Cellulitis Strikes Again!

We thought we had parted ways with Mark's leg cellulitis the day he had his heart valve surgery done back in 2008, because he hadn't had a flare-up since. We thought that his dodgy heart was doing a terrible job of pumping his blood around, hence giving the infection ample opportunity to flare up whenever it wanted. Seemed like a pretty plausible scenario!

Well, apparently not. Last Friday morning 8th June, he woke up with the all too familiar shivery symptoms and the dreaded hot leg with mottled inflamed area down the bottom. I figured, we shouldn't mess around with this. He hasn't had this since he's had the artificial valve, and we don't know what effect the infection could have on his body and more importantly his heart valve, so we headed straight to the ED at Hawkesbury hospital.

Bit of background as to why we take these things so seriously (as I think sometimes we come across as over cautious or panicking!). There's an artificial aortic valve in Mark's heart. He takes Warfarin (rat poison!) daily to keep his blood thin enough to pass over/through the valve easily without it becoming "sticky" (ie not functioning correctly). We were told after the surgery that any infection or illness can potentially affect his blood which could in turn cause a "sticky" valve. Unfortuantely if that happens, it means another open heart surgery to replace the valve - pretty big deal, something we'd prefer to avoid! SO, this is why we err on the side of caution at all times!!

Anyhow, off we went to the hospital. It took a while to get seen, and poor Mark was feeling dreadful. But it was finally his turn and they took him straight through, as he had a temperature (that'll be the infection!) and elevated heart rate. Ran an ECG - all good. The vampires arrived soon thereafter to take their samples for blood tests. Check this out... medical interns... I guess they have to learn, but Mark isn't really a willing pin cushion!!!

How many people does it take to draw blood?!?!
Half an hour later they filled their viles and got the canula in. WOW.

They decided to keep him in for IV antibiotics and fluid. Initially, they were saying 48 hours, but we both were secretly hoping that by the next day he'd be much better and they would send him home with oral AB's. 

Awwww, cuddles for unwell Daddy :-(

Friday afternoon, Al looked after Hannah for a couple of hours while I went back to the hospital, but Mark was pretty tired and I didn't stay long. I went back to Al's where they looked after Hannah and I with a lovely roast lamb dinner.

Friday night, I got a message from Mark saying he was feeling much better and requesting biscuits and chocolate in the morning!! I had just left Coles and was heading to the hospital with Hannah on Saturday morning, when he messaged again saying they were discharging him. YAY!!!

Thought I'd come to visit you Daddy but guess what?! I'm taking you home with me!

So that was that. Homeward bound, another 24 hours of taking it easy and my man was back to his normal self! Lets not do that again soon thanks Mark!! xxx

Gastro Got my Girl!

At my birthday dinner on the Sunday, Al's step-son Tyler became quite ill. It turned out he must have had a gastro bug. Al came down with it on Monday night... and my poor Hannah was struck down on Tuesday lunch time, 29th May  :-( Other than a fever last Christmas/New Year time, and the normal common cold, she's never been ill. So it was quite a shock to both of us I think!

I knew something was up when my normally happy go lucky little girl started whinging and carrying on around 10.45am. I thought she might have just been hungry, so got her lunch ready early. She wouldn't eat a single bite. ALARM BELLS!!! Crying, rubbing her eyes and just not a very happy girl at all. All SO out of character. So I thought, maybe she's tired?! Got her into bed early at 11.45am. No sooner had I left the room and sat on the loo, and I heard an odd, unfamiliar, yet distinct sound of vomit hitting the carpet. OH NO! And so it began. Two bed changes within 40 minutes before I gave up on bed and brought her back downstairs. Where she continued to throw up on the kitchen floor. This was not looking good :-(

By 12.50pm, she was really starting to flag and I was dashing around trying to get organised to take her upstairs and cuddle her while she napped. She was nearly falling asleep on the floor!

