Busy, busy, busy

We've been very busy lately:

• Too much to do and not enough time!
• Results of JF's EEG
• Weekend plans
• Last post for a while?

Too much to do and not enough time!

When I woke up on Thursday morning and realized that it was the first day of March, I started to panic. AF's brother wants to sell us his Jessup house by April. All this time, I've been thinking of April as being a few months away. Now it's March and we haven't put our Gaithersburg house on the market yet!

Meanwhile, the job that AF has been working on for over a year suddenly dried up, two weeks ago. They have occasional work for him to do, an hour here, a few hours there. Normally, AF would be complaining loudly because when he doesn't work, he doesn't get paid. However, we have so much work to do on the house before we can put it on the market, he's been grateful for the time off. His normal income will be missed, but we'll manage.

For the past two weeks, AF has been packing up stuff that we don't use very often or we aren't using right now, hauling it to (and storing it in) the Jessup house. He's been arranging what's left according to the home-stager's instructions. He's been taking down pictures and spackeling (sp?) the holes. He took our W2s and other paperwork to H&R Block to get our taxes done. He went to our credit union and applied for a pre-authorization for a home loan.

And his self-esteem is plunging because he hasn't been "working." I try to pump up his ego by telling him how much I appreciate everything he's doing and that he's doing a great job at it. I'm not sure how well that's working.

Results of JF's EEG

AF also went to a follow-up appointment today for JF's 1/24/07 EEG. Are you ready for this? JF has epilepsy. The patient instruction sheet said, "Epilepsy - partial or multifocal."

Why am I not surprised? Because it explains his staring spells. We didn't notice these staring spells until his PEP teacher mentioned them. We're so accustomed to JF and having to regain his attention in the middle of a task, that we never noticed them. These spells are apparently mini-siezures (petit mal?).

I haven't done much research about epilepsy, but I've started reading the WebMD epilepsy topic overview. This article lists the symptoms of a seizure, incuding "Your senses may not work right." I'm wondering if this might explain JF's sensory issues and developmental delay. The way I see it, if JF has had these mini-siezures all of his life, and his senses don't work right before/during/after these seizures, why wouldn't he have sensory issues and a developmental delay?

Yet, when I searched WebMD for the words "epilepsy" and "developmental delay" the only useful result was an autism topic overview that says, "about a third of children with autism develop a seizure disorder (such as epilepsy) by their teen years." This seems to be the opposite of what I was looking for.

So, I'll keep researching (beyond WebMD), in my free time. (What free time?)

Meanwhile, we need to schedule an MRI and a blood test. (The MRI I can understand, but I'm not sure what the blood test is for.) I'm going to ask the doctor to have them look for Arnold Chiari Malformation. The last time I had asked her about ACM, she had said that there wasn't enough to justify an MRI. Now that we're doing an MRI anyway, why not look for ACM?

The doctor also prescribed medication for JF to start immediately. If I'm reading the doctor's handwriting correctly, it's Lamictal 5mg chewable, on a schedule that increases the number of pills every two weeks. I hope it helps.

Weekend plans

We've been talking for the past two weeks about how we're going to repaint the inside of the house and refinish the floors. One part of the plan is that AF's friends will come over and they'd have a painting party. Another part of the plan is that JF and I will spend a weekend elsewhere, so that we're not in the way and so that JF isn't breathing in all the paint fumes.

AF had suggested that we spend the weekend with one of my two sisters. However, they both have cats and JF is allergic to cats. I worry enough about JF's allergies (and his associated infections) when we just visit my sisters for a few hours. Spending the night was out of the question.

Then I had an idea. I could take JF to the Jessup house, and spend a weekend there! Not only would we be out of the way and avoid the fumes, but JF would have a preview of living in the new house! (I had been worried about JF's reaction to the move.)

So we had a tentative plan, but we didn't know which weekend it would be.

Then AF called me at work this afternoon. "Honey, I know how you hate last minute plans, but my buddies are busy every weekend except this weekend." Sigh.

So AF asked his brother whether it would be okay for JF and me to camp out at the Jessup house this Saturday. Yup. We're good to go.

Last post for a while?

Considering how busy we will be for the next few weeks (months?), this may be my last post for a while. I might have a few minutes here and there to post comments on other blogs, though.