The first real order of business we had was taking care of Logan's birthday party. His birthday is actually in October, but he was in Tennessee with his Daddy & Rachel for his birthday. We decided to have a party for him during his winter visitation.
Logan's Second Birthday Party, December 15, 2007
The next day, we went to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags in Arlington. Logan LOVES Scooby, so he was so excited to meet him!
Logan meeting Scooby Doo, Holiday in the Park, December
16, 2007
On the other hand, Nikiya hadn't been feeling well for a couple of weeks. In fact, she was pretty miserable. She still insisted on going with us to Holiday in the Park after making arrangements with her dad to trade weekends and all. She rode with me in the wheelchair most of the night.
Nikiya & Grandma, Holiday in the Park
Family Entertainment, or Child Torture
You Decide!!
This was not the first time that Miss Nikiya has had a bout like this. In Kindergarten, she ran a fever of over 102 every single day and just plain felt miserable for over 2 months. She was in the Dr's office every day at first, then every other day after awhile. They ran blood work & checked vitals at each of those visits. She also went to Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth on 6 separate occasions for further testing and evaluation. While her blood counts were "off", whatever that means, they could never pinpoint anything. Then after about 9 1/2 weeks, the fever and misery went away just as mysteriously as they appeared. Every now and again, she would still run fever and feel bad, though now when it happens, it's also accompanied by severe headache & nausea. This has happened a few days at a time for the last few years.
Then in December, it started again at the beginning of the month. She'd already missed a few days of school for a day or two here and there for this, but that day it started as a constant again. High fever every day, blinding headaches intensified by noise, extreme nausea. She went to the Dr on Monday, the day after Holiday in the Park. He put her on some pain meds for her headache and nausea meds for her tummy, and ran some more blood work. The next day was unbearable though. Nikiya is NOT my cry-baby! I have 4 kids, 4 step-kids, 4 grand-kids (hmmm...never realized that before now!), and was a daycare provider for years when my kids were little. I have them at all ends of the spectrum. Cody will ask for Advil & Tylenol & Excedrin if he thinks he MIGHT get a headache tomorrow. Nikiya is on the least end of the spectrum, having broken bones I didn't even know about because they didn't really hurt. She fakes WELL to go to school. If that child WANTS to stay home, she gets my attention. She leaves early every morning to spend time at the school visiting. Strange. But, whatever. The point is, she'd missed several days by now, was worried her teacher would be mad at her, was miserable, was throwing up every day this time (when normally she had nausea, but not vomiting.) So that day, Grandma & I took her back to Cook's.
Nikiya getting her IV at Cook Children's Hospital
December 18, 2007
After the relaxation drugs to perform her tests that day
I'm not kidding...that was the first smile I'd seen in days! Nikiya is the one that you hear laughing throughout the house for NO reason what-so-ever. She laughs at anything, everything, everyone. It was good to see!
And frustrating that while this time we got some meds that are controlling the symptoms MOSTLY, we still have no answers. She's in the Gifted & Talented program at school and may be held back this year for attendance only. Being held back for any reason gets her kicked out of the program, and she devastated over it and now on days she doesn't feel good, I really have to be in tune. She does everything she can to avoid me, so I won't know, so she can go to school. Not that that works either because it's OBVIOUS and they send her right back home. Now when she's rushing off "just because," I stop her and give her a once over before letting her out the door!
Anyhow, still dealing with the attendance issues. Forget that she's always been a Straight-A student, or that her teacher, who works with her daily, thinks it's crazy to consider holding her back. We are still fighting the school board to pass her on to 4th grade.
But you know what? She's doing better. So far they have found no signs of any of the bad things that so many other children go through. She's been screened thoroughly for cancer and tumors and other illnesses. Maybe I'll just be thankful instead!
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