Heartbreak

Or lung break, or blood vessel break.


Not entirely sure which one it is yet. My darling niece Sheena seems to be unwell. Its a strange one too.
She is lethargic, in that she sleeps so much, a good 12 hours at night and a nap of 3-4 hours. Awake time is activity that is normal for a 2.5 year old.

THen there is the *blue episodes*. Jo sent me a picture of her when she was blue and its tragic. Bluish little fat fingers and tinges around her mouth. During these episodes her oxygen saturations drop to sometimes 75% - normal is 98+%

Jo, Mark and my mum took her to the emergency department several times, she got an appointment with the kids cardiologist. She had an ECHO on her heart. She is seeing the respiratory doc in two weeks. She is having a holter monitor heart check on Friday.

PLEASE don't let there be anything major wrong with our dearest Sheena. She is the lifeblood of our family. Every single thing she does is a marvel. She is a great signer - even makes up sensible signs herself - she is amazing. Little Mark and tiny Roy are fabulous, but it is just expected that they achieve, when Sheena does its brilliant. She is smart, funny, not to mention completely and utterly adorable.

Can you tell I'm in love with her. I get to see her in just over two weeks.

Elections.

I love elections.
I've always loved elections.
Going to the polling booth with my parents at my primary school was my first memory of elections. Mum letting me go to a little cardboard booth, the official-ness of it. A person sitting at a small desk with a HUGE book of names.
When I was 18, I experienced my first election where I could vote. I enrolled early to make sure I could do it.
I've made some odd choices over the years... I voted for Philip Nitschke when he was running for the seat of Menzies. I thought that everyone thought the same way as me about voluntary euthanasia - how wrong I was - I was one of 1200ish people that voted for him. The annoying Kevin Andrews won by a landslide with about 46,000 votes and the labour dude got 26,000 votes. Hmmm I sort of wasted by vote, being around 1.5% of the electorate that thought Dr Nitschke was a shoe-in.
Anyway the purpose of this post is how much I love the American Elections, despite them going on for FAR TOO LONG. I'm glad I don't live there - for many reasons not just the election process, how about universal health care people??? I'm not sure who the American's will vote for, I don't think half of the country could allow a black man to be president. As there is not compulsory voting, only those that are passionate vote. This allows the hate mongering to show through. But I don't see how a 72 year old man can fulfill what is required of the American President, from what I can see, you are not allowed to sleep! A comment is required almost 24/7 and the pack of wolves that is the media need that comment NOW.

But now I'm finding the stories of the Vice-President nominees extremely interesting. Joe Biden sounds just wonderful. I listened to the speech by his son Beau and it made me cry. The fact that he was able to continue, as well as being a very productive member of society for the past 30 years when his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash... then finding a new wife that his sons loved and "they" asked her to marry them, and "they" got married. Oh its just such a romantic story. Then there is Sarah Palin, well I'm just not too sure. I think the religious side is too much, I can't believe I said that, but her staunch opposition to abortion I find quite offensive. I think they will play on the fact that little Trig is a blessed child with extra chromosomes, and that will sway parents of children with disabilities, but just because her has a child with DS does not necessarily make her an advocate for them. The path forward will tell. Trig is just a few months old, so being a parent of a kid with disability is a new experience for Sarah and her husband.

Well I've truly let my colours be known. If I was American - I'd vote for Barack Obama in a heart beat.

Sheena and Roy

Have I mentioned how much I love these kids? This is Sheena and Roy at my parents house just after Sheena's nap. Photogenic as well. They are both going through *winter* stuff. That means colds, Sheena is a shocker when it comes to a cold, her face goes all sickly and she's miserable and yuck. She tends to go a bit blue as well (oh dear), so my sis has bought a pulse oximeter off EBAY to check her oxygen saturations. She's a clever girl my sister.
Roy has improved out of sight, it went from one day getting ready for open heart surgery in the next three days, to home and now almost great. He has some issues with "work of breath" which means its hard to breathe. His whole little body huffs and puffs to just maintain. He also has a cold at the moment, and as he's only 3 months old, makes it hard to get ones milk when you can't breathe.

I'm hopefully going to visit in October. I haven't' officially met Roy. Sheena definitely needs a cuddle from her aunt again. I wonder if Jo will notice if I take Sheena home with me? I think I'd like to keep her.

I have an urge... two actually.

I want to start scrapbooking again. I miss it. I love making pages to show off. I like what I create, I'm not celebrity style, but I'm a good amateur. For my birthday, mum got me a Cuttlebug and I love it. Now I just need to keep on scrapping.

My second urge is weeding. My front yard looks like yokels live here. Messy (that's Mark's fault) and overgrown.
Its a gorgeous day of about 18C today and sunny. So I'll put on my rubber gloves and start weeding.

About midday I have to go to a choir performance that Mark is in. Hmmm... can the boy sing.... no, but I'm a good mum and want to see him. He made me promise not to "bother him" that he will want to hang out with his friends, and not sit with me. I told him, he'll be on stage singing, not sitting with me or his friends. Once again, the poor boy is confused.

Ahhh... now much better

Well was it whooping cough? To be honest, now I don't think so. Last Wednesday I would have bet anyone a million dollars that it was... coughing until I vomited - yuck.

Still awaiting some results from Symbion - now that annoys me - I emailed them to ask how long results normally take as I need to results to return to work. Not a response, what is the point of having a contact us page and no one to respond????

Marko is all better. Jamie only coughs occasionally now. I'm coughing a little bit, but am essentially better.

So what else?
Nothing actually. Life is pretty boring.