ABC Wednesday - F

Wednesday has come round really quick!! Anyway, this week's letter is F for Fundraising.

My eldest daughter, Jedi, (for those of you who don't know) has a passion for Greyhounds and for raising awareness of their plight. Along with this comes the need to raise money to help rehome and reabilitate ex-racing Greyhounds. To find out how this passion started please read my previous post.

Anyway, once again she has the urge to Fundraise. This time she is planning a sponsered silence, not any old sponsored silence, but for a whopping 48 HOURS!!! That is quite a feat for an eleven year old!

Greyhound Rescue Wales is her chosen charity, as it is our local Greyhound charity and of course you can't support them all! We are currently waiting for GRW to register with JustGiving.com so we can make this the biggest and furthest reaching fundraising effort yet. So if you would be interested in sponsering Jedi, and helping abandoned, ill-treated or just plain unwanted Greyhounds wherever you are, please keep an eye out for a future post (hopefully within the next week) which will give details on how to find her JustGiving page. Or leave a request in the comments and I will notify you when we have the information.

Remember, this is all off the back of an eleven year old with a very big heart, nothing to do with me, I'm just the skivvy!! Please show your support, not just for the Greyhounds but for a wonderful little girl who has the want and determination to do something bigger with her time and energy.

Very proud mum!

Well, even though we have all had dodgy colds we made it to the school Christmas show. Because it's not a church school, they have a slightly different take on the nativity and this year was the Xmas Factor. Trouble was an angel of all things and Jedi was Mary. They both did a fabulous job and Jedi's solo brought a tear of sheer pride to her mummy's eye. The infants and junior are split and do their own little show and I have to say the standard was incredible. Those teachers must put so much time and effort in to get all those little ones doing and saying what they are meant to. And some of the juniors definately have an acting career ahead of them!!

Jedi's foot is much improved, her chest is fine and the troublesome child has been removed from the school, so things are definately improving for her.

I am still getting no eggs from my chickens, which is very frustrating but apparently I am not the only one! There was a young fox loitering around the house this morning so I must be vigilant. We have hardly thawed at all over the last few days but we have had no snow. The Bengal Brothers are spending most nights under my duvet and will wake me up, patting my face until I let them in.

I am slowly getting through the Christmas shopping but have disappointed myself by giving in to the kids and putting the Christmas tree up yesterday. Christmas never starts this early in this house! We usually put the tree up the weekend after my birthday, which isn't until Wednesday. I think we just all needed a bit of a boost, and I have to admit that seeing it twinkling by the window have lifted us all. Jedi has been madly wrapping everything in sight, I love wrapping presents but I haven't had a look in, she even offered to write my Christmas cards! The tree brings much joy to the cats of course and Clay has been climbing it every five minutes since it went up! Hubby would hate it but he's not here so up yours with ya humbugs!

Does it ever end?

Jedi was so pleased to get the part of Mary in the school Christmas production, but it looks as though it could be under threat! She has developed a terrible cough and we are desperately hoping it won't get onto her chest like it usually does. She saw the doc today who said she had the start of a crackle on the usual lung, but thinks she should clear it on her own. He has, however, prescribed antibiotics to take in a couple of days if it hasn't cleared.

The dress rehearsal/grandparents production is tomorrow. My parents are coming up to view a bungalow in the village and are hoping to combine the two. Then there are two further evening productions on Thursday and Friday. Hopefully the girls' dad is coming up for Friday night, so all in all I hope Jedi can hold out until the end of the week.

I broke a tooth on my lunch at work yesterday. It's quite bad as half of my tooth is now gone! Luckily it's the inside that has come away so I don't look like I've been fighting, but what a time of year for major dentistry!!!

On the other hand I am loving my new job. Although by Christmas I will be twenty stone! The boss sends out lots of goodies to customers at this time of year, including tins of chocolates and biscuits. Because he is of a generous nature he opens them for us too. Trouble is as soon as one is gone he opens another. This has been going on for two weeks now and there is still another couple to go. When I got into work today there was; a tin of Quality Street, a box of fancy biscuits, a box of After Eights, a chocolate orange and a white chocolate orange, all sat on my desk! Every time I reach for my tray my hand falls into one of them!! I could do with putting on a bit of weight but all this chocolate can't be healthy! Oh! the trials of life.

