Big Words, More Pain and Dr Google

Repeat after me, Subluxation of Radial Head.  Lots of big pretty words that aren’t fun to say nor are they fun to deal with but alas, that seems to be the current health status of boy-child.  Now how he got to this status is a not very long nor is it a very interesting story but I like to share so I will tell you anyway.

This morning I was helping out at school in girl-child’s class for an hour or so.  I ran upstairs to say hi to boy-child before he went out to play and I had to head back to the office.  I hadn’t even made it back before my phone rang and it was the school.  I was hoping that they would be calling to say I had left something in one of the class rooms but no, the message was to let me know that boy-child was sitting in the sick bay after falling on his elbow, his recently mended elbow.  I turned around and headed back to the school.

Boy-child was sitting in the sick bay, a sling on his arm and tears pouring down his dirty face.  His arm looked pretty normal to my not-so-educated eye, well as normal as an arm can look when it is super weedy with a gigantic joint and scars.  There looked to be a little bruising but nothing too disgusting looking or deformed.  He was declining an ice pack but wanted to go to the doctor just in case.  I was happy to take him thinking it would have a placebo effect and calm him down.

I packed him up and walked him to the car and off we went to the doctors, via work because I needed to get changed and swap cars.  We barely sat down at the doctors surgery when he was called through.  The doctor was like me, thinking that it was probably nothing but with his history we should err on the side of caution so a referral was written and it was time to wander over to the radiologist for xrays.

Yay, good news; the xrays didn’t show a break.  It did however show an area of concern that is reported as a subluxation of the radial head.  Another referral was written, this time for the Royal Children’s Hospital.  I have called the hospital and an appointment is made to see another orthopedic specialist next Thursday.  In the mean time we need to keep boy-child still so he can’t damage his arm any further.  At the moment that shouldn’t be a problem.  I have already told his teacher that he won’t be at school tomorrow but there is an entire week before he is due to see the specialist.

Of course if when the pain increases it will be a trip to the Emergency Department.  I almost wish that I had gone straight to the hospital from the doctors office and spent the next umpteen hours sitting in there waiting.  The outcome will be the same but at least the joint can be stabilised immediately if it needs it rather than waiting for more damage to be done.

Now that we are all at home, waiting for the inevitable trip to the ED, I have had a chance to play Dr Google and subluxation of the radial head appears to me to be a minor dislocation of one of the lower arm bones, the radial.  It is also referred to as ‘Nursemaid Elbow’ because it is a common injury in littler kids who are lifted by the arm or are grabbed to prevent a fall.  What doesn’t make sense if he fell on a bent arm, how did he end up with this injury?  He couldn’t even straighten his elbow let alone have anyone lift him by his dodgy arm.  Oh the mysteries of my world.

I keep Dr Googling and it is making the decision about whether to stay here and wait for the specialist appointment or to head in to the ED now even more difficult.  One site will suggest that natural movement by a child will unlock any ligaments trapped in the dislocation naturally and simply by being a child they will work within the limitations of their own body.  Then I look at another site that suggests immediate medical attention to have the joint realigned to prevent long lasting damage.  Long lasting damage, hell we are already there should I already be at the hospital.  Then I think the boy is comfortable and not in pain so perhaps it isn’t too bad.  The decision is just way too hard.  Why can’t Dr Google just say one answer, any answer and then I don’t have to think about it?

The boy is exhausted, so I am letting his exhaustion make the decision for me.  He has had a shower, a dose of painkillers and is tucked up in bed, almost asleep.  If he wakes in pain we go, if he doesn’t I get a good nights sleep and think about it tomorrow.  Perhaps Dr Google will have a better answer then.

Oh and can you believe it, another elbow injury a day before man-child finds out the update of his injury and whether he can survive without a transformer-like brace on his arm!

Knit Big

I knit, I don’t knit very well, I don’t know how to follow patterns or do anything fancy but still I CAN knit.

Christening Hat

I am slow and get bored easily so I only make small items.  Generally I make, well actually the only thing I make is baby hats.  I like to think they are funky and unique.  This is one of my favourites, I made it for girl-child’s Christening not long after I re-learnt to knit.

I guess what I am trying to say is that knitting is fun but it is time consuming.  At my super snail-paced knitting speed it takes me an evening to make each hat, sometimes longer depending on what is on tv.  I would love to have more time to knit, or be able to knit at a speed that I could make something other than a hat before my fingers feel like they are going to drop off.

Tonight we went for a wander down to the river to see if the rumoured  Big Knit was taking place.  What we found was a group of artists working on their knitting project.  Now this is no normal knitting project, the aim is to knit a cover for the stock bridge that crosses the river.  This bridge is huge and soon will be covered in bright amazing knitting.

