Barney grumbles

My boy Barney lost his first tooth this week. At school! It had been wobbly for some time. He was fortunate enough to receive £1.50 from the tooth fairy, which he was delighted with. He insisted that he didn't sleep a wink all night, watching out for the fairy, but he didn't see her. Bless. Here is a photo of his new grin. It's been a Barney filled week. He's been needing a lot of attention, and Marty and I have spent a lot of time talking about him. I talked to the doctor about him this week and am going to see his teacher tomorrow. Barney has always been a big character, full of personality and energy. He is a little star and I wouldn't change him for the world. But the time has come to see if we can learn ways to better help him deal with everyday life. He's a complex little character, and needs an awful lot of one on one attention. The doctor wants me to take him to a child centre and have him assessed for Aspergers or other similar things. I think it would be good to find out why he thinks so differently to everyone else and why he struggles with some everyday situations.

This week Barney and I made some cress egg heads. Or should that be egg cress heads? He decorated some empty egg shells and we put some cotton wool and cress seeds into them. He can't wait to see them with their green hair. Here are some 'before' photos. We will post a photo of them when they are grown too.














This evening I spent the early evening playing with Barney. He loves to play this cafe game under the duvet on my big bed. We go under the duvet and suddenly he is the cafe owner and I order make believe food for him. Barney finds it hard to play as he expects people to follow his rules and do as they are told. Playing with someone who doesn't understand this generally results in tears and a lot of frustration on his part. But today when we played cafes I tried to change things a little. Instead of ordering normal food I pretended to be a monster looking for a monster cafe and tried to order some very strange concoctions such as brain moose, bug salad, worm bolognaise. At first he was a bit taken aback and worried about this change in play. But after a few attempts he started to really enjoy himself and we both had such a laugh together. The funniest moment was when he asked if I'd like to order some 'poo pipes' and then collapsed on the bed in a fit of laughter. It was such fun.

Tis the season for self pity.

Yes, it's a woe is me blog post. But, I have good reason to wallow for a while...
As most of you know I've been feeling like I've been hit by a truck for quite some time. My whole body has been aching and some days I've barely been able to get out of bed. I went to see the osteopath because of the intense pain in my right shoulder area, and have been having headaches, night sweats, fevers, stomach aches. Well, just about everything has ached at some point!

Recently dear little Barney caught Slap Cheek (or Parvovirus B19 to anyone in the know!) He had it quite severely. It's one of those childhood illnesses like chicken pox. Once you've had it as a child you are normally immune. Well, obviously I didn't have it as a child, because I caught the adult version of it. Which, as with chicken pox, is usually a lot harder on an adults body than a child's. I was really ill for a few days, with a temperature that we couldn't get below 39C with paracetamol. Marty was covering me with wet flannels, which was awful! Every bone and joint in my body hurt. I was a total mess.

After a few days of this I started getting very intense chest pains. This went on for about 24 hours before Marty phoned the doctors and they told me to go in for an ECG. The ECG was fine and the doctor said it was probably just pain from the inflammation in my chest wall due to the slap cheek virus.

By the next day I was still having constant chest pains. Pains so strong that I was crying out. You know, the sort of pain you can't ignore. So we headed, as advised, up to the hospital to get checked out (but not before stopping at Barney's school to see his debut performance in the school assembly!)

The doctor I was given was almost the twin of JD from Scrubs! But with a Northern Ireland accent. Lol. He was lovely, and so sympathetic. There's nothing worse than a doctor that doesn't care. He explained that parvovirus b19 can have some rare but nasty complications in adults, but that it was probably nothing more than heartburn. Ha, well I knew it wasn't heart burn, but I thought maybe there was a problem with my esophagus or something. Anyway, they took some bloods, and an x-ray and then tested my blood gas levels. Well, if anyone ever offers to test your blood oxygen levels then just say hell no! (Unless you're like dying or something!) He warned me that it would hurt, but daaaaannnnngg. I dunno what he was doing with that needle, and nothing other than air seemed to come out, but it went in and out of the same hole in my wrist about 5 or 6 times, each time in a different direction. I was a brave girl and I didn't even get a sticker.

Well, after all that poking and x-raying I just had to sit and wait for the results. During this wait my pain killers wore off and I started getting the chest pains badly again, and my temp started going up. I just wanted to be at home in bed really, because I was pretty sure they would tell me all the tests were clear and I just needed to fart, or something.

