Wednesday, July 28

Buggered I am!

Yesterday was my sister's birthday, I had to make dinner and her birthday cake. We went shopping at knox and ordered me some new frameless glasses, then went to the new paediatrician - Dr C.
I think I'm a bit happier with Dr C. He seems a lot more confident in dealing with CP kids. He wasn't alarmed by any of the things that Dr L was when we went on Thursday last week. Dr L was saying that her deterioration was really quite concerning and that she has developed quite a degree of spacticity since he last saw her - I don't agree with him, but then I see her every day so might not notice as much. Dr L was concerned about her weight too, saying she was getting too many calories. Dr C wasn't worried about either, and I think it might be because he has a lot more experience with CP. Dr L by his own admission says he doesn't have much experience with it, so I imagine that as he sees a CP kid, it is alarming to him. I understand where Dr L is coming from, I just don't agree with him. So Dr C thinks that her weight, even though she is in the 75th percentile, isnt too much at this stage - no she isnt crawling around, but she isn't overweight either. Her length, that's another story! She is in the 99th percentile for length, bloody tall - but there isn't anything at all I can do about her height! Dr C wasn't concerned about her spasticity either, he didn't mention it, he just asked which physio we'll be seeing when we move, and we don't know that yet. Dr C wants us to go ahead and order Holly's blood tests for the geneticist. They don't *think* its a genetic thing, but they are just going to check it out. Its actually to see if she has the blood clotting gene. The simplest way to describe what happened to Holly is to say that she sort of had a sort of stroke in the womb - that isn't technically correct, technically her carotid artery was severed and blocked by her skull, but you can say that its a stroke cause usually if there any sort of blockage in the carotid artery, its a stroke. But, the long and short of it is that they want to just rule out that she doesn't have the blood clotting gene because it is usually blood clots that cause strokes - follow my logic? I don't know if I've explained it logically! Anyway, Dr C has ordered the blood tests for that. He's also given us the go ahead to have her 4 month immunisations done. He wants us to get them done in the next week or so while she is well, while she doesn't have a UTI and her teeth aren't coming through or anything.
Gotta tell you about this poo she did today. She'd been a little disgruntled all day and pretty clingy. A friend came over with her twins today and I just couldn't out Holly down for three minutes without her crying - very annoying. Anyway, I fed her her 4pm feed and she was doing little bottom burbs, didn't think much of it. Towards the end of the bottle she was squirming and crying and just yucky, so I stopped feeding her and thought I'd go and change her bum. OMG. I had her in a little white hand knitted jumper after she spewed on the jumper she was wearing earlier in the day. Well, the little white jumper that was over the top of a long sleeve top and a singlet - the jumper had poo on it. The poo managed to get through the singlet, through the long sleeve top and onto the knitted top! It was a poonamu! It was all down her legs, on her tracksuit pants - everywhere! I just stripped her off and put her straight in the bath. She settled down pretty quickly after that and had a great afternoon nap! I've just finished washing everything - what a mess!
Off to the counsellor and to hydrotherapy tomorrow. Should be good, hopefully I'll have some photos.

Monday, July 26

What a week!

Thursday L had a game, Friday I went shopping at Chadstone again, this time I didn't get spewed on, but Holly was a bit of a pain all day - she kept crying. I feel terrible cause I was giving her infants friend all day just to keep her quiet while I shopped. Saturday mum came down and baby sat while we packed up the garage, we had friends over for Thai for dinner. Sunday was really busy, we went up to my Dad's, went and saw the new calves, then we went into town and had high tea at the windsor. I was laughing about it with my sister, in the morning I was out at the farm, dodging cow poo, and in the afternoon I was sitting at high tea eating scones, jam and cream!! I bought two - yes two new pairs of boots which I'm very excited about cause I got them from the wide calf boot shop in Richmond and they did up! Most other boots don't fit my leg, but these fit perfectly, I was so excited to get them.
But thats not the best part of the last few days - today was. I was balling my eyes out for nearly 5 minutes I think. Holly laughed - well I think she did. I was getting heaps and heaps of smiles today, just about everything I did with her today resulted in a smile. This afternoon I just had her on my lap and she was smiling away, and all of a sudden, it was like she couldn't get her smile any bigger and she moved her tongue and a little 'cack, cack' sound came out. It was just like a laugh. Tears just streamed down my face, it was amazing. Its the tiniest little moments like that that make your heart just burst. I will remember that moment forever. Such a great day today!

