to my hospital bed. There was a release form taped to her bassinet saying that the nurses could not in any way assist in her care. Translation? Even though I was aching with pain, I'd have to get up, change her diaper and figure out a comfortable breastfeeding position.

Needless to say, New Year's Eve was no party for me that year. I'd just finished healing from a C-section and now I was recovering from my second abdominal surgery in as many months. I seethed, imagining myself dialing one of those medical injury law practices I'd seen advertised during during Oprah's commercial breaks. I was ready to sue, but when the OB who'd messed up me called me at home to apologize, I decided I'd be better off putting aside my anger and moving on. I didn't feel like I was permanently damaged--the doctors assured me my fertility wasn't in jeopardy--so I went on the mini pill and went on with my life.

Fast forward three years and change. I'd successfully conceived and delivered my second child (a VBAC with a different provider, at a different hospital), and for reasons I probably don't need to share here, I was done with hormonal birth control.

My Business Of Giving Birth

Last October I posted about how the controversial birth documentary The Business of Being Born had touched my (not pregnant at the time) heart. Now that I am pregnant with my fourth child, the first call I made was to a home birth midwife- I had grand plans for a home birth. But, after hubby and I discussed our finances and the fact that I've had three peaceful hospital births including the last one that was completely natural, quiet, with my birth plan followed to every last letter, I think we might be going the hospital route again. (We have nice insurance.) Among other budget strains, our son Noah needs glasses (not covered by insurance) and a pricey eye surgery. So it seems my tune has dramatically changed. 

I think it's important for women to know you can have a natural, gentle, and peaceful hospital birth.
If money weren't an option, YES!, I would definitely be preparing for a home birth. It is something I would like. I have very easy pregnancies, labors, & delivery. I love birthing naturally and without medication or intervention. But, since I have such quick deliveries and an easy time, when I really think about things,  it doesn't make much difference to me under which roof this baby comes out.

RECAP! Coping With Illness While Caring For Family

RECAP!

We are the sandwich generation.  It's not that we have a great affinity for peanut butter and jelly, although our kids do, but we are the generation that will probably be simultaneously caring for our parents and our children.

We were older than our parents were when we started our families.  As a consequence, many of us have small children and parents with health problems.  Some of us may even be coping with health problems of our own.

So how do we balance all of this caretaking with our own personal needs and goals?  How do we retain our identities as women, not just mothers and daughters, when the stresses of a serious or chronic health condition are added to the already overloaded burdens we carry?  The women of the Silicon Valley, Chicago, New York, and D.C. Metro Moms Blogs discussed this very issue.

Silicon Valley Moms Blog

• Coping With Chronic Pain - Two Years And Counting
• Kids With Disorders - Moms In The Closet
• They Won't Be Around Forever......
• Life With Diabetes Age 11, 9 Months
• What We Don't Talk About
• 222 Potential Bone Marrow Donors
• Looking For Zebras
• The Long-Term Legacy Of Illness
• Little Boys To The Rescue

DC Metro Moms Blog

• When Mom Is Sick, Everything Changes
• How Do You Ever Cope When It's Mom?
• I'm Not So Different
• Is A Condition An Illness?

Chicago Moms Blog

• Doctor Recommended Costco
• Coping With The Unknown
• Giving Medicine To A Stubborn Child
• When The Mama Cat Comes Out

New York City Moms Blog

• LAM - A Little Known Disease
• Sandwich Generation

Doctor recommended Costco

I have a chronic health condition (never say disease), but I don't write much about it because I'm in denial fine, as long as I am medicated. Given that we have employer-sponsored health care, you'd think that staying medicated wouldn't be a problem, and technically it's not, unless you consider that one of my prescriptions costs well over $2000 annually when I get it through my provider's mail order pharmacy program. When I complained to my doctor, he recommended I do some comparison shopping at Costco.

Costco? The warehouse superstore with prices so low that even a thrifty gal like me feels compelled to spend money? Costco of the $15 birthday cake that feeds 400 people? The place I can fill up on food samples while I wait for my drugs? Okay.

So I stopped over at the Costco pharmacy and checked out the prices. Unbelievable. 

Coping with the Unknown

Coping with illness, either yours or a loved one's, is hard enough when you know what you are facing.  But when the hardship you are fighting won't show its face and be named, it is a whole other battle.  So many women have stories like this, but here is bit of mine.

It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving 2003 when my husband and I went in for our 20wk. ultrasound with our first child.  Our anticipation and excitement was burst like a balloon when we were told that there were significant issues with the baby including a diaphragmatic hernia and we should consider termination.  This wasn't an option for us so we started to research other potential treatments on our own.  Tragically, when our son was born at 41weeks, his problems were more severe than we had anticipated and no one was able to help him. We had him for three days and then he went to be with Jesus.  But this was not the end of our battle.  It was really only the beginning of the testing and endless consults to try and figure out what happened to my little boy. We got very mixed messages.  "It was random."  "It is genetic."  "Get pregnant right away."  "Never have children."  What is a grieving mama supposed to do?