What a Week

This has been a tough week around here.  Dave and both the girls have not been feeling their best.

Ashley has been pretty sick.  She missed two days of school but honestly could have missed at least four.  The workload in high school is so heavy that missing more than a couple of days makes it too hard to catch up.  Dave took her to the doctor but it is just viral.  She has been practically living off NyQuil.  The bottles are pretty much empty.

Poor girl, for a couple days it seemed like maybe she was getting a little better or at least not getting worse.  But today, she seems pretty sick again. YUCK!

Paige also has came home from school sick this week.  She fainted in class and hit her head.  Yep.  Those of you who know her well, know where this story is going.  The librarian came in to Paige's class and read a story about a girl who got in a car accident and had to have her leg amputated.  The point of the story is that the girl overcame this tragedy and became an award-winning runner.  Well, just hearing about the amputation and how the skin had to be pulled and stapled over the the stump was too much for Paige.  

I had actually told Paige's teacher about Paige's queasy stomach but I didn't think to tell the specials teachers like the librarian.  Basically, everyone just thought she was sick with a virus or something.  Ah, but we know better.  Poor Paige was SO embarrassed to have this happen in front of the whole class, even though she doesn't really remember much.  Anyways, she ended up coming home as she was still a little queasy afterward and basically needed some more time before she could face her class.  Fortunately, kids have short memories and by the next day it was almost forgotten.  

I decided to teach Paige another strategy for coping with this anxiety of hers.  Basically, she uses a rating scale to evaluate "how gross" something is and uses that to gage her reaction.  Hopefully, it works.  Apparently this is a very common fear for kids 9-12.  Hers is pretty intense but I'm hopeful she will grow out of it and learn to cope better.  And now all her teachers know so hopefully she can be excused from listening to graphic stories.   Thank goodness the science units this year are rocks and the solar system!

Anyways, this week has been a bit of a drag, but just have to try to keep looking on the bright side.