Wednesday, July 21

I jinxed myself!

Ha, just as I thought Holly was going really well last night! She woke up screaming about 3 minutes after I posted and didn't get back to sleep till after midnight. I was just hanging for L to get home so I could fall asleep and have him take over.
Today was good. Went in to the eye man and he said that my eye is really good and he doesn't need to see me for three months! That's sooo good, we've been going every two weeks to a month for the last year or so, so to be stretched out to three months is fantastic.
I came home, gave Holly her lunch then packed up and went to my vision Australia group. Just as I pulled into the drive and R met me at the car, Holly spewed. I had this "here we go again" thing happening. Just as I try to get out of the house, she spews. I didn't have a spare set of clothes or anything so I thought I'd just go in and settle her and dry her off as much as I could and it could be a bit of an excuse to leave early. But, as she dried off and settled down, she ended up falling asleep so I could stay. We talk about everything - today topics included Holly's seizures (more about that in a minute), one of the other ladies there is moving as well so we caught up on her progress, we touched on topics such as refugees, pole dancing, birthday cakes, books.... totally random stuff, but all good stuff! Its fun just chatting away about nothing though sometimes!
I told them about Holly's seizures. She is having little absence seizures. At this stage they aren't lasting long - about 10-20 seconds and they are only about 2-3 a week. We aren't too concerned at this stage, we are going to the paediatrician tomorrow so I'll be sure to talk to him about them tomorrow. I'm not sure if he'll send me back to the neurologist or whether he'll just put her on medication straight away. I'm really reluctant to put her on any drugs, but the girls at group today kind of convinced me otherwise. They were saying that the earlier you start the better cause it will lessen the impact of more severe seizures, and because it can take some time to sort out which drugs are better, it can take some time to get that organised, and because it can take a while to get an appointment with the neurologist - all good points, so I'll get her started if we can. Gosh, I really can't imagine what its like, but these ladies were talking about their kids seizures. One lady was saying that her daughter was in seizure for 35 minutes once, another lady said that they had to resuscitate her son after his seizure and they weren't giving him enough oxygen, she said that it was one of the hardest things to watch cause there is nothing you can do but watch. I just don't want to think about it - I want to live in sweet naivety.

Tuesday, July 20

Seriously, where does the week go?

I just can't believe how quickly time is going at the moment.
So, Sunday I went to the shops and bought myself a recipe folder from kikki k. I don't want to pack up all my Donna Hay magazines and move them all - too heavy and I have too many, so I bought myself a folder to cut out the recipes I want and throw the rest. I met my sister and we saw Toy Story 3 in 3D. Very cute movie - I nearly cried at the end.
Yesterday I spent the morning just looking after Holly and cleaning the house. I went to Ocean Grove for the night last night to catch up with a close girlfriend of mine. We just went to the pub for dinner, but it was great to have no kids with us and just chat away! We were one of the first lot of people to arrive and the last ones to leave! We sat there for a good 2 1/2 hours just chatting and catching up on gossip. Lovely! I stayed there last night and had to get up and rush this morning cause I had to be back for my stylist lady. It was sooooo much fun! I have literally thrown out half my wardrobe. I counted the amount of hangers! I have 38 in the pile, which means I'm throwing out at least 38 items (more considering I'm throwing out stuff from the drawers as well), and in the wardrobe at the moment there are 35 hangers. I can't believe it! She went through what my body shape is and what style and shape of clothes I should buy for my body shape. I threw out so many things that I thought looked good on me, but once she pointed out why I shouldn't wear something, it became really obvious to me that the things I used to think looked good, didn't really look good! I was also given a voucher to go shop so, now that I know what to buy, it should be a little bit easier.
Holly has been in some ripper moods lately. Heaps of smiles and hardly any crying. I had a little episode this evening, she cried for a bit, she spewed and was fine again within about 10 minutes. She went to sleep early, which is good cause L is at another soccer game. He's been getting heaps of games lately. Its good cause of the money but its bad cause he's not here with us! He's got another game on Thursday night.
I'm off to the eye man tomorrow, and then my Vision Australia group. Should be a good day.

