After the Concussion Center

This was a Facebook post I just wrote after returning home from the Concussion Center for anyone who is interested and may not see it there:

I feel the need to post an update as to how things have been going with me since my car accident last week. Skip right on past this very long post if you aren't interested, but in the hopes of disseminating this information in an efficient way to a number of people who are, here goes:

My accident was Tuesday 10/1. On 10/2 I saw my PCP who diagnosed me with a mild to moderate concussion. My symptoms included fatigue/exhaustion, headaches, feeling "foggy," some balance issues, feeling "out of body" at times, and some sensitivity to sounds, among others. I did not go to work on doctor's orders for the rest of last week. 

By Sunday, my symptoms had improved enough to be, in my opinion, manageable. I was very interested in getting back to work, so I gave it a shot on Monday. It was a disaster. My symptoms were back full force by 4th period. I made it through the day and after school went to the ER where they did the CT Scan of my neck and head that everyone had been urging me to get. It was clear. They confirmed my concussion diagnosis and referred me to the UPMC Concussion Center.

I stayed home from work yesterday. I made an appointment with the Concussion Center. I just got back from one of the best experiences I have had in my entire life with any medical personnel for any reason. I saw an amazing doctor. I took the ImPACT test, which is the same concussion test currently used in the NFL and is also the same test that they require our school athletes to take prior to playing any sports so to have a baseline in case of concussion. I was honestly shocked at the results. I scored in the 3rd percentile on one portion of the test. I don't think that I have scored in the 3rd percentile on anything in my entire life. And I tried HARD on this test.

When the doctor reviewed the results with John and me, he was amazingly informative and on point with everything that I was experiencing. He predicted symptoms that I hadn't even mentioned and even went so far as to say that "you were probably doing ok until about the third period you had to teach" (exactly - that was 4th period). A few more tests with my vision, along with my account of feeling pressure behind my eyes and trouble focusing, confirmed that I have an ocular/vestibular concussion, which will require therapy for a full recovery. Apparently, the anxiety that I felt when I walked through the locker area at school on Monday is a prime symptom of issues with the vestibular system due to mixed signals between the eyes and brain. (He did one test on me where I had to focus on his finger while moving my head back and forth, and I started shaking with an overwhelming nervous/anxious feeling...that was what he thought would happen. I had no clue. The human body is amazing...and crazy.)

So - no more work for me this week. I start back on Monday and will start vestibular therapy next week. I am allowed on the computer and allowed to watch TV but only with frequent breaks. I am allowed to drive, but only on familiar roads for a while (which makes sense...I told john that I needed him to drive me to the appointment in the city today, yet I feel no problem driving around home or to work and back.)

I feel so relieved that I am not going crazy, that there is a name for all of this and that I am a "typical case" with all of the typical symptoms and that this doctor knew exactly what I meant anytime I said a word. We are so fortunate to have such excellent facilities here and I am happy to say I have a plan in place for a full recovery!!

Car Accident

Ok, so I thought I would just say a few words here about what happened to me last week.

Rather than include the picture that shows the bulk of the damage to my vehicle, I decided to put this on on here, because it does not show my licence plate number.  I don't feel like doing what it would take to edit the picture to blur it out.

Bottom line: I was sitting at a standstill waiting to turn left into my neighborhood when a pickup truck rear-ended me at full speed.  I was seen by paramedics at the scene and released, my car was totaled, and life has been crazy ever since.

Go Everly!

Never to be outdone by her big brother, shortly after the start of the school year, Everly requested that we take off her training wheels.  While she was a little wobbly at first, it didn't take long before she was off and riding.  These days, she is often leading the pack through the neighborhood, speeding around with the boys.

The Night Before First Grade

There is a post I wrote a couple years ago, though it seems more like days ago.  It was about Cortlan starting preschool.  I read it and could hardly believe how much has changed since then, and how much has stayed the same.  (Read it here.)

Tomorrow, my little boy starts first grade.

Many parents do the whole "I can't believe my son/daughter is going to Kindergarten!" thing.  I got to put that off for a year, as Cortlan attended Kindergarten at the same school he had gone to for years.  There wasn't much new about it except the advancing curriculum and a different teacher.  There was no bus.  There was no buying/packing lunch.  His same friends were there.  It was the same drop off procedure...the same routine.

Tomorrow, Cortlan starts first grade.  And everything is going to be different.  And he is entering a whole new world.  And I am doing the whole "I can't believe my son is going to first grade!" thing.

I went to his "Meet the teacher" night yesterday.  I sat in his little desk, the one with his name attached.  I looked around and took it all in.  His teacher seemed so nice.  In the folder on his desk were papers that I needed to complete.  What bus number is he?  (I texted John to look on the fridge to find out.)  Would you like to sign up to be a guest reader?  (I would love to.)  What are Cortlan's strengths and weaknesses?  (You only gave me three lines to tell you?!)  And included in the folder was a poem with a baggie of magic confetti attached to it:

I started to tear up a bit when I read it and I thought about what a huge change this is going to be in so many ways.  When asked (and sometimes when not), I have mentioned that Cortlan is nervous about starting first grade.  But, maybe it is just me.  Maybe, I am not quite ready.  But he is.

