Pepper Valentine

So my daughter’s current dizzy spell episode has been ongoing since March 28. That’s an terribly long time to be dizzy.

I asked her yesterday how she was feeling, and she replied “I feel normal”.

I got my hopes up that she was finally feeling better and I excitedly asked “Yay, so you’re no longer dizzy?!”

Her response: “My normal IS dizzy.”

Dammit.

That just broke my heart. It’s not right. She’s just a kid.

I don’t know what to do. She’s been powering-through pretty well. She’s been going to school and playing with friends occasionally and even had her birthday party. So she’s persevering ok. But I still don’t want her suffering with no relief.

I’ve taken her to her cardiologist and her ENT in the last few weeks and they don’t have anything new for us to try anymore for relief. And then I can’t even get a phone call back from her neurologist, so I guess I’m hunting around for a new neurologist now too.

I feel very let-down by the doctors we’ve tried. And I’m not saying this against any person specifically, because they’ve all been very nice to us and I believe they care personally. But I think the medical establishment is to blame with how they’ve setup their practices and systems.

I feel like the system only takes care of people that need a prescription or an expensive test. Anything that involves more investigative care, falls out of scope and they don’t have the time for that.

My daughter falls outside of that scope and I’m now finding it impossible to find someone to help her. She needs an investigative team of doctors. But the specialists don’t talk to each other! I have to tell her cardiologist what the ENT and neurologist have told me. I have to tell her ENT what her cardiologist and neurologist have told me. I have to tell her neurologist what her ENT and cardiologist have told me.

This system is not working. It is failing my daughter. I need to find her real help.

I feel like I am her doctor now. Doctor Pepper. And Google and Facebook groups for people suffering from dizziness is my medical degree. I’m going to fix this myself. For her.

In good news, her foot is finally feeling better now that she’s been walking and playing around without any support and the pain is very minimal. I’m scared to say that her surgery was a success because I don’t want to jinx anything but I have hope now that’s the case! So we’re going to try to ramp up her physical activity.

Good old fashioned exercise is definitely at the top of my personal treatment plan for her. We’ll give it a try.

Wish us luck!

So my daughter had her glow in the dark party a couple weekends ago!

It went off just fine. She had 9 friends show up, and as far as I could tell, everyone had a good time. There was a lot of screaming, but no tears so I guess that’s a positive!

We spent a ton of time decorating for it and I think it turned out very nicely! The most difficult thing was clearing out an entire ROOM for this. We had to move a couple couches and a TV stand and a TV etc… and then we had to move everything back afterwards.

We also prepared all the gift bags too, which were basically light-up tumblers stuffed with treats.

But anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that the party turned out great!

I’m sorry I was awol this past week but I was cleaning up afterwards (and there was ALOT to cleanup). I’m starting this week back to my normal routine so I’m looking forward to getting caught up here. I miss you all!

Glow in the Dark Party Decorations – Shopping Links

[Disclosure: the following links are affiliate links where I may earn a commission on any resulting purchase, at no additional cost to you.]

Glow in the Dark Party Gift Bags – Shopping Links

[Disclosure: the following links are affiliate links where I may earn a commission on any resulting purchase, at no additional cost to you.]

So I hope this all gives you good ideas and some inspirations for hosting your own party! I hope everyone has a great time! 🙂

Hi everyone! I know I’ve been awol these last few days as I’ve been in full-on party planning mode. It’s a mindset for sure. I’ve been obsessed.

My daughter has started feeling a little better so we’ve decided to go ahead with her party. We were trying to figure out if we needed to cancel or not, but she wants to keep it. I don’t think she’ll be 100% by then but I do think she’ll feel a million times worse if we cancel. So, it’s on!

The party is this Friday night and it’s a glow in the dark dance party. I’ve had to completely take-over one of our large rooms in the house and move all the furniture so there is a significant area for dancing. And I’ve had to order a bunch of decorations and equipment online and they haven’t all arrived yet!

The black light I ordered hasn’t arrived yet and that’s the specific delivery that’s making me nervous bc some of the decorations require the black light to glow. The delivery status is by tomorrow 7pm but that’s cutting it way too close for my comfort. I won’t be able to sleep tonight worried about it arriving in time. So stressful.

And we invited 12 friends but only 3 have rsvp’d so far. Based on previous years’ parties a lot of parents don’t rsvp until the day before. Which is kinda annoying bc I still have to make gift bags for the attendees but I don’t know how many I need to make! So… another stress!

Anyhow, I just wanted to let you all know what I’ve been up to. I won’t be able to relax until this is over. I want my daughter and her friends to have an awesome time.

I hope you all are having a better week than I am! 🙂

So on Tuesday my daughter got the green-light from the doctor to ditch her walking boot so she’s stepping on her own foot now for the first time since January!

And, she’s in pain again.

Dang it!

We were so hopeful because once the surgery-related pain subsided, she’s been pain-free in her foot even once she started running around everywhere in her walking boot.

And starting yesterday she’s been hobbling and limping bc her foot hurts so bad. I know I need to wait a little while for her foot to acclimate to being used again with no support, but dang I’m disappointed and discouraged. My daughter is too. And I’m so scared that the surgery didn’t even work or made things worse!

And to top it all off… starting Monday my daughter has been suffering from her severe vertigo episode again. So she’s getting hit with a lot right now and I hate seeing her feeling so incredibly unwell. Literally, from her head to her toes.