I saw the doctor check 4 other peoples chest x-rays. To me (totally untrained in the medical department) all the other peoples chest x-rays looked nice and healthy! I have no idea if they were or not. Then he took my chest x-ray and put it up. He examined it for a few minutes and I couldn't help taking a good look at it myself for a bit of hypochondrial self diagnosis. I was pretty sure my x-ray looked like I had something awful. Not only was there a massive liver in my shot, but a big round lumpy thing where the pain was radiating from in my chest. The doctor came over slowly and I could feel my palms getting sweaty as I waited for the terrible news. "Your chest x-ray looks fine" he said, "and your blood gas is normal too, so we are just waiting for your blood results." OK, maybe I really do just need to fart. How embarrassing.

My blood tests got lost in hematology. It took several irate phone calls from the ward sister to convince hematology that my bloods had even been taken, and then they claimed a computer malfunction. So they apologised that I had to wait so long. And I kept on waiting. The longer I waited the worse the pain was getting. I was doubled over in pain, but trying not to look like I was in pain, as I didn't want all the nurses laughing when they found out that I only needed to fart and had made a big fuss over nothing!

Eventually the blood results came back and I was summoned to a room with the JD lookalike. "Would you mind if I took a look at your stomach?" he asked. "Of course you can" I replied, thinking that obviously the bloods were fine and he's now looking at my stomach to see if I do indeed need to fart. He was poking and prodding and I thought that at any time he might hit the pocket of pain-killing wind and force it out of me right there and then in one big embarrassing explosion! Thankfully that didn't happen. He started prodding around under my ribs on the right hand side and ooooohhhh lord did that hurt! "That hurts doesn't it?" I thought Id kept a pretty calm expression on my face, but he was no fool. "Does that hurt too?" Yes. "And that?" Yes. "And there?" Yes.

"OK, well the pain confirms the blood test results. Now I don't want you to panic when I tell you this, and let me explain why in a moment, but you've got hepatitis in your liver." Hepatitis? Are you kidding? You mean, I don't just need to fart?? I didn't know whether to be upset or relieved. On the one hand I didn't want to be ill, but on the hand I didn't want to leave none the wiser as is often the case. Anyway he went on to explain that a very rare complication of slap cheek / parvovirus B19 is hepatitis. It's extremely unusual, but some people can develop either hepatitis, septicemia, meningitis or pericarditis (inflammation of the heart) from it. Well I must admit to being glad that I didn't get the meningitis. The doctor had suspected pericarditis from my symptoms, which sounds blooming scary so I'm glad it's not that. So, I have acute viral hepatitis, which should last less than 6 months. Most people don't know anything about viral hepatitis (me being one of them). It's not contracted in the same way as say hep b or hep c, and it's not contagious, so I can't give it to anyone else. But it's also not treatable, so I just have to play the waiting game and let my body beat it. He said that if I'm lucky I will recover in 10 days, but on average it would take a month, and could take up to 6 months. I have to get tested every 2 weeks.

I'm not entirely sure that I haven't had it for quite some time though. Liver pain transfers to the right shoulder area, and I've had right shoulder pain for a good month now. Although I suppose the parvovirus was probably in my system already.

Well, it's going to be tough for poor old Marty. I can get an hour where I feel absolutely fine, but I can suddenly feel as sick as a dog. Which is not surprising as I'm probably completely toxic! The doctor said I will probably turn yellow. Nice! Can't wait for that. So right now I'm spending the majority of time in bed. The pain killers don't cover the pain for long enough. I have to take them every 4 hours and they only work for 3 hours. So I have 3 hours of tiredness, then an hour of excruciating agony, then back to the tiredness. It kind of sucks really. Not easy when you have four children to take care of. I've never been so glad that Marty is not working before!

A very short post.

Just as things start to look up in life, something always comes along to kick you back down! Yes, I'm feeling sorry for myself today. After looking after a sick Barney and a whingy Rosie all week I have now caught the kids illness 'slap cheek' or 'fifth disease' for you Americans. And boy am I miserable. Interspersed with OK moments (like now) I am enjoying tremendous bone and joint pain. It's really very painful. With that I'm lucky enough to go from high temps of 39C plus body sweats, followed by feeling cold and having the shivers. Nothing would lower my temperature last night so Marty resorted to covering me with wet flannels, an experience I never want to repeat. Cold wet flannels on irritated high temp skin is as painful as fire! After all my complaining he decided that misting me with a spray of water might be better. The mist falling on my body felt like a million needles shooting down and stabbing me. I was not impressed! A couple of times a day I feel better and think its all over, but then it starts all over again. Gahhh. Every single joint apart from my hands and fingers feels inflamed and sore. I'm feeling pretty damn sorry for myself. Thank goodness Marty is here to look after the kids. I don't know what I'd do without him!