Today, I showed him the papers that he had to fill out before his first day, fully anticipating that they would be met with resistance.  He enthusiastically completed them.  I read to him about the project that he had to do.  He quickly found five objects that would help him tell about himself to put in a brown bag:  A lego man holding a beaker and wearing a sign that says "I love science," a picture of our family, a cork, a rock, and a lego pizza (because that is his current favorite food).  

He excitedly (and with great precision and as if he had years of experience) made his own lunch, an idea that I proposed without much hope, an idea that he jumped on with more enthusiasm than I could have imagined:

And as I watched him carefully spread the peanut butter from edge to edge and scoop the yogurt into a container without spilling a drop and pick out just the right grapes and fold his napkin just so, I realized that he is far more ready for this than I will ever be.

Tomorrow, we don't get to put him on the bus and wave goodbye with tears in our eyes.  We will instead drop him at the school quite a while before the rest of his classmates will get there.  (And that is ok with me.  I will cherish that four minute drive and walking him into the building and the hug goodbye for as long as I possibly can.)

Tomorrow, we will be the ones anxiously and proudly waiting at the bus stop with a camera to see our first grader step off of the bus for the first time, with what I am guessing will be a huge, yet exhausted grin on his face.  I hope I can capture it.  And I am sure there will be tears in my eyes.

Tonight, Cortlan went to bed with Magic Confetti near his pillow.

I wish I had some.

When life gives you lemonade...

Cortlan has been asking to have a lemonade stand for quite a while.  I keep telling him that it is something that takes work and preparation; you can't just wake up one day and decide that you will have a lemonade stand in an hour...especially if you also want to sell cookies and you are depending on your mom to have lemonade in the house.  Last week, we finally got on the same page and got all our ducks in a row.  The most important step - I bought the lemonade.  Once that happened, everything else fell into place.

The kids made their signs.

We made chocolate chip cookies...on a 92 degree day.  And the next day, we made the lemonade.

Soon, we were ready for business.

The kids worked well together as a team, which I was happy to see.  They asked, "Would you like ice?"  And they said, "Thanks for coming!"

They sold most of the cookies...and ate the rest.  They sold about three gallons of lemonade...and drank the rest.

What are they going to do with the money?  They already put it in an envelope...they are saving in hopes of a trip to Disney.

10 weeks...

I have been quite the slacker when it comes to writing these posts.  Somehow, I always feel like I am going to have so much more time to do things like this in the summer.  But that just isn't the case.

Sometimes, I feel that we put our lives on hold for 42 weeks of the year and we have to live it all in these 10 short weeks of summer.  Considering all that we do and accomplish in the school year, I realize that isn't true, but the contrast of feeling like everything is a balancing act (and a tough one at that) during the school year versus the freedom to just do things in the summer is a stark one.  And we always seem to put things off until the summer.  And then most of those things don't get done, anyway, because, well, it is only 10 weeks, after all.  And when you spend your time at the pool, at the zoo, at family picnics, at the museums, riding bikes, running, going to gymnastics, and catching fireflies, it is hard to tackle those major projects.

I just haven't figured out how to maintain this casual and free feeling into the school year, when I have about 50+ hours a week less time to do all of the things that I am enjoying these days, plus the things I don't enjoy so much, like cleaning and grocery shopping.  And this year is going to be a doozy...with Cortlan and Everly in two different schools, with two different days and times for gymnastics and soccer, with my fall play stuff, with John's federation stuff...and then Cortlan's allergist recommended that he get allergy shots once a week. (I am still trying to figure out which day that would work.)

But the bottom line is that we are having a great summer and we are so lucky to have these 10 weeks to spend together and make great memories.  The kids spent a good bit of time arguing and making me crazy for a while, but that has lessened considerably in the last week.  We still have a great beach vacation to look forward to, and plenty more time to enjoy the summer life.

And enjoy, we will...

Summer reading...and loving.

I finally picked up a book this summer.  It has been a while, and boy do I miss the days of laying around and reading whenever I felt like it.  We have been on the go quite a bit and have been having a ton of fun (more to come on all of that).

Anyway, I am reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, simply because I found it recently on my shelf and remembered that a friend had lent it to me last year.  I should give it back, but there is a reason that I have it.  I am a bit more than halfway through, and am not 100% sure how I feel about it yet...I find it intriguing and somehow personal.

But I just read a line that caught my attention, and I just wanted to write it down.  I want to think about it some more later.

"It's the tragedy of loving, you can't love anything more than something you miss."

Thought-provoking.