My Head

Hello Everyone,
well we have been busy here. It is still the summer, school holidays. We have 3 weeks more of holidays. In total, Isaac will have had 7 weeks school holidays at the end of all that! Wow! I have thoroughly LOVED having him home. Usually mums tell you that they get restless and tired with the kids being at home. I have not experienced this these holidays at all. Isaac has been so well behaved and we have done so many interesting things. Isaac is not ready to go back to school yet either. He has told me that. He isn't even bored! I hope that he feels ready to go back in 3 weeks. I want him home but he will have to start school in 3 weeks. I hope he feels ready!

So this past Friday I had my IVIG infusion and it went really well. I am not feeling too bad. Yesterday I felt rather shaky and I have a bit of a headache and leg pain but otherwise I am ok.

My head scar is healing up ok. I have been having a bit of trouble with it though. For anyone who doesn't know, I had a small, cancerous sweat gland tumor removed from there some months ago.....4 or 5 months ago. The top of the scar is still quite sore and I get a sharp pain that goes down into my head. About 1 cm of the scar there is very tender and seems to weep easily. It doesn't bleed but stuff builds up a little and then gets really sore and then feels moist and I can hardly touch it! So I told the doctor about it on Friday and he looked at it again. He said it is not acting quite normal. He is a head and neck oncologist. The rest of the scar is fine and healing well. Still a little tender but not untouchable. He is concerned something is going on there. He said that my scalp could be just really tender and delayed in healing with FA and stuff....or that there is a stitch still stuck underneath there causing this problem or that there could be abnormal cell activity going on again......the cancer. So he wants me to go back and see the surgeon to get an opinion and he wants to wait 4 more weeks to see if it settles and if it doesn't he would like the surgeon to re-open the wound to see what is going on. He said that this should be done to see if a stitch is festering under there as well....and in the mean time they would take a biopsy to check for cancer again. So re-opening it would be the key. That means another surgery which I felt a bit sad about :-(

So please pray for a good outcome there.

This Friday is my surgery date for the infusa port going into my abdo. Everything is organised and there is no reason why that shouldn't go well.

Now we have been up to quite a bit here with it being so hot. Below you can see Alan and Isaac taking a swim in my parents' pool! Lovely! We went on a trip to the Museum with Isaac's best friend from school. Both families.....ours and theirs went and it was lovely. They had a special expedition about dinosaurs on top of the usual museum stuff :-) Isaac saw this panda bear and has been sleeping with it and babying it ever since we got it for him.....so cute!

Here are the kids having hands on fun at the museum, learning about "digging" up fossilised eggs and stuff.

I think the expedition was fun! What a cool photo!

Just before New Years in 2008 we went to the river with Darren and Angela, Alan's brother and financee. It was a lot of fun. Angela brought her dingy which had a hole in it by my bottom and we paddled around in it with water up to our waists!! Haha....hence the look on our faces! It was a windy day and we had to work hard while rowing! I laughed a lot!

Alan caught a fish.......not a huge one. One of the kids caught the biggest but the fish got away. These are Carp which are a nuisance and so you cannot throw them back in even if they are babies....shame

Isn't this a beautiful shot? By our little cabin by the river?

On to other activities. Alan and I went to a friend's wedding. We got all dressed up fancy like...hehe.....I didn't realise this picture isn't so big!

Ha! Jumping back to the cabins at the river.....aren't they cute?

Ah yes, now jumping back to the wedding. All dressed up! Alan and I on the left.

My sister and I going to our friend's kitchen tea which was a High Tea, a couple of days before. I felt all prettied up then as well :-)

So that is just some of the stuff we have been up to :-)

Please pray for me as I have my port inserted and my head looked at. Life has been exciting and continues to be.

Until next time!

Love Charisse

Trying to Maintain Dignity???? Did it work????

The Dreaded Stairs!!!!!! They are actually steeper than they appear in the picture! Read below for what happened.