Beautiful Day

Well Grandad had a beautiful send off. The church service was a wonderful blend of traditional English and Cypriot. It started as any other British funeral, Hubby and his father and male cousins carried the coffin. We sang hymns and listened to tributes and readings. Then he was blessed by the Cypriot Papa. At the grave olive oil was poured over the coffin and food thrown in to see him through to the other side.

It was a very emotional day, but I think he would have been very happy with it. Nan coped amazingly well, I think she knew it was time. It was wonderful to get the family together and a few unsteady bridges were reinforced. It really couldn't have gone any better.

Thank to everyone who has left kind messages, you are all so lovely.

In other news, Jedi has now had her cast off and was STILL in quite a bit of pain. So she went to see my cousin the chiropractor. Turns out she had a slight dislocation in the side of her foot and torn ligaments. The doctors had obviously missed it on the x-rays!! Anyway the ligaments weren't healing because of the dislocation. My cousin has put it right and the difference was almost immediate. The ligaments will still take a while to heal but at least they can now. I'm glad she went, imagine how much trouble she would have had if we hadn't. My cousin also had to adjust her back where she had been walking funny for so long. It's seven weeks since the original incident!

Apart from that not much to report apart from the fact it is too bloody cold! At least I'm not in Scotland like my poor hubby!

Sexy's back!!

Hi folks, I'm back. Phew, been a bit manic I guess. Thanks to everyone who left kind comments and best wishes. We got down to Somerset and saw Nan. Thankfully she has improved hugely over the last week or so, but is adamant that she will be home soon and taking care of Grandad. Unfortunately, Grandad is now also in hospital. He came down with a chest infection which, of course, on top of emphysema was pretty serious. He is doing well though and at least Nan can stop fretting that he isn't being looked after properly.

They will both now stay in hospital until suitable care is arranged and the house adapted for them. Hopefully, they will both be tranferred to the community hospital a bit nearer to home. It has been a very worrying time but things are looking brighter.

The foot that Jedi hurt nearly a month ago has been getting worse not better. I took her to the doctor and he referred her to a consultant at the fracture clinic in Shrewsbury hospital. The hospital is an hour away and we spent a further three and a half hours there getting nowhere fast. They don't really know what she has done, nothing shows up on her x-rays but poor Jedi is still in a lot of pain. They have decided to immobilise her foot by casting it for three weeks. Hopefully this will give whatever has been damaged time to heal.

On yet another note, I finally have a job. I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself for getting through the lengthy application/interview process. The job is not the classroom assistant post I had hoped for, but an admin post which promises to be a challenge. The company provides supplies for schools and closes during school holidays so will fit well around the children. I first had to pass a numeracy and literacy test, which wasn't too difficult but focused on attention to detail and accuracy. Those that passed these tests got an interview. At the time of my interview I was told there had been a lot of applicants and that they would narrow it down and then interview again. I had my second this morning. It was between me and one other person. They told me I would hear in a couple of days but by lunchtime I had been offered the job!! I wonder if the other person didn't turn up! Anyway, yay for me and as I will get paid monthly there will be a nice bundle in the bank just in time for Christmas. :)

Adventures without my camera!

Can't believe I was so stupid as to forget to take my camera!! Because we were blessed with such a beautiful day today we decided to make the most of it. I spoke to one of the local farmers the other day and he agreed that it was ok for us to walk through his fields. I thought it would be, but it's polite to check isn't it. He told us it was fine as long as we respected the country code, which of course we would anyway.

So off we went today. Jedi's foot has recovered remarkably and she was determind to come. She still can't flex it fully but if she's careful she can put weight on it now. We headed up the field directly behind the cow sheds which sit behind the house. We soon came across a large stream which runs down between the two large hills. It was quite a long way down and we had to carefully pick our path. When we got down there it was so beautiful. This is why I wish we had the camera. It tumbles down from the hills through a slate lined valley, dotted with little waterfalls.

