An exhausting week

We were really hesitant to leave Ginger alone on Tuesday the 15th after her pneumonia diagnosis and knowing that she most likely had Valley Fever as well.  Luckily Michael had a meeting to attend that was close to home (and not at work, which is 26 miles away), so he ended up working just a half day and was home with Ginger all afternoon.  She did fine alone in the morning.  That would all change soon though. 

In the meantime, I was at work on Tuesday.  I started doing speech therapy sessions with all of my kids.  I always have the kids draw a picture of themselves during the first session.  I do one too.  Then we hang it on the wall for the entire year.  This year I actually have a huge bulletin board for them. 

My 2017-2018 picture.  The red shoes were a lie. 

See.  I was wearing yellow sandals. 

The print of the dress in my drawing was a stretch of the truth too. 

Spencer got to go on a field trip with student council on Tuesday.  They went to a skating place for a couple of hours in the morning and were recorded for a local news station to promote an event for their school.   They are trying to raise money for a technology lab.

Spencer's poster. 

These are his legs after a morning of skating/falling. 

I worked again on Wednesday the 16th.  Michael stayed home with Ginger all day, which was good because she got progressively worse all day long. Valley Fever can cause neurological symptoms and on Wednesday she started sliding on the floor and falling a lot. 

We took Elliott's 5 year 8 month pictures after dinner.  I haven't given any consideration as to which one is "official". 

I also remembered to take pictures of all of Elliott's wall light balloons.  He's using them as night lights. 

Spencer also picked Bridge to Terabithia as his next book. He's already almost done with it.   These are all of the books he'll be reading for pleasure in the coming weeks. 

Thursday was an AWFUL day.  I was up with Ginger multiple times during the night (Wednesday to Thursday) because she couldn't stand up on her own and kept sliding and falling on the floor.  Then Michael came in and woke me up at 5:00 am to say he had called in to work and was staying home with Ginger all day.  He had been on his way out the door to work when he found her crashed on the floor in the laundry room.  I had been up with her at 3:30, so sometime between 3:30 and 5:00 she left the bedroom, fell and couldn't get back up.  There was just no way we could leave her for 8 hours in that condition. 

I had a very busy day at work.  Therapy sessions and meetings.  I did make time to take a picture of all of the file folders I have been collecting.   I'm close to having a new pretty one for every one of my kids. 

I had a 3:00 meeting that day and after it I was talking to my friend Ellen in her office.  It was almost 5:00 when Michael called me to say the vet's office had just called and she did officially have Valley Fever.  They said if we wanted to we could come in to get a week's supply of the medication she needed otherwise we'd have to wait for the compounding pharmacy to get it ready.  Well, you had better believe I was in the car two minutes later driving to Mesa to pick up the pills.  It took three pills (Thursday night, Friday morning, Friday night) and we already saw a huge difference.  No more slipping and falling at all.  

I got to Mesa just before 6:00, then I drove to Gilbert to go to the bank and to pick up dinner for myself.  I got home after 7:00 that night. But it was worth it to get her started on the medication.  

Up next:  The time I hired a baby-sitter for Ginger so I could go to the dentist.