Hives and the toxic grandmother

This is a double hitter today...

Firstly - When I picked Bug on Friday from school she showed me some red dots on her right thigh, I thought maybe it was a contact dermatitis thing so we tried some cortisone cream...didn't work. Later that evening we noticed that it was spreading, so we picked up some benadryle cream and put it on her legs, arms and back where the hives had spread to. By 9pm there was no change and it looked a lot worse so we took her to the ER. The dr kept asking her if she was having trouble breathing, apparently she had the worst case of hives he'd seen where the person was still breathing.  Anyway, they gave her a high dose of oral steroid and said to follow up with her primary dr on Monday.  By Monday the hives were almost completely gone, which was great!

Today I spoke to the Principal of her school...yeah, that went well, she didn't even seem to care.  When I picked Bug up she told me that her teacher wanted to talk to me, so we waited then went to talk to her in the class room.  Bug's teacher totally understands and is more then willing to work with is on the allergy to what ever it is in the carpet. Yay for a resolution!



And here's the second issue....

I have a highly sensitive child...that's great, she's an awesome kid. Very bright, loves to read, loves everything!  If we raise our voices just slightly in any tone other then happy Bug freaks out. If she breaks something, even if it's an accident, she freaks out. We can handle this...I know we can.

What's the issue, you ask? Well, that would be my mom. She pushes Bug, taunts her, doesn't stop when Bug asks her to, teases her, bullies her.


How do I get my mom to understand that when Bug tells her to stop teasing or touching her that my mom is to stop? When I tell my mom that she needs to stop when Bug says stop, my mom starts yelling and telling me that Bug "needs to get a grip, you were fine with what I did".

The truth is, I was never fine with what she did, and I voiced that many times.  My mom was always like this, always taunting, teasing and it's gotten a lot worse as she's gotten older...unless maybe I'm just seeing it clearer now that I have a kid of my own.

If need be I will turn my back to her and remove her from our lives.  I really want Bug to know one grandparent, which is my mom, but at this rate there may be no choice but to turn away from her and walk away.  Her other grandmother is all the way up in Maine, her great-grandparents...she's only met two of them and they were toxic as well.

I'm at a loss....


< /RANT >