Day 443

Wow!  It's been a long time since I posted an update...which in a way is a good thing.

I did start a blog posting about two weeks ago during a ferocious meltdown with the school and my husband.  Although my frustration with the school continues that particular posting started with misinformation...so thankfully I didn't post it cause that would have been very bad.

Cassie's headache continues to remain a 7.  She attended her sophomore semi-formal dance on Friday and she looked beautiful.

She had a great time with her friends which made hubby and I happy...she even had a friend sleepover all weekend.  Such a wonderful change of pace.  Cassie also has an admirer who she's seen a couple of times.  I won't go into any mushy, embarrassing details, but he seems like a nice guy and I met his mother and she was nice as well.  He hasn't officially asked her out but they plan to see each other again...ahhh, young romance...makes me wanna barf.

Cassie started attending not just one but two classes starting today and she has a bus ride home which makes hubby happy cause he doesn't have to leave work to pick her up.  I know she is really stressed out about the situation but I will not be making her go for more classes...it will just be too much and I'd like to keep moving forward instead of backward to her not being able to go to school at all.

The school...oh the school...it makes me want to stab something sharp in my eye.  Ugh, I know that there are standard operating procedures in place so that every "i" is dotted and every "t" is crossed so they can't possibly be at fault...but in doing so they make it so difficult on the parents and the student.  They wanted her to attend one class, which we agreed to and she did.  Within the first 2 days I was already getting hints of her attending a second class.  That really aggravated me that I felt pressure to push it to 2 classes after only a couple of days...but I fought back and told them she'd go to 2 on the 19th.  Then, they give me a hard time because Cassie's note regarding not attending school due to her headache is signed by a "nurse".  It isn't signed by a nurse it is signed by a nurse-practitioner...one step below a doctor basically.  So, now I have to get a new note about busing and her attending classes without changing too much of what is already in place because the school will then turn around and try to force something upon us that we don't want to happen. 

The nurse-practitioner was not very happy that I had to have a new note signed by a "doctor" and she wrote the note stating all her credentials and signed it...which I thought was awesome.  What really gets me worked up into a tizzy about the school is that I feel there is so much being placed on Cassie attending school full time instead of Cassie getting her school work done at any cost so she can graduate to a junior level student in the fall.  So, after speaking my mind I now have to attend ANOTHER meeting next Monday to iron out Cassie's new schedule and busing situation (because they make this so painful) and her credit situation (which I already know because nothing much has changed since our last meeting except she'll probably pass 2 classes because those are the ones she is attending).  I feel like these meetings are a joke because everyone seems so happy and helpful in the meeting...then I get the opposite in e-mails.  Hubby is coming, and he knows I am pissed off...hopefully he can keep me relaxed.

The other news I have is Cassie's lumbar puncture came back negative...which I had expected.  So we've started the paperwork needed to have Cassie stay at the inpatient facility in Michigan.  I don't know how long this is going to take but I want Cassie to get better instead of pushing it off and going through all this crap even longer.  She doesn't want to go but I told her it isn't really like a hospital...the rooms are almost like hotel rooms so it won't seem so cold and generic.  Oh well, I have to do what I have to do to get her better.

Day 429

Good morning everyone!

I hope you all had a good weekend...mine was great but too short (when aren't they?).

Well I have no real news, medically speaking, about Cassie.  Her headache has been bouncing around a 7-8 which is good considering she isn't on any real strong medications.  I still haven't heard back about that spinal tap so I have to call them back today.

The good news is Cassie has decided to go to school for 1 class.  This was discussed at our last meeting with the school and I told them if she felt up to it she could do it and we decided the week after vacation would be a good start.  She'll go back tomorrow because I wanted to let the school know she was going to come back (because they have to make arrangements for that to happen and I didn't want to make everything hectic and confusing for both Cassie and the school).  Of course the class is Early Childhood Development...which Cassie did not pick, it was picked for her...so she's not really looking forward to it but I hope she does well because it will be one less class we have to worry about her being tutored in.

Chris and I had a talk with her last night (well I didn't really talk in the beginning...I yelled...but mostly at Chris) about school and her headache.  My husband just can't seem to wrap his mind around the fact that she has a continuous, bad headache.  It's hurtful to Cassie that he "doesn't believe" her, but then she talked to him about everything she's been feeling and he said he understood it better.  I'll believe it when he doesn't hound her about school.  But really, the one thing that stuck with me about the whole conversation is something I haven't talked about yet because it is difficult but if I'm going to be honest with getting my frustrations out I really should discuss it...friends.

Before Cassie's problems pulled her out of school she had quite a lot of friends...it felt like a hundred.  Now, she has a few.  She has some who she talks to via Facebook to texting (one of them moved to Nashua South), and one friend she talks to quite often and she comes over the house about once every other week (she lives near by).  She got together with a group of friends one day during vacation and two of them slept over...and I felt like I was pimping her out when I dropped them off at their houses, yelling "she's available anytime!  Always home, come over anytime you want!!"  Geez, that's sad...

Everyone tells me that the attention span of a teen is that of a gnat but I didn't want to believe them...especially girls that Cassie has known since elementary school, or even younger.  Friends that she called close, or even best friends seem to have vanished.  It's difficult to watch your daughter cry about feeling abandoned and wondering why her friends don't talk to her...and I have to explain to her that these things happen.  That we've all been through tough times with friends...that friends, especially when they go to another school and have their own group of friends, grow apart.  I also believe it wouldn't be so noticeable to her if she did still have a social life...but being stuck at home and reading all her Facebook friends having a life has really taken a toll on her.  It just sucks... 

I always thank my lucky stars that at least she has a group of friends, from my oldest daughter, and that although they are waaaaaaaay older they don't do anything to put my daughter in harm's way and I can trust them....I always tell them if it wasn't for them I don't know what Cassie would have done...so thank you, you know who you are.

Alright, this is making me all weepy so I'm going to end it with a positive story.  Cassie got her shoes for semi yesterday...her dad bought them for her.  They are open-toe, lace up ankle boots...they don't, to me, go with the dress...but I can't see her wearing anything else.