The Real Jenty

We’ve had a few good months with Connor, but we’re back on antibiotics

I thought he was fine until yesterday.  The head teacher at his school phoned me to collect him because he had a fever.  I took him home, gave him mootie and the fever disappeared.  It reappeared in the evening… and was ongoing through the night… alternating between temperature below 35deg and then going to 38.

It’s been fun… I had about 3 hours sleep last night I think.

He’s got sinu-bronchitis again.  I’m glad it’s not pneumonia, which was my fear.

I’m grumpy… and sore.  I’m also not a happy camper… my back is still sore.  It’s not my kidneys acccording to the doctor, he thinks I’ve hurt a nerve in my lower back.  So I went for x-rays today, and I get the full report tomorrow.  Until then I have cataflam, and I’ve been told not to sit too long in the same position… PMSL… you tell that to the traffic!! My back is in agony by the time I get to work in the mornings, and today the pain only dissipated at about lunch time.

I’m grumpy and need sleep.  Editing will have to wait until tomorrow night.

1.  There are some very clever people in Africa.  Entrepreneurs who are making a difference, and not just for themselves.  Tech4Africa was inspirational!

2.  My back-up system at home with my external hard drives don’t like the Mac… I have to reformat them to get them to work properly and that means erasing all the data.  Not good!

3.  I love taking photos at Batmitzvahs and Barmitvahs… I just love all the tradition, and all the fabulous dancing.  Every time I go to one I learn something new.

4.  Connor needs a new summer wardrobe and quickly… the weather is warming up rather fast and all his stuff is too small.

5.  Bought the boys 4 pairs of new shoes last week from Woolies… 2 of which are already broken! Useless!! And I don’t have time to sort it out!

6.  I need to make a plan to spend more time with my boys… Bradley was heartbroken because I didn’t watch him run on Thursday.

7.  I lost an earring at some stage this week… I have no idea how long I walked around with one earring for it could have been a few days!! Yes, I’m lazy that way.

8.  My car is so filthy that I can’t see out the windows, but I don’t have time to get it washed.

9.  I’m getting random shooting pains in my kidney area… especially when I’m driving in peak hour traffic… I need to get to the doctor I think… or spend less time in traffic.

10.  The huskies have chewed Beauty’s mobile.  It’s in pieces.  They grabbed it out of her bag while it was ringing, and she found Kimo choking on the ringing object :/  I need to replace it tomorrow.

On Saturday at the wedding, Cybersass mentioned that she thought Connor was so sweet.  LOL, I think she’s been reading my photo blog only

Yesterday was case in point.

I heard a small noise in my bathroom, and went to investigate because it didn’t sound like he was on the loo like he’d promised.

I found him crouched behind the toilet.

In his hand was a bottle of tissue salts, with a few emptied on the floor and he was shovelling them into his mouth.  The bottle was empty on further investigation.

After a little discussion, he insisted that he only ate one, but he’d hidden the bottle there on Sunday and had had some the day before too.

Hectic!! It was tissue salts for nervousness and anxiety… I’d taken them when my hair was falling out in chunks in an attempt to reduce stress levels. My oath!! Thankfully, they’re not that dangerous for him to eat.

What he did actually scares me.   He’s hiding like this more and more often now.  He knows what is wrong, but he insists on going ahead with his little plans… but behind walls and around corners (and our house has a lot of those).

He really worries me.

I’m grumpy

I’m tired

I worked until 1am this morning

I’m NOT working tonight.

I’m already in my pyjamas

I need sleep

This is how my day went, and no, I’m not thinking “glass half full” today…

• At 7:15am while importing the last of the photos into an online album that I had to deliver this morning, I got a reminder about a meeting started at 7:30… in Sandton… which takes more than an hour to get to in traffic.

FABULOUS!!

• Finally get to said meeting at 8:35am and the speaker finished his presentation at 8:45

FABULOUS!!

• I looked like a slob today, and felt ugly

FABULOUS!!

• My phone is giving me hassles again.  This time it’s decided that it doesn’t want me to hear anything or let anyone hear me.

FABULOUS!!

• At the time said phone gave a problem, I had a pre-booked phone consultation with the endocrinologist as a followup about my hair issue.  So I ended up having a wonderful consultation with said doctor at my open plan desk on the landline… discussing hair loss, energy levels, acne, libido and mood swings!!  Turns out my levels haven’t really changed, and after stopping the medication 2 weeks ago, all levels have actually gone back to pre-treatment levels. So now I’m on a new 4 month treatment regime with adjusted meds.

FABULOUS!!

• Left work late… drove half way out the parking garage… and I park A LOOOONNNGGG WAY away from the entrance to the building, and realised I’d left my laptop and I’m working from home tomorrow morning.  Start again!

FABULOUS!!

• I eventually got home at 6:40pm… too late for proper 365 photos!

Maybe one day you’ll get to read something more inspirational on my blog… but that’s not gonna happen today.

I’ve had it.

I cannot do this anymore.

I’m tired of traipsing backwards and forwards to doctors and pharmacies.

So much for a tonsillectomy sorting out Connor.