The vomiting did subside by the evening and came only randomly for the next couple of days, but not a lot. Just a very lethargic, unwell, unhappy, sleepy baby girl :-( 

Not feeling very crash hot :-(

Zonked

Just having a quiet play

Then zonking again

Awake and loving the Hydralyte blocks

Just absolutely broke my heart :-(

Time for another nap

Started Tuesday lunch time... Friday morning she did throw up her breakfast but was basically back to her normal self. Just in time for Mummy to have a much needed break the next day for my birthday girls night away! Good timing Hannah, thank you bubba ;-) xx

My 34th (ouch!) Birthday

Sunday 27th May was my 34th birthday :-)

We kicked off with a trip to Windsor markets in the morning, where I bought an entire outfit for dinner that evening... leggings, singlet and a cardigan for the bargain price of $54!! My new long black boots which were my birthday present were sitting at home waiting to complete the ensemble! We also secured some purple hairclips for Hannah to match her outfit. I was praying the lady with the hair accessories would be there... and she was. Phew! Otherwise Hannah would have worn PINK clips with her PURPLE outfit!! 

After our exhaustive shopping (!!) it was time for a coffee.

Stiring our drinks!

Yum yum!

Then we went home for Hannah's nap so she was well rested for dinner that night!

We headed to The Brewery for celebratory drinks and a meal... it was a really nice afternoon/evening :-)

Me and my girl on my birthday - one of my favourite photos :-)

Hannah (sporting one of the new clips!) and Hunter aka Biscuit, waiting for some food to arrive

Me and my BFF :-)

Me and Anji

My "cake" :-D

Cheers!

All in all, a lovely day :-)

BUT THAT WASN'T ALL!!!! Al's present was a surprise... all I knew was that I had to have an overnight bag packed the following Saturday afternoon, for a girly night away. HOW EXCITING!!

She took me to the Fairmont Resort in the Blue Mountains. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!! We had a twin share room and a table booked in Eucalypt restaurant for dinner, and breakfast the next morning. I was thoroughly spoilt - so very lucky. Thank you Al xxx

Hotel foyer/reception area

Our room

LOL... I was the partner of Mrs Courtney for the evening!!!!

Anyone need a glass?!

I had the Spatchcock, Al had the Lobster

I had the trout, Al had the Lamb.

Other than me being sick first up on Sunday morning and spending the day with a hangover (I'm such a light weight!) it was perfect!! And can I just clarify... we shared 2 bottles of wine over the whole afternoon and evening, and I drank water. Oh well. I tried!!

Thanks again Al for an amazing birthday present :-) xx

 

Feeding the ducks...

As per usual, I'm behind on my blogging... *tut*!! I go back through my photos and think "oh yeh, I didn't blog about that yet"!!! Aaaaaaanyhoo. This one goes back to Sunday 20 May (not yet a month - I've done well!). We took Hannah down to Pughs Lagoon to feed the ducks. 

Hmmm. It's meant to be for the ducks!!

Beautiful black swan

Come'n geddit!

Nothing exciting or crazy happened, but I just wanted to capture the first time Hannah went to feed the ducks :-)

Happy Mother's Day to me :-)

I had a LOVELY Mother's Day :-) 

The day kicked off with Hannah handing me my Mother's Day card, her little hand clutching the envelope, holding it out to me and looking at me with big beautiful innocent eyes, and then when I took it and said "Thank you bubba!" she put her arms out and gave me a big hug. OH MELT!!!!!!

We headed out straight after breakfast to Darling Harbour. It was a bit chilly and windy, but beautiful and sunny. A coffee was first up! I love going into Starbucks!!

We sat outside in the sunshine enjoying the gorgeous view and our coffee. I'd also bought a plain bagel to share, which was SO dry and stale that Mark took it back in disgust. I'm glad I wasn't with him in the shop when he went back to complain, I'd have been so embarrased!! :-/ OH DEAR!! He came back with a croissant... which wasn't fantastic, but was a 10000% improvement on the stale bagel!

Anyhoo, LOL, here we are enjoying our coffee and croissant!!

 My gorgeous girl (with a bit of the stale bagel!!)

Awwwww :-)

I got lots of lovely cuddles!

Rubbing noses!!

After our coffee, we went into the Harbourside shops to buy my present... new Ugg boots! I was very excited about this... my old ones have lasted FOUR YEARS!! Well, I wouldn't say lasted, they probably past the point of acceptable at least 12 months ago!! Definitely time for a new pair... and we got them at a great marked down price too. HAPPY DAYS!