It was cool and green and beautiful. We followed the stream up hill, weaving from side to side, choosing the best route. Some parts were a real problem solving session, where the stream was too deep, or the slate too slippery. There were awkward parts where the gorse was too thick or a ledge to narrow. It was exciting, adventurous and challenging. The girls enjoyed sips of the cold, fresh water and marvelled at the strange fungus and moss we found.

We got a bit wet and a bit dirty, but that's half the fun right? We had quite a steep climb to get out of the valley and then had to follow the sheep trails back around the hill towards home. We all had a fantastic time and even though some of the walk was tricky the girls learnt about all sorts of things, like wet slate is slippy, the edges of the bank aren't always solid, and tree branches that look like good hand holds are sometimes rotten!! Good things to know if you're going adventuring!!

I just wish I'd had that camera, but I promise that next time we go adventuring I will take it with me. This place is too gorgeous not to share with you.

On another note Jedi has decided she wants to blog too, so please pop over and say hi to her here.

A pain in the .....foot.

I am sure my kids were sent to try me. I mean Trouble is getting so much better behaviour wise, we still have the odd battle but we enjoy eachothers company more and more. And Jedi is such a great kid but these last couple of weeks have been such hard work. Not through any fault of her own, of course, but stressful none the less.

There was another incident at school yesterday with the Devil child. Only a minor one in comparison to what has been happening, but still an incident, and one that should not have been allowed to happen. For some reason in the last lesson of the day DC (as he shall now be known) was moved to the table next to Jedi. Usually he is at the other side of the room. He then spent quite some time pinching Jedi at every opportunity. This on it's own is probably quite a common occurence in schools all over the world, but why on earth, when they know Jedi has a problem with DC was it allowed to happen? It was a supply teacher but I don't think that is anything like an excuse. So I had to kick off at school again this morning.

This whole issue is proving to be quite a drain on us. Jedi has started having dreams about it, which shows that she is not dealing with it quite as well as she makes out. And every day I take her to school it makes me feel like I am taking a lamb to slaughter, and I end up worrying about her all day. It just proves her love of school though that she still wants to go. I have now written to the Chair of Govenors and told them that the next substantial attack will result in me pulling Jedi from school. Personally I don't think home schooling is good for children, but as she has only been at the school for just under a year and it is her final year of juniors, I don't really want to move her, so it may be my only option.

Anyway, aside from all that she's had the recent chest infection that we had been hoping to avoid. She's off the antibiotics and is much improved, but it has been a worry again. Then, just to ice the cake, yesterday evening when demonstrating her dancefloor 'shapes', she rather over enthusiastically leaps into the air and comes down on the outside edge of her foot and falls to the floor in agony. My first thought is that she has broken it again! She has previously broken bones in both of her feet, but that's another story! Living where we do the nearest 24hr emergency department is Lord knows where and I didn't think it was quite bad enough for an ambulance. So I dosed her up with pain killers and put a bag of frozen peas on it.

She slept downstairs on the sofa last night, because she has a bunk bed and there was no way I was heaving her up there. Today we spent all morning in town going between the MIU at the surgery and the hospital x-ray department. Luckily, however, it is not broken. Instead she has torn the tendon that runs along the outside of her foot and pulled it away from the bone a bit by her little toe. Excuse me, but fucking ouch!! Poor thing, (I was going to say little, but after carrying her around all day, I can tell you she's not bloody little!) She is in a lot of pain and feeling very sorry for herself. I now have even more to worry about when I take her to school. She wants to go but she is going to be twice as vunerable. And I am worn out. Yes tired from carrying her but also pretty emotional drained. Roll on Saturday when Hubby is home and I can have a nice big, protective, manly cuddle.

Cooking up a storm

On Saturday evening Jedi decided she wanted to make pasta bake for tea. Simple enough, but she wanted to make sure she got it right, after all she is only eleven. So she comes into the lounge where me and hubby were watching a bit of telly. Jedi was asking a few questions on the best dish to cook it in and how to go about it. Then she asked;

"Should I cook the pasta first?"

"What did you just say?" says Hubby in a shocked and rather angry voice. Me and Jedi looked at eachother, puzzled.

"I said; should I cook the pasta first?"

