Temporary Name: One-Armed Mama

I am discovering that there are many things that i can figure out how to do with only one hand.

Cook? Yep. Made bacon and eggs for breakfast. Cracked all the eggs left handed. No shells!

Shower? Yep. Even shaved (spottily) and conditioned my hair.

Personal hygeine? Can put toothpaste on my toothbrush by laying the tube hanging over the edge of the counter and squishing it with my elbow.  Bathroom needs? Got it covered, thank goodness!!

Getting dressed? The bra stumped me for a while but now I place it around my waist, get it fastened then spin it marooned and up and over. One boob is in my armpit and the other in the center of my chest, but they are harnessed!

Opening jars and bottles of medication.....pretty hard. I can get my prescription open with one hand, but I need help with twisting other things open. Chris loosened all the jelly lids for me and left them loose. Sweet man!

What I cannot do: tie my shoes, chop veggies, smack small booties (kidding) and do pushups.
Unfortunately I can do laundry, housekeeping, grocery shopping and other mundane chores. I really, really hoped I would be unable to do those things. Maybe if I break my other hand too????

The boys are all pitching in to help out. Well, most of them. Ahren tends to sit like a lump and demand people wait on him. He is trying, though. He attempted to, open his own can of soda but got it partially open, had it tip over and spin out of his hands, roll off the table and hit the floor spinning and shooting soda everywhere. Nice try but No. He is now allowed to get himself a glass of water. Period. LOL!

From the haze of my brain

  I have told you how well Seth has done this year but he still has some major triggers. Add the stress of the holidays with the disruption of the much- needed schedule and my surgery and you get a little boy who gets squirrelly. He ended up in the principals office at school and lost privelages at home. I was able to talk him through his emotions and he settled down at school.

  The night before Christmas eve we drove 2.5 hours to ride The Polar Express train. All 5 kids were wearing matching pajamas and looked so cute. The train ride was awesome. They read the book, played the songs from the movie and served hot cocoa and cookies. Ahren spilled his cocoa on himself and Kaytee and Ashley grabbed napkins and cleaned him up. (when another child gets attention the RAD kid gets triggered) After the train ride we picked up food and hit the road for home. Two and a half hours later we pulled into our driveway and unloaded. Seth would not get out of the van. I finally had to reach in and pull him out. He was covered in ketchup. His shirt was soaked in it, his lap was gooey and he even had it on his back. There was much more ketchup than one packets worth and the spots were wet, not partially dried like they would have been if he spilled when he ate hours before. I didn't say a word, just led him to the laundry room where I stripped him down and wiped him off. I did the same with Ahrens Jammie's since his were chocolatey.  I got them into clean pajamas and tucked them into bed and kissed them goodnight.  Then I drenched the Jammie's in stain remover and loaded up the washer. 

  This week Seth has alternated between moping and whining and bursts of wild out of control behavior. He has lost or broken half of his gifts prompting me to send Santa a letter asking him to not bring presents next year unless Seth can learn to care for his belongings. I showed him the letter and he just shrugged. He didn't care or pretended he didn't care. 

  Yesterday we had a couple of boys over for a play date. They played well together for most of the day and then mid- afternoon I heard the boys all saying things like 'gross, that is disgusting, don't ever say that again'. Uh-oh. I intervened and asked what was going on. They all agreed that Seth had said something really bad, but they were too embarrassed to tell me. Finally Levi whispered it to me and I briefly saw the world spin around me. Seth had said something of a very graphic sexual nature. I immediately removed him to my room and left him in timeout on my bed. I then talked to the other kids and apologized to them and assured them Seth was going to be severely punished. They all went back to playing and I left Seth on my bed. I told him that as soon as his Dad got back from the store he was going to get his punishment. I hadn't thought what it would be but I know the anticipation of it would be making a huge impact. Chris got home a little later and what do you know? Seth was sound asleep . Amazing...... Well not really. He uses that tactic to avoid unpleasant things. We let him 'sleep' for a couple of hours and then he received his punishment. Grounded, no playing with friends and the loss of his major Christmas gift to play with while he is grounded. 

  We still have a week of vacation to go so this story is not over. Hopefully it will end with a whimper and not a bang.....

And so it is

I had surgery yesterday to repair my hand. Tacked the ligament back down and wired the bones together. I cannot use it at all and am very sore. I get my first cast next week and will be in one for 3 months. So here are some recent photos of my crazy gang.

  

Awwww geeez!!!

I saw the orthopedic surgeon today. I am scheduled for surgery the day after Christmas. He will go in and pin the tendon back down, wire the bones back together and then place long pins through all the bones in my wrist/ hand to hold them in place. I will be in a hard cast for about twelve weeks, then have a second surgery to remove the big pins. Man, I did this good. It is going to get very interesting to function without my right hand for months. (I am right handed)

 I am trying to be very positive. They can fix it. It will be OK. I will figure it out. But....... This is going to be so hard. So......hard.........

Seriously?????

  There is so much going on here that I have been too busy to update. I will try and hit all the high points, but no promises. My poor ol' brain is on overload right now.

  Seth began to fall apart a few weeks ago. The first week I saw that he had double color changes at school three days in a row. Pushing, disturbing others, throwing things, etc. Very unusual for him now. We talked about it and put a consequence in place. The next week he was on green the first two days and then his folder got 'lost'. I found it on Friday and saw that he had a major color change and that the teacher had said 'see note'. No note was ever found. The folder remained missing but his teacher e-mailed me regarding his behavior. He had ended the week in the principle's office! OMG! She was shocked that he was acting like this because to her it was so different than what she had seen so far this year. To me, it just meant he had been triggered and was reacting. I told her why he was acting out and she understood. Then I cuddled him at home and talked about why he was out of control. He acted like he was soooo happy I had called him on it! His whole demeanor changed immediately. All of the tension and anxiety melted out of  his body and  he was so happy. This is huge for him. He was experiencing all these feelings that he could not recognize, but the minute I pointed them out to him, he accepted it and was back to being grounded. Amazing. He has been so awesome ever since. Both at school and at home! The only thing I have noticed is that he seeks my attention and approval constantly. Hugs, words, touching me, whatever he needs to stay grounded. He seems so much happier!!! Good boy!!!!!

  Ahren overheard me saying the password to my IPad, and proceeded to spend over $400 in two hours on games. I had no idea. The bank voided the transactions and I got the money back, but you better believe I will be way more careful with my password and his use of my IPad!!!!

  I finished my first semester of graduate school with a perfect 4.00! I am loving it and learning so much. I also never knew I could handle this much at one time. School, family, work, etc. I even made all of my favorite holiday goodies to share with friends and neighbors. I enjoyed every minute of it!

  The one down side of this time is that I have injured my hand pretty badly. I tore a tendon in the back of my hand that holds all of the little bones together. I am finding out tomorrow whether I need surgery and how long I will need to be in a hard cast to allow it to heal. It is estimated at being MONTHS of in-mobility in my hand. Complete hard cast to my fingertips for four or more months. SUCKS!!!!

  Kaytee is on Dean's List again. Smart Girl!!!!

  I have no presents wrapped yet. Bad hand = no wrapping. Everything will go in bags. Holiday bags, lunch bags, garbage bags, grocery bags. It is going to be interesting.

Love y'all!!!!!