Hallo Wie Gehts?

Guess what, my Opa sang me German lullabies today … how awesome is that?

Of course I told Mom this, as she wasn’t there at the time. Oma was at the doctor for her chemo treatment, therefore Opa visited me on his own today. Usually they come to visit me together, so it was a little sad that Oma wasn’t here, but it was wonderful to spend some quality time with Opa.

Sorry for not updating you all sooner – I hear from my Mom and Dad that there have been frantic calls, emails and SMS’s to them demanding to know when there will be a new blog! Put in a nutshell, my Mommy says we’re in a “hurry up and wait phase”, hence not much has been happening as a result. She also says that getting a commitment on when I’m coming home is more difficult than getting IT to commit to an implementation date on a project.

So let me update you on what is happening with me … my medical team of specialists conferred with each other and agreed that it would be best for my lungs and heart to have a break, consequently they have put me back onto oxygen. It makes my breathing a lot easier, but as a result I need to be weaned off the oxygen again in the near future. This will put into question when I will get home.

There was a moment of panic when Dr. Nicoletta thought perhaps my heart was under strain again, so I got to see my other doctor, Dr. Janine (the paediatric-cardiologist), but she gave me the ok on Saturday. Do you know Dr. Nicoletta phoned my Mom at 7 o’clock on Saturday evening to tell me the Alpha 1 test was negative … this is a good thing. She is so committed, she was leaving on holiday when she called. While she’s away, Dr. Enrico Maraschin will be taking over for a few days.

There is still the question of what is ailing my liver. Mom went to Unitas today to get the records of my procedure that took place there. This is in order to find out about the medications that could be affecting my liver, that were used during my embolisation. On the upside, I’ve started gaining weight again. Although only small amounts, I’m fast approaching my original birth weight, of 3.92kg. At my last weigh-in I was 3.52kg, 400g (or approximately a block of butter) shy of my target!! If these were Weigh-Less weigh-ins my fat-fairy would actually be impressed at my weight loss, however under these circumstances my weight loss was a concern.

My Mommy seems to have regained some of her sense of humour, as I heard her revealing to Dad that I’m actually a “mini-me”. I’m not really sure what this means, but I’m convinced that this is her plot to take over the world one day at a time. Ultimately when Daddy asked her why, she claimed that down to my little finger nails, my determination and little toes, I was a mini-me copy of Daddy. Mommy even went as far as to say that I even had my Dad’s love of superglue, considering my first procedure was done with sterile-superglue. I’m told by Mom that Daddy is an absolute fan of superglue and cable ties, and apparently these hold the house, cars and bike together!

My wardrobe is looking pretty vogue now, as I now have clothes from Aus, USA and SA! Earlier this week my Dad arrived home with a handful of parcel slips from the Post Office, post-marked USA. The next day Dad collected three parcels, posted by the USA Lederer’s. Two of the parcels had the most wonderful books in them, one for Mom and one for Dad, titled Why a Son Needs a Father: 100 Reasons, and Why a Son Needs a Mother: 100 Reasons. These were posted a couple of weeks back by Aunty Gillian, and I have it on good authority that both Mom and Dad shed a few tears paging through the beautifully illustrated pages cited with inspirational verses. The 3rd parcel had the most awesome little slippers, and official kit from the Minnesota Twins baseball team. I spent the better part of an hour trying to explain to Dad what baseball is, for you all know that he is a complete sports ignoramus! He’s still of the belief that cricket is only an insect, polo is a brand of clothing, golf is an acronym for “global oscillations at low frequency”, and rugby is a place in Warwickshire, UK.

On Saturday afternoon Mom had a few of her girlfriends come visit her, and she had a really good relaxing time. This was a small gesture by her to thank her friends for all their support and love over the past few weeks. Apparently Mom served up the most delicious array of chocolate dishes, to go with the theme of the last book she read titled “The Chocolate Lover’s Diet” – my Mom’s book club girls will know all about this title! The girls dropped off some awesome gifts, one of which my Dad took to trying to photograph artistically. It’s of a beautiful little angel from Jenni-Lynne that is looking over me and keeping me safe, and ushering me down the road to better health. I’ve allowed Dad to add some of these pics below!

You would think that Dad doesn’t have enough to do at the moment, so on top of all that he went snooping around planetlederer.com’s hosting company’s server, and pulled some stats of the visitors to my blog.

During June 2008, there were 21 945 visitors to my blog, at an average of 30 hits per hour, and 731 hits per day. The most common search string used to find my blog is ‘baby lederer’ and second to that ‘lederer baby’! The majority of visitors during June originated from South Africa (.co.za), second only to people visiting from .com domains, or the USA. 23.68% of visitors hit my blog from networks, which in all likelihood represents visitors from behind corporate firewalls. Very interesting is that my blog had 21 hits from Sweden, 17 from the Netherlands, 8 from the Seychelles, 2 from Canada and one from Japan.