"Oh" replies Hubby, sheepishly.

"What on earth did you think she said" I asked

"Should I cook the bastard first?!"he muttered.



I don't think I have been laughing enough lately because this kept me going all night. Every so often I would remember the conversation and burst into childish and uncontrollable giggles. It is still making me snigger now!

Art Attack!

Hey all, been busy again. But doing what I'm not actually sure! I know the kids have been monopolising the laptop and I haven't had much of a look in! Bad news on the bunny front I'm afraid, there was only one more in the nest and when I checked the following day it too had died. It's such a shame, she is such a good mother when she's got passed the first few days. I promised the kids we will try again in the spring, and I will just have to be more vigilant.

Jedi has had a bad chest again this week, and has ended up on antibiotics yet again. It is difficult to know whether she is better than she would have been if she hadn't been seeing my cousin. I guess putting the rib back in place doesn't neccessarily mean that the pocket that had formed in her lung will disappear too. She hasn't been that ill though so hopefully it is working.

Anyway, a few days ago we popped into town. Jedi is now old enough to have a bank account with a cash point card, and as she is pretty responsible for her age, I agreed to open a bank account for her. Both the girls received cheques from their nan for their birthdays so they have to go somewhere. They both now have a bank account but Trouble can't access her money without me. She can have a card when she is 11. Of course, Jedi is feeling very grown up and superior and can't wait until her card arrives in the post. The good thing is we live about four miles from town anyway and neither of them can get there without me, so their money is pretty safe for a while at least!

While Jedi and I were in town setting up the bank accounts we visited the local gallery. There are two very talented artists based there. One, who I believe is the owner, draws the most wonderful birds of prey, and the other is wildlife photographer and film maker Dee Doody. Apparantly he hasn't been painting all that long but I find his work very beautiful and captivating. He is also the nicest man you could meet. If he is at the gallery when you visit you can watch him paint and he is always happy to chat.

On Wednesday when Jedi and I popped in to say hello, Jedi bought herself a new sketch book and a nice soft pencil. When we got home she decided she wanted to sketch one of Dee's paintings. After six and a half hours, a little coaching on composition and shading, this is what she produced.



As a comparison, here is the painting by Dee that she copied;



It's not a perfect copy, but I think you'll agree that the sketch is really rather good! Dee thought so when we took it in to show him. Jedi gave him a copy and he put it up near his own work in the gallery! He also gave Jedi a print of his own and a wildlife DVD for more inspiration. We ended up chatting to him for about an hour that day! He does a lot of work with Gigrin Farm, that I mentioned in my ABC Wednesday post. He helps out with the marking of eggs and ringing of chicks, and mentioned that there appears to be a nest very close to our house. I'm hoping that I may be able to get involved next spring.

Anyway, if your are ever in the town of Llanidloes, North Powys, pop into the Nature Gallery and check out some of the amazing art work of both artists, and who knows maybe one day, some of Jedi's work too!

Trouble is nine!

I dedicated a post or two to Jedi so now I am doing one for Trouble. I should have done it on Tuesday but I didn't get the chance.!!

Trouble was born in Somerset at 1.17pm on the 30th September 1999. My pregnancy had been pretty hard work. I had morning sickness for 7 months and severe pelvic pain. I am a small person and have always had a small bump, I don't put on much weight either, which is great but makes midwives think my bump is too small. When I had my 20 week scan they told me Trouble had stopped growing. I had put more weight on that week than at any other time so I just couldn't see how she could have stopped growing. From then on I had weekly scans and had to be monitored every other day. It was a difficult time with a toddler already running round.

They say you should feel a healthy baby kick at least ten times a day, when I was being monitored she would kick 80 times in 20 minutes! Does that sound like a unhealthy, unhappy baby? I took everything with a pinch of salt, I think we know deep down when everything is ok. Trouble was finally induced two weeks early, because my consultant was convinced that my placenta was failing again and this was causing Trouble not to grow properly. I was told she would weigh four pounds.

