Virus be damned....

It would seem that after over six weeks of Adrians mystery illness getting worse and worse , that we may have an answer… and certainly not something we had anticipated. Its not something we have really talked about much as its been traumatic - but hopefully we see the light at a less serious tunnel this time.

With the stress of his work and just general stuff, Age has gotten run down and tired and very open to picking up whatever was going round - which he obviously did. A bad chesty cough went deeper and lower and evolved into a lower lung infection - which in old terms was pneumonia. We don’t go much for Doctors - so Age had a day or two off and lay around in the sun dosing up on love and Vit C and garlic.

Only marginally better, trudged off to work, but suffered fevers, aches and pains and never really got better. One night I got home from one of my courses to find him picking up the pieces of a kitchen drawer which contained our Dolton - which to the most was left unscathed ( phew!!) the drawer however was smashed from the sheer impact of him collapsing into it after a coughing fit left him with no air - and he blacked out. His coughing became spiratic but violent. One late night we ended up in hospital ( thats another story - bleeding hopeless public system… 8 hour wait.) A trip to a doc saw him come out clutching antibiotics which didn’t really do a great deal but stuff his stomach up and make him feel even worse. Another collapse in the kitchen while I was at a class resulted in the kids being taught how to call the ambo and other emergency care - and another smashed drawer.

The worst part was that he was getting more exhausted, stressed and the coughing seemed to trigger seizures. After collapsing in the street and finding out that the myth that you falling lightly if you black out is crap ( huge bruises and blood) - off to another doc and tests done - all seeming to be fine - except the exhaustion…so more antibiotics…..( just for good measure) Adrians seizures are unexplainable at the best of times - so really hard to pin that one…

A few more collapsing tricks later and all we had was the vague diagnosis that it was viral and all connected with the asthma and tumour…..

You need a good sense of humour on this journey - and Adrian is the master jester of this situation. I queried if he was going to demolish any more drawers then could I have a new kitchen? One morning he collapsed in the bathroom and when I rushed in to help him, Adrian accused me of hitting him on the back of the head! He was deadly serious as he stood there with cuts on his head and just goes to show that he DOES love me that he didn’t immediately launch an defensive attack back at me!

Anyway, not really any better and now forced to be the passenger where ever we go as there is little warning of a black out; you can only imagine how impressed Age is about the whole thing. Of a little comfort though, is the self diagnosis of Whooping Cough. A little known disease in adults - but after a bit of research on medical sites and listening to other adult patients recordings of the cough - its little doubt that this is what it is. No cure - just rest and it sticks around for 100 days.. Concerning is the link to his asthma and weakened lungs, compromised immune system and possible links to the seizures.

We are hoping that our week holiday doing NOTHING on board a cruise ship will prove a huge curative for him - 11 days and counting….

I’ve read a number of reports that it is a contagious disease, both Morgan and Lilly have had a slight cough a week or so ago and I have had a silly half hearted thing late at night - but we’ve put those down to stress rather than anything else….. so a check for anyone who has been near us in the last 6 weeks.. we might have passed something unwittingly to you.. that is, if you go in for the ‘passing diseases on’ theory..

Dreamworld Conquered

A bit of a reprieve from my NaNo writing today and the real official start to the silly season. This weekend is just the beginning of schedule clashes and running from one thing to another. From 8 on Sat morning we were at dance concert rehearsals, a quick lunch at home, change of uniforms and then off to Little Athletics. Sunday - we had a number of schedule clashes and just had to work around them to choose the best outcome.

Generally, I will be one of the supervisors for Morgans Age group at Little Athletics. This normally involves me organizing the kids into lines and ensuring they get their turns on each activity and recording times or distances. I bribe the kids often with lollies and cut up fruit as the waiting times between activities can be a little wearisome. They were training for the big competitions this week, so for the second time this season, I was handed the tiny tots to ‘play’ with as thier normal teachers were teaching relay races. We had a lot of fun teaching running ( how to start, when to run) - the kids like to just runn of in mobs - so its quite a challange to get them to line up and go at appointed times. discus - basically - “hit that dad over there with this rubber ring” ( not such a good idea - as Morgan - who was not training with the bigger kids as he was not competing, actually DID), then over to long jump were the kids ran like mad and hopped over a rubber rope to give them some focus to jump some distance. So

me just didn’t get it and just ran straight into the sandpit and fell on their faces. Its a laugh a minute!

