Monday 31 March 2008


Thought it was about time I did an update......

We went to Barcelona for a few days over Easter. The reason we originally went was because our friends daughter was in a European dance festival. However, they couldn't tell us where their accomodation was until two days before we left and we decided to just arrange our own and make our own way to the dance festival.

We met with them at the airport only to find out that they were based in Lloret de mar, thankfully we had booked a lovely hotel near the Marina in Barcelona itself (I went to Lloret when i was a teenager and it nearly put me off Spain for life).



We had already planned to take Adam to the Barcelona football ground as he is an avid fan of Thierry Henry and it was his birthday whilst we were away (Adams not Thierrys... well it could have been, I don't know).




Our hotel was really nice and we looked right over the marina and was above a whole bunch of seafood restaurants. We got a train and a taxi from the airport and it was very easy to get to our destination.

We visited an aquarium, did some shopping, ate out loads, went to the football ground, did an open top bus journey, went on a cable car, drank coffee in Las Ramblas (a bit like our Covent garden) and went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We had so much shell fish that I think there might be a shortage for this summers tourists. It wasn't wonderfully warm, we needed coats, but it was much nicer than being at home.



Grace had a great time,she found it very tiring and we haven't done much this week at her request. Yesterday we did a bm test as she was a bit lethargic after going for a walk with her brother and sisters at Coombe Abbey (a local beauty spot) it was 6.00pm she hadn't eaten since 2.30 and we thought we should do the test before she ate. It read 6.1, I presuming that that was ok, I can't quite remember, but we logged it anyway with the reason for testing. She has quite a dirty cough at the moment, which is unusual for Grace, coughing is something that is not high on her list of problems, but the breathlesness is slowly sneaking back in. I am wondering how long it will take her lungs to get back to the state they were in before her bronchoscopy.

I haven't been to the gym for a week, but I am going tomorrow morning and really looking forward to it, especially a swim.

As for the dance festival, they did really well and won some cups and medals. Shame we didn't get to see any of it, but we had a great time all the same.

I will put some photos of Barcelona on the blog, but they are from my phone as I forgot the camera.

Monday 17 March 2008

I've been to the gym this morning. I ran about 4.5k and then did some other stuff- tummy work and leg work. Apparently I should have kept running and ran away......

I've got a really stressful headache now and my eyes are stinging, and all because of children.... one of them falls out with boyfriends, has shouting matches on the phone when everyone is in bed, works all week to earn money to pay for a trip next month only to put it in the bank and still be £20 over drawn, the other bullies the life out of another one and they can't be trusted to be left alone in a room together, one of them gets into trouble for saying the 'f' word in school because they were reciting something from South Park that they had heard from an older ones mobile phone.......

Where do I go wrong? I try hard to be reasonable in my explanations and when I have to repeat myself for the same thing over and over, so that I am realised by my family as a sensible parent that sees both sides of every situation, but they don't seem to take any notice until I SHOUT!!! until then my parenting skills are classed as 'a pushover'............. so I'm going up to bed now with a big fat bar of chocolate, a book and a nice cup of tea and they can all get arrested or something.

Friday 14 March 2008

Grace finished IV's yesterday. Its been a bit of a week, and she only managed to do Tuesday at school.

Monday was rough, we went horse racing at Warwick on Sunday and Grace ran about all day, its nice to see her running around and climbing on things, but I knew that she would wear herself out, and true to form on Monday morning I couldn't get her out of bed and she was very teary. She returned to school Tuesday, but her teacher said that she had a few grey episodes throughout the day.

On Tuesday evening we had tummy upsets again and she was very teary saying that she was just so exhausted she couldn't believe it. I have since read a thread on the CF forum that meropenum has caused others the same problem. Also the fact that her dose has gone up probably adds to the effect. So there has been no school Wednesday and Thursday morning when her port access was removed, she got into a terrible state as pressure sore had developed without us noticing and it was positively scabbed over the white plasticky square bit that holds the needle in place and she ensured me that it had positively ripped out her insides along with the needle, resulting in a very funny turn and another grey episode and lots of tears.

Today we thought, what the hell, lets make a whole week of it and do gastrografin today as its been due so that she can hopefully return to school on Monday ready for the week and not having anything else to upset her. Grace is not normally like this by any means so I don't think there has been any shirking involved even though she doesn't tend to complain about anything for the rest of the day, but she is then able to just sit around and do nothing much. I suppose it is different if you have to physically force yourself to join in school activities if you feel like crap!

I'v had a little flutter this week as it has been the Cheltenham festival and had 3 winners so far, although not great prices, infact I did better on an each way 2nd called Miko de Beauchene. I have also picked a horse in every race with a stake of £20 and the winner over the entire festival wins the prize money which stands at £140

A win secures 10 points and 2nd 6 points and 3rd 3 points - I currently have 38 points and am in 3rd place, my husband is in first place obviously.

I was meant to start Salsa classes last Monday, but being the busy week that it has been and also having another lodger back at home, I completely forgot, and the very nice people at the local sports centre have agreed to let us start this Monday, so watch this space.

On the subject of hectic weeks. The instruction manual to the eflow reccommends that the 'head' be boiled after each use, Grace has 5 nebulisers a day, she has Dnase at 4.oopm which isn't a problem because thats a once a day dose and can only be used for dnase (some enzyme type reason thingy) but the hypertonic and tobi are done through the same head. This means that it needs to be washed and boiled before and after physio and its meant to have 4 hours drying time.

4.00pm - dnase
6.00pm - hypertonic saline
7.00pm - toby

Followed by washing and boiling again to get it dry in time to take up to bed with us ready for hypertonic at 7.00am and toby at 8.00 am before school.

My point is, is this total rubbish? or does everyone do this between nebs? I feel like i'm forever putting things in and taking them out of a saucepan. I'm going to buy a steam sterilizer but I still think there is an issue with the drying times.

Wednesday 5 March 2008

Grace is a week into her IV's, she is doing fine and her clinic appointment was good. Her lung functions was 63%, so not bad, not as good as last time, but still not bad. Her overnight saturations were again border line, but as she seems to be doing quite well presently, overnight oxygen will be reviewed in 6 months time.

I got carried away on Monday morning and forgot to stop running on the treadmill and kept going for an hour in which time I did 7.4k! and only stopped then because I needed a wee.

I'm not going to the gym now until Friday to give my poor old fatigued legs a rest and also because I have so many other things to do this week that I can't fit it in.

Small update I know, but sadly ironing, housework and general laundry and gardening don't make for interesting reading, except for maybe the leopard print wellies I got for Mothers day!! (How about that welly fettish friend?) if you play your cards right I might put photos of myself wearing them in the garden.