The Tovington Post

Last week, over 10 days ago, Nissim started complaining about how his legs were hurting. As he had been doing swimming with school every day that week, I just put it down to muscle aches. By the third day of swimming I was a bit more 'worried'.
He’d asked me to come to each day of swimming, so I did, so I was there when on the 3rd or 4th day he asked me if he could get out of the pool early. "of course" I said.

I took him to the showers to heat him up, he was shivering. They all shiver in there while all us spectators melt by the side of the pool. He heated up a little, got back into his uniform and asked to come home. He seemed sort of ok so I told him to go back to school on the bus and have something to eat, if he was still not feeling quite right, he should call me and me or my mum would come get him.
He didn't call. So he must have braved it out all day. Poor little guy.

The next day he was really not feeling well so he stayed home. I think by Friday/Saturday he was fevery and really tired. He stayed home, slept HEAPS and watched movies. But mostly he slept.
He started coughing.
He would spend the next week, yep entire week going from fever to fine while maintaining a magnificent cough.

Somewhere in these days Tova also started breathing funny. She stayed home from school on Monday so I could watch her. She seemed fine after Pred. Really fine. Tuesday, not so fine.
I took them to the salt rooms. They loved it. They were so peaceful in there. It was great. No idea if it helps. But it's something. There was one interesting thing that happened. After the first session of Salt rooms, that night Tova slept with really quiet breathing, and woke with terrible breathing. Usually she'll sleep with bad breathing. So perhaps the salt rooms helped her have a good night sleep?
The set up there is stunning & the staff are beautiful. The place has amazing positive energy.

Both kids were pretty bad a day later so I took them back to the salt rooms. And both to the Chiro. It was the first time Nissim had been to Dr Craig for himself. He really liked it.

That night Nissim had a fever again after having quite a good day. I was scared. I booked an appointment with the GP for the next morning (We'd already taken him 3 times that week, this was number 4).

The next day, Tova got the fever incredibly bad.

The GP was fantastic. She told me that I didn't need to be so worried. She was so confident and reassuring I almost cried.

Tova was completely floppy and a dead weight when we picked her up. She didn't move off the couch, she was so sick.

After a pretty scary night, because I didn't know what to expect and I've never seen invincible Nissim get so sick before, everyone woke up fair. Tova had a bath and slept for most of the day. Nissim relaxed and played lego.

I've had a pretty hard week +.
Both kids are still a bit off, but are on the mend. Nissim still has the really stupid cough. But, really, really stupid. It's so intense. He hasn't had a full night's sleep for over a week.

Well, yesterday Tova woke up much better, still not great. But she was so very upset with me that I don't have any tickets for her to go see a performance where the orchestra is playing in the pits. "I want to go to the city to see the theatre and watch the orchestra in the pits! TODAY! It will make me very happy", is what she signed.
She was serious. She put her hands in her head was on her knees on the kitchen floor and placed here head down to the floor on her hands in absolute disbelief that we weren't going to the city. She's amazing.

A few weeks ago Tova and I went to the Opera, I think I mentioned it, did I? If not.. here is a recap!
I've never thought about going to the opera, I thought I'd hate it. So when Tova had a subscription, I got everyone else to take her. There was one ticket left. So I took her a few weeks ago. I LOVED IT! I mean, I loved it so much that I got online that evening to buy more tickets only to find out the have completed their Melbourne season. I considered moving to Sydney! haha.

Tova spend the entire time watching the orchestra in the pits as we had front row seats. They were great to her. Talking to her and waving. I'm not sure if she watched the opera, and to be honest, I possibly sat watching Tova the entire time. She was delighted for the entire show. She was also very sad when it ended. The people sitting next to and around us were lovely too.

After this 'tantrum' I decided to buy tickets to see the orchestra for that evening (last night). So I dropped Nissim off at mums, gave Tova panadol and drove to the city for the 6.30pm show. We got front row seats.. Tova was delighted and it was worth it. This child LOVES music. Mostly violins. There were heaps of violins. Again the orchestra people spoke to us before everyone else entered the theatre.

Tova sees Dr Craig at least once a month. And when she's sick she has an extra visit. It always helps.
They are pretty funny to watch:
He's a Doctor, educated, the owner of the business, big and strong.
She is... well, tiny, 8 years old, low muscle tone and BOSSY.
She tells Dr. Craig what to do, and mostly he does what he's told. They have a good relationship. If he does what he is told, she allows him to do what he needs to do to help her get well and balanced.

