I signed up for a program called Social Spark. It is a program that allows bloggers to earn income by writing posts for different topics and products. The site is really easy to navigate through and the sign up process was simple. You simply fill out some information, grab a code, put it into your html layout so that you can prove that your blog does indeed belong to you and then you are good to go. It does take awhile to get your blog approved, but in the end, I hope it will be worth it. There were a number of different posting opportunities when I signed up (and there still are!) but I have not really perused them yet.
It appears that this is also a place to meet and get to know other bloggers. You can have "friends" on here and there is a mailbox system as well. I would think of it as something like a social networking site for bloggers. I haven't gone through and looked at other bloggers' profiles yet, but I will eventually.
I plan on doing maybe one sponsored post per week or so. I don't want the blog to be all about sponsored posts (nor does Social Spark) because I want to share my journey to organizing my home and my life with all of you and maybe, just maybe, to help you with your organizing as well.
If you'd like to sign up for Social Spark and see what it's all about, you can do that here. In the meantime though, stick around for regular posts!
This is a sponsored post written on behalf of IZEA the parent company of Social Spark. All opinions, experiences and endorsements given were my own. Although it is a sponsored post, I would not write it unless I was going to be completely honest about it.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Asthma and other related health news
I am trying not to feel frustrated with my son's health issues. I just feel so bad for him! The son I'm referring to is JoNo. He started school at the end of August. Since then, I am quite certain that he has missed probably 30%-40% of his schooling due to illness.
Every single time someone in our family got even a slight cold, JoNo would end up with severe breathing issues that would last for 24-48 hours. Sometimes we would end up in the emergency room, sometimes we were able to get him through the night without a breathing treatment. And it almost always would turn into croup.
Well, after our latest round of "croup" a week and a half ago (roughly), JoNo again became very sick and croupy. I made him a doctor's appointment today and we went in to discuss these issues with the doctor as well as to get JoNo checked out.
JoNo was having difficulty breathing even at the office (at 10am!) and the doctor said that he was really wheezy when he listened to him. He also had mattery eyes, red ears and throat. Oh and a fever too. After checking him over, Dr. W concluded that JoNo has RSV - respiratory syncytial virus.
Some info from the CDC's RSV homepage:
"Respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-uhl) virus, or RSV, is a respiratory virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages. Most otherwise healthy people recover from RSV infection in 1 to 2 weeks. However, infection can be severe in some people, such as certain infants, young children, and older adults. In fact, RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis (inflammation of the small airways in the lung) and pneumonia in children under 1 year of age in the United States. In addition, RSV is more often being recognized as an important cause of respiratory illness in older adults."
And likely this has been going on for awhile and he has been misdiagnosed by the ER doctors when we have needed to take him in for breathing treatments. How frustrating is that!
We also found out that JoNo has what is called mild intermittent asthma. It's pretty much breathing difficulties brought on by colds, viruses, and that sort of thing. Which explains why he would end up getting "croup" every time one of us got sick. It's his body's reaction to illness.
So, now we have a prescription (with refills) for an MDI (metered dose inhaler), a steroid to help reduce the asthmatic flare-ups and Dr. W also recommended that we keep honey readily available for JoNo as well because of the phenolic compounds in the honey being a very inexpensive, readily available cough suppressant. It helps coat the throat which also can lead to decreased coughing fits. And JoNo gets such severe coughing fits that he cannot catch his breath.
I did a little research about all of this when I got home and this is what I have found out about the phenolic compounds from the www.livestrong.com/ website. (I am also copy and pasting the information below.)
"Phenolic compounds, or phenols, are substances that plants, such as fruits and vegetables, require for growth and reproduction. According to Dr. Ray Sahelian, M.D., phenols may help protect the body against diseases, such as heart disease, stroke and certain cancers. Phenols also hold antioxidant properties, so various processed foods now contain them for added nutritional value. Incorporating phenolic compounds into your diet may increase wellness and strengthen your immune system."
So there you have it. That was the sum product of my morning. Exciting and informative huh? You want to know something interesting? Hubby and I both had asthma as children and now as adults, we have mild intermittent asthma ourselves, but didn't know the actual term for it. We also had no clue about all of this additional information that we found out today.
And can I just say, (if it isn't already apparent) that I just love our pediatrician? We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful, devoted, caring, loving and Christian doctor for our kids! He has been such an important part of our parenting. He encourages us as parents, and he honestly treats the whole family, not all by medicine. He is a valuable part of our support system and we have a wonderful relationship with him. I am thankful that he is a part of our lives!
Every single time someone in our family got even a slight cold, JoNo would end up with severe breathing issues that would last for 24-48 hours. Sometimes we would end up in the emergency room, sometimes we were able to get him through the night without a breathing treatment. And it almost always would turn into croup.
Well, after our latest round of "croup" a week and a half ago (roughly), JoNo again became very sick and croupy. I made him a doctor's appointment today and we went in to discuss these issues with the doctor as well as to get JoNo checked out.
