What a Week! Uggghhh.

[ErinKC]

I have my first law school exam tomorrow night. I was all set to get my studying in and be totally prepared. Monday, I had a massive, totally out of the blue panic attack so bad I went to see my GP to get anxiety meds. My anxiety has been 100% under control for over a year! Then, my 5 year old came home from school, fell asleep, woke up with a fever and a massive and sore lymph node in her neck that hurt so badly she couldn't move her head. Off to urgent care. They said viral. Next morning she's so much worse, can barely walk, fever, etc... to the pediatrician. Put on antibiotics. Three doses later, still getting worse. Back to the doctor - new antibiotic. Now she's sleeping thank God. But, have I been able to study?! Nooope. Also, just realized I drank out of a glass from the dishwasher that hadn't been washed - so mayyybe it was laying in the sink all night, maybe my sick kid had been drinking out of it... WHO KNOWS!? Send all the good vibes I get through this exam and my second one on the 11th. Oh, and my refrigerator broke yesterday so there's no food in the house and my husband had to go buy a mini fridge since my kid's antibiotics need to be refrigerated. Holy hell.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Good luck for your exams, Erin! Why not speak to your tutor about this and what they can do if you fall slightly short? That way you may not feel as pressured? But all may still go well as you will have been studying long before your final couple of days so don't underestimate yourself or let doubt win over. Deep breaths, get in there and get into it. Let yourself get into the flow and the worry won't have space in your conscious mind.

You know what it's like at schools, they are virus factories. It's more likely she has caught something from there and if you spoke to the teachers perhaps they would tell you it is going around? Hopefully she will be feeling better soon. :hugs:

[ErinKC]

Good luck for your exams, Erin! Why not speak to your tutor about this and what they can do if you fall slightly short? That way you may not feel as pressured? But all may still go well as you will have been studying long before your final couple of days so don't underestimate yourself or let doubt win over. Deep breaths, get in there and get into it. Let yourself get into the flow and the worry won't have space in your conscious mind.

You know what it's like at schools, they are virus factories. It's more likely she has caught something from there and if you spoke to the teachers perhaps they would tell you it is going around? Hopefully she will be feeling better soon. :hugs:

Thanks, Terry. The pediatrician says it's an infection in the lymph node, so we're crossing our fingers this second antibiotic works to kick it or she'll need to go in for imaging/blood work and maybe IV meds. It's probably from some other bug she had that lingered and got into the node. She's had colds back to back to back and never stops touching her nose and eyes... so, something got in there! The poor thing just can't even turn her little head.

I have been studying for a while and I kept up all semester so know the material fairly well. Law school is scary though because there is only a final exam, so it's 100% of my grade and they don't really care if you're tired or have a sick kid... no do overs. But, I'm laying in bed now going over everything and hopefully tomorrow she'll be feeling a bit better with a few more doses of meds and some sleep and I can focus a bit more before the test! It's frustrating because I worked so hard all semester and it would just suck to have one bit of bad timing mess it up. As a mom there's the ever present voice saying -- HA! You tried to do something just for you! Silly mom, you don't get to have that! But, I need to stick my head back in my books and tell the voice to shove it!

[glassgirlw]

Good luck on your exam!! I’m sure you’ll do great!!!

side note - are you actually from KC?

[ErinKC]

Good luck on your exam!! I’m sure you’ll do great!!!

side note - are you actually from KC?

Thanks! I'm done now and felt oooook about it. Fingers crossed!! And, no, the KC is initials.

[WiredIncorrectly]

Sounds like quite a hectic stressful time. It's no wonder you had a flair up of anxiety. It happens to the best of us Erin. I hope your daughter gets well soon and good luck with the exams. My brother is studying law too. He says it's very difficult to take everything in and remember it.

[glassgirlw]

Oh ok!! Only reason I ask is I’m not far from KC, was going to say small world :roflmao:

[ErinKC]

Oyyy. The week only got crazier! My poor girl ended up in the hospital on IV antibiotics from Friday until today. The infection in her neck might be MRSA so it took 4 different antibiotics before she started to respond. They were ready to send her for surgery to clean it out, but thankfully she started to improve that day.

We finally got home today and she's doing much better, but holy hell I'm so tired and that was SO STRESSFUL. She'll have to be on antibiotics for at least 2 weeks to finish clearing out the infection.

I was also supposed to have another exam tomorrow and thankfully my school gave me a deferral until next week. But yikes.

[WiredIncorrectly]

Everything settled down now Erin?

[Scass]

Oh Erin what a time you’ve been having!
Hope your daughter improves really quickly now.
Good luck for your exam results!

[ErinKC]

Thanks guys. I had posted also in Health Anxiety, but I'll come back to update here. Things have definitely settled, I got my exam done, and my daughter is doing so so much better! But I definitely have some lingering anxiety just from the major stress of it all! I have TMJ and I think it's been acting up because of stress and yesterday while driving and drinking coffee I suddenly couldn't swallow for a second and it sent me into a huge panic! That is the same sensation that sparked the first panic attack 2 weeks ago, but I hadn't had the sensation since then. I know rationally it's all connected to my tight jaw muscles and stress, it just sucks!!

My daughter is still recovering mentally more than physically at this point because the whole ordeal was so scary for her. She has been waking up once or twice at night, which is not common for her, so my sleep has continued to be interrupted. That always does a number on my mental health! This is the first time in ages - many years - that I've been having traditional anxiety symptoms. I typically have health anxiety that starts off with some symptom, but this time it's all the basic stuff caused by plain old anxiety - tight chest, palpitations, dizziness, heartburn/throat stuff, etc... I forgot how crappy this stuff was!!

My doctor had prescribed the anxiety meds but some how they never made it to the pharmacy. I think she sent to the wrong place so I called yesterday to check and she said she'd send again, but I still haven't gotten a notice that they are ready so I think she still sent them the wrong place. I'll have to write out the phone and fax number and call back to be sure they get this sorted. It would be nice to have a small resource to knock the anxiety down a notch and break the cycle!