Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Doctor. Doctor.

  Our 2 week break from school was nice and quiet. We didn't have a lot planned. I think we all needed to catch up on sleep and just relax. Or maybe we were just preparing for a late Saturday night at Mater Children's Hospital.
  Saturday afternoon, MA showed me her legs had a rash on the lower part of them and she said her feet hurt. I thought maybe her leggings were bothering her. So we showered and changed clothes. As the day went on the rash seemed to be spreading. The rash wasn't itching, her feet were what were really hurting her as the day continued. And the were slowly swelling. As we were putting everyone to bed, Matt and I just kind of looked at her and I think we knew it was going to be a long night. She had a fever by then and we were beginning to realize it wasn't a simple rash.
  Thankfully our friend Lisa offered to come to our house and stay with DB & EL so Matt and I could both take MA to the hospital. Off we headed. Once we got there Matt had to carry poor MA, that's how swollen and sore her feet were. Luckily, it was a relatively quiet night when we arrived and didn't wait more than 45 minutes to be taken back into a room and seen by a doctor. The rash had worked its way up her body too. Dr. Sally checked her over then brought another doctor in for another opinion. They thought she had Henoch–Schönlein purpura but it doesn't usually have a fever associated with it. That's where they were concerned. As the doctors were talking and saying the name of it, I just kept thinking I am never going to remember that whole name to be able to google it later. Or even tell people what it is. They decided to keep us there for a few hours to monitor her blood pressure, run some blood test, and they even put in an IV in case we needed that later. MA was a trooper. I help the Ipad and she played while they did the blood tests and IV. Didn't even flinch and they had to try her hand before getting it in her arm.
  They moved us back to our room. Since it was getting late, we decided that Matt should head home so Lisa could go home and I would just hang out at the hospital until they decided what they were going to do with us. MA was exhausted and just wanted to go to sleep. One nice thing was since it was so late here, it was morning back in the States. So plenty of people to talk to and help pass the time just sitting there. Finally another doctor came on duty and he agreed with the diagnosis of HSP. I think that we ended up seeing 4 doctors that night. Dr. Sally told MA she had popular legs. They decided that we could go home shortly, just had to return the next day for some follow up tests.
  Of course Matt had just got home and Lisa had just left. I quick sent a text to Lisa, and bless her, she offered to come in to the hospital and pick us up so we didn't have to take a taxi home. As we were driving home, we had a little laugh at all the people standing outside bars waiting for a taxi and we both could have used a drink at that point.
  Back the next day for some tests and a few hours later we were home again. We have to go to our local GP (general practitioner) weekly for 6 weeks and then monthly for 6 months to continue to monitor her kidneys. But hopefully those visits will be uneventful.

They essentially quarantined us. But it did give us a private room, not just a curtained off area.


 Back for more tests.
 
 I think she was a little slap happy at this point.


Saturday, April 6, 2013

Friday Night Disco

Friday night we spent at the disco. Just what every parent dreams of doing on Friday night. The local play land type place, Lollipops, has a disco every month. We met up with our friends and let the kid run wild. It was surprisingly quiet there, we were prepared for it to be overly crowded. The kids ran, jumped, and yelled for 3 hours. Everyone ate some dinner and took a ride on the tea cup ride that is there. Finally we rounded up the gang and went home. It was time for bed! The kids were exhausted and didn't say much once they were tucked in. Then the best part... they slept until 7 Saturday morning!!!
 She looks so grown up here to me.
 These girls are the best!

Bunny Craft

The local Wendy's ice cream shop has a craft each school holiday. This break it was using recycled materials to make a bunny. A group of us met and gave it a whirl. Everyone did a nice job and no one turned down the ice cream when we were finished. After a few toilet trips we loaded up the troops and went  to Maccas for lunch. The kids needed to run for a bit and us mums needed adult conversation. A nice day with friends!



Toothless

MA is missing her 2 front teeth! She pulled them both out herself. So the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny came to visit our house the same night!

We had a nice long 4 day weekend with Matt home over Easter.



Easter- Aussie Style

  Easter is a pretty big holiday here. There are isles full of chocolate eggs and bunnies. We had an Easter egg hunt at the school a week ago. The playground was full of eggs and the kids had a great time. The Easter Bunny does things a little differently when he stops on Australia. The two biggest differences I noticed were no plastic eggs and no jellybeans. Luckily we brought our plastic eggs so he had something to work with. Also no egg dye kids and no white eggs.
  We dyed brown eggs several different ways. An in the end I think I liked the plain food coloring the best. The glitter was a hit with the kids and the shaving cream was so-so. But we had fun trying all the different ways.
  Easter morning everyone was up extra early. The EB had left a Skittle (instead of jellybean) trail from each kid's door and he only made the trail go to the top of the stairs. He must have heard my concerns about ants wanting to have a taste of the goodies in they were on the kitchen floor. The baskets were overflowing as usual with togs, Legos, & candy. We had 2 separate egg hunts. 1 outside, where each kid found a specific style of egg (MA-glitter, DB- sports, EL- girlie designs). Inside those eggs was money. Something a little different for the Aussie EB. Inside it was a free for all to get any and all eggs you could find. There were filled with candy- Milky Way, Skittles, choc eggs, and Nerds. Foil wrapped chocolate eggs are the most popular type of candy for Easter in Australia. So I feel like we had a nice combo of USA/ AUS for this Easter. The rest of the day we build new Lego sets and just relaxed.

















Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Science In The Garden

  Science in the garden was a short program where the kids shared what they had been learning with the parents and other students. We had to decorate a hat for DB's performance with leaves and flowers. MA decorated her hat in class based on their specific part of the skit.  Prep sang a song. Ms. M's class did a skit about plants and how they grow. Then we were invited to the classrooms to learn more and see some of their work.




  Thursday was free dress day! Always a hit for the kids.


 EL just couldn't stay awake until I got off the phone. Guess this week really tired us all out.

  Saturday we explored the Australia Zoo. We hadn't been for a while and it was nice to go again. The show at the crocuseum never gets old. And feeding the elephants is another must do for us every trip. It was a bit rainy but we met friends there and made the best of the wet weather.