My eldest son went to high school yesterday. His first day of 9th grade was his first day in a traditional school setting. He did great, and I did better than I had expected. I had thought that I would cry when he walked out the door, and anticipated worrying about him all day…but I was wrong. None of that happened. The sky didn’t fall. The world didn’t end. My 14 year old went to high school, and it was... Read more

One of the first things I realized, as the mother of a chronically ill child, is the importance of being a favorite of the doctor’s office front office people. After a lot of trial and error, it turns out that the fastest way into the appointment book or to get a doctor to call you back is to have bought the office staff with banana bread. Not just any banana bread…it has to be the good stuff. A few years... Read more

For the past couple of months, I’ve complained to my family that we’re drowning in stuff.  I don’t know where it all comes from. We moved three years ago, and I threw away or gave away most of the things we owned, but now I turn around and there are piles upon piles of things all around us. I wish that I could blame it all on my husband who really is a pack-rat, or on his small pack-rat minion... Read more

Blogging has been my sanity, my salvation, and my friends for a good many years. I started Shoved to Them back when I was a terribly isolated and lonely woman who just needed to know that there were other people out there in the world. I was dying inside from lack of people, and hoped that maybe I could find one or two nice ones on the internet. I had no aspirations to professional writing back then, I just wanted... Read more

Last week, I was very fortunate to have two friends give me some money to spend on something fun and frivolous. It’s not the money that felt like a blessing as much as having two friends who love and care about me did. Time and again, in the midst of the spirals of tragedy in the past two years, I have been gifted to find the love and care of friends and strangers alike.  I might have been thankful for... Read more

If someone gave you $50 with a note that said “Here’s a little gift for you. For you. Not for any bills or for the kids or for anyone else. For YOU. Please use it to treat yourself to something that you wouldn’t normally get/do… I know you are The Mom, but you are also Rebecca, and you need a little TLC from time to time. :-)” What would you spend it on? I’m thinking booze and ice cream, but... Read more

It wasn’t quite what we had hoped that it would be….Dr I was supposed to be our second opinion. She was sold to us as a brilliant physician who, while a little brusque, was extremely competent. She was meant to be unbiased by the chicanery of Dallas Children’s Hospital….but she wasn’t. We started off with her chipper medical student assistant. She spent around 45 minutes examining Ella, and another half hour taking down her medical history. She asked us if... Read more

Here it is nearly 11:00 and I’m still not sleeping. I have to be up at 5:30, but I can’t stop my mind long enough for sleep to find me. Tomorrow morning is the neuromuscular specialist, Dr I. There is no anticipation of help, only dread. I’m afraid of hearing Conversion even with proof otherwise. When has a neurologist listened to us? When have they investigated except to prove their colleague’s theories, reverse engineering until they arrive where they want... Read more