At any rate, the officials came and then started focusing on the intervention room and the fact that we were not doing it properly. We had all paperwork attached to everything and it was set in place. Just because it wasn't being followed didn't mean we didn't have it set in place. The frustrations here wax and wane. It seems we take one step forward and about 10 back. In the end my principal told me what I should do the next time, which is when I filled her in on my side of the story which seemed to make thing more clear to her. Go figure. At that stage I informed her that I would be backing out of the discipline piece of the school
Since we have social workers and a Vice Principal in charge of student behavior. Done and done. We shall see if they make us take the intervention room apart. If so, kiss our relatively calm school goodbye.
Jack came home from school with a headache that was bad enough to make him cry. I gave him Tylenol and off to rugby we went. Once we were home he was complaining again, but seemed fine once he got some more Tylenol . He didn't have a fever and so I just chalked it up to higher humidity or fighting off a bug. Stuart and I watched the rugby match against Australia and Scotland. It was an awesome match and Australia squeezed it out in the end. Imagine the most devoted baseball fans of two different teams you know and their teams being in the World Series. That mayhem may land in our little expat community if both Australia and New Zealand end up in the finals of the World Cup. It should be exciting around here.
Monday I was at school long enough to do an observation and then left for a Head of Faculty meeting. The meeting left a bit to be desired, but it gave me a day out of school.
Before leaving for school Jack was in our room saying he didn't think he could go to school because he had a headache. We told him that we went to school many days when we had a headache and once he got up and had some Tylenol and breakfast, he would be fine. Sure enough, he made it through the day. However in the middle of my meeting I did have a call from the school asking if they could give him some pain medication.
Once we were all home, Jack was not well. He still didn't have a fever and he hadn't lost his appetite at all. However, we did forego his piano lesson.
The kids were bathed and ready for bed by about 3:30 pm. Of course, Millie insisted she was sick as well, which was furthest from the truth. She just can't stand to not get medicine when it's being passed out. She's a bit unusual.
Jack couldn't shake the headache no matter what we tried. I gave him one more dose before he went to bed. By 11 pm her was screaming for me. I went in his room and laid down with him. I gave him some more Tylenol, not knowing until the doctor visit on Tuesday that ibuprophen is the ticket, not acetaminophen. Mother of the Year yet again.
I was in his room most of the night. When I gave him another dose of the useless medicine he barfed about 5 minutes later. That was at 4 am. Needless to say I knew we were heading to the hospital as soon as he woke up. He actually slept from 4 am to 6 am, but then was up and crying from time to time.
I tried to ask him about his headache and how it felt. He told me he had never had a headache like this. He said it would hurt and then it was stabbing. It was in the front of his head and his eyes were hurting. I just felt so helpless.
Once at the urgent care we were brought into a room and an American doctor walked him, young enough to be my son. He was very nice and thorough. He ruled out meningitis, any infection (mainly because there was no fever), and then he said what I feared, 'I would like to do a CT scan on his head to rule out anything really bad. I knew he meant a tumor. I almost cried, even though I was thrilled he would do that. He stated there was a big possibility he was experiencing a migraine. He asked if there were migraines in the family. I told him that I have about 2 a year. He said Jack was pretty young for migraines, but it did happen.
Because there was a computer glitch there was a wait for the scan. Once we were in there and saw the machine, Jack got scared. I reassured him that I had to go into a machine like that when I had my knee operation and it would be fine. The tech told him it would only be a few minutes and then it would be over. She put an iron apron on me and I was able to stay in the room with him. He did exactly what she said and was visibly relieved when it was over. He even smiled. I think he realized his fears were unfounded.
My poor boy!
Once we were finished we went back to the doctor. He came in to tell
Is he had good news and bad news. The good news was that the CT scan was clear and there was no need to be concerned about a tumor. The bad news was he didn't really know the cause of the pain. He prescribed some ibuprophen and a migrain medicine.
Once that stress was over, albeit the short time it existed, we headed to the checkout counter, which seemed to take forever. Once I had paid the 4 dirhams for the medication (that's about a dollar), We headed to the pharmacy. The pharmacist started to panic about the migraine medication we were prescribed. She stated it was only meant for adults, not children. She said more than a 1/4 of a tablet would be too much for him. I explained that the doctor had told me about this and that I was not going to give him the medication if the extra strength ibuprophen worked. She insisted that the meds were not good for him. I responded by saying, 'I have spoken to the doctor. I know what medication he gave us. I have been here for 3 hours. Now, please give me he medication I paid for and let me leave. She did, and we were out of there.
All the way home Jack had moments of extreme pain and tears. Once we were home I attempted to give him the half of a ibuprophen pill, but having him swallow it was out of the question. He just threw up when I tried to get him to swallow it. Oh my! So I ended up smashing it into some yogurt and he took it that way. Within 20 minutes he was a lot better. He laid around on the sofa for the rest of the day. I tried to get him to nap, but that was useless.
Once Stuart was home I went for my swim as I knew I would not be going to the club that evening. Jack was in no shape to practice rugby and Millie doesn't go without Jack. On my way I received a call from the doctor. He stated that when they did the CT scan they forgot to do the sinus scan. He told me that although they would call to reschedule that we shouldn't return. He stated his biggest concern was the head and that exposing Jack to the radiation again wasn't necessary. I told him about the pharmacist and he said they asked him three or four times why he would prescribe that medication to a child. Clearly they didn't hear his conversation with me about the medication. He was really nice and was thorough, for which I was thankful. When I got home Millie was just being dropped off. She came in and the chaos ensued.
