November Rain

So I've been having some issues with my wrist/arm for the past month or two. Actually, I've had a couple of instances before this past month where I've had to wear a brace on my wrist when I use my computer – but it lasted a few days and then the pain went away. Now, the pain is a little different and has lasted a lot longer. Now, the brace doesn't help and I have had to use my left hand on my mouse. Using my left hand is pretty awkward and it takes me 3 times longer to get anything done. When the wrist pain first started, I thought maybe it was arthritis related – but now it seems to also be deep in the muscle or tendons. I think. I've researched carpal tunnel, but I don't really know if that sounds like my issue, not most of the time anyway. My pain is on the top of my wrist/forearm – not on the bottom (except for one day). I'm worried that I'm eventually going to have to give up graphic design. When you make things in Photoshop, you use a lot of repetitive wrist movements – it's not as leisurely as simply scrolling through facebook or something (but now even that hurts my wrist). And now my left wrist bothers me if I use it too long, probably because I'm not used to using those muscles. I know with carpal tunnel, there is tingling involved... but my hands, arms, and feet have been constantly tingly for several years now due to the lyme and/or fibromyalgia. So far, I'm remaining stubborn about going to the doctor about it, because I vowed not to go back unless I have an issue that you can see. I'm not going to waste my time and money on going to a doctor that will just blow me off and make it seem like I'm a hypochondriac or something.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Dakota had an awards assembly at school. He got an academic award, which is simply amazing. In elementary school, he would get awards for behavior – or the teacher would make up some special award that you've never heard of – so Dakota would earn something too. And this year, I know that a lot of his classes are special ed classes so the schoolwork is at his level. But still, we were really surprised. At his parent/teacher conferences, his teachers talked about what a wiz he is in math. After the awards assembly, Dakota went up to the blind student in his grade and congratulated him on winning an award. Then he asked this student if he could shake his hand. As much as academic awards are great, witnessing a moment like that makes me feel like the proudest mom in the world.

Last week was parent/teacher conference with Mikayla's teacher. She is the opposite of her brother. Math is her weakest subject and we really need to work on subtracting with her. Everything else, she is doing awesome at! Her reading speed and reading comprehension are already above where they want second graders to be at the end of the year. She is going to have to start taking speech classes though. There's a couple of sounds that she has trouble saying correctly. Nothing too major though, so they don't think that the speech class will be a long term thing.