Today - Sunday - we had to choose between Dreamworld and competing in the regional Little Athletics comp. As much as the kids are enjoying their time at LA, its really not a focus for me for them to compete - nor do I think they are really that inclined or gifted in that way…..we shot off to Dreamworld - it is the first of the Christmas Parties we have this year - Celebrated through the Social club at Adrians work - and the only one which anyone from Energex will be allowed to go to. How rough is this? Bah Humbug Energex, under the guise of concerns for public finances and accountability in the current financial crisis has all but canceled Christmas. The staff has in the past had an afternoon or an evening staff appreciate party - sometimes a big BBQ and entertainment, other times a theme park has been hired for a few out of hours session times - but this Christmas - not even an office party will be allowed. to make matters worse - a letter was sent home saying that they still appreciated the hard work staff members undertook - and understood the impact that long hours and on call hours have on people with families…. and STILL they canceled Christmas. ANYWAY.. best not dwell too much on that…

Today was about getting out of the house ( and all the jobs piling up) away from my writing, and away from Brisbane. Morgan is tall enough now to go on most of the rides - and Lilly is not too far away either. One of the sadder things about being overweight has been missing out on going on rides etc as I simply couldn’t fit. I was so delighted to be able to do so today. I’d been hanging out to get on the Mick Dohan motorbike one and it didn’t disappoint! Lilly and I went on it twice ( she was very disappointed to find she was too small to be on the bike so was consoled with the fact she could be in the sidecare beside me.

We are so proud of Morgan for making his own mind up about things! at first he was unsure of wanting to go on any of the bigger rides - so we honoured that decision - until he was really bored with the kid ones… THEN he got a taste for thrill - and there was no stopping him. His favourite is the Claw.. I was able to ride on the cyclone for the first itme as well - and gald I don’t have a neck problem as it really tips you about. Miss Lilly is desperate to be big enough to go on some of those stomach churning rides - but its still a good 15 cm away for her yet! After 3 consecutive goes on the Enterprise (one that rushes you round and round then then upside down) - I was really queezy - thankful I had nothing in my stomach - and glad to have the excuse of sitting down for a bit.

We had a birthday party to go to in the afternoon - which I am glad of - as by the time it was time to leave in order to get to it in time - I’d really had enough.

So - what were the clear favourite memories of the day at Dreamworld? For Lilly it was the tiny pink lollies she was allowed to have… For Morgan - he wanted to claim the big six te-shirt - however, he is not tall enough to go on two of them - plus the t-shirts were not his size - so he chose a trophy to go on his desk - a tower of terror one..

Melbourne Cup Day

For the first time in many years (10 probably as the day glided past when we lived in the UK) I spent Melbourne Cup Day with no plans. Before we went OS and even as a poor student, I had a group of us who dressed in silly hats, ate chicken and drank far too much cheap bubbly.

I didn’t think too much about it until mid morning and now I feel a bit sad and empty. Previously there had always been a work function to go to as the rest of Australia took half a days unofficial holiday. Even after officially leaving work to have kids, I’d either had a part time job or group to celebrate the day with.

A few weeks ago I looked about our local cafes and restaurants to see what cup day functions were on. I wasn’t particularly keen to pay up to $70 ( for Lilly and then for me) to be with a bunch of strangers. Of my friends who were not working, they had other plans - so I thought to just do nothing.

Racing a close first with Halloween, Melbourne Cup Day always signaled the wind down to Christmas - of indulgent lunches with friends and the end of exams or projects. It was a day I enjoyed dressing up, having made or bought a fancy hat and giggle with colleagues and friends. I would call one of my sisters, Julie for tips on the race as for a time there she got quite serious about the condition of the grass, past wins and history of trainers etc. Sweeps and fundraisers assisted many of us at work in choosing the right horse for the race. Of course I would bumble my way into a TAB and choose the ‘winner‘ purely on the colour of the jersey coupled with the nags name. Highly technical and based on logic and genius. It was never really about the horses; but we all got over excited on the home straight shrieking the nags name out as they passed the finish line.

But today, I had nothing planned and it feels as empty and stale as a plastic champagne glass. On Adrian's insistence, Lilly and I dressed up and opened a bottle of lemonade ( oh the sheer luxury of all that sugar!) and shared a packet of cheezels. Sadly we missed the start of the race as I struggled with the television control box ( point out the person who doesn’t watch telly) - but got to cheer on the end. I had no idea who or what was running - so we just chose colours.

Miss Lilly looked gorgeous in pink fairy colours. Note my new mac set up behind her - as I am writing NaNo currently.