Big Knitting

Rolls of brightly coloured plastic were cut into strips and knitted together on pieces of pvc pipe.  The knitting was laid out on the parkland beside the bike path.  It is really hard to convey the sheer size of the pieces that were already knitted.

Hopefully seeing cars and stables in the background will covey the enormity of the knitting.

We sat by the giant knitting, watching the artists working.  Girl-child and her friend had a great time watching and also collecting pieces of scrap ‘wool’.  They plan to make themselves some costumes to wear to a dance party that will celebrate the dressing of the bridge on Saturday.

Fancy Dress

It looks like we are now going to a dance party on Saturday!

I’ve Got Nothing

Don’t stop… there is nothing to see… move on… I really have nothing to say.  Well actually I have much to say, I just don’t want to say it yet.  Instead I leave you with bullety nothingness.

• Today is Monday.  An astute observation I know, but what is wrong about this Monday is that the fridge was filled with left overs so that was our dinner tonight.  Normally Sunday is eat whatever is left in the fridge so we can start again on Monday with real food.  It just doesn’t seem right starting the week eating re-runs of meals gone by but there was too much to turf, not enough of anything left to freeze even if the freezer had room for more food to go to its frozen wasteland.
• We have finally decided that we should get a cleaner.  We have come to the realisation that floors just don’t clean themselves and sleep is much better than cleaning floors.  It isn’t something that we can really afford but sanity and some semblance of cleanliness is more important than cash at this stage.  Of course, now that we have decided to get a cleaner,  I have an urge to clean the house properly.  I don’t want someone else knowing just how disgustingly gross some hidden areas of the house really are.
• I have bruises.  I don’t know how or why I haven’t been anywhere or done anything but I have bruises on my legs, 4 on my right thigh in a pretty diamond pattern, a couple on my left leg and one on my left arm.  They look like they should hurt but they don’t.
• The geriatric cat wants to eat all the time, but not her cat food.  Stupid annoying birds eat the cat food, the cat prefers to eat red capsicum, rockmelon, peach but surprisingly not mango.
• I am attending a fancy schmancy work function later this week and the dress code is Lounge Suit for the gentlemen and for the girl folk – a day dress.  What is a day dress?  Any suggestions, I need help in dressing for this one.
• On a more positive note, if all goes well and I can re-arrange my appointments for the week I am going to skip work this Friday too, something to look forward to!

So like I said, I’ve got nothing, nothing at all.  If it weren’t for NaBloPoMo I wouldn’t be blogging now.  I know it is no excuse but there it is!

Funrazor Fundraising

Some amazing people are shaving their heads in order to raise money for the Child Cancer Foundation in New Zealand.  They are doing this to try and ensure that no other families have to live through watching a child, their child, suffer with cancer.

I have been following Bianca’s journey over at the Whites in NZ for a few years now.  I have watched her grow and celebrated her end of treatment from afar.  Although her treatment is over, Lea is still giving to the Child Cancer Foundation and is shaving her head again this year.  In Lea’s own words, “I will shave off my hair in honour of my very brave girl - Bianca. And she will get to shave my hair. She will be there wearing her beads with pride. And I’m asking you to sponsor me in honour of Bianca whose story you have been following for so very long. Her ups and downs, the “joys” of things like steroids, her smile, sometimes a few tears and lots and lots of hospital stays. Please help me reach my goal. Last year I managed to raise over $2,000 and I would be so pleased if I could achieve a similar goal.”  If you too want to support Lea and her efforts, click over to her secure fundraising site.

I have also donated to Funrazor 09, a site created by 4 women who are child cancer mums.  I have been chatting to Alma online for a while now.  My heart goes out to Alma and her family as they face the most difficult journey of all – medicine can no longer cure her son David.  Alma has joined 3 other women in an effort to raise funds to support the Child Cancer Foundation.  What makes this head shave more amazing is that Alma has beautiful long hair that has not been cut in over a decade!  Again, if you have the opportunity to support these amazing women, head to the Funrazor 09 fundraising site.

Any donation will help to support families who have a child with cancer.

New Moon Party

So after a relaxing day that involved little more than good food, great company and baby cuddles, before the blur of after school stuff that needed doing, it was time to head to a party.  In all the hype of a the release of New Moon, I (well we really) was invited to a new moon party.  The thing is, it wasn’t one of those new moon parties, it was a new moon as in lunar.

It was at another school families house not far from where we live.  Whilst girl-child and their daughter are in the same class and do play together, they aren’t best friends and have never wanted to play together after school.  As a result we don’t really know the family and figured it was as good an opportunity to get to know them.