Wednesday morning I had to ring the hospital and check if they had a bed for me. They didn't, so I took Jedi to the local fair! Later that day the hospital had a bed free so I was taken in and given a pessary about 8pm. The next morning I woke to a few twingey pains which soon developed into contractions. I had a bath, which was amazing and really took the edge off. When Jedi was born they had broken my waters and although I had ended up with a caersarean it had definately sped up proceedings. I mentioned this to the ward staff and promised them if they took me to the labour ward and broke my waters I would get on with it!

So that's what happened, I was moved down to the labour ward and my waters were broken. Because I had been induced I had to be monitored constantly and couldn't move around but this was one of the only times Trouble wasn't any trouble. She popped out with out too much effort and I only had gas and air. She weighed in at a surprising 6lb 11oz (not 4lb!) and the official labour time was four hours.

I'm glad that we are looked after and monitored and checked out, but this time I think they had it wrong. Although, a friend of mine recently went for her 20 week scan only to be told that her baby was dead. How does that happen? How do they miss it when there is something wrong but seem to make up problems when there aren't any.

Anyway, Trouble was a wonderful baby, she was quiet and content. Everyone told me how hard it would be to have two children now, but it wasn't. In fact I hardly noticed her at all! That was until she hit 7 months and started to crawl, then she appeared to make it her life work to annoy Jedi and cause as much 'Trouble' as possible. You know how everyone has a story about something they did when they were a child, like putting toast in the video, cutting their hair, or drawing somewhere that they shouldn't? Well that was Trouble everyday, all day. When her dad got home from work there was always a list of five or six things she had sone that day. I couldn't leave her alone, and only relaxed when she was asleep.

She's still hard work now, but since we have moved to the country, she has less opportunity to disappear like she was, and is improving. Trouble may have been a nuisance, but she is a loving, happy child, who had a great determination and knows what she wants. She has a lot of traits which in future will no doubt take her a long way but at the moment tend to get her into trouble. She does quite well at school but needs to concentrate and maybe work a little harder.

Trouble doesn't know yet what she wants to be when she grows up, but with her stubborness and determination I am sure that she will do what ever she wants!!

Happy 9th Birthday Trouble!

Roll on Year 7

Bloody well slow down will you? I spent ages on here this afternoon, trying to catch up with you all, and what happens? I go to the local high school for the new intake evening and loads of you have been posting again!! How on earth am I meant to get anything done?

Had a good evening though. The high school is great, it gets some of the best results in the whole of the UK. Jedi loved it there and can't wait to go. She is really excited about all the new subjects. I don't know how she will ever choose her GCSEs, she wants to do everything!

She had more trouble with that damn boy again today. During P.E. he jumped on her back, knocking her to the floor and landing on top of her. She has handled it all remarkably well but I think it is really starting to get her down. I do hope my letter has made an impact in the review. That's four attacks in the four weeks they have been back at school. What must it be like for her, wondering what the hell is coming next? Going to see the head again tomorrow.

Hmmmm, just noticed that Google ads are advertising rabbits of the Rampant kind on my blog! Not quite what I expected and I'm not even allowed to click on it!! Nevermind.

All things - updated!!

Website

Right well, feeling a little less stressed now. I've got all my little bugs on the website ironed out. ALL the links work properly now!! I posted about my website on my Facebook and I have just had a very kind offer from an old school friend, who it turns out is a whizz at this kind of stuff. I only wish I knew that three days ago! The last friend who I asked for help wanted to charge me, some friend. Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with myself know, and I am starting to get interest from B&B's too. So fingers crossed.

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Apologies

I have two apologies to make, firstly to all my blogging friends. I have been too busy to read all your posts in the last few days and I seem to be following half of Blogger! I will read them all because I want to!! I just may not comment.


Second apology is to my Hubby and kids. I have been a raging, hormonal stress head in the last few days and have had a very short fuse. That should be easing any time soon, so sorry folks I will try to be nicer to you from now on. I have heard that Evening Primrose is especially good for PMT so I am going to give it a go and maybe next month I can be loving, caring, nice mummy/wife!!

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Children, chickens
and rabbits.

