Time for an update

Charlie's behaviour at pre school seems to have improved a bit, so fingers crossed this will carry on. But health wise he doesn't seem too good. His nurse came out on Thursday to do another cough swab as he still seems poorly but is getting worse if anything. His cough is very wet and he just doesn't look very well, he's got dark circles under his eyes and is very pale. He is not drinking very much which is very unlike him so has been on a drink that has extra salt and things in it to try and keep him hydrated as he seems to dehydrate quite quickly. He also has a temperature that keeps coming and going so I'm a little worried that he's developing another chest infection, at the moment he is on augmentin duo at his treatment dose rather than the usual prophylactic dose and also his second line treatment which is Azithromycin but it just doesn't seem to be shifting so I'm going to see how he goes over the weekend if he doesn't touch wood get any worse I will take him up to the ward on Monday for them to have a look at him again and see what they want to do with him or if I do get more concerned for him I will obviously take him up sooner. He's been getting very tired as well and not really wanting to do much which is very unlike him.

On a happier note I have booked his birthday party for the 12th of October it's in a big soft ball area that he loves so hopefully he will be feeling much better for that. I have invited 10 of his friends from pre school or should I say I will have if I ever get round to sending the invitations out!! I keep forgetting them every time we go. We also were lucky enough to be sent some tickets for Thorpe park from postpals so I will be taking both boys there which will be a nice treat for them, they don't know about it yet I'm keeping it as a surprise. I'm also looking around for someone to make me a cake for Charlie, he wants a Gordon out of Thomas the tank engine cake but I cant get one any where plenty of Thomas ones about typically! Charlie wants everything under the sun for his birthday anything he sees on the tele he says he wants!! Think I'll have to select a few things otherwise I'm going to be robbing a bank to pay for it! He loves having his photo taken and trying to take other peoples so I was thinking of getting him a Fisher price digital camera it's suitable for his age and I think he'd love it, he also likes to try and play on his brothers games consoles so I thought about getting him a V tech Vsmile which he could play games suitable for his age and he would think he was playing like his big brother so that's what I've got in mind at the moment anyway.

Ollivers been getting on well to. He has settled back into school well although I don't think he thinks a lot of his new teacher! He says she shouts all the time even if it's just for a silly thing, he's normally pretty well behaved in school so I don't really see what she is shouting at him a lot for I think either he is exaggerating and probably chattering to much and not concentrating or shes a control freak!! The first being the most obvious choice! I noticed on Monday when we were on our way to collect Charlie from pre school as he does a full day on a Monday and finishes 15 minutes after Olliver that Ollie was getting a bit breathless. We weren't walking up a hill or anything like that and I've not noticed him like that for a long time, when I asked him if he was feeling puffy or anything he said yes a bit so am slightly concerned about that as all his symptoms have been well under control for a long time now. I am glad that he has a clinic appointment coming up at the end of the month so I will speak to his consultant about it then he has been having trouble with his nose as well it always seems blocked and he has been using a lot of the menthol products about to try and help him but I don't think that can be good for him on a long term basis. So as I say we will see what his consultant has to say about all of it. Anyway I think that's about all for now Ill update again soon when I have more news about Charlie.

Good news

Well quite a lot has happened since my last blog mostly good i have to say so that makes a change!! Firstly i have applied to do an open university course in health care starting in February which i am really looking forward to. I am waiting for some forms to come through to help me with funding it as to do the course is quite expensive, they have also told me that I may be able to get some funding to help with buying a lap top to do all my work on, which would be very handy and would still allow the boys to use this one whenever they like without the worry there going to delete all my work or Ollie wanting to go on the Lego site while I'm trying to get on!! So I was really pleased about that. The next thing Ii was pleased with was that some time ago Ii applied to a charity called the family fund, they are an organisations that has been set up to give grants to families with poorly children to help directly with the child for example they give holidays for the family to help reduce stress and give happy memories or they could help with a new washing machine and tumble drier all sorts of things really. Well the thing that I applied for was driving lessons I really wasn't holding my breath that I would get them but on Monday I got a letter through to check if Ii still wanted them and that if I did to return the form that basically just said that they would be able to provide the lessons but would then not be able to help me for a further two years, which obviously didn't worry me at all as i was just so grateful for that. As it will make things so much more easy for us like when we have all the hospital appointments being able to drive there rather than relying on people to take us or using buses and taxis etc and when I need to pick up repeat prescriptions and then get the medication it will all be so much easier that's assuming i pass my test!! The award consists of 40 hours of lessons 2 attempts at my theory 2 attempts at my practical and all the books etc that i may need to help so i am thrilled and cant wait to get started and am very grateful to them for this.

On another note Charlie doesn't seem so good at the moment. He has seemed like he has been coming down with something for a few weeks but it hasn't come to anything. He is coughing a lot more and his behaviour has got quite bad. He's never been an angel but when I went to collect him from school on Tuesday his leader told me that he has been aggressive to some of the other children and is getting really angry at the smallest things which she has said is really not like him at school. He does have a tendency to get very tetchy when he isn't feeling well or the other thing Ii was thinking was maybe it could be something to do with some of the medication he is on as he is on a high dose steroid. We have tried to reduce the steroid unsuccessfully every time I do this he seems to become poorly then we go back to square one. Well whatever the reason he cant be allowed to behave like that I have spoken to him as much as you can to a almost three year old and think he understands guess I will find out when i go and collect him after lunch so fingers crossed. At home he is always fighting with Olliver and does have a short temper but as I say he has never behaved as badly as this before normally he is just boisterous. We are waiting for the result of a cough swab so hopefully that will tell us something but in the meantime he is on treatment dose antibiotics which will fingers crossed do the trick. Any way that's it for now and I'll leave you with some photos of the boys at a wedding we went to recently looking very smart in their suit. Sorry it's the wrong way round I'm not sure how to change it!!

Sanity Has Been Restored

Well both boys have gone back to school and pre school, and all is very quiet and peaceful!! Charlie went back to pre school yesterday and Olliver went back today, much to his disappointment! He has informed me that he thinks they should have 6 months off school rather than 6 Weeks! We haven't done much over the last few days really just getting ready to go back to school and getting back into a bit of a routine. Olliver went to bed at 8pm last night but couldn't sleep so I think we should have started early nights last week although that's what we meant to do but didn't quite get round to it. On a different subject i decided to do my grocery shopping online to be delivered on Saturday by Sainsburys everything was fine the shopping came on time etc and i put it away then i checked the receipt which was lucky i had as i noticed that they had charged me £33 more than was originally estimated a few pounds I could understand but not that much, any way I went through it and discovered that they had charged me 19 times for a £1.70 stir fry!! They have now refunded it, I only checked the receipt at the last minute so I'm glad that I did. Then Monday morning after giving Charlie his meds I went to get dressed ready to take him to school I came back down stairs to find that he'd given the rubber off his spacer to the dog who was having great fun chewing it to bits!! Nightmare as I didn't have time to get to the doctor before pre school so I had to go and buy a spacer from the local chemist on the way to pre school which was £10. The good news is that I can get it refunded when I take the prescription in so I have to pick that up later today then drop it in and get my money back as £10 is a lot of money!! I'm hoping that the rain doesn't start again, I got soaked walking to school this morning it wasn't to bad walking there but walking back after i dropped them off it was absolutely pouring down. Well that's about all for now I'll catch up again soon, I had better go and catch up with some housework before I have to go and get Charlie.