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.

Sudden onset of squint

This is a quick note to update you on our week. I'll be doing a longer post about it soon as it will be therapeutic for me to write about it but here is a shortish version.

About 13 days ago, our little girl suddenly developed a 'squint' - by that I mean that one of her eyes started turning inwards so that she looked cross eyed. I immediately knew that this was potentially a very serious medical situation and took her to a hospital to be assessed. To cut a long story short, it took six days, two hospital visits, two GP visits and a visit to a paediatric eye specialist before she was properly assessed. The specialist found that her optic nerves at the back of her eyes were 'swollen' indicating that she had increased intercranial pressure. This means that the pressure in her brain was rising for some reason - possibly a brain tumour, haemorrhage, abscess etc. It then became an emergency sitation and we rushed to hospital. After 30 awful hours that included an emergency MRI (for diagnosis) and lumbar puncture under general anaesthetic (to check for infection and relieve some of the pressure on the brain) they found a 2-3 cm blood clot had blocked off one of the veins that drains the cerebral spinal fluid from the brain, causing the CSF to build up in her brain - causing raised intercranial pressure which caused the optic nerves to swell. She was given (and still is on) serious drugs to reduce the brain swelling and stop further clotting and this has worked very well. After 7 days in hospital, we came home last night, still on the drugs which include injections twice daily to reduce the risk of further clotting. She is out of danger and the brain swelling has mostly gone but her optic nerves are still swollen. We went back to hospital today for her to be reviewed and they were very happy with her. She needs another brain scan on Wednesday to see if the clot is gone yet.

The clot was caused by an ordinary middle ear infection which caused inflammation in the vein near the ear which drains fluid from the brain - a very rare complication.

Obviously, it was a very serious condition but as we were facing the very very real possibility of a brain tumour diagnosis, we were absolutely ecstatic that it was 'only' a blood clot. We had an absolutely out of this world medical team taking care of Greta - well, actually - several medical teams. We had a team of eye specialists looking after her eyes, a team of neurologists looking after her brain (they were in ultimate charge), a team of ear, nose and throat doctors making sure the underlying infection in her middle ear/mastoid bone was cleared up and a team of haemotologists supervising the drugs for the blood clot and clotting issues. We actually saw one of the top neurologists in Australia soon after we arrived, who has been working in neurology since the 1950s and retired this week. So we were extremely lucky to have him in charge. He was an expert long before the technology of MRI, CT scans etc and was able to tell us what he thought the most likely diagnosis was based on her symptoms/history before it was confirmed by the MRI. (The longest 30 hours of my life while we waited to rule out brain tumours).

I want to reassure everyone that she is doing really really well and say an enormous thank you to all our wonderful family and friends who have been supporting us with love and meals and visits to hospital and helping take care of my big girl while Gret and I were in hospital.

I am veering from elation at being home to exhaustion, but it is all good. She is safe and sound and in a few more weeks, we can hopefully be finished with the drugs and procedures and back to normal life.

If anyone out there happens to google "sudden onset squint" (as I did) and finds this post, PLEASE if this has happened to your child (or you), get an immediate medical assessment as it is potentially a symptom of a life threatening condition. One of our neuro specialists described it as a "red flag" event.

Will post more soon including a photo of my girl with the turned eye so you can see exactly what I mean. Her beautiful eyes now look normal again and her vision does not appear to have been damaged. The swelling of her optic nerves is going down and should continue to go down over the next few weeks.

Weekend at O'Reilly's Guesthouse

Back in May, we had a wonderful weekend at the famous O'Reilly's Guesthouse in Lamington National Park. It has a quite a history as it was established by the O'Reilly family on their dairy farm as a guesthouse back in the 1920s. Lots of lovely historical photographs on the walls of the guesthouse for the historians in our family to pore over. The reason we went was to celebrate my Mum's 75th birthday. My sister and her family went as well as my parents and it was the first time we have all had a holiday together since we were children. (Only downside was that our brother and his little family couldn't come as well). Luckily, we all had our own accommodation and space and couldn't drive each other nuts!

Our girls were so excited about going away with their cousins and seeing the rainforest. It was a two hour drive from our place and the last half an hour or so was going up quite steep winding hairpin bends which I found pretty hair raising. It was a relief to get there and have our first walk in the rainforest.

