Family Quarantined During COVID-19 Outbreak

My kids and I haven't left the house in 16 days. We plan to say home as long as it takes. Through this global pandemic, I feel fortunate that my kids are getting along. I see many parents posting daily updates about struggling being stuck home with their children. 

It's not easy. 

I have two early elementary-aged kids, and I work from home as a writer. Having my kids home with me for the last two weeks has dramatically reduced my productivity. My husband works in the power industry and is an essential employee, so we see him off to work every day. 

We are spending far too much time on screens, but we are also doing a lot of beautiful things as a family. My 5-year-old son helped me cook an entire meal, even sauteeing the chicken by himself, while I supervised. 

My daughter, who is in first grade, started reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by herself. We've painted, held Lego challenges, played far too many board games, and snuggled up to many family movies. 

I can't help but imagine how my children will reflect on this time when they are older. 

Quarantine and Rural Living

We live in northwest Ilinois, and our weather is still not the best, which is limiting our time outside. Last night, we spent an hour in our basement in the middle of the night while a tornado ripped through town a mile east of us. Nothing spices up a global pandemic quarantine like a natural disaster. 

My mother lives 15 minutes away from us, but we've had to stay apart from Grandma. She is vulnerable to more severe cases of COVID-19, and my husband has several employees who have possibly been exposed to the virus. 

We are doing our best to be positive during this uncertain time. All of our stores are out of toilet paper and cleaning supplies, but most other grocery supplies have started to stabilize. We are managing better than could be expected despite a prolonged shelter-in-place order in our state. 

School and COVID-19

Our kids have been out of school for two weeks. The first week home, the school supplied paper packets for home learning. This past week was their scheduled spring break. Our school district announced a switch to e-learning this week. As an educator whose not currently teaching, I am curious about what this will look like for a 1st grader and kindergartener. We've been reading, practicing our sight words, and trying to keep our bodies moving. 

COVID-19 and Doctors Appointments

Ollie's pediatric neurologist is in Chicago. The CDC thinks Chicago will be the next hotbed for COVID-19 after seeing what's happening to New York City. We have a scheduled neuro appointment coming up, and we've started talking about precautions to take or postponing the appointment altogether. 

We are not sure if we can postpone this appointment for her. We have discussed being prepared should Ollie need to see her neurologist for her epilepsy in the heart of downtown Chicago's medical district. The two best options we have are traveling to Chicago and using precautionary measures to try and reduce our exposure as much as possible or try and coordinate her testing locally. 

I hope that I can coordinate with our local primary care physician, and our neurologist, who is in Chicago. I want to have her EEG and bloodwork done locally and hold a virtual appointment with our neurologist, perhaps with our primary care physician involved. We don't have a pediatric neurologist locally, which is why we have to travel almost two hours to Chicago. 

This global pandemic is certainly raising many logistical concerns for routine medical care, especially for our vulnerable and rural populations. 

How are you staying busy? 

-Abby, Guest Blogger

Family Activity

Here is a suggestion for families practicing 'social distancing', as we all should. Keep a close eye on those in your family with seizures: drink lots of water, take frequent breaks, wear sun protection, and watch out for seizure triggers.

PLANT A VICTORY GARDEN!

During this global pandemic, food is still being farmed and manufactured, but while we sit, stuck in our homes, many people are eating junk to comfort themselves. After the expected months of this, our bodies will be in even worse shape...from battling the CV-19, other health concerns, too much TV watching or other sedentary activities, etc. 

We are going to need the activity of gardening, and the healthy food it will produce.

Figure out how much space you have (even a few pots on a windowsill can yield constant salad greens and some strawberries.)

So plan your garden, order seeds, potting soil and pots...whatever you need. Get started on those seeds now so you can benefit from the 'fruits of your labor'.

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I will soon be writing a book about this, and using methods like Square Foot Gardening.

What if My Child with Epilepsy gets COVID-19

In the broad scheme of things, we know VERY little about this Novel Coronavirus. Rumors are circulating regarding the virus's ability to evolve quickly, leaving parents and caretakers of people with epilepsy very nervous. The truth is the CDC and the W.H.O. know very little about this virus, and there hasn't been enough time for scientists and the medical community to research this outbreak. 

What we know is based on what is happening in other world communities, and so far, the virus seems to be less severe in our younger populations. COVID-19 being less severe for children is welcome news for parents of school-aged children, especially those of us with illness triggers for their epilepsy. 

What if my child catches COVID-19:

The CDC and W.H.O. tells us that epilepsy alone does not increase your chances of getting a more severe case of COVID-19. Other mitigating factors, such as immuno-suppressing medications, other underlying health conditions, or other neurological factors, can impact your health should you become ill with COVID-19. 

For many people with epilepsy, fevers are a trigger for more frequent seizures. For my daughter, fevers and illnesses are one of her primary triggers for seizures. Febrile seizures are the primary reason she went undiagnosed for so many years. 

High fevers are one of the symptoms of this new coronavirus that is spreading rapidly across the globe. So, while epilepsy alone doesn't increase your risk of severe disease, getting sick with COVID-19 can increase your chances of more frequent seizures. 

Taking as many precautions as possible to avoid spreading COVID-19 and getting sick with COVID-19 will help you to prevent an increase in the frequency of seizures. 

As this pandemic was starting to take hold in the United States, we filled our daughter's prescription for seizure medication. We also made sure we had Ibuprofen and Tylenol on hand should she get sick. My husband still has to work, but the kids and have stayed home for the last week, and we will continue to stay home. 

We live in Illinois, and we are currently under a shelter-in-place order from our governor. I've had friends ask for play-dates, and people want to visit, but knowing I have a child with an underlying medical condition, I've had to say no to these requests. 

