I’m amused this week that our household appears a little more politically conservative than usual. With a magnet of the local Catholic Church on our car (via Nat) and a join the Cub Scout sign out front (via Vince), I would not fault anyone for thinking that we are all Republicans in the house. I think Vince has (though the scouts) handled a gun more than I have and I know that the gun events at scout camp are, for him, one of the highlights of the whole week. During a 4 week period in my college days, I handled a pistol every day for at least hour. I was a good shot (like my mother – who has an enormous trophy for winning a marksmanship contest) and I was thinking about joining the pistol team – but alas I did not. I think I should have now that I look back on it, maybe it would have been good to go to some college level competitions. But it was just the repetitiveness about it all – I mean – you just tried to breath the same way each time, to pull the trigger the same way each time, to have the same metal focus each time – that really seemed to pull me a little further away from being human. I tend to sway too much towards the practical and unemotional – so even to this day, I have to remind myself that it’s OK for everything to be a little messy – a bit out of my control. I try to cultivate a little messiness in life – which is not really that hard because no one else in the family ever wants to do anything the most simple and practical way. No one. All trips must include a scenic detour.
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Edda has a little wound on her ear that won’t heal. It’s at the junction where the ear lobe meets the side of the head. I guess Edda’s earlobe there has the tiniest bit of a fold and therefore holds moisture a little more than a smooth expanse of skin. Every time I have the chance, I kind of clean it and wipe it down, but I probably do it only once a week when I notice it – it’s probably been there for months and months (not getting better nor getting worse) and today someone at school noticed it and sent me an email about it. I wonder if she would have this problem if she had Rett Syndrome. I mean – it’s not really a part of her body that’s impacted by Rett Syndrome – would a typical 9 year old have a non-healing wound on their ear for months? It’s hard to imaging that she would have it as a typical child, but I have no reason to think that Rett has caused this.
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Today in nursing school, I learned all the seizure class drugs. All their modes of operation, what seizures they work on, what side effects occur for each type of drug. It all seems scientific and orderly – like as if you can order pizza with exactly the toppings you want and 15 minutes later – Poof! All the seizures are gone! As a mother of a child who has been on seizure meds, it all seems so not scientific and orderly. It seems like a guessing game for everyone involved. A guessing game which always starts with Keppra (mode of mechanism unknown but tolerated very well).
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