7QT: Still Shingles, Old Moms, Muffins and a Vandalism

Happy last Friday in January y'all!  I personally can't wait for this month to be over.  February can only go up from here (she types nervously).  Linking up with Kelly and TGIF even if it is 16 degrees and snowy here :)

Declan and Brendan looked the same size here until I realized Brendan is on his tippy toes!

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A Hate-Filled Ode to Shingles:

Sleepless nights

Hot and burning

Itchy spots

Nerve damaging

God begging

Low energy

Excruciating discomfort

Soul sucking virus 

It's been three weeks of torture, and I wouldn't wish shingles on my worst enemy.

7QT: Shingles, Instagram, Wall Art, Soup and a Fish Saga

 I can't believe we are twenty one days into 2021 already.  Since the last time I was here, a few events have occurred at Clan Martin, so let's get going. (Joining up with Kelly and friends for Seven Quick Takes Friday)

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I got shingles.  

At 41 ripe old years of age.

It started two weeks ago, on a Thursday night, when my neck began aching as if I pulled a muscle.  I had completed a difficult Insanity wourkout class that night, so I figured I just hurt my neck during that.  The pain got worse and worse, and by Saturday night, I was in such agony that I didn't sleep a wink.  On Sunday morning, I made an appointment at Urgent Care to see what was wrong.  My appointment wasn't until the afternoon, and I basically laid in bed with a heating pad on my neck in pain.  The NP at Urgent Care diagnosed me with a strained trapezius muscle and told me to take Ibuprofen.  I was in such pain that my blood pressure was sky high and I couldn't move my head and felt like I might die from the pain.  I went home and started taking Ibuprofen, which helped not one bit and cried to Phil that this had to be something worse than a strained muscle.  I didn't sleep again on Sunday night, and by Monday morning I was a mess.  I had a "pimple" behind my left ear that I had noticed on Saturday, and by Monday it looked like there were two tiny blisters next to it.  I had Phil look at it and take a photo and he said it looked like a bite.  I freaked out thinking some crazy spider bit me and was causing all of this neck pain, so I texted it to my sister (a dermatologist) and explained the pain.  

She wrote back "I think you have shingles".  

I freaked out even more and she called me to say it sounded like shingles and that I needed to go to the doctor right away to start the anti-viral medicine.  I called the doctor's office, who said my doc was booked all day until 7pm but that they would send him a message.  I told them to make sure they said that my sister had diagnosed me with shingles.  The nurse called back right away and said my doctor had called in the anti-viral meds and would teleconference me at 7pm.  Gotta love a good doctor!  By the time I spoke with him that evening, the pain had morphed into a shooting pain to my ear, a throbbing pain in the back of my head, and a burning sensation from my ear down to my shoulder.  It was shingles.  He prescribed a painkiller to help, and I was on so many medications for the next seven days yet still in tons of pain.  Shingles is no joke!  I am lucky that I started the anti-virals so quicly because I only ended up with a few blistery type spots and the rest of the rash was flat and red.  My ear was a disaster, red, swollen, infected, and painful.  After two weeks, I am still not normal.  The skin all over the left side of my scalp, neck, and ear is burning and painful and sleep is still hard to come by.  

Side Note: I actually babysat for Bob Villa's daughter a few times when I was a teen

That's the truth

This was when the spots started appearing - I'll spare you any grosser photos.

7QT: It's 2021 Or Is It 2020 Won?

Happy Friday!  Linking up with Kelly because it may be a new year, but what's that saying about you can't teach an old blogger a new schedule? 

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And 2022 sounds like 2020 too...so let's just skip to 2023 m'kay?

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Because of the numbers of rising cases of 'rona in our area, our highschool is remote this week, so Phil, JP, Andrew, and I are working from home (I worked partly from my office too) but the other five kids are in school, in person, and this is a very doable situation.  However, if and when their school goes remote, which seems like is undoubtedly going to happen because HELLO IT'S WINTER, HENCE COLD AND FLU SEASON here in the Northeast, life gets a lot more complicated.  Working from home means trying to work plus teach plus get kids on devices for scheduled meetings plus keep them quiet while I have meetings plus keep them entertained and fed all day long so as not to disturb everyone else in school.  Ugh, just remembering what that was like last Spring gives me the shudders.

  Please Lord let the schools stay open or let me win the lottery so I can quit my job and just be able to focus on schooling at home.

Declan and His Adverse Side Effects from Singulair

 This is Declan.  A happy, handsome, athletic, fun-loving little six year old.

Declan loves to be on the move, like most little boys, but even especially so.  He goes on runs with us, is always jumping on the trampoline, and literally climbs the walls in our home.  We are always amazed by his strength and stamina.  Even though we have six other kids, I would say Declan is the most active of the bunch.  

Right before he turned three, Declan had a couple of "episodes" where he would be running around like his crazy self and would come over to me and say "I can't breathe" or "I don't feel good".  We would hold him and try to get him to breathe slowly and calmly, but he was clearly struggling to do so.  My husband had childhood asthma, and since Declan's three-year-old physical was coming up, we made sure to mention it to his pediatrician.  He was sent to see a specialist from Boston Children's Hospital, who asked a lot of questions, did some blood work (I think?), and made him run around up and down the office halls to see if he would react.  He didn't, but she obviously believed us that he had a few scary episodes, and explained that although she couldn't technically diagnose him with asthma because he was too young to do the breathing test, she thought that's what he had.  His dad having had childhood asthma also aided her decision.  She prescribed him an inhaler to use before exercise and also put him on a daily dose of Singulair.  I don't like taking medicine, and certainly didn't want my little guy to be on a prescription (for life?) if it wasn't absolutely necessary, so I asked her if it was safe and she assured me that it was very safe, and it helped with both asthma and allergies (he's also allergic to dust and cats) so he should definitely take it.  She told me that with all of my other children being healthy, we were lucky that this was the biggest medical issue we had.  She really couldn't get over that only one kid out of our seven would need a prescription, she made it seem like it was so commonplace for kids to be diagnosed and on medication.  And I'm sure for the cases she sees at Boston Children's, she's justified to feel that way, but I like to think a healthy child should be the norm and not an oddity.