General Chat

Hello everyone :-)

Poor little Esme and what a worry for you all. Esme and her mum are often in my thoughts. I'm so glad there aren't any major heart defects although I know there are still concerns about her health.

Wow Sylvia - you will be glad to get your house back to normal :-0

Hi Jem - good to see you back.

Oh dear, I am sorry that you are feeling so ill Jem

Eve was only three at the end of June. She doesn't start school until next September and when she does, she will be one of the youngest in the year group. She is fine, she goes to nursery three days a week and has just moved up into the top room which they call pre school

I am sorry to read about Esme's troubles, so exasperating when they are so little and not knowing how long all this will go on for and what they will do next to ensure her progress will improve.

Medical breakthroughs and new ideas have come a long way over the years and there is much more hope and we see proof in this later on when the little ones start running around.

Then there is Tec who couldn't even get an ulcerated leg treated properly.

So many steps forward and them leap frogging over each other to do better and other treatment of everyday occurrences getting overlooked.

So today we are going to the podiatrist, himself can no longer manage to cut his toe nails and wants me to do it. I have tried but get so many instructions about what to do and I don't think we have the right implements... plus I do not like feet.. so we are going to find out what we need to purchase and how to go about it. I think maybe anaesthetic would be in order.. not for him but for me.. The podiatrist tells me he loves feet .. well I guess you would, to be in that line of work.

(glad I reread that I had typed and once me to do it instead of wants.... amazing how the fingers do their own interpretation)

Persie

Hi Linda

How is Eve getting on. Hasn't she just started school?

Hi Tec

So so Tec! The symptoms to do with the spondylosis are very bad. I've never been a sweater , but I am literally soaking one minute and freezing the next. The terrible tiredness is awful too. Of course you would know all about that too!

I also have been having pins and needles and numbness in quite a lot of areas. With me, I can cope with a lot of pain and discomfort as long as I am not frightened. The worry of where it's all leading is the worst part for me.

I know that you are suffering terribly now. Also the worry of looking after the Duchess and the home must be awful. Hope the new antibios kick in soon.

Hello Jem, I am very fond of my holidays, we haven't been away as much this year as normal with Esme being ill

Hello Jemima,

Are you feeling any better? I hope so.

At least they are now able to identify a faulty gene, which wouldn't have been possible in the past.
I wonder why it takes so long to do this. Is it down to manpower and resources? or does the process of elimination simply take so long, regardless of resources?

Regardless of the reasons why, I hope they are concentrating on relieving Esme's symptoms, with regard to the feeding problem, and reflux, which must be awful for her.

Welcome Home Linda- :-)

I've just been reading about poor little Esme<3. I'm so sorry about all her problems. I do hope they will come up with the answer soon. Thinking about you all.

I had a read back this morning. You seem to have had a lovely holiday. I hope your batteries are recharged now! Sometimes you need a holiday to get over the holiday though don't you! :-D

Hi~~~~~Sue, Tec. Persie, Amanda, Diane, Huia, Berona, Sylvia hope I haven't left anyone out- Love Jem <3

The problem with these genetic syndromes is that there is no simple test, it can take a long time until they can identify a faulty gene and even when they do, it doesn't really help because it doesn't treat the symptoms, When Eve went to have her hair cut last week, her daddy was chatting to the hair dresser and it turned out that his daughter has a rare genetic syndrome, but it took them three and a half years to find the faulty gene.

Esme has tried different medicines which are supposed to help the reflux, but non of them seem to help so far

Poor little Esme - mixed fortunes, some good news, some uncertainty. There seems to be many positives in the tests so far, as they dismiss certain aspects of her condition. I expect as they come up with results of other tests they will eventually establish just what is wrong with her. Hopefully once they know, then action can be taken to correct the problem.
Feeding must be a nightmare for your daughter Linda, and uncomfortable for Esme. Maybe her weight will increase with the new formula, lets hope so.

Thank you for passing on news of Esme, I'm sure we all think of her.

I am glad that you managed to get some sleep Tec, onwards and upwards

My teeth were fine thank goodness.

