The Tovington Post

Our little piggie!

I am not putting this information up for anyone to compare or evaluate. It is simply because I am blown away at how much she can eat and want to share for entertainment value!

Most days she eats something along the lines of this:

BREAKFAST:

2xweetbix

4xtbs yogurt

1xkiwi fruit

1xpear

some water

LUNCH:

a portion of peas

a portion of sweet potato

a portion of carrots (for example, this portion is about 2x medium sized carrots)

a portion of protein (chicken, tuna etc) - this is a good size, I don't measure, but the other day it was 2x normal sized chicken sausages (the big ones).

SNACK:

yogurt (I don't measure, but perhaps half a cup?)

DINNER: is pretty much the same as lunch

Inbetween all this there are drinks of water and milo!!

SHE IS AN AMAZING EATER!

Nissim doesn't eat this much. He can on one day, but the next day he might eat nothing, perhaps only 2 sultanas and a slice of cheese. They are so different.

Happy Birthday Yuval.

This evening, about an hour after Tova ate a MASSIVE meal, I weighed her. Yuval told me to be prepared for disappointment, I prepared...

9.2kg thank you very much!

Last weigh in at home a while back was 9.1kg..  Well done Tinki..

I weighed Nissim yesterday at my gym - 12kg! Well done Nizo.

Where to start?

The last two blogs were about Croup and overnight hospital stays. So, after the last Croup overnight stay we were back in Emergency one week later (just over a week ago).

They kept us in from about 4pm until 2am, sending us home diagnosed with Asthma and with an Asthma plan. I wasn't convinced. But went home as they weren't doing anything I couldn't do at home. Something inside me was saying that they SHOULD be doing more, but they weren't. They were full and busy and for some reason we weren't on the priority list.

That must have been Sunday the 27th of Feb. We spent the 28th watching Tova struggle with breathing and even took her to the GP whom told us that we should persevere with Ventolin oh and the Pred that I had given her (I keep some in the fridge in case). I still wasn't convinced as I could see how different Tova was breathing to normal. I just didn't know how to explain that to the doctors, whom must have thought she was always a little bit bad or something. I don't know. I don't understand why they couldn't see what I was seeing.

The 1st of Feb I took Tova to the GP again, early in the morning. I was worried. She had gotten worse. The GP sent us to the hospital. I asked if I should get the ambulance. He said no. In retrospect, I think I should have called one. The drive there was torture. I am quite shaken up about it. It was scary having such a sick Tova relying on me and traffic to save her life.

Once we got to Monash (from Elwood) we were rushed through and Tova was immediately hooked up to a bunch of machines, given a drip and loads of drugs. The doctors looked worried.

I knew something was terribly wrong when the doctors didn't leave her side for over 2 hours...

PICU was called down as she wasn't improving and they mentioned to me that if she didn't start to improve they had ways of making her more comfortable... I freaked out (in my mind, trying to hold it together on the outside) as I knew they were thinking of intubating her.. The doctor said they would try CPAP if after the last drug they could try didn't work.

The highest I noticed her heart rate was 207. It could have been higher, but 207 is what I noticed and then decided not to look at the monitor again.

She improved ever so slightly, but just enough.

Once Tova started to give me a weary smile about 3 or 4 hours later they only checked her every half an hour then each hour and then eventually we were moved upstairs. To the ward, not PICU!

We stayed for quite a scary week and came home yesterday.

Tova had RSV, Parainfluenza (which caused Asthma) and an ear infection. She didn't eat for about 3-4 days, but made up for it once she started eating again properly on the 5th day. They suspect that it hit her so hard because she was still a bit low from the severe croup (Which almost sent her to PICU the week before).

The first 5 days Tova didn't move. Literally! She was floppy and just wanted to lay still. We put lots of movies on her dvd player for her and I sat there 24 hours a day waiting for our princess to come back to us. Which, by the grace of god, she did..

What a will to breath and live! I am completely blown away by her strength and determination. She is the strongest person I know. Poor Yuval still had to go to work and look after Nissim and the house. The cats tried to make him feel better by offering him 2 mice a night.

We all found it very upsetting to see Tova so listless. She didn't even want to be cuddled. I wish I had been stronger on the first night and told them to keep her in for the night. I feel terrible that she had to suffer so much before something was done. Our little princess.

The doctors say that she may or may not get Asthma without a virus, but they suspect that when she gets sick, that is when she will get Asthma.

She lost weight. All our hard work gone so quickly. We are below 9kg again. I think when they weighed her the other day with her nappy and clothes on she was 8.8kg. I will weigh her soon at home to keep it consistent on the same scales. I am scared to know. She is just so tiny. But yes, she is eating like a pig again. So, hopefully she won't take too long to put it back on and then some more. Please.

Nissim was passed around grandparents (and with Uv of course) for the week. And seems to be as happy as ever. He is lovely. Such a good boy.

So, I am a little torn up inside from the past month of sickness and will never find Hospital easy. It is one of the most horrible and depressing places, yet a place that fixes my babies. It makes my mind messy.

We are now a little paranoid every time Tova breaths a little different and are looking forward to life getting back to normal and me having nothing much to blog about. Other than how fat Tova is getting.

And to top it off, I finally got to the hairdresser today and am now wearing a hat. I am not in the right frame of mind to deal with such a travesty. And to think I was so excited about getting the chance to get my hair done..

Firstly, I don't know why and I haven't had a chance to figure out how to fix it, but Yuval's blog from Austria has vanished from the front end. I will fix it in time.

Secondly, this blog tool doesn't let me read the comments easily and I only just found a bunch of comments recently, so, sorry to the people that must think I have been ignoring you. I only got the comments in the last few days! Thank you for them.

