Just the two coolest kids you know....

Hello. This short post will start and end with photos of the two cool kids....

Buffy takes a  photo of Ollie every month (and will do until he's 2) and this month, she created this masterpiece...or at least Ollie did!. The attitude, the sideways look, the nonchalance. It's all there. He is going to be a handful when he grows up!! 

It has been a hectic last couple of weeks....

The snow has finally relented and disappeared to be replaced by lovely, warm, bright sunny weather - except for now when that lovely, warm bright sunny weather has been replaced by sunless grey skies and retain - which I actually love! 

The biggest news from the last few weeks is COVID. After trying to get ill for two years, just to get some well earned time off work, we finally managed to get the 'rona! 

It all started on Saturday when I woke up with a headache and cough. I took a test that morning but showed a negative. We had a counselling session set up for that morning and it was very important, so we went and I wore a medical-grade mask, just in case. I wore the mask all weekend and actually felt a little better by Sunday evening - But come Monday morning I was a lot worse. I know a lot of people have had Covid and it always seems to present differently. For me, it was a constant headache, sore throat, cough and stuffed sinuses. The worst thing though was just feeling really tired and unable to do much without getting short of breath. I stayed in bed all day Monday and took another test in the evening, which showed I was now positive! Nice - I now feel like I am actually part of something! hahaha

Anyway, Buffy took a test on Tuesday morning and she was positive too. So we tested Hannah and Oliver too - Hannah was positive but Oliver was negative! We did more tests throughout the week - here's a small sample!

Anyway, I was still too ill to work and as the recommendation is to stay home anyway, we all stayed home for the week - venturing out to do 'Park-Crawls'. Obviously, we didn't want to pass on anything to anyone else, but cooped up in the house on lovely spring days was driving us mad - So we packed the car and headed out of town, to some parks where the kids could play - But only if there was no one else there. We told Hannah to keep an eye open for people and that we would find another park if anyone else came to the open we were at - Hence the Park Crawl! Hannah loved the idea and would run back to eth car when people arrived, happily looking out for new parks as we drove around! 

We ended up doing about 6 or 7 parks in 3 days, which was fun but also wasted a lot of time - It was a lot less tiring than vegging at the house and the fresh air obviously did us some good too. Plus Oliver and Hannah had fun in the parks and riding her bike! (Yep - Ollie gave it a try!)

By Thursday evening I was feeling a lot better and so I picked up some equipment from work when there was no one around so I could work from home on Friday. It took Buffy another couple of days to feel better and Hannah too. The whole week was really tiring, but it felt a little like a family holiday - so it wasn't all bad!

Driving past the floodwaters to get out of the city

Fresh air and lunch!

Bike

We played in the front and back garden

Ollie tried to escape of course

Apart from the Covid, it's been a relatively pain free and news free week or two (I suppose that happens when you have to stay at home with your kids or at least go places where there's no one else about). One little bit of news did happen today though....

It was Hannah's 4 months check-up with the plastic surgeon who did the initial fix on Hannah's face back on January 16th - the 'night' of the 'bite'. Buffy met Dr Price on that night and also went to the follow up check up a couple of months ago, so today was the first time I had had the chance to meet him and ask questions. He is actually a really quietly spoken gentleman, with either a soft Australian or South African type accent. It was hard to tell as he speaks so carefully and quietly. 

Anyway, he is very happy with Hannah's progress - the scars are healing nicely. It will require a small 20-minute surgery to correct the lump that has formed at the corner of her mouth - this is where the injury was sewn up and the pressure of the repair has caused a small bump to form. It's nothing unexpected or unusual and the short surgery will cut it out and Hannah should recover in a few days - coming home the same day of the procedure. That won't get done till late this summer at the earliest and may even get left till sometime next year. Overall though she is doing fantastic. 

One really great thing for me though was to speak with Dr Price and get the opportunity to ask to see photos of Hannah that were taken by the medics on the night of the bite. It's something I have needed to do for a long time as my memory of the night is fraught with stress and trauma. 

I have needed to see it because I believed it would help me. I'll explain....

If the injury was worse than I had imagined on the night, then the fact that she has recovered so well would make me feel great. If the injury wasn't as bad as my memory tells me it was, then I would be relieved about that and that fact would also make me feel better. Mainly though, I just had to see it - not to gawp or boast, but to get the facts clear in my head and lock it away into the 'done' part of my brain. I can then move on and look forward.

I thought about describing exactly what I saw in those photos today. But after some back and forth with myself.  I decided that YOU just do not need to know the details. What I will tell you is that the injury was horrific. It was much much much worse than I remembered it being on the night. I was so distraught and traumatised on that night that I believe my memory somehow lied to me and presented a better version so as not to haunt my dreams.  

Our crazy little knobhead girl was very very lucky. I don't ever want to see anyone I love hurt so much and so badly ever again - It really was a truly, truly horrific injury. If I did tell you the details, it would be difficult to describe and still wouldn't do justice to just how bad it really was. But for me, seeing it today - whilst I had a clear head and mind gave me such an uplifting feeling of relief, love and sheer joy I cannot describe it. I was close to tears - Not sad tears, but happy relieved tears. 

Hannah sat next to me as we waited for Buffy to pick us up after the appointment and I looked at her and her injury in a completely different way for the first time. With a crystal clear picture of where we have come from - the absolutely horrendous life-changing mess she was in that night to the minor scar that remains now. I am so thankful that Dr Price did what he did. It is unbelievable that the before and after photos are of the same person. It's unbelievable that her injuries were repaired so well. I honestly do not know how he took what happened that night and fixed it up so well. It is breathtaking and uplifting and joyous and I am so glad I had the chance to get everything straight in my head for the first time in 4 months. I will sleep well tonight!

Dr Price also said that around the year to 18-month mark, the body stops pushing blood and chemicals to the scar as it no longer sees it as an injury - the scar effectively gets left alone. The redness will slowly clear away and become more skin coloured. Ths lump will be removed as I said earlier and although she will always have some sort of scar, it will become less and less apparent. There are the treatments such as silicon scar gel and if needed laser scar removal. She has lots of choices and we will make sure she has the means to take whatever route she wants. Here's a recent picture of our crazy little girl...