On Monday morning as we were getting ready for our day Di SMS’ed to say she had a migraine and had to cancel my physio appointment. I wasn’t averse to this, as it meant a day of play instead! The big deal for me on Monday morning was that I ate an entire bowl of oats. On my own. Yes, I admit, some fell on the floor, some on the cats, some on Dad’s Persian rug, the TV wasn’t spared either, but I did it! I’m convinced 99% of the wholesome goodness went into me, and only 1% was squandered – mmmmm, that’s sounding vaguely familiar.

Tuesday was a fully musical experience for me. But before we headed out Mom made the mistake of offering me blackberries for breakfast (the edible type, not the Canadian RIM’s). Well, I had a whale of a time with the blackberries – the couch, not so much! After a week’s scrubbing it’s still got berry juice deeply embedded in the fabric. Score: Jarrod & the Blackberries, 1, couch, 0.

Later in the morning I had my usual music lesson with Liesel at Be Sharp Beetles, and we were barely finished with the lesson and we beetled out of there to get to the Linder Auditorium for a special Children’s Concert. It was so wonderful and so many different types of songs were played. We sang “You’ve Got a Friend In Me” from Toy Story, which immediately put me into the concert spirit. There were also songs from IpiTombi who were a great hit in the 70’s, the Lion King Theme Song “The Circle of Life”, songs from the Jungle Book, including “I Wanna Be Like You”, which is another favourite of mine. Ed Jordan (of Beautiful Creatures fame) told us the story of the musicians of Brenham, and there were four actors on the stage helping him out. I was also pretty mesmerised by the green chairs at the Linder Auditorium that went up and down which gave me a good core workout while I did some mosh-pitting. We also learned all about the family of instruments. When we left, getting into the car, we realised we’d parked next to Ed Jordan, so I gave him big waves and smiles.

In the afternoon, playing in the front garden, Mom was horrified to discover I could now reach the latch on the pedestrian door that led out onto the road. Up until now this door was never locked, it worked on a buzzer from the intercom or a latch from inside. Henceforth it’s been locked daily! In the pedestrian door is the mailbox, which I can also reach now, so my daily duty is to check the mail. Nine times out of ten there’s no mail – Dad says it’s because we now use email and only junk mail is delivered to our doorstep. To keep things interesting, I place a ball or a stone in the mailbox for me to find the next day, making the trip at least worthwhile.

Bev joined us for some artwork at Smudge on Wednesday morning. It was a wonderful morning as I created art and Bev and Mom had a good ole natter. When we arrived home in the afternoon, Dad was already there waiting for us. I had an appointment with my neurologist Dr Tiziana Aduc, and as is practice, Dad tries and makes all these critical appointments. Di, my phsyio, also agreed to come to the appointment.

Dr T did a thorough assessment of me and asked Mom and Dad lots of questions, as well as Di. The appointment didn’t reveal anything untoward, however there is a suspicion that my left leg may be shorter than my right, or it could have to do with muscle. Only x-rays would confirm this, whereby the actual bone lengths will be measured. It is not surprising, as I did have a sheath firmly embedded in my leg for a week in September 2008, where the worst case scenario was that I may have even lost my leg, which fortunately didn’t happen. The sheath would’ve constricted blood to my leg, and since this was during a period of growth, however small, a reduced blood flow could cause the leg to grow slightly less rapidly than the other. A subtle weakness on my left leg was also picked up – again this was known and not a surprise. My jumping and running was observed and confirmed that there was some circumduction of my left leg.

The next steps have been determined to do an MRI and an MRA before the end of the year, as well as an EEG. From these scans the status of my AVM can be determined, as well as from the EEG to determine if my stroke/TIA in May (which has now been branded ‘the incident’ since no one is really sure what it was) has resulted in any epilepsy.

I did score a 1 out of 5 on the gross motor skills scale, where 5 is completely uncontrollable. So my score of 1 is good! My head circumference is now 50.7cm, and my height is 97cm, so I’m growing really fast!

After our appointment with Dr T, Mom, Dad and I headed off to the Spur in Rivonia where we met Aunty Kim and my cousins! It was a wonderful evening and we all chatted and played. Because our days are so long now I didn’t realise it was getting late and we had to head home for my bath and bedtime.