The rest is about Tova and Nissim...

Sunday afternoon we noticed that Tova was breathing and coughing a little bit unusually. Nissim was also coughing and acting quite miserable. I packed a bag ready to go to the hospital. Before Yuval and I made the 'go to hospital' decision we decided to put the ventilator in Tova's room and give her panadol (Nissim absolutely refused to take the medicine). After about 20mins she fell asleep with no coughing or funny breathing.

4am, she woke with barking coughing and terrible breathing.

Nissim was still sound asleep, he was coughing a little in his sleep, but not as bad as miss T.

By 4.10 Tova was being administered Adrenalin and steroids. 'Lucky' we live 2 mins from the hospital.

She didn't respond to the first lot of drugs, so they gave her a second lot (just like last week).

Again, she wasn't improving fast enough so a Dr from PICU came down to check her out. He hung around for a while and then came to see her every half hour or so for about 2 hours.

After another lot of steroids Tova started to improve. The PICU dr vanished and I thanked the powers that be!

When Dr 'eye candy' picu told me that Tova would probably be going there I got scared! I don't even know what he was saying to me, all I could think about was how a friend had a beautiful baby pass away in there and another put in an induced coma..

It was pretty annoying going to the ward yet again, but far better than going to PICU.

Nissim was with Savta Aviva for the Monday as uv was working. When Yuval picked little N up, he took him strait to the GP who said that Nissim had 2 ear infections. He is pretty snotty and coughing loads. Poor little boy.

By the time Tova and I got home on Tuesday I was missing Nissim so much it hurt. We had lots of cuddles and smiles when I walked in the door. He is gorgeous. Poor little sickies.

Everyone woke up this morning a little better. Tova seems fine other than being a little lethargic. Nissim is a pool of snot and coughs but on Antibiotics that will hopefully fix him quickly.

While in hospital no one mentioned that I should tube Tova, again that is a massive breakthrough in my mind.

The dietitian offered to weigh and chart Tova, I said 'no thanks'. She asked why and I told her that the only thing weighing and measuring does is make me stressed, it doesn't make Tova grow. I can't fit more food in Tova as she is a little pig and eats loads each day. The dietitian didn't seem bothered.. I almost fell over backwards.. perhaps attitudes are changing! I hope so.

Stupid tubes.. I hate tubes that aren't necessary. There is no way I could love a feeding tube in a child that is able to eat. I personally think it is child abuse!

Nissim has started Creche. He had three days of orientation last week, which of course went well. I told them on the first day that they were possibly crazy to ask me to stay for three days to help settle him in. It took about 3 minutes and he had forgotten who I was. But they asked me to stay for a while. I died of boredom and tried to keep Tova busy playing away from Nissim. After an hour or so I told them I should go for a while to see how he goes.

I returned a few hours later to a very happy Nissim (as I expected).

The second day I really, really wanted to leave as I was extremely bored sitting around reading to Tova and gaining a massive audience on the reading mat. So I again told them I should go. This time Nissim came with me as it wasn't his official day at creche.

The third day, I didn't stick around to get bored. I dropped him off early and picked him up later in the afternoon. I even went and had a spray tan (with Tova, who ended up getting some on her too). That was fun!

Tomorrow is his first day with no pressure on me to stick around. Which is better for him, Tova and me. He is a social little man that loves creche! And he has been going to my gym creche for years almost daily (only an hour and a half at a time, but it has made sure he doesn't suffer from separation issues). I am very much looking forward to him spending an entire day there.

The staff there are fantastic. They are all so friendly and positive. I am very impressed with the entire place. It is friendly, clean, modern and FUN! They only had one place or I would have put both kids in there. Hopefully another place will come up soon.

So, as Tova has been attending the orientation days with Nissim and I, she of course, unfortunately picked up croup. Tova was due to start back at her play group (it has been on term break) on Thursday, but she woke up not breathing properly.

I gave her ventolin, it did nothing. I waited a while and gave her some more, it did nothing. She was in a very good mood, so I fed her breakfast. She ate it all, 2 weetbix, fruit and a drink. I gave her more ventolin, and again it didn't help. She was still happy but breathing terribly.

Two hours past since she woke up and she was still having trouble breathing. Off to Monash Hospital we went. Croup!

The doctors said it was sever and she was quickly hooked up to monitors and given steroids and adrenalin. She improved dramatically over a few hours. However, we were admitted for the night as apparently croup gets worse during the colder hours of night.

Some how we managed to get a room to ourselves, it even had a view of the special care windows where both my kids spent many months.

The night passed with out too much trouble. Tova did wake during the night and have some difficulty breathing, I was thankful to be in hospital, as if we had been home I would have heard her breathing like that and had to go to the hospital during the middle of the night. The nurse on duty was lovely and said that Tova was doing great, that her O2 was good and her breathing noises were to be expected.

The next day we eventually got seen by the doctors on duty who said we could go home. We had lunch and got home early afternoon. Not bad!

Throughout the entire ordeal Tova remained in an extremely good mood, only skipped on meal (and made up for it later in the afternoon anyway) and was a little bundle of gorgeous normality. Other than the breathing, there was no way of telling she was so sick!

It was quite scary as I didn't know what croup was. The doctors filled me in and gave me some literature to read. They said it was almost definitely something Tova picked up from Nissim's creche... great.. Now I wonder if I should send her to creche at all... Little T and her little immune system.. ahh the life of a micro premi...

Nissim didn't get sick thank goodness. Even thought he was so prem, he seems to be stronger, thank god!

While we were in hospital,  not one person mentioned anything about how small and thin Tova is, no one mentioned tubes even once. It was a great feeling. Tova was treated like a 'normal' person with croup. I was very impressed!