Air

 

 

For those curious, Elise has had a genuine struggle adjusting to middle school.  I love her teacher, and she loves her teacher, so that portion is lovely.   She is the kind of teacher who knows what to push and how far to go with things...and when to stop and let things go. 

 

However, since about 2 weeks before school, she has been excruciatingly tired.  She will struggle to wake, beg to go to bed early, nap during the day, and have an unusually high number of meltdowns.

 

Some are legit, tween tantrums, some she has no control over.  And those are what worry me.

 

When she started school, there was the usual testing period.  And then she got a new parapro, and that lady needed her testing time...but I was still dragging her to school and she'd sleep all the way home and then some.  She also decided to throw in copious weeping, periodically...with no standard explanation.

 

And then I found out not only was she napping 1-2 hours in the car, but she was sleeping at school 1-3 hours...on top of begging to go to bed and sleeping in.

 

So, I did what every good cancer survivor parent does, I panicked and had all her blood panels drawn.  They came back all normal.  Even her thyroid, which is honestly had been what I hoped was screwy, because it would explain the exhaustion and the emotional dippiness.

 

I hate getting no answers...so I decided to mull things over a bit and see which other direction to strike out into.

 

We went to a friend's birthday party this weekend and besides being great fun, it turned out to be a very educational party!

Elise ran around and danced and got blue around the mouth.  I suddenly have a new direction to start in.  It would explain why she's so tired.  She has a history of bronchial asthma, and it can be fairly invisible, unless you are watching pulse ox or she develops croup and goes into distress.  It even explains the emotional volatility, I know I am always more irrational when exhausted!

 

Sadly, we can't get in until November 6, but we have rescue medicines until that point.  I'll keep you posted.