Belated birthday celebrations

Three days after our girl came home from hospital, she turned 5! We were so grateful to be home and be able to celebrate together. As with all good birthdays, the celebrations spread out over a week or so. (The photos are out of order sorry as I was a bit disorganised uploading them).

Some special friends organised a little private birthday party with some sand art. We all did some and I have to say, it was great therapy for Mum and Dad! Thanks for all your efforts, H. We had a lovely time!

Some pattycakes for an impromptu birthday cake and candles. (Made by Nana - thanks Nana! and iced by the girls)

Opening presents on the birthday morning.....


A long anticipated visit to Cold Rock with some special friends to celebrate our girl's birthday. Aren't they gorgeous? And look at that little baby girl taking off her party hat! Such a cutie!

After Cold Rock, the friends came back to our house so the girls could blow bubbles. We threw some rugs on the front grass and sat in the winter sunshine having tea and biccies. So good to be alive and happy and in the company of good friends.

There's probably more posts coming re adjusting to life after the hospital drama. I think it is helping me process what happened. Just as I thought life was getting back to normal this week, our girl had a temperature last night and was whimpering in her sleep. A flash back to a month ago when the ear infection which caused the clot must have been grumbling away despite the antibiotics. Back to the GP today to have a check up but can find no source of infection. Just a little temperature but I ended up crying in the GP's office for 15-20 mins while my girl was in the toyshop with my mum, reliving some of the events of the last few weeks which I thought I had dealt with. We are so lucky to have had such a good outcome so I keep reminding myself of that when we have little setbacks.

Hope all my bloggy and real life friends are well and happy. Hope to talk to you soon.

Grateful for....

After purging some of the medical details of the last few weeks on my blog, I think it's time to try and count my blessings.

Grateful for.....

seeing my girl home with her doggy pog

hanging out the washing myself in my own backyard in the sunshine

seeing how my garden has grown and picking a posy of flowers

being able to wash my brave big girl's hair and let her watch an "Avotar" movie marathon

Our girl doing well

It's been a tough week and I couldn't find the heart or the time to post anything. Finally, this afternoon we had some good news about our girl. Although she had been improving and was full of beans, the twice daily injections of anti clotting drug into the cannula in her leg were causing her a lot of pain to the point where she could barely lie still for me to safely administer it (and both parents were in tears). On Wednesday, we had a day at hospital for a CT scan which involved going via the Emergency Dept to have an IV cannula in her hand for the contrast to be given (Pretty traumatic, needless to say). The CT scan was to check on the progress of the blood clot. To top it all off, she became sick the day before the proposed scan with tonsilitis and had to start on penicillin mixture which was making her gag. Today, after hearing that the clot had improved but was still there, we had to go back to hospital to change the cannula in her leg (the existing one was bruised and bleeding) in order to continue with the anti clotting drug. We had the numbing cream on ready to insert the needle part when the neuro registrar came in and examined our girl to check how she was going. He went off to talk to the haematology team and then returned and said we could stop the injections. I was ecstatic! Joyfully, we jumped in the car and came home. The girls stayed up late to celebrate no "medicine in the leg" at bedtime, Scott and I had Thai takeaway and all was right with our little world. We go back to the hospital on Monday afternoon for a proper "review" with the head neurologist. The other drugs are continuing for the present and there may be another scan in a few weeks but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. No more waking up and feeling sick at the thought of facing another painful injection for a brave little girl. Yippee!!!

Thanks again to everyone for their support and love. We feel very lucky to be surrounded by such caring friends and family (and bloggy mates!). A special thank you to Melissa for all her tips on minimising the physical and psychological trauma for little people and being a strong advocate for my little girl. You really helped me get through the last few days.