Esme had her heart echo scan today, apparently lots of people turned up to look at it because they don't often have hearts on the wrong side pointing the wrong way. The student asked permission to have a print off for his portfolio.All the doctors so far have assured them she didn't' have a heart murmur, but this shows she has and it is caused by an extra blood vessel running between the Aorta and Pulmonary Artery. From what I have read all babies have this, but it closes up after birth, but hers hasn't. They don't seem worried about it and are just going to monitor it, they said that it shouldn't affect her.

There are no major defects which is good, the geneticist turned up to look at the results because they have been considering a particular genetic syndrome, but those babies almost always have a particular heart defect which she doesn't have
We are desperately hoping she doesn't have that because it is really nasty. They have done a blood test, but it takes weeks to get any results. They really don't know what she has, whatever it is must be very rare, it could take years for them to decide

In the meantime things are no better, she still won't take anything by mouth, she just screams if they try.All of her milk has to go in through the tube, but she has really bad acid reflux, so she arches back to try and get away from the pain and she is usually sick after she has been fed. They want her to put more weight on, so she is on a high calorie milk powder which is on prescription and that is mixed with her mums expressed milk.

Hello :-)

Lovely sunny day here in Wild Wales, no wind, and about 21 C.

I am a bit frustrated because it's a perfect day for catching up on a multitude of jobs in the garden. Everything looks overgrown, including the hedges either side, but I can't get out there to do anything - so the best thing is not to look at it.

Did get a few hours sleep last night. Got up at 6 am. Managed to get out to fill the bird feeders before they were up. If you feed the birds every day, they come to rely on you, and the same ones turn up every morning.

Been taking the strong pain killers every four hours, and antibiotics every eight hours. The pain killers seem to be working, until I move. Today I feel pretty awful, but it must be the effect of all the medication.

Linda I hope the dentist didn't find anything to do. My dentist is miles away, and I haven't been for nearly a year as I had to cancel last appointment. Must go soon.

Persie, I liked your recollections of Russell your cat. Sounds like he was a brave little character.
The Duchess suggested recently that we should have a cat now that we can't have another dog, but we can't because Taffy is very anti cat. He goes beserk if a cat appears in his garden. So it would be mayhem if we had one.
We could always have a hamster I suppose.
:-D

Sylvia you sound very busy with all the visitors. It is nice to see people though. My sister visited us last week. I hadn't seen her for eight years, so it was a very special day.

Berona - Pleased to see that you have found a doctor that you can get on with, it does make a difference. The possible family history connection may be interesting.
My doctor is retiring in November, although only in his mid fifties. He is rather abrupt in his manner, but that doesn't bother me, although a lot of people don't like him. No idea who will be my new doctor now.
Good that Kitty is there to remind you what the time is :-D

Hello everyone. Lovely day here. I finally got to meet my new doctor. We hit it off straight away and although I had no intention of talking about family history this early - it came up when I told her my daughter (who was there with us) had the same name as the doctor. So, it wasn't difficult to talk about her surname. She was very interested to know it was my birth name. It is actually her ex-husband's name but I think they might have been together for a long time. She told me she has a disc which his grandmother had supplied info for before she died, and she said something about typing it out for me. She seems very thorough and I have read on the internet that she favours the 'aging process'. Then, she sent me to have a blood test and when she saw the room was closed for lunch - came in and did it herself.

My cat can tell the time. She eats at 5.00pm. NOT 4.59 or 5.01 but on the dot! Comes in to wherever I am and does one miaow and just sits and stares. She only takes a few days to adjust to DST changes too!

I do the alter the recipes thing all the time and most things are out of my head... my father taught me to use whatever there was to hand.

Mum was always the cake baker, but surprisingly when she died he started to make all sorts of little cakes.. his visitors were impressed as they had always thought of him as a decent feed plus a pudding sort of a bloke. I knew he could make scones cause he made them in the army.

Persie

I have lots of recipes and tend to alter them depending on what ingredients I have to hand.

I think I am a bit old for sleeping on roofs

I did make sure the alarm clock was disabled, hence my later start this morning. Normally the radio on the TV comes on at 7am and we listen to a news programme on radio 4 called the Today programme, it keeps us up to speed on political things. I only use the alarm clock if I need a different time, but I can never remember how to set the thing and have to get the instructions out as it isn't obvious.

