The theme for Max today was definitely about donating his body to science. He had an appointment with the allergist and I'm pleased to say that he is basically just allergic to pollen. Not to dust mites or mold or mildew or any of the other things that I am totally unequipped to get out of the house. I can't do much about the pollen either because getting central A/C is really low on our budget list right now (long after "get new roof" and "fence in backyard for safety of dog"). But i can buy the boy drugs and see if that helps. He is allergic to all the pollens--to PA tree pollen and PA grass pollen and PA ragweed pollen. In my experience, he is least allergic to the summer grasses and most sensitive to those spring tree pollens--and kind of in the middle with the fall stuff.
Then he came home from that and Penn State had called to set up an ambitious schedule of appointments for the experiment they're doing on preteen boys, exercise, and the effect of heat and humidity on core body temperature. I made the initial contact and set up the first appointments, but since then Chris has taken over and he and Max seem to be having a good time working the Penn State medical experiment department. Max gets enough money out of it to get a Wii and some games. Tonight he had to swallow a pill of some sort that has a transmitter in it. It's a little thermometer that he'll um, expel, in a few days. Max and Chris think this is just the height of high-tech bathroom humor.
The evening was donated to piano lessons and boy scouts. Ben was delightful in his piano lesson, being enthusiastic, well prepared, and trying desperately to be good and listen to his teacher for once (he was partially successful). Milo was in a stubborn mood and I give his piano teacher mad props for not throttling him.
Max had his first lesson after a 6 week break and so pleased his teacher with the progress he'd made (or at least, with the fact that she could tell he'd been practicing, regularly, and hadn't lost any ground) that she was practically levitating. She had good news for me, too. We've been awarded a meaningful scholarship that will make affording the piano lessons in the fall much easier. I couldn't believe it. I'd filled out the form the very last day you could turn it in after trying twice before and just feeling too overwhelmed to continue. I'd been warned repeatedly that the awards tended to be very conservative, covering little more than the annual registration fee. Well, this goes beyond that.
After piano we dropped Max off at church for boyscouts and headed over to the yarn store to check on the monthly project. I didn't have the time or the babysitter to go to my monthly knitting class, but I wanted to see the project to see if I might want to do it. She had some samples and they were really stinkin' cute. So I might toss a few pairs together for some of the newborn girls.
Or not. I keep forgetting I have so much work right now I'm totally sleep deprived, never mind knitting. (Not complaining!!) Actually, I get a short break this weekend. God's birthday gift to me is two days to clean my house.
But first thing in the morning I have 6 pages due to a client and an awful lot left to write, so I'd better get back to that.
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2 comments:
So with the alergies, I say something on the internet about using a neti pot to rinse the siniuses. And I read that it works for allergies. When I read it I thought of Chris and wondered if that would help him. Of course, he would have to be willing to pour warm salt water through his nose. I've done it to help get rid of colds and it works wonders, once you get past the fact that you're pouring water up your nose. Anyway here's a link (i hope) www.netipot.org
S.
Actually, we're way ahead of you there. Chris' allergies are so bad that he becomes practically nonfunctional when they hit--so we have the electric version of a neti pot--a water pik with a special nose adapter. We use a saline solution that combines salt and baking soda. It's incredibly effective. However, if you get the tilt of the pik wrong, you can give yourself a wicked headache. Plus, when you're first starting it, you really need to be able to do this a few times a day before you get the symptoms under control. It's perfect for Chris, who works from home, but is a bit too much for Max during school hours. Our purpose in getting things together at the doctor was mostly to try to get him access to an effective, but non-drowsy drug he could use during school hours when his allergies are at their worst (spring for a few weeks, and fall for a shorter period of time. His reaction to summer grasses is pretty mild, although I wouldn't suggest he get a job cutting hay.)
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