These photos are when we got home, but while I'm talking about my present - here they are :-)

Perfect, and being put to good use already :-)

After out shopping expedition, we headed to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. This place is amazing! It seats over 500 people. HUGE. We got a lovely table inside out of the cold wind but right by the window overlooking the harbour. Perfect :-)

View from our table - in front of me

The view over my right shoulder!

Hannah had some fun with the colouring in picture and crayons... mainly trying to eat the crayons, as is her want. But was quite fascinated in Daddy doing some colouring!!

Don't go outside the lines Daddy!

LOVE!

Mummies received a glass of complimentary champagne, and our meals were delicious. 

Cheers!

My yummy beef Fajitas! (No calorie counting on Mother's Day!!)

Mark's Legendary 10 oz. Burger

After lunch we went for another walk around the harbour, along Cockle Bay Wharf and around past the Aquarium and Wildlife park, and Hannah got to stroke a blue tongue lizard. Well, actually she tried to grab him :-O YIKES!!

We headed for home after that and it wasn't long until my little poppet zonked.

We finishsed the day off with afternoon tea in our favourite cafe, Sassafras, in the local village near home.

All in all, one very happy Mummy :-) Thank you Mark and Hannah for making it such a wonderful day xxx

A wrap on our week

Monday... catch-up day after a weekend out and about. 55 million loads of washing later, we've all got clean clothes, sheets and towels, etc etc!

Tuesday... swimming first up this morning. It's one of the highlights of our week, Hannah LOVES it :-) We were a bit late this morning, thanks to a rear-ender in North Richmond, which had all been moved off the road but of course everyone was slowing down for a look. We got into the water just as they'd sang the first Humpty Dumpty Sat on a wall and had a great fall and started swimming across the pool. LOL!

We spent an hour outside this afternoon, before it started getting chilly. Hannah loves sitting and playing with the stones (not in your mouth, Hannah! Repeat x 1000) and walking up and down the deck with the walker we borrowed from Biscuit. She's getting really nifty at swinging that thing around now to change direction and not crash into things - impressive!! She even walked on carpet pushing the doll stroller the other day... not much support for her there, so she's getting stronger and balance is getting better. I was kinda hoping she'd be walking by 18 months, but that's only a couple of weeks away, so we might be pushing it a bit!!

Better go chuck some pasta on the boil to go with the bolognaise sauce that Mark has just made. Yuuuuum.

Wednesday... we kicked the day off with a walk after breakfast this morning with Al & Biscuit. 40 minutes and raised a sweat - go us! We have decided it's time to stop being so "over-indulgent" (to put it politely) and get a grip on the healthy eating again. So we're doing it together. I have stayed within my calories today, so I'm off to a good start! 

I did a bit of work at lunchtime while Hannah slept and then we went back out in the gorgeous warm sunny afternoon to the park to meet Al & Biscuit again. Nice! Biscuit is so cute and is always asking for "Nannah"!!! Love it!

Mark is off to Melbourne early tomorrow morning for a sales conference, so we will be flying solo until late Friday night :-(

Thursday... Hannah and I went op-shopping for a pair of jeans for me... because my other ones are too tight! THE SHAME! So I paid $8 for a pair of "fat jeans" which I don't intend to be wearing for very long!

We went down to the park for an hour in the afternoon. The weather is just stunning at the moment, it's way too nice to stay inside!

FRIDAY! YAY! We were supposed to be going to Featherdale Wildlife Park today with some of our Mum's group friends, but one of the bub's is really sick, so we postponed it til next week, and a few of us met at a park this morning instead. 

Daddy/Mark is home tonight from Melbourne. I think Hannah has missed him... tonight, she said goodnight and blew a kiss to his photo on the wall - BLESS!

Some photos from this afternoon.... :-D

The bed hair queen!! And I love how she tucks her arms inside her sleeping bag!!

Helping to fill up the toilet roll holder

In it goes!

I thought it was quiet. Sitting on the dog's mat with ALL of the tissues pulled out of the box!

Oh!! Before I forget! While I was running Hannah's bath tonight, she was standing up at the bath and kept letting go to stand for a few seconds by herself!!!! HOW EXCITING!!!!

I am very much looking forward to this weekend... Sunday in particular. Mother's Day :-)