Saturday, July 17

I am Woman...

I have recently just discovered just how much I enjoy this song - yes its been since I saw Sex & the City 2, and they were belting it out on stage and I nearly cried - so technically yes, I am jumping on the band wagon, but I've listened to this song heaps since I saw the movie. Its the type of song that you need to be alone and have the music turned up FULL BALL and just belt the words out at the top of your lungs and dance around the room. That is exactly what I feel like doing right now - its a pity its 12:07am and Holly is fast asleep and L isn't back from his soccer match! Maybe I'll put it on my car stereo tomorrow and just drive around the block!

(Helen Reddy and Ray Burton)
I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an' pretend
'Cause I've heard it all before
And I've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep me down again

Oh yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to
I can do anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman

You can bend but never break me
'Cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I come back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
'Cause you've deepened the conviction in my soul

Oh, yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to
I can face anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman

I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my lovin' arms across the land
But I'm still an embryo
With a long, long way to go
Until I make my brother understand

Oh, yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to
I can face anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman

Oh, I am woman
I am invincible
I am strong

I am woman
I am invincible
I am strong
I am woman

Friday, July 16

Thursday and Friday...

Thursday was another good one. L stayed home with me for the morning because he had been to the soccer the night before. We went to go for a walk with Holly to the street to get some milk and bread but we got to literally within 100meters from the shops and she started screaming. It was really annoying, we tried putting the dummy back in to settle her, but she just wouldn't settle, so we ended up turning around and coming home. L fed her while I got myself ready. I went to the shops then headed up to the counsellor. I had to good session with her, we talked about a lot of stuff and how I'm going to cope with things in the future.
I went from their back to my mother in laws for afternoon tea with some of her friends. L had dropped Holly there on his way to work. I stayed for a couple of hours, just chatting to her friends, and then after they all left, I was chatting to my mother in law for a while. It was good to have a good chat to her.
Came home and had some dinner and L and I watched a movie on box office.
Non eventful really -which is probably why I didn't post yesterday - pretty boring really!
Today I got up and went for a walk while L did the morning feed, it was good to get out of the house early and exercise. Holly was asleep by the time I got back, L went to work and I just did housework. I caught up with an old high school friend today, she came over for a visit. I hadn't seen her in about 8 years or so - a long time anyway! It was really lovely chatting away to her, catching up on what each other had been up to. I'm glad we caught up, I'm hoping to keep in contact a little more regularly.
Then mum came over and we had dinner and a glass of wine. L is off at another soccer game tonight. This one is Melbourne Victory vs Bocca Juniors - apparently they are a well known team from Italy or something - I don't know too much about it but L was excited, so I pretended!! I packed another box today! Two in two days - wow at this rate I'll be packed by..... Christmas? maybe? I'm hoping L will be able to make a start on the sheds tomorrow, at least start to sort out what he wants to take to the tip.
Holly really has had a few great days this week. Very little carry on at all really. She is starting to get a bit fussy with what sorts of solids she likes and doesn't like. She doesn't like apricot or tuna, but loves chocolate custard and apple custard! She totally gets that from me, yum, I love custard!

