Thursday, February 8, 2024

656, 657 + 552, 553 Weeks

It has been a busy two weeks!  We got down to the Gold Coast for a little vacation, and it was a success!  It worked because there was a good amount of downtime for the kids.  We went out to dinner on the first night, then the next day we went to Wet n Wild, which was the whole point of the trip.  It was almost a disaster, but ended up going well.  The first ride we went on was a four-person ride that took you through a tube slide and then shot you into this giant dome funnel thing that sent the raft scaling the walls.  The look on Arley's face was priceless, and so were Carmie's screams.  Haha.  For the second ride we had to carry these heavy rafts up all the stairs, and when we got to the top, Carmie vomited.  Classic Carmie.  They had to call a 'code brown' over their walkie-talkies.  LOL.  While this was going on, Arley was holding up the ride because he was too scared to go on it.  So he's with Jeff who's in the raft at the top, and Arley's refusing to get in the raft, but Jeff can't go without him.  Ugh.  We had to wait until both kids calmed down, and we almost just left.  Carmie felt a little better and went down the ride with Jeff, and I had to coerce Arley into our raft, which took ten minutes, with everyone commenting behind me how bad they felt for him.  But I knew if he didn't go down this slide, he wouldn't go down any of them.  He did it, loved it, and his fear didn't rear its head again for the whole day.  The day ended up being really fun, and really exhausting.  The rest of our time away we just swam in the pool where we were staying and played games together.  It was a good, bonding family time.

As I always mention, Carmie hasn't been feeling so hot lately.  The kids had a paed appointment last week.  Arley is doing great weight-wise and meds-wise, so no changes there.  Carmie, on the other hand, had to get more bloods drawn, and she also had to get an ultrasound on her stomach.  The ultrasound results came back clear, but her bloods weren't good.  Her iron is at the very low of the normal range, which is really good for her as she's not anemic anymore, however her coeliac tTG number was elevated.  It is supposed to be under 10 (under 4 for non-coeliac), but last September hers was 30.  Carmie's endo said to wait a year because it was still on the way down from the original number, but now it's gone up to 50, and we have no idea why.  We are fastidious when it comes to keeping her gluten free.  So now she is booked in to see her endocrinologist and she's going to have to get a scope, which we've been trying to avoid.  It goes to show that when she's not acting/feeling well, there is something going on in the background that we need to address.  Poor thing, I hate that she has to deal with this.

Arley has started his Invisalign treatment.  I have heard from two different sources (one is our paed) that the first week to ten days of Invisalign are awful.  I was really worried but didn't tell Arley because I didn't want him to refuse to get them.  He has been fine!  On the second day he told me his front teeth were starting to hurt, so I gave him some Panadol, and they have been completely fine ever since.  He says he can barely notice it at all.  If only they had Invisalign back when I had braces!!

The kids have still had their therapies and activities.  I have come to realise that my full time job is organising the kids' schedules, driving them to activities, helping them through therapies, and keeping our family from dissolving into chaos.  It is full on. I also help Jeff with his guitar school. I have given myself permission to not worry about creating artwork, because I simply don't have the time.  One of these days!

My youngest kid brother, Jay, is here on vacation from Bali.  He brought his girlfriend Erika with him.  They spent the morning here.  Tomorrow we are taking the kids bowling with them.  It is really good to see Jay again, and Erika is lovely.

I'm sure there is more, as I haven't updated in two weeks, but my brain is a little frazzled and I have to get dinner on!
















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