I tried to cheer her up by ordering a TON of birthday party decorations for her party coming up next weekend (April 9) and she was feeling so unwell she never even cracked a smile.

I just want this all fixed.

I hope she feels better in time for her party too. We already sent out all the invitations. 🙁

I’m finally caught-up with work so today was a normal workload day! I’m not overwhelmed like I was last week, and I’m getting back into my typical workday routine.

And we made a decision about tagging along with my dad this summer…

…and we’ll do it!

Holy smokes I’m so anxiety-ridden about this.

We’re going to the Amazon rainforest to his bucket-list destination of Kaieteur Falls… It’s famous for being the largest single-drop waterfall on the planet. And the most powerful, by volume.

Obviously, I’m scared. The only way to get to it is 1) a 5-day trek through the rainforest, or 2) a small prop plane.

But, if I don’t go with my dad. I’ll never go. And my daughter wants to come with us.

My dad has always been like this. When I was a kid, he was always taking us with him on his travels. And he didn’t go to tourist hot-spots. He liked the destinations that were RARE. I remember one summer when I was in high-school, and he took me to Borneo and left me with villagers who didn’t speak any English for about a week while he went climbing their mountain and caves.

But I never died during any of these adventures. So why would I start dying now, is kinda how I’m looking at it. We should be ok, right?

I also want my daughter to experience this kind of stuff. My dad is the only person I know in real-life that would do these things and go to these places. So if she doesn’t go with him, she might never go in her whole entire life. And I wouldn’t want her to miss out.

A few years ago, my dad actually climbed Mt Everest. He invited me to go as well but I was too busy with work and couldn’t get away. And while I wouldn’t have wanted to climb Mt Everest myself, I wish I had gone with him and I would’ve hung out in Tibet while waiting on him. And I probably would’ve enjoyed exploring Tibet very much. So I always regret it when I DON’T tag along with my dad.

Also, my dad isn’t going to be around forever anymore. It makes me sad thinking about it, and so I want to cram as many activities as I can with him, while it’s still possible.

So wish me luck with this summer trip! I’m going to need it!

************************

And it’s almost time for me to draw my Q2 winner of my Subscriber Spotlight! The Subscriber Spotlight is a quarterly drawing of my email subscribers where the lucky winner will get a promotional blast of whatever they want (within reason, of course). 

The next drawing will occur at the beginning of April 2022 (just a few more days away!) Don’t hesitate to subscribe below to be included in this drawing!

We’ve had several winners already. Previous winners include: “Invisibly Me”, “BosssyBabe“, and “The World’s Common Tater“.

Good luck!

Hi everyone! Just a quick update post to let you all know what I’m up to!

Today my daughter gets to dump her crutches FINALLY! She’s been on crutches for almost 8 weeks now. She still has to use a walking boot however to support her foot, but the best part is that her hands are free! Lol, you don’t realize how burdensome it is to not have hands available to help you while you walk. So today is a good day and we’re super-excited about this. My daughter can fetch her own drinks and snacks again!

So far, except for all the surgery-related pain at first, her foot has been pain-free lately. I’m curious to see if that will keep up once she truly starts walking on her foot again without the support. But for now, it’s really encouraging.

Also, we’re planning her 11 year birthday party too! She wants a glow-in-the-dark dance party, so, that’s what we’re preparing for. The timing couldn’t be better for this. She already missed one school dance a few weeks ago because of her crutches so this party will kinda make-up for that one she missed. I’m happy she gets to play with her friends again, as she hasn’t been able to for a couple months.

And this week is Spring Break week so my daughter and I will be flying to stay at my parents’ house. My parents are pretty awesome and it’s perfect that she’s done with crutches in time for this.

That’s all the news I happen to have for you all. I hope you’ve been doing great and I hope some warmer weather is in store for us all! 🙂

Everyone have a great Monday!

So I’m still very disgruntled that I’ve been ghosted by Instagram.

It’s been 3 weeks now since they’ve deactivated my account without warning. And they won’t respond to any of my attempts to reach them. At this point, I’ve sent them dozens each of emails, forms, and selfie-confirmations, and it doesn’t matter.

What makes me even MORE disgruntled about this whole entire experience, is when I see who actually DOES have an active, lively, and bustling Instagram account.

For example, obvious scammers are all over the place! Like, they don’t even TRY to hide it. C’mon, everyone’s literally “winning” free iPhones multiple times everyday and this is obviously a scam but Instagram isn’t stopping them.

But Instagram stopped ME. And I wasn’t scamming anyone!

Another thing that bugs me about Instagram is that they literally have hackers all over the place. Announce on any social media that your Instagram was deactivated without warning and every single hacker out there will reach out to you and try to use your moment of despair and desperation to reveal to them your username/password combos.

You can search for them quite easily on Instagram too. Just search for “hackers” or even #hackers and you have millions to choose from. They advertise themselves quite well. And Instagram isn’t stopping them either.

But Instagram stopped ME.

And another thing! So I manage my daughter’s Instagram account just so I can post her cute pictures and life updates, etc. And 10% of my daughter’s new followers on a DAILY BASIS are older men with 0 photos and THOUSANDS of other children they are following. Of course I block them and report them and don’t allow any interaction with my daughter. But they truly are following thousands of other children. That is not an exaggeration.

So my big public service announcement for all parents out there – make sure to manage or at lease monitor EVERYDAY your children’s Instagram account. This is incredibly important. Because Instagram isn’t stopping older men from interacting with your children.

Instagram is busy stopping ME instead.

Can you tell that I am disgruntled?