Heni and her roller coaster rides.

Ok.... so I've been AWOL here on the blog and haven't written anything for a number of weeks.... It's that time of year when everything gets crazy and there are far more things to do than time to do them in. Things like birthday prep for the Hungry boy and Daughter number 2, internet shopping for hours and hours to find the right gifts for everyone for Christmas....decorating the house, meeting up with friends to give out presents..... and then Heni goes and does her usual...
....she goes on the downward slippery slope and becomes ill!
 She does so love to have those extra long holidays and get a few more sneaky days off college!

She has been ill now for almost a week.... with the subtle signs of the downhill slide developing for at least a few weeks or so before that. It's the redness around her eyes and nose, the spots that develop on her face, the slightly increased tinge of blue in her lips, nose and fingers and the mischievous glint in her eye that becomes a little less sparkly that gives it away. Then the mucous develops and there are not so many smiles as usual and her energy and tolerance levels for anything and everything plummet and she has a general lack of oomph! Sometime you can catch it and nip it in the bud right there with a few extra supplements, a little longer sleep and rest, some herbal remedies and extra long cuddles. 



Unfortunately at other times her immune system gets so low that It then progresses to where we've been the last few days, when she "zones out" to things that are going on around her and goes inwards to fight. The mucous gets stuck in her airways and she struggles to get it out, she has episodes where her oxygen saturation plummets in to the 30- 40% range.... and we end up increasing her O2 flow rate and endlessly tipping and percussing her over our knee. This is when we increase the nebulising sessions and bring out the "big guns" - (the stash of medication that we keep on hand in the cupboard  for such an eventuality)....to fight off the bugs that seem to take over her being. It's a time when we have tried to allow her body to heal by itself, but it doesn't actually seem to be doing that. These are reserved for the times you know that it is only going to get worse if it's left any longer. 
It always somehow seems to manifest itself at a time when we are also at our lowest resilience point too and it makes it extra hard to cope with... so we get another stretch of the "endurance muscle" and try to look for the positives...the slower pace, the stillness to think (and try not to worry) and hours of amazing cuddles. 

One day later after only three doses of medication, her eyes are brighter, her skin less red, she's started to smile again and is making her wishes known...
She is still needing to be tipped and bashed and nebulised more and needs extra care but she is heading in the right direction again....we are hopefully on the up again!
I don't ever dare to count how many times she goes up and down... sometimes the dips are quick and steep and you can't tell they are coming, other times you can see them a mile off and can prepare yourself a little better for their arrival and hold on for the ride...sometimes you even get double dips with an extra twist in that you never expected...they are the worst!
I hate roller coasters at the best of times... they make me nauseous and I just make a policy to not go on them...unfortunately sometimes it's not quite that simple in life.  

So here we are again.... seems like Deja vu.... didn't this happen on the run up to last Christmas too?

Anyhow, I guess if excuses are needed for not writing... then I hope you will agree that I have a valid one... I've been busy cuddling, and loving my baby and fighting her corner... and I'm now waiting patiently for her cheeky hair pulls and pinches to return... then I'll know that we are back at the top of the ride....
Jx