After physio with Di on Monday we popped past Granny’s place for our customary ‘start of the week’ visit. At Granny’s place I greeted the menagerie of animals and once I’d wiggled my way through them and got inside, Granny read me a story.

Tuesday’s music was the last one for the year. Daddy usually makes every effort to be there for the special occasions, but unfortunately he was on training so he couldn’t make the time. I wore my Christmas hat for most of the lesson. The music lesson was shorter than usual and pretty soon we were exchanging presents. Next we all headed outdoors in our swimming costumes where sprinklers had been set up for us to play in. We also spent a good deal of time in the sandpit.

In the afternoon I had OT with Lauren. While there I made an angel with my handprints (see below). My colour sorting has also come a very long way, considering I failed that during my assessment in September, when it was identified that my May stroke did more damage than originally expected. All in all it was a mellow session, and Lauren’s assessment of me was that I was ‘consolidating’.

I didn’t do much on Wednesday morning other than play around the house. In the afternoon, after my snooze, Mom and I headed off to Primi Piatti at Lifestyle Centre to meet up with Jenni and my little friends Sam and Hannah. It was a great afternoon and we played hard. Most of all, it was so cool to see my little friends again.

Daddy was off on Thursday as he had to undergo a procedure in his mouth at around midday. It was so great to have him home for the morning. Granny arrived mid-morning to look after me, so Mommy could drive Daddy to the doctor and back again. Because Daddy suffers from vasovagal syncope when seeing his own blood or undergoing minor procedures, the doctor gave him a couple of dormicums as a pre-med. He popped half of one before he even left, and it was funny to hear Daddy slurring his words slightly.

Once Mom and Dad were gone, Granny and I played up a storm. I snoozed, and by mid-afternoon Mom and Dad were home again. Dad was in a daze, and he couldn’t speak clearly because of the meds as well as some swelling. Apparently the procedure went well, but Daddy is somewhat stressed, as an unusual growth was removed from his tongue which was sent to the lab to check that it’s benign. He’ll only get the results next week, so it’ll be a bit of a nerve racking wait. We don’t believe we need to worry, but one never knows.

We left Dad passed out on the bed, literally, and headed off to Vicky for my speech. It was a good session. Afterward Mommy still had an errand to run at Morningside Medi Clinic. It was early evening when we got home, and Daddy was just starting to surface from the drugs and painkillers.

Friday morning Mom, Dad and I were up extremely early. Dad had taken that day off too, this time to come with me and Mom to have my MRI/A/ and V done – yep, three in one this time. It rained most of the night, and it continued most of the morning. Daddy safely negotiated the traffic to Unitas and we made it there in less than an hour. By 8 o’clock we were at the radiology department ready to rock and roll, or so we thought. Since I’m still little, I have to be sedated for MRI’s as I cannot lie still for an hour. Mom put the first dose of sedation in my chocolate milk, but I smelt a rat, and refused to finish it. Mom and Dad tried in vain to get me to drink more, but I wouldn’t. In fact I threw up what I already had drunk.

Next came the syringe approach, whereby Mom or Dad try and squeeze the sedation into my mouth with a syringe while the other holds me down! I refused to swallow and kept spitting and throwing up the sedation. Eventually the heavy guns were called in, and the ladies from the unit forced a third batch of sedation into my mouth, while Mom and Dad restrained me. They used an interesting technique of squeezing my cheeks together and blowing into my face. It worked a charm – for them! I had no choice but to swallow the sedation. By now it was almost 9 o’clock!

Eventually I started feeling drunk and my vision was blurry, and then I fell into a deep sleep. The MRI/A/V took the better part of an hour, and I was still lights out by midday when Mom and Dad had collected the scans, radiologist’s report and the CD. Although Prof Fourie is retired, he still would consult on my case, so Dad took a CD to his old offices to have it forwarded to the Prof. We also had a quick appointment with Dr Lippert.

Mom and Dad had already read the radiologist’s report and looked at the scans, and their fears were confirmed: a vessel that needed to be closed could be clearly identified on the scans. After a discussion with Dr Lippert, it was agreed that I would need further brain surgery, around May 2012. An appointment was confirmed with Dr Lippert for the second week of May, and from there on the surgery would be scheduled. Prof Fourie would be consulted, but a Dr Winters and Dr Potgieter would be performing the actual surgery.

We are confident that the new doctors are able to do the surgery, but we are very nervous of the unknown, nevertheless.

By the time we left Unitas it had stopped raining. I snoozed some more on the drive home, and for the rest of the day we took it very easy.