Thursday was another extremely hectic day for me. Prof Fourie asked that we see his neurologist as well, Dr Mike Lippert. We were given the appointment on very short notice as I was on a waiting list – so early Thursday morning Mom and I headed off to Unitas, on the other side of the ‘boerewors gordyn’ as Dad calls it. Again a very good appointment, and Dr Lippert is satisfied with my progress and that I ask intelligent questions and speak intelligently about things. I was beaming with pride. Sadly Dad couldn’t be with us for this appointment, as it was too soon after yesterday’s appointment, and his work would’ve frowned on that.

We raced back to Sandton from Unitas, as I had another appointment with Gavin Shnier, the orthocast. After an assessment Gavin felt that my orthotics were boding well for me and didn’t need to be raised, which was great news, meaning they were having the desired effect to strengthen and equal out my leg muscles. He got to the task of notifying the neurologists and Di about his findings.

As if the day hadn’t been hectic enough, I still had speech therapy in the afternoon with Vicky, but not before Mom and I had a relaxing swim at home. It wasn’t a good speech session, but the past days’ events were exhausting.

OT was on the cards on Friday morning, and immediately afterwards we visited Granny. I was barely in the house and Mom and I were already in the pool swimming, with Granny looking on. Afterward we all headed off to Benmore Gardens to do some shopping. First some boring grocery type shopping was done, and then I fell asleep, occasionally opening my eyes to realise we were in the toy store. It was strange, as I was convinced Mom and Granny bought heaps of stuff, but I never saw it – I somehow suspect I’ll be getting them later on a special day.

Back home in the afternoon Dad and I had a really nice long swim to cool off from the day’s heat.

Morgan was supposed to visit on Saturday but sadly he fell ill, and although we’re really good friends, we don’t easily share germs. I was very sadden by his not visiting, but I’m sure Mom will make another arrangement with Tanya. We spent much of the rest of the day at home playing.

Sunday the day started with some light rain, which I guess the guys doing the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge welcomed to reduce the sweltering temperatures we’ve been experiencing. Later in the morning some painters arrived to paint around the house. Mom organised the guys, as Dad ‘just wasn’t getting to it’! They were really nice guys and I even had a chat with them. It think the activity around the house spurred Dad on to get some DIY done, and pretty soon he was working too, doing some desperately needed repairs around the house.

My exciting news of the week is that my swimming is improving really well, with my swimming almost on a daily basis. Tonight is also my 250th blog! The other news, which is still a little hush-hush, but that I must share is that Dad was contacted by a publisher this week who wants to make a book of my blog. Initially it’ll be a single run, as a gift for me, but in the discussions Dad alluded to there even being the possibility of selling it one day; so let’s keep our fingers’ crossed. Dad popped a CDROM of my entire blog, complete with pictures, into an overnight courier bag where it arrived in Cape Town safe and sound the following day. Who knows, I might even get a special tour of the printers when we’re in Cape Town on holiday.

Love,

Jarrod

Photo 1 Getting comfortable at the Linder

Photo 2 These sprung chairs are fascinating

Photo 3 Checking out the orchestra

Photo 4 Loving it!

Photo 5 Bopping along

Photo 6 Mickey is getting too big for his kitten doughnut

Photo 7 Being mischievous at Smudge

Photo 8 Exploring the Smudge library

Photo 9 Tunnelling

Photo 10 This needs some manoeuvring

Photo 11 Stopping play for a babychino

Photo 12 Yum!

Photo 13 Shaun The Sheep captures the limelight

Photo 14 I LOVE Smudge!

Photo 15 Decided to sit on my own for a while at the San Pablo Spur

Photo 16 Drawing

Photo 17 Needed a quick-fix of Mickey Mouse between mouthfuls

Photo 18 Happiness

Photo 19 Playing ‘clap-handsies’ with Aunty Kim

Photo 20 Passed out after a hectic Thursday!

Photo 21 I felt the floor needed to be addressed with a return address stamp

Photo 22 Some learning time

Photo 23 Oooo, unattended toolbox!

Photo 24 Cleaning my jumping castle

Photo 25 A tiny bit distracted

Photo 26 Back to work

2 Comments on Music Maestro

  1. stacey says:

    wow a book – how cool is that!….

  2. liesel says:

    That is exactly it! Continued exposure and Jarrod is being introduced to so many musical environments. Watch this space with the Maestro Jarrod Ledered. Well done mom for finding all these opportunities to develop Jarrod’s musical and creative experiences.

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