Despite walking there in the rain, at kid speed dancing through puddles, we were one of the first arrivals.  It gave us a chance to chat and get to know each other.  The party space was awesome, a paved area surrounded by a built up garden bed full of vegies.  In the centre of the paving was a fire pit and before we knew it there was a fire burning in the pit.  Alcohol was being consumed and food being devoured.

Once we arrived, the rain thankfully held off and we all enjoyed the night.  I didn’t know anyone there other than the hosts and I had a great night.  The other guests were quite an eclectic bunch, best described as hippy meets IT/business geek.  In fact it was almost amusing to sit around the fire listening to people discuss the relevance of a new moon, based upon the finding of some new moon app on their iPhone!

I am sure if I am lucky enough to get another new moon invite I will be there enjoying again.

Plans for the day

The kids are at school and I am not at work – Hooray!  The dishwasher is running, there is a load of washing in the machine.  The downstairs area of the house is presentable and I plan to not go upstairs again in a hurry so I can avoid the mess there.

I am hoping that my biggest decisions of the day will be what to order for lunch when I catch up with Lil Sis, Billy and a school friend and then how to fill in the few hours before school pick up.  Should I just cuddle Billy all afternoon, go shopping just for the sake of shopping or curl up on the couch with a book?

This afternoon, after school won’t as much fun, boy-child is off to the dentist for a check up.  Luckily it will only be an hour of bleh in a day of good.  From there we are off to a party so it should be a great way to end the working week.  Today is a great day

Karma

Today was a day of meetings, the first beginning at 8.30am, 15 minutes before I drop the kids at school, a full 1/2 hour before I was due to start work.  I cheated and compromised by dropping the kids at school a few minutes early and then made it to the meeting only 15 minutes late.  Not too bad if I do say so myself, I arrived just as they were getting started as the morning coffee clearly takes precedent over getting a meeting started on time!  The meeting was an evaluation of a new program we are running and it has been really well received so the day was off to a great start.

I went from that meeting back to the office to see that I was now scheduled to go to another evaluation meeting for a major project.  I didn’t have a huge role in this project but I was happy to hear that my contributions throughout the year was well received.  All going well we will be re-funded in the new year and we can keep on working together and living happily ever after.

Just for something different, it was from this meeting to another.  This meeting was a little more relaxed than the first two, it was a planning meeting for upcoming events instead of more evaluations.  To reflect the relaxed feel of the meeting we met in a local park by a cafe rather than in an office.  It was a perfect opportunity to enjoy the sunshine!

Despite some minor angst, it was another successful meeting.  I was feeling great – three for three!  In fact I was feeling so good about the work that was achieved that I decided to stay at the cafe with colleagues to grab some lunch.

As we were waiting for our food to arrive we were sitting and chatting, enjoying the sunshine and cool breeze.  I noticed that there was a guy walking by staring intently at us and at me in particular.  Now the nicest way to describe this guy is as a bum.  He was wearing crusty, not washed in a billion years clothes and had a big bushy beard.  The colouring was all wrong, but his hair was reminiscent of Tom Hanks in Castaway.

Actually now that I have seen an image, the colouring was good but the hair was longer, straighter and more scraggly.  He didn’t exactly look dirty but very unkempt.   His stare was piercing.  I felt that I should know who he was.  He walked by slowly, circled the table at a distance of about 2 metres and then sat on a garden edging behind where I was sitting I could feel him staring.

My colleague pointed out that he was looking at us but she didn’t recognise who he was.    As discretely as I could I turned around to see him again.  All of a sudden, my mind was drawn back to college days, I knew exactly who he was and I didn’t know if I should feel angry or satisfied.

After so many years, I didn’t realise that someone could still have such an impact on me.  He was a person who caused me much pain and stress many years ago.  I  was very young and very naive when I first met him.  He was rude and arrogant, conceited and obnoxious but for some reason everyone seemed to like him.  He was charismatic, he was everywhere.  He was in the same group of friends as man-child.  We, him and I, weren’t friends but since our separate group of friends often stayed in the same house, the house of one of my class mates, we did spend a lot of time together.

Actually thinking back, he was kind of a bum then, always managing to scam food and drink from everyone else.  He was never around when food was ordered and paid for but managed to be there when it arrived and he would scoff it all.  He would always be sleeping on the couch or floor at one of my friends houses but never contributed to the living expenses despite regularly emptying their fridge.  Somehow he could talk or joke his way out of any situation.  Back then we had him pegged as being a politician or a cult leader based purely on his ability to charm without being charming.