JoNo was having difficulty breathing even at the office (at 10am!) and the doctor said that he was really wheezy when he listened to him. He also had mattery eyes, red ears and throat. Oh and a fever too. After checking him over, Dr. W concluded that JoNo has RSV - respiratory syncytial virus.
Some info from the CDC's RSV homepage:
"Respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-uhl) virus, or RSV, is a respiratory virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages. Most otherwise healthy people recover from RSV infection in 1 to 2 weeks. However, infection can be severe in some people, such as certain infants, young children, and older adults. In fact, RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis (inflammation of the small airways in the lung) and pneumonia in children under 1 year of age in the United States. In addition, RSV is more often being recognized as an important cause of respiratory illness in older adults."
And likely this has been going on for awhile and he has been misdiagnosed by the ER doctors when we have needed to take him in for breathing treatments. How frustrating is that!
We also found out that JoNo has what is called mild intermittent asthma. It's pretty much breathing difficulties brought on by colds, viruses, and that sort of thing. Which explains why he would end up getting "croup" every time one of us got sick. It's his body's reaction to illness.
So, now we have a prescription (with refills) for an MDI (metered dose inhaler), a steroid to help reduce the asthmatic flare-ups and Dr. W also recommended that we keep honey readily available for JoNo as well because of the phenolic compounds in the honey being a very inexpensive, readily available cough suppressant. It helps coat the throat which also can lead to decreased coughing fits. And JoNo gets such severe coughing fits that he cannot catch his breath.
I did a little research about all of this when I got home and this is what I have found out about the phenolic compounds from the www.livestrong.com/ website. (I am also copy and pasting the information below.)
"Phenolic compounds, or phenols, are substances that plants, such as fruits and vegetables, require for growth and reproduction. According to Dr. Ray Sahelian, M.D., phenols may help protect the body against diseases, such as heart disease, stroke and certain cancers. Phenols also hold antioxidant properties, so various processed foods now contain them for added nutritional value. Incorporating phenolic compounds into your diet may increase wellness and strengthen your immune system."
So there you have it. That was the sum product of my morning. Exciting and informative huh? You want to know something interesting? Hubby and I both had asthma as children and now as adults, we have mild intermittent asthma ourselves, but didn't know the actual term for it. We also had no clue about all of this additional information that we found out today.
And can I just say, (if it isn't already apparent) that I just love our pediatrician? We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful, devoted, caring, loving and Christian doctor for our kids! He has been such an important part of our parenting. He encourages us as parents, and he honestly treats the whole family, not all by medicine. He is a valuable part of our support system and we have a wonderful relationship with him. I am thankful that he is a part of our lives!
Tackle It Tuesday
Well, my tackle for today was nothing super fun or exciting. Well, for me it kind of was, but for most other folks, it would probably be pretty ho-hum. But you get the privilege of hearing about it anyhow.
Today...(drumroll please) Hubby and I worked in the kids' playroom. We are roughly halfway done with the initial sorting and purging process. Maybe more than that really. Maybe as much as 75% done. I didn't figure that we would get it all done today, but if we had really tried to, I think we could have. But we weren't breaking our necks to get it done. We were just plugging away at it. I've had a migraine and muscle tension in my neck all day so the fact that I was even contributing to the cause was a miracle in itself.
The other big tackle that I worked on today was laundry. I didn't get it started until later in the day, but even still...I got five loads washed, three loads dried and folded. One is still in the dryer and that fifth load is still in the washer. I'll get much more of that done tomorrow. I'll just have to start on it earlier.
Some other tackles for today included paying some bills and working in the kitchen. I still have a ton of dishes left to put away (I left them out to air-dry today after washing them) but I got (as far as I know and have found) almost every dish in the house clean. That is a major accomplishment for me! So YAY!
And tonight, unlike most of our Tuesday kid-free nights, we have a child home. Because he is sick. With croup. Again. I thought kids weren't supposed to get croup after age 3, or at least rarely after that until age 6? He's 6 now and has had croup three times in 2010. THREE times! It's getting to the point that I am almost tempted about putting him in a bubble and just keeping him by my side 100% of the time. Every minor illness turns into a major one for him. It's hard - on him, on me, on Hubby, on JoNo's schoolwork, on daycare (aka mother-in-law), on my work. It's just plain hard, but I don't know what to do for him exactly. It's not as if I can keep him entirely secluded from all outside colds or illnesses. We have four kids - three of them are in school. I work in retail. We collectively come into contact with thousands of people every single day. I don't know what to do about this. Well, I do know what to do about this, but I just cannot do anything just yet. Or maybe I can. We might have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. If we do, I may talk to our doctor and get his input on my idea. I'll let you know what my idea is and what his response is to it, if we do go in to see him tomorrow.
But it is late and I am tired and JoNo is actually sleeping right now, so I am going to call it a night. Have a great night folks! (Or day, depending on when you are reading this.)
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