I haven’t blogged in over a month because I have been consumed by life. I do not even know where to begin.
I’ll start with he good stuff: Lucky is alive! He has lived up to his name, that’s for sure. After I scheduled the vet appointment, he perked up. We seriously wonder if he was depressed, because he seemed to really blossom under all the extra attention and treats we gave him; we thought those were our last days with him, so we tried to spend a lot of time with him and figured it didn’t matter if he had a little turkey or whatever. Well, he responded quite well and started doing things he hadn’t in months (wagging his tail, asking to go out, etc). I cancelled the euthanasia but kept the vet appointment, and she gave him a cortisone shot and now has him on some meds to help with his pain. He doesn’t have much time left: the tendons in his right front paw are collapsing, and his back and hind legs are all messed up from arthritis. But it seems the med regimen is giving him a few more good months, and I am very grateful.
Aside from the good news about Lucky, it has been a pretty rough mouth. P and M had the stomach flu during the first and second weeks of the semester, then I got a bad cold/sinus thing, and this past week P developed a sinus infection and bronchitis. The drainage made him extremely nauseated, and he threw up a lot Thursday morning (as in every 15-20 min during a four period). Now M is sick. She started vomiting around 12:45 this morning and did so every 5-10 minutes for the next 3.5 hours. She got a break for a while and only threw up once or twice every hour, but by 7:15 it was coming fast and furious again. I took her to the after hours clinic at 8:30, and they took one look at her and sent us to the ER. We were there for a couple of hours. They ran some tests and gave her an IV with fluids and anti-nausea medication. Thankfully, she is much better now and is resting on the couch, watching Ramona and Beezus.
In other M news, she is having a rough time at school. One little girl has made her life miserable all year, and it’s gotten much worse over the last two months or so. She has enlisted other girls in her efforts, which as you can imagine results in a lot of hurt for M. About three weeks ago, M was punched on the bus. It was not intentional; this same girl slapped a boy, who attempted to hit her, missed, and punched M instead. I have been disappointed with the school’s response to all of this, and M is to the point where she does not enjoy school at all. She cries herself to sleep many nights and/or has nightmares about school.
The other issue is that she is bored out of her mind. She is simply not being challenged as she needs to be. While I understand the school’s emphasis on the I-Step (the state standardized test), it is absolutely ruining public education in this state. The state mandated curriculum is awful, but the schools have to use it, and if the kids don’t score high enough (however the state is defining that), the teachers can be fired. All of this means that public education is now geared towards getting kids to pass, which I can understand–the teachers are in an impossible position! But it doesn’t result in a good education for M, who needs to be challenged and is making stupid mistakes on her work because she is so bored. Her most recent reading tests at school put her right on the border of fifth-sixth grade reading levels.
Given all of this, we are looking at another school for M. We have applied here. She visited last week and LOVED it, and G and I were impressed when we visited and when I observed classes. She performed well on the admission testing (scored in the 95th percentile on the math test) and has been accepted, but the current third grade class is full. We do not yet know if a spot will open up for her for fourth grade. She will definitely be there for fifth grade, as that is the beginning of middle school and classes are bigger then. But we are looking at back-up options for next year, in case a spot does not open.
As you can imagine, this is stressful for all involved. I am worried for (and about) my daughter, and I am sad that a school we loved so much is not working for her at all now. I also feel like a hypocrite for deciding to put her in a private school, given that my own work centers on access. But I have to do what is best for my daughter. It is pretty clear at this point that the local public schools are not going to give her what she needs academically, and her particular school isn’t meeting her emotional needs, either. It breaks my heart to say that, but it is true.
So, that is some of what’s been going on here, and that is why I am not blogging. Between our health, all the school stuff, and work, I’m spent. Work is going well; I have a fantastic bunch of students this term and small classes. I got out another article last month (fingers crossed it’s accepted), the edited collection is moving forward, and I submitted the IRB protocol for my new project this week. I just wish the rest of my life would go more smoothly and that everyone could get healthy, emotionally and socially.