Promotions, Preschool, Pink Eye and PFS

Here is a glimpse of what has gone on in our household over the last month or so.

Promotions:

This email was sent out to all employees of Residential Home Health (where Trey works) from the president of the company.

Dear RHH Michigan Colleagues –

I am pleased to announce the creation of a new position representing an on-going investment in the growth of Residential Home Health:  Director of Clinical Operations – West Michigan.

Effective, February 1, 2012, Trey Kubizna, PT will be promoted to this new position.

Trey has been with Residential since we first ventured into West Michigan; I can remember meeting him at our first recruiting event at The Amway Grand in the summer of 2008.

Trey has been us with us since the very beginning, and he along with our outstanding clinical and sales team in West Michigan have made extraordinary strides in establishing our presence in that market.

Like all of the West Michigan team, Trey has been extremely dedicated in building a critical mass of referral sources, clinical staff and patients in a competitive market.

We realize that if we are going to continue to grow and hit our clinical, financial and operational targets, then we need to make the investment in clinical leadership in West Michigan.

To the that end, we are promoting our most tenured West Michigan employee to this newly created role.

With this position, Trey will be transitioning out of direct patient care. 

Preschool

We received notifications that it was time to enroll Cecelia for the next school year at Northpointe Christian.  We had planned on enrolling her in the Spanish Immersion Preschool that would be Mon, Wed and Friday mornings but found out that the school will also be having a SI Young 5's class that will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays all day.  The Young 5's program is typically for kids that are eligible for kindergarten but not ready yet.  I talked with the school and asked if Cecelia could be enrolled in the class even though she does not fit the standard age requirement and they said yes.  There are a few reasons that I wanted to put her in this class instead of the preschool.  I liked the idea of her going only two full days a week instead of three half days.  It is less driving back and forth and I like her home still.  I also liked the idea that the kids in her Y5 class will be in her kindergarten class next year so she can start making friends that will continue through school with.  So she is all set to begin the Spanish  Immersion Young 5 program in the fall!

Pink Eye

We encountered our first case of Pink Eye.  A few Friday's ago Trey's parents were watching Cecelia and called me to say that both of Cecelia's eyes her pink and there was stuff coming out of them.  I immediately called the doctor's office and they had us come in to get her checked out.  As soon as the doctor walked in he looked and her and said "I guess I don't need to ask what is going on".  It really was that obvious.  He send a script to the pharmacy and off we went.  We picked up the eye drops (which by the way cost $89, having an HSA really makes you realize how expensive things are) and headed home to get started.  It was quite the battle to get the drops in her eyes but once we did the pink eye started clearing up quickly.  By Saturday morning she was looking a ton better.  That is when I started to notice the itching in my left eye and sure enough I had pink eye.  I started on drops but it did not seem to work as fast.  By Sunday it looked at though I had been crying all night long.  To top it off I had to go up in front of church on Sunday to talk.  I made a very conscious effort to not touch my eye and wash my hands often throughout the day.  By Monday it was looking better and was going away.  Then Friday came, Trey and I were out to dinner when my right eye started itching and low and behold I had it in my right eye.  So far no one else in the family has contracted it and I have made good use out of the eye drops.


PFS (Periodic Fever Syndrome)


We are still awaiting on the Genetic Testing for Eloise.  The blood work was done the first of January and it takes 8-10 weeks to get the results back.  She had a minor episode starting Jan. 31st and ending on Feb. 5th.  I wasn't quite sure if she was having an episode since it was not as severe as in the past and it was right around the same time as we had pink eye and I thought maybe she was fighting that infection.  We knew it was an actually episode on the last day when she was inconsolable and crying a lot.  She hadn't eaten since the start of the episode which was also another indication.  On Sunday she laid on the stairs as if she was trying to climb up them but didn't have the energy and stayed there for an hour.  She wasn't crying but just resting.  Since she seemed to be comfortable there and was not comfortable anywhere else we left her there.  When I did go to pick her up I realized her fever had spiked and it was at 104.5.  That was when Trey and I knew the past week had in fact been an episode just a mild one.  I called the doctors office on Monday just to let them know so they could document it.  By Monday her fever was back down to low 100's and she was  eating again.  


We also had another consult with Ken-o-Sha.  A speech and physical therapist had been out in early January to do an evaluation and were inconclusive as to if she would qualify for services even though her speech scored her at an 18 month old level and her motor score was at 20-21 months (she was 24 months at the time).  The new therapists were also speech and physical but from the main campus.  Our Early On workers Erin and Abby have been working very hard to get Eloise the best therapy they can for her.  It has been such a blessing to have them on Eloise's team.  After the meeting with the team from Ken-O-Sha they did qualify her for speech and we will be receiving a call from her service coordinator to set up weekly home visits and maybe even a group class on campus for her.  Although Eloise is making great progress we want to make sure that she does not fall behind and also give her all the help we can to help her catch up before she is to start school in a few years.


So that is a run down of the happens at the Kubizna household for the start of 2012.