Tova is over her lung infection now. Thank goodness. Back to the cute little happy girl she is between stupid sicknessess.

During the small hours of Saturday morning Tova woke us with crazy breathing. We gave her Pred and Panadol. We waited, and waited and waited some more.
The pred was taking longer than usual to kick in, but at about 32 minutes past giving her the drug, she started to breath a bit better. Thank goodness.

She thinks it’s hilarious to make her breathing sound worse than it is too, by laughing and making noises and breathing faster than she should.

Eventually she went to sleep, so did we

We watched her all Saturday, she was fair.

Saturday night/Sunday early morning she got a crazy hot fever that even Panadol wasn’t able to defeat.
Eventually she calmed down after lots of crying and twisting and turning, tossing and general unhappiness. I took her to the GP on Sunday and he said that she had a Lung Infection

He asked if I wanted to take her to Hospital, which of course I said a big “NO THANKS” to. He was more than happy to let me go home with a chemist worth of prescription drugs to boot.
I didn’t get all the medicine prescribed, but I did get the Antibiotics and an extra bottle of Nurofen (orange flavour as Tova keeps requesting Orange Juice).

Sunday was all about reducing that horrible fever. Poor Tova. She was so hot. She watched lots of Andre Rieu from her couch bed in the lounge room. Andre helped. Tova is quite possibly his biggest fan, even kissing him on the TV screen. CUTE
Sunday night I slept in Tova's bed, when I say 'sleep', I don't actually mean sleep.. More like.. being in the same bed as a febrile Octopus.

Tova had laboured breathing, which made her toss & turn all night. She woke at about 3am very upset and very hot. More neurofen administered.

turned. She woke at about 3am very upset and very hot. More neurofen administered.
I gave her some more antibiotices too (yep at 3am ish). They are to be taken on an empty stomach, which is really hard to do with Tova, as she loves to eat, this fever didn't even stop her from eating.
She demanded that I come back to sleep with her in her bed. I did as I was told. It took us a while, but eventually we slept.
I was groggy at 6.30ish, but had to get up to get Nissim ready for school. My mum came and picked him up at 8am. Once they left I went back to Tova's bed and lay down, for a moment, just to listen to her breathing for a while....
I woke at 10am!
Tova woke after 12pm!
NO FEVER!

She is still a sickie. She stayed home from school today, obviously as there wasn't much of the day left after she woke at lunch time.
I took her to see Dr. Craig.
Tova spent lots of time reading books in bed today, which was adorable.
Her breathing isn't great, but she is getting better.
It's been scary.

Tova loved the parade!

Tova and I flew to Adelaide on Thursday.
Our morning flight was at 8.30am with Jetstar, it was delayed and left at 11.10. We were stuck on the tarmac from about 10am. If I'd known we were going to leave so late, I'd have called our insurance and asked about options. I probably would have rescheduled if they'd allowed me to

It was very frustrating and unfair to Tova. We were very late. We got to Future Footprints at about 12.30pm. We were due to be there at 10am.

I pretty much ‘dumped’ Tova with the OT and Speechy and ran off to get her Piedro shoes. Actually the speechy lent me her car, so I drove off to grab Tova’s shoes.
I had a cut out of her foot with me, and the shoe lady said Tova needs the next size up. So it’s being ordered. Hopefully to arrive in Melbourne between 6 to 8 weeks.

I got lunch, had a chat to the Future Footprints staff, grabbed Tova, got a lift back to the airport and went home.

I can’t recommend Virgin airlines enough. They were outstanding, even the captain of the plane came out at the end and unfolded Tova’s pram for me.
The seats are comfortable and bigger than usual, they have complimentary snacks and drinks, the staff are super friendly and everyone was compassionate. Most importantly they were on time!

Tova and I were going to have sushi in the airport for dinner, but we were in a different terminal, no sushi! So we drove home. There strangly was not much traffic. Yuval and dinner for us when we arrived.
Tova was asleep before her head hit the pillow that night.

This morning, Saturday, Tova woke with Croup!
It's been so long since the last time she had croup, I was worried the Pred would be out of date. But we had an unopend bottle that was in date. She happily took it and has been fine since. NO HOSPITAL!