So I am laid up in bed, too painful to walk, with lots and lots and lots of thinking time. Bleh. I was supposed to be going to the doctors today for a follow up appointment to get my medication altered etc, but I was too ill to go! Sob, sniff, whinge.... No, I'm not a good patient.

Rejoice!

Rejoice! The sun shine is here, and goodness knows how long it will stay (we aren't famed for our long, hot summers here in Northern Ireland!) In honour of the suns new presence I duly went out and got sun burnt. Yes, silly me. Yesterday I didn't have time to sit outside and enjoy the sun, so I sat outside and folded laundry, and fed the baby, and cuddled my sick little boy, and hung out washing. I did the best I could out there! We filled up a paddling pool for Tarja and her friend to play in. Barney would have played too but hes not at all well. An emergency trip to the out-of-hours doctor yesterday meant that we missed baby yoga. But Barney was diagnosed with some sort of viral illness, possibly 'slap-cheek'. After a night of vomiting and high temperature he is now covered from his head to his knees in a bright red rash. Poor lad. He looks a sight. And he has no energy whatsoever. I'm hoping the other kids don't catch it too. Especially the baby - sick babies are a misery.

We had a nice BBQ outside to make the most of the nice weather. Rosie was quite amused at the whole 'sitting outside' malarky. She's only really had brief trips out in the pram, but never sat out just for the joy of it. Today looks like another fine one. I wonder how many more jobs I can take outside?

Luke gives Emily a bottle

Mmmm, fingers. Almost as nice as Mums home cooking.

I spent the afternoon making a big batch of baby foods. It's about all I accomplished today, apart from giving Rosie a bath.

I've run out of sleeping tablets and the doctors have been so busy that they haven't got my prescription ready. So last night I slept not a wink, and tonight will probably be the same. Not sleeping sucks! I am a zombie now. After 8 hours of nothing I eventually managed a 2 hour doze, where I was dreaming that I was on an operating table waiting to be put to sleep for some surgery. But they kept delaying the start of the operation and I had to just lay there waiting. I wasn't really asleep. It was more like a sleep deprived trance. When will I start to sleep again? This is getting blooming annoying!

Hope

I'm wondering if I've done the right thing or not. The thought of more stress is more than I can imagine. Hoping it doesn't all blow up in my face. Hoping, but expecting nothing.

I'm lacking inspiration for blog writing. But I guess it doesn't matter, for as soon as I sit down to write this Rosie is bound to wake up from her nap and I won't have time to write it anyway!

Having a bit of a dilemma at the moment about something. I keep changing my mind about what to do. What is right to do? And what should or should not be bothered with. How many chances should you give someone?

It's hard to believe that Rosie is almost half a year old. Here she is having her first ever go in the swing in our back garden. Barney, the ever doting big brother, was so excited to see her in his old swing.

Ahh, typically Rosie has just woken up from her nap!

I'm really trying this week to start organising her naming ceremony for the summer. I haven't been in the right frame of mind for dealing with it, and the absence of a special friend kind of made me lose my excitement for organising anything. But I have been talking with my Mum about doing something and really must start making some actual plans. It will be in August, and probably held outside in my Mums garden (which is more of a field really). I want to make it a really special day. Any ideas on what we could do to make it a wonderful memory?

Do you like my new dress?

Rosie, age 5 months

I'm so pretty!

Don't you think Rosie is just the cutest thing in her new dress? She's gorgeous alright. Adorable. Today she went to 'rhyme time' at the local library and met some other babies her own age. She seemed rather cool and collected about the whole thing. I think she prefers the more intimate setting at baby yoga.

Talking of Yoga, I'm quite looking forward to going to awful yoga tonight. Last week Julz and I started a yoga class here in Banbridge. It was awful. Terrible, in fact. But we are going again tonight and hoping that there is some improvement. I'm looking forward to getting a bit of exercise tonight. I missed bellydance on Monday as I was just feeling yuck.

What better way to start a blog post than with a photo of two of the four most gorgeous children in the world? Isn't it just an adorable pic? I don't know how us two ugly old farts managed to produce such beautiful children though! I seem to have a lot more photos of the younger two than the older two. But I put that down to the fact that the older two never leave their bedrooms. So unless I barge in with a camera I'm not likely to catch many good pics.