The July 2008 stats reveal a similar trend, with 20 610 hits (with two days of July still to go). The search strings that people used to track down my blog were a little more bizarre during July, with one of the strings being ‘dummy in my mouth’, ‘lederer bags’, ‘unitas intervention unit’, ‘what cures galactosemia’ and lastly a number of times my Dad’s name was used as a search string. The countries of origin looked pretty similar to those of June 2008, with some new countries making an entrance, such as 16 visitors from Germany, 18 from the US Military, and a few visits this month from Brazil, India, Colombia, China, and the Russian Federation, in addition to the countries mentioned for June 2008.

Although I’m really keen to share with you information on the operating platforms and browsers that my visitors use, I will not bore you with this detail. Below I have included some of the charts from my hosting company.

I’m overawed by these stats, as well as all the beautiful comments posted on the blog, and the inspirational emails and SMS’s that Mom and Dad receive hourly each day. The three of us cannot begin to imagine how to thank all of you during this taxing time; we are touched and moved by your devotion to my health improving. At the same time, please don’t rest on your laurels, as I’m not completely out the woods as yet, so keep send me those healing thoughts, prayers and wishes.

Love

Jarrod

 

Figure 1 One of the Angels that keep a watchful eye over me

Figure 2 June 2008 Usage Stats by Country

Figure 3 June 2008 Country Table

Figure 4 July 2008 Screen Dump

Figure 5 Me on Dad’s lap

Figure 6 Having a think about the situation

Figure 7 My cousin Shannon was also at Morningside last night with suspected appendicitis

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4 Comments on Bits ‘n Bobs

  1. Gillian says:

    Dear Norwin, Lynn and Jarrod

    So glad that the parcels arrived safely. I decided on separate ones just to ensure that at least one gets through – this is always a problem when I send to my parents – they never get anything – if it doesn’t get lost then some bright spark sends it back to me 6 months later claiming it was “unclaimed”.

    I am waiting for the new seasons to start for Ice Hockey – then you will get a Minnesota Wild clothing and also football (American) for the Minnesota Vikings clothing which I will send soon.

    You guys are constantly in our thoughts and prayers and our wish is that you go home as a family soon.

    Love and Wishes and a big hug and a kiss for Jarrod.

    Gillian, Oliver, Ryan and Kirsten

  2. Oliver Lederer says:

    Jarrod
    Sounds like you are getting stronger by the day. What a relief for all of us and of course especially for you, mom and dad. Wouldn’t it be a nice present if you were home in time for Opa’s birthday.

    We are still praying for you daily and really wish we could have been there to visit you. It’s so good to hear that all the gifts got there. By the way, you now have no choice but to come visit us one day now that you have been inaugurated into Twins baseball. We’ll even take you to a Twins game when you are here. In fact long before we moved to the USA I too had a Twins baseball sweatshirt commemorating their world cup win in 1986. We can try to educate you on the game although NFL Football is way more interesting. We’ll definitely have to go to a Minnesota Vikings game.

    Get well soon. We’re thinking of you all the time.
    Oliver, Gillian, Ryan and Kirsten

  3. Bronwyn says:

    So glad to get an updated, yes daddy, we have been checking every day, to see when there are updates. It is really gr8 to hear that you are getting stronger and bigger, you are such a little champ. The get together at your mommy and daddy’s house on Saturday, was just awesome, she really knows just how to host a function!!!! Lots and lots and lots of chocolate, was devine!!!

    Well big boy, lets hope you continue to get bigger and stronger by the day. We will still send all those little angels and positive energies your way, and all hope and pray that you will be home in you own room very very soon, by the way, it is really an awesome little room waiting for you with so many lovely goodies in it!!! Very Special!

    Love to you all.
    Bronwyn, Gary, Brannon, Rhianne
    XXXX

  4. Lisle says:

    Honestly Cuddlebunny,
    I was so worried when I never heard from you!!! So thanks for the update. I love your pics. It looks like you are thinking about something quite profound in figure 4, I wonder what? I bet its of your lovely room at home. It blows my mind to see your fingers next to your Dad’s. Indeed a ‘Mini Me”. I am a bit of a Blog fan, so I find your stats very interesting, but not suprising. Its amazing how a prayer chain on e-mail can reach people. Its true, I don’t know your Mom and Dad to be big sports supporters, so, If your cousins have ice hockey and baseball covered, Mark and I will take the responsibility of teaching you about Rugby and Golf. Rugby will be first (but don’t worry, there are only 3 lessons). Golf will take a little longer…(not because its difficult, but because Mark is not very good..don’t tell him I said that). Must be a bit frustrating and uncomfortable being on oxygen again, but I guess if you are going to be a big sports fan you are going to need both a strong heart and powerful set of lungs :). All the best to your Oma and Shannon. we are praying for all of you!!!Please ask your Dad to post a pic of you with Mom (not sure she is going to like the last request hee hee)

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