Pirate Jay-Bee

The weather remained cold this week, so our outdoor activities were limited to the midday when the sun was at its zenith and the days surprisingly warm. What made our evenings colder was the fact that we didn’t have any LPG gas for our heaters, and we came to the realisation that we didn’t own any electric heaters! The reason for the gas outage is that not only is it winter here at the moment but it’s also strike season, resulting in just about everything running out, including petrol. Fortunately Mom and Dad had the foresight to fill both cars and the bike with petrol early in the week that we didn’t have to join the hundreds of people queuing for petrol at the local filling stations.

My week involved lots of playing and I was generally quite oblivious to the political troubles affecting the country. Monday Mom, Claire and I went for an appointment to look at some business opportunities. I promised them I’d keep my lips sealed, so I can’t divulge anything about this appointment.

On Tuesday Mom and Dad took me to my neurologist at Sunninghill Hospital, Dr Tiziana Aduc, or Dr T! She was running a little late so Mom, Dad and I spent the better part of an hour playing and causing havoc in the waiting room. Eventually, in Dr T’s surgery she made me play with toys and do things. What fun! Mom, Dad and Dr T had a long discussion about my episode on the 19^th of May, and after reviewing the EEG and MRI scans she came to the conclusion that I didn’t have an epileptic fit, nor a stroke, but something called a transient ischemic attack, or TIA for short. Interestingly it is referred to as a mini-stroke resulting from ischemia, or loss of blood flow to some parts of the brain, without causing any infarction (permanent tissue damage in the brain) hence the act that I don’t seem to have any residual or deficit effects from the suspected TIA I suffered. One of the theories of the episode, which Prof Fourie supports, is that my AVM may actually have closed off, and the sudden closure caused back pressure and the ischemia. Only further MRI’s or an MRA will confirm this. Mom and Dad agreed that I’ll be staying away from hospitals for a while, so no scans are scheduled on the near horizon.

Wednesday we had to take Granny back to Morningside Medic Clinic for her feet. During her examination she agreed to have further surgery done on the Friday morning. I was very disappointed by this, as it meant a second day in the week that I’d have to spend running up and down the boring passages at the hospital while Granny was operated on. In the evening Daddy arrived home having been diagnosed with a severe cold. Despite this he was relieved, as he was worried it was swine-flu as it was doing the rounds at his office. Needless to say, given the insult on my lungs and respiratory system during the first few months of my life, being around people with swine-flu was an absolute no-no. The upside of Daddy’s visit to Doctor Anthony was that he was also booked off from work for two days, which meant I’d see more of him!

Thursday morning we awoke to icy temperatures, and Daddy’s cold had really taken a grip of him. Despite this, it was nice having him at home, even though he coughed and spluttered most of the time. To minimise infecting me he wore a face mask all the time which made him look quite funny. During the day a parcel arrived, still from my birthday. It was from my cousins in Cape Town, Lisa, Jenna and Erin. After ripping open the box I discovered a Chatimal – a furry animal that imitates me talking! It is totally awesome, thanks guys!

In the afternoon Mom took me to see Oliver at the theatre. I was thrilled, as I love the theatre. What made it even more exciting is that Matt was in the play as the Artful Dodger. Bev and Claire met us at the theatre and we had a really good time. After the show I even got to meet the whole cast and they posed with me for a photograph.

Mommy left very early on Friday morning to fetch Granny and take her to the hospital for her foot surgery. Fortunately Daddy was still home on sick leave, so I stayed home with Daddy for the day and didn’t have to spend the day at the hospital. Because Daddy was ill, he and I didn’t do too much during the day, other than spend some time outside under the healing sun. I climbed on my jungle gym, jumped on the trampoline and swung in my swing. I think Daddy was grateful for when my midday snooze came round, as he snoozed with me. By the time I was up, Mommy had arrived back home.

Daddy took me with to a Tweet-up Breakfast at Munch Café at the Garden Shoppe on Saturday morning. It was so nice to meet up with some of Daddy’s Twitter friends, and Stacey brought Connor along too and he and I played up a storm on the jungle gym and swings in the play area, despite the chill in the air. As midday approached I started getting drowsy and Dad and I hadn’t gone two blocks and I was already asleep in the car. The rest of Saturday I spent playing with my toys at home.

Sunday we hardly ventured out the house. In fact we all stayed in our PJ’s the entire day! Dad and I built a play-dough house with the birthday present I got from Nina, Jaco, Gene and Kate. It was such fun. During the late morning we spent a good deal of time in the front garden where we played. The afternoon I spent most of the time on my swing, with Dad teaching Mommy a whole bunch of new swinging tricks that I love.

That’s it for now!

Love,

Jarrod

Video 1 – Swinging on the seesaw (click here)

Photo 1 Rocket Man combined with Handy Manny and some Bob The Builder thrown in for good measure

Photo 2 Now where’s that no. 13 spanner?

Photo 3 Final adjustments to the nose cone before blast off

Photo 4 Me with the cast of Oliver

Photo 5 Early morning art

Photo 6 First comes an ‘eye’

Photo 7 Thinking about my next stroke

Photo 8 Milo looks on critically

Photo 9 Getting to grips with another art form – photography

Photo 10 House building

Photo 11 Slow work – brick by brick

Photo 12 Stone climbing

Photo 13 Seesaw with Connor

Photo 14 Climbing at Munch Café

Photo 15 Loving this swing

Photo 16 Hiding in the bike sidecar

Photo 17 Going down

Photo 18 Nice and steady

Photo 19 Playtime giggles

Photo 20 Made it!

Photo 21 Some more sliding

Photo 22 The house I built . . .

Photo 23 Playing pirate

Photo 24 Sitting on my treasure, so no one can pinch it

Photo 25 Art time

Photo 26 Shaving to look good for the week ahead

Photo 27 Ready for my beauty sleep