The guesthouse is quite a big complex with a central lodge type building with a restaurant, cosy bar, games room, fireplaces, shelves of books etc etc. Then there were separate buildings for accommodation all of which had gorgeous views of the mountains and valleys. The most wonderful thing was no phones, no TV, no computers and no proper mobile reception (though we did manage to be text each other and say things like "What time are you going to breakfast". It was SO peaceful! Speaking of breakfast....it was an absolute feast. All you could eat from the menu or the smorgasbord. That's my kind of breakfast! The second morning, breakfast was outside, complete with chefs cooking eggs etc and all the other breakfast goodies you could wish for. It was chilly but we rugged up and just ate extra to keep our bellies warm.

The rainforest was just magical.

Here's my big girl communing with a mossy boulder. She was in seventh heaven and got completely hooked on birdwatching. She soon knew the names of the local birds flying about and their habits and was especially fascinated with the bower birds and their nests fall of blue treasures.

Although not ecologically PC, O'Reilly's has special permission to feed the local birdlife as it has been done for so many decades that the birds are dependant on it. The crimson rosellas were another special favourite of my big girl.

My little girl was not so keen and preferred to stay outside the feeding enclosure with her Daddy.

My big girl even got to hold a barn owl which was an exciting experience.

Even though the weather was sometimes overcast and misty, the view was just gorgeous. So relaxing to just look at it, breathe in the clean mountain air and listen to the birds.

It was extra special to be with my extended family. Life is so hectic for everybody, it was wonderful to just talk and walk and eat and laugh and play board games together.

Thanks for having us, O'Reilly's. Hope we come back soon.

Lemonade stall

I've been very slack on the blogging front lately. Sometimes life takes so much effort, there's no energy left over for blogging about it. Life has been extra busy with jazz ballet, giving history talks here and there, school working bees, friends coming to play. All good stuff.

One of my favourite things we have done lately was have a lemonade stall one sunny day during the Easter break. It was my little girl's idea. She asked her Daddy to help her make lemonade for a stall, so lemons were squeezed, juice and sugar were boiled on the stove, a table, jug and cups were taken out on to the footpath, a quick sign was made and we knocked on some neighbours' doors to invite them over for free lemonade.

Soon we were joined by our favourite families in our street. It is one of my all time favourite things to sit in the sunshine, chatting with our lovely neighbours, watching the children entertain themselves.

Mmmmm.....so good!
Time to queue for seconds.

Kipper joins the party. Unfortunately he has to stay on the lead or he would gallop off and explore the neighbour's gardens before heading down the laneway to the nearest busy road.

Our girls had watched "The Sound of Music" for the first time the night before so my big girl fetched her pop-up "Sound of Music" book to show her friends.

The book was a big hit and the girls are still singing "Edelweiss". (Makes me cry every time I see it)

Moving on to other games.

Thanks for coming along everybody. See you on the footpath soon.

In the garden, in the Easter sunshine

After heaps of rainy days we have finally had some gorgeous sunny weather just in time for Easter. Before the school holidays, our school had an easter hat parade which is always great fun to watch. Over 800 kids marching around in the sunshine in their Easter hat creations. I took lots of photos at school but promised the school office I wouldn't publish them on my blog. Such a pity that the world is the way it is. But here are my two bunnies at home before the parade. My big girl wanted to wear one of my sister's and my old dresses from 40 years ago. We used to call it the "stained glass window dress". She loves wearing it. "What's vintage mean, Mummy?".

I finally found the energy and a spare (sort of) $20 to buy some potting mix and extra flower seedlings. We never seem to have enough flowers. While I pottered and potted, the girls amused themselves for a couple of hours making a train out of bikes to deliver flowers.

All aboard the flower train!

I love it when they play outside in the fresh air, using their imaginations. That's how childhood should be.

My hanging baskets have been hanging empty for months and they finally have some new little green babies in them. Now I wish I had planted them up months ago. I'd have lots of colourful petunias and lobelias to enjoy now if I had.

My rock garden soldiers on. Sometimes one shocking pink sun jewel appears among the pale ones. You never know what Mother Nature will give you. We often find new little surprises in this garden that have self seeded - there are baby nasturtiums and sweet alyssum popping up at the moment.

I haven't been to church on Easter Friday for about 20 years. I don't miss it. I find the Easter story unbearably sad. Probably everyone does. Now I prefer to think about more pagan, traditional celebrations to do with new life, fertility, nature, and, of course, chocolate! Happy Easter everybody!