What We're Doing to Stay Busy: 

I work from home as a writer. Writing has become increasingly difficult with my kids home with me full time. While I am thankful I still have the means to earn money while home with my children, I did not account for the decrease in productivity. My husband is home on the weekends, so I find myself using the weekend time to get my writing projects done while my husband preoccupies the kids. During the week, I am responsible for meeting my deadlines, schooling with the children, and spending time with my children. 

We've been: 

• Baking (I am almost out of flour and stores are low on supplies)
• Crafting (This morning we made bird feeders with birdseed and honey)
• Snuggling and watching movies (I don't want to admit how many times we watched Frozen II this week)
• Schooling
• Playing outside and cleaning up the yard (We still have cold temperatures, so our outside time is somewhat limited) 
• Reading books
• Video Chatting with friends
• Coloring (So much coloring) 

This week, I think we will focus on tidying up our bedrooms, and my daughter is itching to get out the paints and do some painting. We are looking at the possibility of schools being closed for the remainder of the school year. My Amazon cart is ready with planting supplies to start some seeds indoors. 

If you have any ideas, share with me what you're doing to keep your kids busy and engaged during this crazy time! 

-Abby, Guest Blogger

CoVid-19 and Epilepsy

According to the CDC, people with neurological conditions, including seizure disorders and epilepsy, may be at higher risk for developing more severe symptoms from the novel coronavirus that has become a global pandemic in the last several weeks. 

The CDC recommends that people practice several precautions to mitigate the spread of CoVid-19 and keep ourselves safe:

• Frequent hand washing
• Covering nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing
• Social distancing or voluntary self-quarantine. 

We don't know if this virus is going to get worse or not, but immunologists think that it could unless we take these sorts of precautions. 

Memes and Facebook banter are going around about the hoarding behavior Americans are displaying in overstocking on needed supplies and stealing supplies from hospitals etc. 

Schools all over the United States are closing down to help prevent the spread of the virus. Parents are finding themselves short on daycare or out of work, and people are scared. We are all going to have to endure being uncomfortable as we wait and see what this virus is going to do. 

If your school hasn't closed yet, you may be next. For many of us, homeschool or e-learning is a reality. The community and business leaders are coming together to come up with innovative solutions to help offset the negative consequences of school closures, such as free meals and internet access. 

Several companies are offering free internet services to students and low-income families: 

• Verizon is offering new customers its Internet Essentials bundle free for two months due to the coronavirus outbreak. 
• Spectrum Broadband is offering free internet for 60 days to new customers with K-12 students or college students. 
• AT&T and Verizon are waiving fees for their customers during the outbreak. 
• AT&T is also waiving data overage fees. 

School districts and families are scrambling to gather resources for e-learning and homeschooling, as many districts have indicated they don't know when classes will resume. 

Many Educational Companies are offering free services during this CoVid-19 outbreak: 

• Storylineonline.net is offering free literacy programs where actors read to children. 
• Fluency and Fitness is offering parents free access to their library of educational fitness videos. 
• Neuropsychology and Education for Children and Adolescents shared a daily schedule that is great to help families get through the next few weeks. 
• This google doc is floating around detailing more educational companies offering free programs for parents and schools during the coronavirus outbreak. 

It's going to be tough, and we would rather overreact than underreact. Some of our epileptic friends and family may be a higher risk for more severe cases of CoVid-19. Let's play our part to keep them safe and stay home if we can. 

-Abby, Guest Blogger

Do substitute teachers need medical info about students?

Do substitute teachers need medical information for the individual students?

This question recently became a reality for me as I handled a medical emergency in class while subbing in a 5th-grade math classroom.

Last week, a student had a seizure in my classroom. I was not aware of her seizure disorder and that seizures had been occurring more frequently in school. I would have loved to be more prepared for the possibility of her having a seizure in class.

Am I entitled to that information as a substitute teacher?

As a parent of a student with a seizure disorder, I would be upset if the adults in charge of my kid were not made aware of her potential to have a seizure in class. Her medical information ought to be provided to subs if the potential for it to affect their classroom exists.

I was subbing in a 5th-grade math classroom. During independent practice work time, I was assisting a group of students, and all of a sudden, several students came and got me. A student in my class was having a prolonged absence seizure. Thankfully for that student and me, I have experience with that type of seizure because of my daughter.  I am proud of how her peers knew about her condition, reacted to the situation correctly, and got her help when she needed it. My concern, though, is what if she were with a sub who did not have experience with absence seizures. What if the sub felt she was being defiant or having a fit?

This student was unresponsive, but her eyes were open, and her arms crossed as if she were protesting something. After making her safe and sending students for another classroom teacher to help, we were able to call the nurses and principals down and get her the medical attention that she needed.

Despite my experience with seizures, I was overwhelmed by the experience, and it took me about 30 minutes to calm myself down. Not only was this my first classroom emergency, but I was not aware that this child had a seizure disorder.

I later found out that this student has been having seizures in school more frequently and had two in school the week prior. While I understand privacy requirements, as a substitute teacher in her classroom, this information would have been beneficial for me to keep an eye on this student while she was in my class.

This situation made me wonder about the guidelines for providing substitutes with pertinent medical information about students.

I have been in schools where this information is available in the sub binder regarding individual students with medical and behavioral needs. Teachers don't consistently provide this information to subs. Information regarding a student's seizure disorder was not provided to me as a sub when it was needed. To me, this is a problem.

As parents, how do we make sure our kids' pertinent information is provided to the adults in charge when they need it? 

-Abby, Guest Blogger