Since I needed a shower, I told the two of them that they needed one as well. So, as we often do, the three of us were clean and ready for bed by 4 pm. I'm not ashamed of that fact.
Once the kids had dinner we went up to read books. I asked Jack if he had a headache and he said no. As a preventative I woke him at 7 pm to give him another dose of the ibuprophen. I thought I'd rather be safe than sorry. This time I put his half pill in a spoonful of pudding.
The hilarity that followed is a bit hard to explain. When I went to his room, with the spoon full of pudding, I patted him and pulled at him, but he would not wake up. Once I did think he was awake I started attempting to get him to eat the pudding. He first stuck his tongue out to lick at the spoon. I kept telling him to open his mouth really wide. He continued to stick out his tongue and lap at the pudding. I kind of shook him and asked him if his head hurt. He said yes, but then quickly said no. Oh dear, still asleep. I patted his belly and told him to wake up. I then offered him the spoon again, and this time he actually opened his mouth, but quickly shut it when the spoon got to his lips. Then he started playing the 'I will just eat a little bit off the spoon' game. It reminded me of when someone would ask for a bite of your ice cream, you'd give it, and then instead of licking the spoon clean, they would leave just a little bit in the dip of the spoon. Gross! It took me about 7 attempts for him to actually take all of the pudding and medicine. I must not have smashed the pill very well because he kept chewing the pudding, which could only mean he was chewing the pill. Ick! Poor kid!
Jack woke up without a memory of the pudding incident. However, he was headache free, well except for the tiny 'mouse-size' headache he had when he cut his eyes to one side or the other. So, again, smashed ibuprophen in pudding did the trick.
We all went to school, although Stuart and I woke up 45 minutes after our alarms went off. I had an observation and then had very little to do the rest of the day. It was nice to make some resources for teachers and organize my resource room a bit.
Once I was home I decided to make some fruit tarts using sugar cookies as the crust cup. They were delicious.
Millie pitched a fit about dance again, but dang it, I paid for it and she's going. She nearly fell asleep again but I blasted the music so she wouldn't, which made her mad. Please explain to me why you have a 4 year old dance class at 5:15 pm, just before dinner and bedtime? Millie is usually winding down by that time. No wonder she's cranky about going. We will probably have her do her ballet at school for the second term.
Once we were home, I bathed Millie, the kids ate and off to bed they went. DeDe came over to plan our Halloween event that would take place on Friday afternoon. I was so excited because we had the cutest crafts for the kids from Oriental Trading Company! We planned the food and the. Just sat and had a good chat. DeDe ate one of my fruit tarts and left around 9:30 pm. I then hopped in the shower and returned downstairs to watch some television. Stuart got home from rugby just after 10 pm and was off to bed.
I had a new experience at school on Thursday. I observed a teacher who was teaching music.....in Arabic. I actually knew what she was doing. She was excellent and I enjoyed her lesson more than I enjoy some of the English teacher's lessons. The day dragged on, but I managed to make it through to the weekend.
In the spirit of baking, once I was home, I took the challenge of a friend, Leanne, to make peanut butter/M&M balls. Once I published on Facebook that I was making them, she headed our way. She got to the house about 20 minutes after they were finished. These were by far the sweetest treats I have ever made, but oh so yummy.
Once Leanne left Stuart went to KFC for a nutritious dinner for all of us. We didn't get anything out for dinner because we were going to go to the golf club. In the end we decided we were too lazy to go anywhere. The kids had showers, ate, and then hit the sack.
Friday morning we were up way too early. Jack was in our room by 6 am, snagging the iPad and Millie came in shortly after that for her Friday morning cuddle. We were downstairs by 6:45 am, wondering the dynamics of weekend early risers. We can't get them to get out of bed during the week and can't get them to stay in bed on the weekends. It's mental!
I went to the pool at 8 am for my swim. After I was showered and got ready for the day, we headed out to do our weekly shopping. Once we were home, I prepared for the Halloween party that would begin at 2 pm. I made witches brooms, mummies, and got the crafts ready. It was so exciting. DeDe made monster faces out of apples and also a trail mix of Chex, marshmallows and candy corn.
The table of goodies.
Apple monsters
The scarecrow craft
The candy corn craft
The monster craft
All of the kids had a blast. My OCD almost couldn't handle all of the noise, mess, and untidiness, but I came out alive.
The party was over at 4 pm and we were out the door at 4:15 pm to head to the club. Jack was to be the ball boy for Stuart's match. He actually knew what to do this time and was complimented by the team captain for how well he did. Bless him!
We stayed for the 1st team's game because Stuart ended up playing for that team as well as the 2nd team. He played 120 minutes of rugby Friday evening and had the achy body to show for it. When we got home from the club, I bathed the kids, gave them a snack, and put them to bed. I went into our bedroom to see what Stuart was doing and he was sound asleep. Poor guy!
Saturday morning I got up around 7 am to head to Abu Dhabi. Gina was in town for the weekend. We went to lunch, I tried to get Gina a date with a guy who sat next to us at the pub where we had lunch, but he was a smoker, so he was out. I tried, Sherry Bollard.
We did some shopping at IKEA, I was able to buy Jack a Halloween costume and Millie a wig for her Elsa costume. I got home after they were in bed so they didn't see them Saturday evening. I didn't get home until after 9 pm and then needed some wind down time. Another week of fun and enjoyment. Still love my UAE life.
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