Saturday morning we frantically got ready to get to Sandton City, as the Smurfs were arriving! I was thrilled. When we arrived there was an entire Smurf Village built in the centre court. A Smurf round-about ride and a Smurf-mobile were all there too. And most importantly a stage where the Smurfs would be appearing. I played in the Smurf Village and went on the Smurf round-about while we waited for the show to start. Just before the show was going to start, we secured ourselves a spot at the foot of the stage in the mosh pit!

Soon Papa Smurf, Smurfette and Clumsy Smurf came on stage to entertain us. They had with them the Sandton City Gold, but unfortunately Gargamel arrived too, and stole the gold! The rest of the show was about the Smurfs getting their gold back from Gargamel. We cheered the Smurfs and boo’ed Gargamel and sang the happy Smurf song. It was too awesome.

By midday I was pretty exhausted and we headed home for a snooze. After we all had a team snooze, we popped into OrangoTangos for the afternoon where I played up a storm. Dad took me on the bumper cars and Mom managed to secure an airgun for me in the play area, that shoots sponge balls. I had a whale of a time.

On Sunday morning Dad built me a huge Thomas the Tank engine track and we played with it for ages. At around midday we headed off to Kylah’s birthday, Kyle’s older sister. I had an awesome time at the party. It was held in a real bar, on their huge land, that Kylah and Kyle’s Mom and Dad rent to a bar lady. Although the bar was predominately for use for the birthday party, a few of the regular barflies were in attendance too. Because the weather wasn’t certain the pool party had been changed into a jumping castle party, with a huge jumping castle inside the adjacent auction hall. Fortunately it didn’t rain. We had a whale of a time. Out on the bar deck there was a pizza oven, and everyone got to make their own pizza. I discovered a pool table, and wanted to shoot a few rounds, but I couldn’t reach the table. I then spotted a poker slot machine and proceeded to play on that – it was just for amusement, so the actual gambling component had been disabled. That disappointed me as struck three cherries on one spin, and three 7’s on another spin. I would’ve left with a fortune had I betted!

Eventually my tiredness got the better of me and by mid-afternoon we started to leave. Halfway home I perked up again and demanded that we swim once we were home. En route home though we drove through batches of rain, so Mom and Dad didn’t think it would be a good idea to swim. By the time we were at our house, there were only a few drops of rain, so Dad and I raced to change into our costumes and swim before the rain got any harder and brought with it lightning. We didn’t need to rush, as no sooner were we in the pool and the rain stopped. It was a great way to end of a good weekend.

Til next week!

Love,

Jarrod

Photo 1 Story time with Granny

Photo 2 Foam bath

Photo 3 Major fun during a midday bath!

Photo 4 Passed out with Pooh Bear

Photo 5 Playing after music

Photo 6 Handmade Angel

Photo 7 Chatting to Vicky at speech therapy

Photo 8 Helping to wrap Matthew’s birthday presents

Photo 9 Caught on my throne

Photo 10 A quiet reading moment

Photo 11 Battling some ribbon

Photo 12 Trapped in ribbon

Photo 13 Dashing about in the Smurf Village

Photo 14 Checking out the fittings in a Smurf mushroom house

Photo 15 I can even wash my hands in the Smurf houses

Photo 16 Chilling on the toadstool

Photo 17 Smurf stage, wondering where the Smurfs are

Photo 18 Securing the mushroom!

Photo 19 Waiting for the round-about to start

Photo 20 Wheeeeeeee

Photo 21 Loving it

Photo 22 All aboard

Photo 23 Three apples tall?

Photo 24 In the mosh pit with Mom and Dad

Photo 25 Papa Smurf

Photo 26 Clumsy Smurf

Photo 27 Smurfette looked straight at ME!

Photo 28 Gargamel (aka Garbage-smell)

Photo 29 The mosh-pitters

Photo 30 Crossing the wobbly bridge at OrangoTangos

Photo 31 Sliding into the ball pit

Photo 32 Some swinging

Photo 33 Bumper Cars!

Photo 34 I can always smile for my fans

Photo 35 Charging someone or something

Photo 36 Dad braces for impact. Me? Just giggling!

Photo 37 Soccer

Photo 38 I was more interested in the lathe on auction than the party!


Photo 39 Magician time

Photo 40 Dad and I building blocks

Photo 41 Team work

2 Comments on Consolidating

  1. stacey says:

    I really wanted to see a video clip of Dad on the Dormicum. Lovely week JB!

  2. Yolandi says:

    You are getting cuter every day and making such good progress. Enjoy the festive season; hope all three get spoilt rotten. See you in 2012. Love Yolandi

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