Hello People,

Well we had a slight drama at our house last night. I was ready to hop into bed at 1130pm at night and heard a grunt and then a loud clunk at the front door. Came out of the bathroom calling to Alan, my husband, if everything was all right. Only to find him hobbling around groaning and half crying and giggling all in one. He announced that he had tumbled down our front, garden steps, head over heels, literally. It wasn't very funny but once you hear the circumstances around the fall....it is funny. Anyway, Alan's body went into shock quite quickly and he was shivering and shaking and his face went So white and his hands and feet lost all their colour and went really white. When someone is in shock all the blood supply is sucked and re-diverted to the major and important organs in the body to keep them going. So everywhere else you lose colour. He had major grazes! I had to help him lie down with his feet up on the couch because he had lost so much colour and was kind of hyperventilating as well. I wrapped a blanket around him...lay it on top..to try and help the shock and then went about cleaning his grazes that had blood and skin pulled off. Our steps are rock and kind of a slate finish....and he also took out 2 garden lights as he tumbled down. He hit his head a little but, thankfully, not too much. So I went about cleaning them with antiseptic. It took about 30 mins for the shock to go and him to feel a little better but he was still pale and very sore. He is tied and quite sore and uncomfortable tonight. We don't think he broke anything....Praise the Lord! I should take a picture of his graze on his leg. It is big.

The reason why this all happened is that he was taking the bin out the front at 1130pm at night for it to be emptied early the next morning when the garbage truck came around. He went out in only his undies....hehe and a top. Yep, Alan said I could share this....hehe. Because he was only going out in his undies, he turned off all the lights to the garden outside so no one could see him....darkness...then at the top an ambulance arrived for our neighbours and he got distracted with some concern and being nosey. He attempted to walk down the steps while looking over his shoulder and lost his footing. Honestly, I was calm at first to help him but the reason why he fell and the fact that he was only in his undies was hilarious and I could not stop giggling. I am very glad he is ok though. So because he wanted to maintain his dignity, it led to him falling down the stairs...I don't think he maintained his dignity very well, do you??????

Isaac is forever running up and down these stairs and I have no been able to tell him, "look at what happened to daddy. You need to be careful on the stairs or this could happen to you too!" Isaac cringed when looking at daddy's war wounds!

Anyway, some other stuff. I ended up getting really sick this week. On Sunday I knew I was coming down with something and by Tuesday I was really sick with a flu type bug...the shivers and body aches and generallys really sick with no energy...this led to a worse day on Wed where I could not get out of bed until 12 midday. I felt really sick that day and was scared that things would get worse. I have had my flu shot this year and today when I saw the doctor with my IVIG, she thought I could have had the flu, but because I had the injection I had a less severe bout which is still severe for me. I was amazed when I woke on Thursday that I was marginly improved. NO body aches and no shivering. I felt like I had a slight cold and that was it...with some loss of energy...and today I feel better again. Praise the Lord that it has improved and didn't last long.

I had my IVIG infusion today and things went well. I hope the reaction is minimal this week.

Isaac is much better now. Still a runny nose but his energy levels seem to be almost at his normal.

Another huge thing that happened with me this week is that one of my nannies resigned indefinitely due to some things going on in her life. I am very saddened and have felt a bit strange. I hate it when it happens suddenly and I always wonder if I have done something to offend them. However, we are good friends. I don't want to lose that.....but I am scared I will. I do miss her. So we have been having a nanny relieve for now but she is rather new to nannying, but a quick learner and a nice girl. She is 19. Although, I am relieved to say that my permanent nanny of at least 3 years is still with us....she just does different shifts. I don't know how I will do without her when she is a fully qualified teacher next year....I know I will cry. However, she and I see each other socially now as well. I found losing a nanny so suddenly quite traumatic.

I did my nursing talk at the school where my permanent nanny is doing her placement right now. Thbe kids were only 5 and 6 year olds and loved it. I involved them as my volunteer patients......I brought in a dressing pack and bandages and my volunteer patient helped me to demonstrate all that...I did Danielle, my nanny and friend, blood pressure in front of the class and some kids came up the front to use my stethoscope and listen to their own hearts. I wore my uniform and talked all about that and what I do and where I work. I had colouring in sheets for them to do as well. It was fun and really good for me to be involved in something like that. I felt satisfied to help the kids and help Danielle....she is a dear friend and so loyal to me. If you read this, Danielle....I love you heaps. The class gave me a card and chocolates for coming in. That was so lovely.

My ENT appointment went well this week. Nothing weird in my mouth or anywhere. The weird problem I have with swallowing isn't happening right now......but when it happens again the doctor said I must come in as soon as possible and they will scope me while I feel that way to find out what is going on. I decided not to have a PET scan because of the radioactive stuff they use and my marrow can do without any unnecessary radiation in the state that it is in with pre-leukaemia.

Well, I think that is all for now.

Thanks for checking up on us!

Love Charisse