Sunday, October 21, 2012

The best medicine

When your kid isn’t feeling well, the best temporary medicine is to get them talking about something that really interests them.  All of a sudden, their eyes open up wider, and they show a spark.

Jake’s been out of school for over a month.  He’s been achy and nauseated.  Luckily, there have been two separate events that have kept him from sleeping 12+ hours each day – the release of Pokemon Black and White on October 7 (he finished it in a week), and the release of Skylanders:Giants on October 21.

Since he’s my kid, he compulsively multitasks while playing his Nintendo DS/Sony PSP games.  He usually listens to and watches a sitcom on the iPad via Netflix streaming while playing his game.  He plowed through 12 full years of SNL episodes, and has now gotten through 3+ seasons of Monk (the Tony Shaloub show).  Is there any other 12 year old who watches Monk?

After a month of pleading, Jen agreed with me and we’ve taken Jake off the insulin.  He’s has the same blood sugar spikes that he had when he was on the medication.  If the medication wasn’t going to change anything, I didn’t want it.

We’re hoping he starts back in school tomorrow.  He lasted through 3.5 hours of Bar Mitzvah party on Friday night, and 4 hours of Yu Gi Oh tournament on Saturday.  He’s felt crummy today, but I’m still hopeful for tomorrow. 

Friday, October 5, 2012

Too sugary a report

Jake’s been on the mega steroid program for a few weeks. It seems to have stalled the kidney issues, but it’s made him diabetic.  He’s been on a 5-times-a-day blood sugar testing schedule with three insulin injections a day.  The combo of the steroids and the insulin have made him bloated and have caused him to feel lousy.  He’s missed three weeks of school.  He feels so bad that he doesn’t want to sit at his computer and play his games.

So what’s he been doing, you ask?  He sits in bed and plays old Pokémon Gameboy games.  He’s trying to improve his Pokémon scores on his Gameboy.  This will allegedly help him when Pokémon Black and White 2 comes out on October 7.

Since he’s a born multitasker, he does this while listening to old Saturday Night Live episodes on the iPad.  He’s plowed through dozens and dozens of episodes – mostly in the Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon eras.  Yuck.