Medly post!

Seems all of my most recent posts aremade up ofa medly of things that have been happening to us all.

So this week i have completed my first week in my "big girl" job! I can honestly say i love it! I am having fun and totally enjoying wearing smart clothes again.

Rachel came home with her school report which was absolutely amazing! WOW she blew me away! She not only improved in two subjects she doesn't like but kept her grades up in everything else so she is now a straight A* student accross the board! Her teachers are all impressed that her classwork and homework standards are very high, her work ethic and commitment are a credit to her and the fact that she is involved in so many after school activities also make her one of the top students in the year group! I am so very, very proud of her. She is also (which i think is very important) kind and caring to both staff and students alike, including students she doesn't know too well or hang around with. She will always help them and is always polite to all. "She will achieve great things." (quote from the head of music not taken out of context either!!!!)
So i am glad she is currently sitting by a pool in Lake Garda, Italy with the gifted and talented choir. She deserves it.

I am baaack!!

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin!! I am sure you are all wondering where on earth I have been? It even comes to something when poor Julie over at Octamom adds me on face book just to see how we are all going! Hehe.

So where do i begin?

Perhaps Becky should have centre stage for a moment!!

She does NOT have epilepsy! Woohoo i hear you cheer! So what has made my child so ill this year? Well i am so glad you asked!

Her heart cannot control her blood pressure, so when she sits then stands or walks then runs her blood pressure should rise. But it doesn’t so she faints! So we have a diagnosis but what is the cure? Well it is quite technical really are you ready? She has to take more SALT each day. Yes dear reader, Sodium Chloride is our long awaited cure! She has to have more in her diet and voila one much better child! All that stress and such a simple thing comes of it. Still we are now on the up!

She has recently auditioned for Peter Pan and has been cast as Alf Mason one of the pirates. More news when we have it!

Her school report came through too. And even though she has been sick for 5 months she is an A grade student across the board...well except for Geography but i can live with that!

Rae is off to Italy next Saturday with the gifted singers from school and is so excited! I will miss her lots but know she will have a great time!

David is still just happy doing his thing! Doing well at school and trying hard. He has taken up playing cricket too!

No reports for either of them yet but i am sure they will be equally as good as Beckys'.

I started my NEW “grown up” job yesterday! I am now no longer in child care but am a receptionist for a large car auction company. I am so excited to have this new start. Full time work for the first time since Rae was born!

And that my friends is where we are at!

A day at the pond!

Where the kids ate ice creams, swam in the pond and played in the sand...and where we saw this lovely family:

Ok so the hospital says...

I took my little sick note to the paediatrician who did LOTS of checks and tests, even had a dietitian there to talk to..and they seem to think that she needs an EEG as they think she might have a "teenage" epilepsy. Which would be the factor in all her other ailments. Luckily for us the school nurse was right there when she had a seizure at school the Monday before she had her appointment and she kindly wrote a statement of all that she saw, which helped the hospital immensely. So while i hate that she is going through this all i am glad it was witnessed when it was!
Apparently when pre-teens and teens stare into the distance and become "daydreamers", or don't hear you when you speak right to them it is a classic sign of this epilepsy. They kind of grow into it and should grow out of it by the time they are in their early 20's. So this coming Thursday they will give her an EEG and try to "stimulate" her into whatever they need her to do.
If this is the case she will be medicated which WILL stop all the things she has been going through. If left undiagnosed she will miss bits of her education so i am happy to have this done and hopefully get an answer for her.
Lets hope that this will give us some answers. I will be taking my camera ;)

I too am at the hospital this week..Tuesday for the results etc of my operation! It's all go here you know!

Becky part 1.

Well I sit here trying to make sense of what has been going on with my twelve year old daughter. Where do I begin? How do I tell this story?

I guess from the beginning of her “sickness”.

It started in December 08 when I was called to collect her from the theatre in Guildford, where she was in a show.

She was not well; she suffered all over Christmas with stomach pains and lethargy. In January we went to the doctor who spoke to her about everything it transpired that she had not been pooing having bowel movements since December! Ok that explains it thinks me! So she is weighed and measured, 8 stone, perfect to her height. Given movicol to “help her go”. Back on an even keel.

She still suffered abdominal pains though and lethargy. She was eating well and keeping active. She lost a stone. So back to the doctor who arranges blood tests for her. They all come back clear. No IBS, Celiac, Thyroid issues, Leukaemia, Diabetes or other things that can be told through blood tests. So another blood test is done to rule out some other cancers (I am not told which because I did not want to know unless it happens she has one). A very long wait later and they are clear too. She is finally now referred to the hospital.

Meanwhile by March she has dropped another stone and is now weighing in at a tiny 6 stone. She is still very tired in the evenings after her school day.

She starts having dizzy and fainting spells in April, I put it down to the fact she has lost lots of weight and encourage her to rest in the evenings and take chocolate and coke at school during lunch (school nurse keeps them in her fridge for her!!).

Her dizzy spells have become more frequent over recent weeks and I have had to collect her from school early no less than 5 times between April and May.

On Monday 18 May I got a call from the school nurse who is worried about her. She was taken to the nurse having fainted. The nurse laid her on the bed to rest and encouraged her to eat some of her lunch. Becky was lain on the bed and talking to the nurse. She was tearful and cold. Then Becky’s’ eyes rolled back and “she was out of it”. The nurse said it was like when you give someone a general anaesthetic and just before they are asleep their eyes roll back and lose focus. It was similar to how a patient with epilepsy behaves. I collected her and took her to the doctor (as her hospital appointment is on Weds 20 May) i did not want to rush her to A & E as they would look at the latest incident and not take the past history into account. The Doctor tried to take her bloods for a blood sugar test but she would not give any. Her fingers would not bleed! She spent the day in and out of consciousness on the sofa yesterday. After a fairly good night sleep she woke only to fall over on the landing. She is now relaxing on the sofa and dozing.

Roll on tomorrow. I refuse to believe it is “hormonal” or “puberty”. I never suffered like this in my pre teens / teens. I would rather be told “it is one of those things, she will grow out of it”, than hear it is puberty!

Through all of this i have watched my happy, healthy, energetic child drop two stone, become really lethargic, faint and fit. I’ve seen her prodded and poked and have her bloods drawn. Not once has she whined, moaned, complained or questioned. I want her better. I want answers. I want her not to suffer any more. I’m not asking much am i?