I need to go to the dentist now so enjoy the rest of your evening

Linda, Sylvs has room on her roof if you wish to go there..

Hope your alarm clock is feeling a lot better and no longer in a strop.

Think I better get this Chutney recipe from you and put it on Hobbies thread...

Persie

It is a good job, you have room to fit everyone in Sylvia, you are going to need a holiday once they all go

Your cat sounds a real character Persie

It is a damp grey morning here, I hope it picks up as I have washing to hang out which can't be tumble dried.

I am having a very lazy start to the day, OH has already gone to the allotment and plans to be there all morning. I have to go to the dentist later on, just for a check up, so that won't take long as it is just around the corner.

I will have to go back to the supermarket as well as I need extra ingredients for the chutney I need to make,

Hi Sue, and everyone


we've had our first storm ......... pouring rain over Saturday night and into Sunday, then intermittent showers, cloudy and some sun.


I'm glad to see that Tec has finally got the correct antibiotics. I do hope that he soon feels the beneficial effect of them


Welcome home, Linda. I'm glad that you enjoyed your holiday.


This is the week of the visitors for us.

We knew that daughter and her son were arriving on Friday night for a week .......... I bought the ticket for them :-D

She wanted to travel red-eye, so they arrive at 11:30 pm at night, which will actually be about 3:30 am their time.

Then we knew about the friends who emailed some weeks ago to ask if they could stay for the night on the next night ............. offered the hide-a-bed in the computer room, they said they liked that bed, and anyway they would like to see daughter and grandson. We knew they will arrive about 11:30 pm Saturday after having been to the theatre to see "War Horse"


We did NOT know that OH's sis would ask to come stay from Wednesday until Friday!!

She has been down here since Sunday 22nd and saying with her son, having some follow-up tests done at the Cancer Agency. She saw a gastroenterologist on Monday morning, and he wants to do a colonoscopy on Thursday morning ........... it's actually the same guy that OH goes to.

So she wants to move over to stay with us so that OH can take her and pick her up, and we can watch her.

We do not know what time she will arrive here on Wednesday!


That will be I think every set of sheets in use ........ anyone else comes, they will get a very interesting mix of odds and sods that I have in the linen cupboard!!

A mauvish fitted sheet and a bright yellow flat sheet, with purplish-mauve pillow cases, for example :-D

No idea how I ended up with such a mish-mash :-S



take care everyone!



s
xx

I think I may have mentioned about a person I used to work with.. Her cat would go next door every night at 9.30pm for a Milo... the neighbour went on holiday so friend made Milo for Sam and Sam would not touch it.. went next door and waited and then came home.

Our cat Russell we inherited somehow from a deceased estate. He has a bit of Burmese in him and must have been in an accident at some time as one rear leg was slightly bent (my father said that he did not have his trousers on straight). He didn't like to go outside where we lived except when he had to. He had to have vet treatment and afterwards he meowed at door to go out.. I opened door he went down the front steps, next minute he is back inside again and meowing so I went to door and he went down the steps, I went back inside and back he came and got me. I had to go around the back to his toilet area with him and wait.

Later he used to go in dirt area under the house behind the walk through area...but he would not come when you called him when you were going shopping etc unless you rattled the keys so he could go into the safety of the garage.

When we moved house he loved it and was outside up on the shed roof down the back, in the yard everywhere, completely different attitude.

We would take him up north to stay with the in laws and we would stop on the way for a meal. He would stay in the car and hold on till we got there about 4 hours or so later. If we ate in the car he would immediately get off whoever he had been sitting on and sit on the floor until we had finished and never touch a drop of food or water either until we got there.

He used to visit my father on a Sunday with us and as soon as dad got up off his dining chair he would hop on it.. it was the only one with a cushion and it was warm. When we came back over the bridge at night he would sit on my knee and look out the window bobbing his head up and down so he could see between the railings.

He had a lovely nature, he would not even kill a mouse would play with them then let them go. He also would let the kitten from next door come over and eat his biscuits. They also had a dog when we first went there and we thought uh oh.. but no dog got a whack on the nose and that was the end of it.

I hope you did not stomp your foot too hard to get attention Tec.. don't want to make your leg worse.

Persie