I've been a bit slow on the blogging. I guess there just hasn't been time. My social life has been hectic the last month or so. I tell you, it's either a feast or a famine! My lovely Mum babysat for us on Saturday night so that we could go to Julz birthday party, which was a great night. Good food, good company, good craic, good friends. Unfortunately for my Mum the littlun's weren't feeling too well, so she had quite a hard night looking after them. That with the girlie nights we've had lately, the bellydance classes, yoga, baby yoga, parents evenings, shopping spree's with friends, it's been so busy. Every spare moment has been spent doing laundry and tidying the house!

Rosie is learning to eat solid foods. She loves food much more than bottles. She drinks her baby milk very unenthusiastically, just enough to survive on (although you wouldn't think it to look at her!) But she LOVES real food. She would easily eat three square meals a day and forget about milk if I let her. But her little tummy is not coping as well with the food as her appetite is, so I'm limiting her to one small meal of fruit puree a day. She gobbles it down and shouts at me for more if I don't get the next mouthful in quick enough!

I had my second appointment with the Osteopath, and he did some more work on my neck, head and lower back. It felt good at the time but I was in agony for days after. Today is the first day that I've not been in too much pain. I'm not sure if the pain is due to stress, the aftermath of pregnancy and surgery, or a side effect of all the medication I'm on at the moment. I hope whatever it is that it passes soon. Poor Marty is getting fed up of having to massage the knots in my shoulders every night. His thumbs get sore!

Click me better

Yesterday was a first experience for me. I paid a small fortune to see an Osteopath. I've been in so much pain for so long. But recently it got unbearable. Especially in the right side of my neck and shoulder area. So I booked an appointment with an Osteopath who came highly recommended. I've never been to one before so wasn't sure what to expect. After chatting about my medical history for 15 minutes he decided that I should see him twice; once for treatment on my bones, and once on my muscles - a week apart. I need so much doing that he said it would be too much for my body to do it all in one session!

After looking at my posture he seemed rather shocked that I wasn't in even more pain than I actually was. He said that my hip joints were both out of alignment, so badly so that I had one leg an inch shorter than the other! When he realigned them he told me I might fall over when I stood up as I'd be used to walking with different length legs! Both hips joints were twisted, but in the opposite direction to each other, which I guess is why my back and shoulders were in so much pain. My back was probably compensating for my wonky hips. After discussion we decided that it had probably happened 18 months before when I'd fallen down the stairs and broke my toe. I landed on my butt so hard that night that my hip joints were in pain for weeks.

Anyway, my pelvis was also out of alignment due to the SPD I'd had during pregnancy so he clicked that back into shape, then he realigned all the vertebrae up my spine with a lot of clicking and crunching sounds! He twisted my body into all sorts of shapes to shift everything back into line. A big crack from my chest area made him exclaim 'oh my goodness, it looks like one of your ribs was out of line'. Eeewwwww. But he did the most work on my neck and head. Usually every time I turn my head I can hear crunching sounds in the base of my spine. Those sound have gone now, thank goodness. He clicked my neck and head this way and that, then I felt a tingling warm rush go up the side of my head, which he said was the blood flowing more freely as it had been trapped. Lastly he manipulated the back of my skull in an attempt to relieve me of the migraines I've been suffering with for years.

So I had a big old overhaul and felt very stretchy and limber afterwards. I'm going back next week for my muscle treatment. No idea what that involves, but I'm sure it will be just as interesting.

Nothing like Mum's home cooking

Don't we all love our Mum's home cooking? (It's true that my Mum is an exceptional cook - I'm not sure my own kids would say the same about their Mum!) Anyway, today I spent the morning cooking up Rosie's first batch of baby food. She's only just started having her first few tastes of real food; banana being her favourite so far. She's not having very much every day, just a spoonful or two, but I think it's important that what she does eat is healthy and good for her. And helps her poop! (That's always important - remember your five a day folks!)

So I cooked up various vegetables and fruits and made her some main courses and some desserts. The main courses are all a base of potato, carrot and parsnip, and then I have added cauliflower to some, broccoli to others, courgettes to some more, and asparagus to the other. I made two types of fruit desserts. The first is steamed apple, pear, and strawberry mixed with banana. And the other is banana and raspberry puree. And I must say, they all taste yummy! Let's hope Rosie agrees!