Wednesday, July 14

Another good day!

I'm not sure why, but every now and then, Holly decides she is going to put on a show for the physio! She did really really well today with her, particularly considering we haven't done any physio since the debacle that was the conference. I'm a bit slack with it all to be honest, some days I do some, some days I just play with her feet - which is sort of physio. But to be perfectly honest, I probably don't do as much as I should.
I went to the shops for an hour this afternoon. I did some shopping for my new niece who is due in September and some Christmas shopping at the toy sales. It bought up some funny thoughts, what do we get Holly?? She can't play with the normal sorts of toys you would normally get a one year old - I'm really not sure what to get her for either Christmas or her birthday. I'd say we'll get her a little bracelet or something nice from mummy and daddy, and maybe some clothes, but I guess her main present will be the party we throw her. There is just so much she won't be able to use, I try to pick out toys that might be good, I had a couple in my hand today to get her, but then I get all funny and put them back. I don't know why I'm like that, I should just get them. I guess clothes will be easier.
Came home in time for L to leave and get to his soccer game. I'm really glad I decided not to go now, its been raining and thundering and carrying on outside - I certainly don't want to be out in that! It would have meant me dropping Holly off at my mum's, then going back out there after the game to pick her back up again. Its not like mum is only 5 minutes up the road either, she will be soon though!
I officially packed my first box today! I only got one done, but its a start! I got the drawers from the buffet done. I should be doing some more now while L isn't here and Holly's asleep but I'm just hanging out on the computer instead.
Tomorrow is a busy day, I'm off to drop Holly at my mother in laws, then to the counsellor lady then home. I might speak to L about going to the movies tomorrow night, we'll see, he might just want a night in cause he's got the game tonight and one on Friday night.
Oh I had a few good conversations today. A lady from centerlink rang, she had our paperwork in front of her, she sounded really nice, and like she was on our side. She was going to do what she could for us, maybe not get any money, but at least get us the health care card, so fingers crossed that will come through. I spoke to T for about an hour about all sorts of stuff. I spoke to a friend from high school that I haven't seen since our 10 year reunion - we are going to catch up on Friday. And, I spoke to the lady that my sister organised for me for my birthday. The lady is a colour and image consultant, she is coming down next week. She is going to do my colours, then go through my wardrobe and do a bit of a re-vamp. VERY excited about it! I was going to wait until I lost a bit of weight, but I've given up on that idea, and I thought that if I got it done now, I can throw some clothes out and not have to pack them to move! I'm really looking forward to it.

Tuesday, July 13

Good one

We've had a whole heap of smiles today - she is soooo cute when she smiles!
Had a pretty lazy day today. The man came from the removal company to see what size truck he'll need to bring and just how much crap we own! I think we live in a smallish sized house and we have this much stuff, imagine how much people who have big houses have??!! Or those people on the TV shows like 'clean house' or 'hoarder', far out they must have some stuff! Anyway, L ended up getting some boxes from a friend of ours so we don't need to spend the extra $300 on boxes from the removalist. I'm sure they would prefer that we use their boxes, I'm sure it would be easier for them, but hey, these ones are free! I went to officeworks this morning and bought some packing tape too, so I'm all set for tomorrow, I'm going to make a start.
Tomorrow we have the physio first thing - 9am. I think L might be having some time off work around lunchtime, then he has a game to referee. Everton are playing Melbourne Victory and he's doing it, so I imagine he'll need to leave the house at about 3ish if not before. I'm not sure if I'm going or not. L hasn't heard anything about him getting tickets. I have organised for Mum to mind Holly, but if L doesn't hear anything about the tickets, I'll be just as happy to sit at home, its going to be freezing tomorrow night! I'll just have to decide in the morning if I can be bothered.

I'm back!

New blog, new address, same journey!

If you want to go back and look at some of the earlier posts here is the address -
http://hollygrace-prue.blogspot.com/