the adlards

Sophie recognised me this evening for the first time, sat up and asked for a cuddle. She’s clearly doing much better. Her paediatrician is not happy with her level of mobility (she’s slept pretty much all day) and so Sophie is still in hospital. She drank a couple of bottles this afternoon but still isn’t eating. Michelle is with her again tonight.

Josie is doing OK. Missing her sister – as she told me having got herself up and dressed this morning and come creeping into our room to ask if she could go and read her books in the lounge. She is, of course, quite unsettled and was up four or five times in the night. She’s been running a fever too and is on antibiotics.

We’re hoping Soph will be out tomorrow … not counting our chickens though.

Sophie is making progress. Everything looked fine on the MRI (except for a little sinus congestion) and an EEG will be scheduled once she’s up and about. She is still withdrawing from the sedatives she was given yesterday, but is gradually waking up properly. She had a little to drink earlier today, which is encouraging – she won’t be released until she’s eating, drinking and walking. She is in quite a lot of discomfort at the moment, some of which has been eased by locally anaesthetising the lumbar puncture area and adjusting her drip. When those two things had been done she started allowing us to touch her!
The nursing staff are very supportive, which helps a lot.

I got my wish to be back home. Michelle called me at the hotel at 3.15 this morning to tell me Sophie had been admitted to hospital having suffered at least two seizures. Michelle – as you might imagine – had had a fairly torrid few hours first at home, then at emergency, then winding up on the paediatric ward where she could phone me. I got a car at 4 for a plane at 6 and joined her at the hospital at 9 (work has been wonderfully supportive) by which time Sophie had had a lumbar puncture and blood tests, all of which were clear except for the signs of infection that were expected from the dose of tonsilitis she has. What worries her doctors is that she had more than one seizure and that the seizure in emergency was in one side of her body only.

Shortly after I arrived we went in for an MRI scan but she was moving too much so we went back to the paed ward for more sedation. The second attempt at MRI was succesful and we await the results of that set of scans.

Since late morning Michelle and I having been taking it in turns to stay at the hospital. Michelle’s staying over tonight – just to give me time to get something sorted for Valentines Day of course. If this goes on another day the costs of critical medical care for our child in South Africa will (just) exceed the cost of medical care for Ben & Anna’s dog in the US – so there’s something to be thankful for. That and insurance …

while I switched hotel rooms. I am now ensconced in a very comfortable hotel (it’s not the Ritz-Carlton but everything is 24 hours) overlooking the Union Buildings in Pretoria. I’d not seen them before in real life and there they are gazing imposingly at you in through the window and over my left shoulder.

But what really brings me back, somewhat unwilling, to this old CTS device is to let you know that we’ve moved into our house! At last!

It feels very strange to be responsible for a house again. We hadn’t realised we’d slipped into irresponsibility but on day one following the move both Michelle and I very clearly felt overawed by the responsibility of keeping a house again after four months off. I think it’s also just hard to believe it’s all really ours.

The moving van arrived promptly on Friday morning and was all unloaded by lunchtime. Thanks to tireless efforts from Carolyn (and others), everything was out of boxes by the end of Friday. By the end of Saturday light fittings were up (thanks Paul) and order was beginning to descend slowly on the House Without a Name. I’ll have to work on that.

I still can’t believe the amount of work Michelle got done while I was away. The house is looking stunning. I’d certainly rather be there right now …

After last night’s function I spent an hour on the beach. It was a crystal clear night and the moon was low over the water directly out to sea. I was the only person there (perhaps unsurprisingly at that hour).

It was exceptionally beautiful. I sat in the sand and thunk for about an hour and enjoyed every minute.

Today’s flying time again. I don’t relish another 30-hour trip. I do look forward to getting home. very much.

we finished the sanding today, managed to clean the mountains of dust and put down a layer of the infamous universal undercoat. 4 rooms and a hall are now a murky white colour ready for their top coat of floor paint – heres hoping it will look lovely.

plan to have finished the floors completely tomorrow, the coats only need 2 hours to dry:)

just had a hot bath some arnica tabs and some painkillers, hoping to wake up as fresh as a daisy.

today i discovered that all the sanding i did on my knees was worthless, hadnt scratched the varnish – completeley without point. i had to go and rent a sanding machine and enough sand paper that i could almost not lift the roll. R800 worth of roll.

i always find it interesting to step into a man’s domane, and very thretening, those places that change tyres, mechanics, electronic supply shops. the hire shop was no different. lots of men, lots of tools and machines and not a freindly colour or soft furnishing in sight. i wished i had worn something more masculine than my dirty black polo shirt. they were all very sweet (i think i earned a certain amount of respect for having tried to sand the floors on my knees and was treated without any patronisation.) showed me what to do etc etc.

we finally got started around 4. gerry did a superb job of sanding the edges to a beautiful smooth finish (hope he doesnt notice the edging i did when he had left which isnt quite up to spec). Paul sanded the middle of the room(after we had spent an hour trying to get the ruddy thing to sand level – twiddling the screwy thing in and out in and out) and we were all done by 7, well the lounge any way. carol said we had to stop cos it was too loud. it was very loud – my ears are still ringing, so i will take ear plugs tommorrow.

at last it feels like i am getting some where albeit very slowlyand covered in a thick shroud of dust. so thick it looks like beach sand banked up in places. and the bag on the sander that is suposed to collect 85 % of the dust doesnt. maybe 40%. maybe.

spend an hour at sophies new physio today which was lovely. sophie really enjoyed it which is good seeing as we will be going weekly. i got some great ideas of way to excersize various parts of sophs body. eager to put them into practice i filled a bowl with soapy water for the girls to blow bubbles (i know some of you are way ahead of me on this one) jo sucked, drank water, drank milk, ate a coconut square then spewed all over the kitchen. point taken.

aka watching the Superbowl on an array of big screens in the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton while drinking dirty martinis and eating spicy chicken wings. I do not understand the game. I do not intend to make the time to come to understand the game. Some of the advertisements were good – there was a cracking Snickers ad which had me laughing hard while trying to have a coherent conversation on the phone with Ben.

I had a half-hour conversation with a colleague from Helsinki. When we started talking there were 8 minutes and 50-odd seconds left to play in the third quarter. When we finished talking there were 4 and a half minutes left to play in the third quarter. How can that be?!

They do make a very good martini.

the place were the screw went into my foot doesnt really hurt any more today, but the raw blisters on my knees and ankles (from sanding the floor on them:( do a bit – specially when i go in the shower. they are covered in mecurachrome(sp?) so both jo and soph wanted to touch them, i said they could very gently round the edges just like the sea anemones (we touch every time we go to the aquarium). jo thought that was hilarious. soph just poked them.

THE LOUNGE IS DONE – well at least we have finished scraping paint off at last. still a few more jobs to go:)

we vacuumed and washed down all the floors as well and its all looking lovely. just for fun though the universal undercoat is not towing the line. despite its all powerful name it seems to dislike the floor and does not want to stick to it. seems like i will have to visit victor again ( the local mica paint man where i am on first name terms with a few shop attendants and its already been mentioned that i should be earning shares……..) and see waht he thinks the problem is. i have 20 litres of the stuff so i hope he doesnt say i need something different.

while gerry carol and i scraped and cratched and scrabbled and scrooged away in the house, gill and the girls went to the aquarium and had great fun. and a toasted cheesy and chips in the reataurant. and tea.

james no doubt is doing something groupy and bondingish in an idyllic setting with a room that over looks the sea and all the time wishing he were here too sharing in the fun.

the pool is almost blue.