10 days ago he had bronchitis, then Bradley got sick, and he was booked off school this week with severe sinusitis

Now Connor is sick again.  I’m sitting upstairs trying to design an album, and he’s coughing… and coughing… and coughing. We’ve given him everything we can, and nothing is working.

So much for my easy day tomorrow where it was going to be filled with hair cuts for the kids, and shopping, and delivering photos… I see another doctor’s visit looming!

It’s been a rough week.  I’ve heard terrible things, and spoken to friends and hugged friends both virtually and in real life…. there are terrible and sad things going on in my world.

Let me give you a run down of just today’s conversations… and yesterday and the day before was no better

• Someone’s mom died
• A blogger/tweeter’s mom is seriously ill
• A friend went for surgery to remove a cancerous tumour and I’m following her progress on Facebook
• Another blogger/tweeter’s grandfather is seriously ill
• I visited a home and discussed a baby which might not make it
• I spoke to a friend who had been in an abusive relationship and I never knew at the time
• I spoke to another friend about getting help after she did a terribly frightening thing 2 days ago
• A friend’s family member is in hospital after having a cancerous tumour removed
• Someone I’m close to has got to go for a biopsy

I did a lot of crying today

I got a SMS from Hannah a few weeks ago to say that they needed help with winter uniforms.  I haven’t been able to help with that, but I have got all my kids old clothes from last year, and Louisa has kindly given me all of her old baby clothes too. I’m going to take them on Friday as I planned.

Then, I got thrown! I just spotted the latest update on the St Jane de Chantal page on Facebook, saying that they’ve got a new baby and they need help because they’re going to have to try and get the baby treated privately.  This isn;t the first time she’s had to do this, the last baby she got in was treated this way too… because the government hospital told her that time that she baby was too sick, and there was no hope, and she refused to give up.

I really need to go there on Friday!!  If anyone can help with the treatment, I’ll find out more details and post the request here.

I went to get my hair cut this morning. When I sat down, the hairdresser took a look at my hair… as they tend to do.
I blurt out that I don’t see a difference in my hair since I saw her last… it’s still thin, but I can’t tell whether it’s still falling out at a rate of knots because it’s now short.

And then what she said was music to my ears… she could feel it was thicker!! Woohoo!!

Once she’d dyed it, and cut it, and dried it… I saw the difference too. It’s definitely thicker!! She also noticed a difference when she was cutting, she noted that she could see less of my scalp

You have NO idea how happy that’s made me, NO idea!

And it’s not only that… I’ve noticed in the last week (and she noticed today too)… that my skin has changed. Not only has the acne almost disappeared, but my skin tone has improved too.

Oh yeah, I’m a happy camper now the endo and his treatments were so worth all the money!

There was a blog challenge last week on Female2Female about 10 things, and I never did it, but while I’m waiting for this endless LR export, I might as well list 10 things that I’ve learnt this week.

It’s been a big week so far, with Connor having a tonsillectomy and I went on a photo workshop, so these should be easy enough to rattle off.

1.  Don’t wear a white jersey when your child goes for surgery, you will get it full of blood when he starts recovering from the anaesthetic and thrashes around madly.

2.  It’s required to wake your child up in the middle of the night for a snack of chips and sweets, when they’re recovering from a tonsillectomy because it stretches the muscles so they’re not as sore in the morning.

3.  It takes 1 day before the kids are tired of coke and other fizzy drinks… because they’re now allowed it.

4.  Lightroom takes too long to export… I get too impatient! But I have learnt it’s quirks now, and I know when it’s going to fail.

5.  I’m charging too little for weddings.  I know how much to charge now, so my rates will be going up.

6.  I need to define my style photography… apparently I have one, according to most people… but now to put it in words and that’s impossible

7.  I can say No.  I’ve turned down a few shoots this week.  I do have one or 2 days free in the next few weeks… but I actually need a day off! I’m starting to burn out, I can feel it.

8. There are a whole load of excellent photography bloggers that I need to add to my reader.

9. There’s only so much I can cook without using spices or tomato-based sauces.

10.  I’m tired

I’m waiting for Lightroom to finish exporting, and praying it doesn’t fail again… but in the meantime…

Connor is sleeping, without realising what’s really happening tomorrow.

How on earth do you really prepare a 3 year old for hospital and surgery?  He looks at me blankly when I say he can’t have his morning bottle tomorrow because he’s not allowed anything to eat   .  It’s going to be hell tomorrow morning!

He’s going for a tonsillectomy tomorrow, because his tonsils are now permanently swollen from the umpteen bouts of tonsillitis he’s had in the last year.

I’ve stupidly forgotten to pack toys for him before he went to sleep, so if I do it now he’ll wake up.  And we have to be at the hospital at 6:30am… and yes… it’s late and I’m still not in bed!!

I’m just hoping that he doesn’t react to the anaesthetic like Bradley did when he had grommets put it… Bradley was the first to go into surgery, and the last to leave the ward that night, he just wouldn’t wake up! I’m not sure I can handle that again.

I’m not sure I’m prepared for the pain he’ll be in afterwards.  I’m shying away from understanding it right now, because I don’t want it to happen.  But I suppose I can’t stop it.

Tomorrow will happen as tomorrow needs to happen, and I will have to deal with it.