When I began dating man-child I would see him a little more often but still we weren’t friends.  Then one night at a friends house his behaviour became completely inappropriate and I was feeling vulnerable and afraid.  I ended up walking home, a suburb away, in the wee hours of the morning because I didn’t want to be in the same house as him.  I began distancing myself.  I made sure we would never be alone together.  I no longer trusted him at all but I didn’t want to make a big deal about it.  Other than him and his crusty girlfriend, the group of friends that we spent our time with were pretty awesome.

Time passed and I instinctively avoided him.  There were always enough people around that it didn’t make too much of a difference.  Our paths didn’t cross all of the time and when they did there were always enough people around to dilute his influence on the space.  I even had parties at our house and invited him because it was just easier.

At one such party, everyone drank way too much.  It was really late and we were all wanting to go to sleep.  He lived in the same street but wouldn’t go home.  He was demanding more drink.  What happened next was a bit of a blur but I think it went something like this.  I asked him and his girlfriend to leave.  She turned around and slapped me.  I think I was so shocked that I didn’t really respond but perhaps I did.  Then he grabbed man-child and began scratching at his face with his disgusting long fingernails.  I have never in my life wanted to hit anyone more than I have wanted to hit him.  I am pretty sure that I didn’t hit him, I have a distinct memory of being disappointed.  I do know that he was dragged out of my lounge room and out of the house.

I ran to my room in tears.  He was out the front of the house yelling and cursing, wanting to come back in.  I have never felt so afraid in my entire life.  All the years of bottled up emotion came pouring out.  I spent the remainder of the night crying.  I was exhausted but I was also relieved, I would never have to see him again.

Many years has passed, more than 15 since I have last seen him.  Clearly much has happened since that time.  The group of friends all but ignored him, he lost his power and charisma.  We have all moved on and are all successful in our careers, all with families of our own.  The rest of us still see each other regularly but he pretty much fell off the planet and was barely heard of.

Clearly Karma is a vengeful bitch.  I feel like I am living ‘happily ever after’ and he doesn’t look to have much at all.  Is it bad that that makes me feel even better about where I am?

Wordless Wednesday – the cause of man-child’s pain

Shichi go san

Today was just a day like any other day.  Filled with kids, school, work and every day life and nothing noteworthy, and certainly nothing to write about.  Instead of writing about nothing, I decided to go back through my photo archives for this time last year to see what we were up to.

Happy Almost School Girl

This time last year girl child was getting ready for her school orientation and super excited about wearing her brand new, far-too-large school uniform.

Hopefully this time next year I will have more photos of girl-child just as happy but in a very different setting.  This time next year we plan to be in Tokyo to celebrate Shichi Go San, a festival that is a traditional rite of passage and festival day in Japan for three and seven year-old girls and three and five year-old boys, held annually on November 15. As Shichi-Go-San is not a national holiday, it is generally observed on the nearest weekend.

We hope to stay with wonderful friends in central Tokyo.  Together we will celebrate Schichi Go San with a beautiful blonde 7 year old girl who will be wearing the traditional kimono worn by our friend’s daughter when she was 7.  Don’t worry, boy-child won’t be left out, he has been promised a trip to Disneyland and possibly to the Pokemon Centre too!  I can’t wait, only 50 or so weeks to go!

Growing Old

93 is old, it is really old and that is how old man-child’s grandma is.  Yesterday we drove to Ballarat to visit with her.  It has been almost 4 years since we last visited, for her 90th birthday celebrations.  I feel saddened that we haven’t made more of an effort to spend time with her over the years.  I can make all the excuses in the world but essentially we are lazy, preoccupied and easily distracted hence the lack of visiting, oh and it is an hour away and family.

In our chat yesterday she was saying that is well beyond time for her to go.  She spends most of her time in pain or on pain meds.  She is having another surgery on Friday and was suggesting that it would be her chance to go peacefully.  She wouldn’t say too much because she didn’t want to worry the kids but she did mention to them that she might never see them again.

It saddens me that as she nears the end of her life we know so little about her.  I wish I had the time to go back and learn more about this woman who survived living through the war supporting her children as her husband was prisoner in a camp nearby.  I would love to know more about the decision to uproot an entire family (husband included after he escaped from the prison camp) from its home in war-torn Europe to move to the other side of the world.  I do know that she resents being here in Australia, that up until the day they left their home she believed they were moving to Canada to be with her sister and family.  I know that she spent her adult life wishing she were somewhere else but not wanting to leave her family so her heart was torn in two.

With Great Grandma

For now I am happy that we were able to brighten her day a little and that the kids had a chance to visit with their great grandma.