As for the goings on around home, garden and school, these are the updates;

Jedi's problem child has taken to ignoring her, which I have to say is far better than what was happening before. The only time he takes any notice of her is when she plays her guitar. So that's what he needed, some music to sooth his soul! The letter I wrote to the school has been welcomed by the Head and will be handed in at the boy's review today.


My poorly chicken has really surprised me. After being really low for a week, she has started to pick up and looks stronger and stronger every day. I was beginning to think her time was up and that I'd have to do the kindest thing. She must have read my thoughts. I gave them some live yoghurt, whether this helped or not I'm not sure. She is not 100% but she is improving so fingers crossed there too, that she makes a full recovery.





And in bunny news, I seem to have forgotten my pregnant bunny knowledge from a couple of years ago!! I had convinced myself that the gestation period for rabbits is three weeks, so had calculated their arrival to be last weekend. Dumbo!! Its actually 28-32 days. I have no idea where I got 21 from! Anyway, I was beginning to wonder if she was just a bit fat, so I picked her up today to have a feel of her tummy and got the loveliest surprise. Her tummy was just rippling with tiny kicks a wriggles! I have never felt that before on a rabbit, I guess because I have always been a bit more sure of the pregnancy and have left her alone. So there we go, she isn't just fat, and she is actually due this weekend or shortly after! I'm just hoping she doesn't go and have a dozen of them!

Wow! And thank you

Little did I realise quite how much response I would get to joining in ABC Wednesday. I just thought it would be a bit of fun and a little challenge to come up with something interesting for each letter. I went through all kinds of H's, Harley (my cat), Husband, Happiness, Home, but they all seemed to be a bit 'easy' and not very imaginative. I wanted to do something intersting and hopefully informative. I appear to have achieved that with my Hogweed! I'm glad that I have raised a bit of awareness about the awful stuff.

Thanks to everyone who left comments, and to all that joined in with ABC Wednesday. The posts are so varied and intersting and come from all around the world. There are some lovely insights into other countries and cultures. Here are a couple of my favorites;

http://mrsnesbittsplace.blogspot.com/ Lots of Hs from around our Hostess' village.
http://brianarchie.blogspot.com/ Some amazing shots taken in the Highlands of Scotland.
http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.com/ Piccies from Jerusalem.

And this one, I will definately keep an eye on, all based around a lifeboat. I will be interested to see how each letter pans out; http://www.freewebs.com/mannananscloak/abcwednesday.htm#212418337

Apologies to those I haven't got round to yet, I will try!

I am already planning next weeks letter - I- and have come up with something else that I like to shout about, and which may prove controversial, so watch this space!!

I would also like to thank those who have left kind comments on Jedi's Story part II. It has been quite a journey but with an amazing ending and she is very well now. She is still sensitive to cats but improving. I read that it is the cat's saliva on the fur, not the fur itself that causes the allergic reaction. I have seen this reaction occur when the cats have got TOO friendly with Jedi, and have been loving her a little too much! But for some reason Bengal cat saliva doesn't seem to be as bad as normal cat saliva. That is why, at great expense, we got Bengals.

I have also heard that bad colic in babies can be caused by difficult births, and can be relieved by visiting a Chiropractor! Jedi also had some pretty awful colic. So if anyone out there had a difficult birth and has a very miserable baby it is worth having a consultation, it could well bring some peace to your home!

House of Jedi

I thought you might like to see some more of Jedi's new creations;

And a card she made for a friend who's in hospital

Jedi's Story Part II

Well, what a nice day. Ok so the sun isn't actually shining brightly, but at least the rain has stopped, for now. I managed to do some chores outside this morning without drowning, and it was rather pleasant to be enjoying being out in the garden again.

My garden is rather overgrown......

And I appear to have my own wheat supply growing by the house, just in case.....

But that's all beside the point because I was going to tell you more of Jedi's story.

The Jedi has had many health problems for a very long time. It first started when she was about 7 months old. I had been living in Devon but when Jedi was born we decided to move back to Somerset to be closer to our families. The previous occupants of our new house had done a marvellous job of hiding a multitude of sins on the days of our viewings, because we had fallen in love with the house, only to find when we moved in, that it was disgusting! They had had many cats and obviously weren't to fussy about where they did their business. We had to pull up most of the carpets because of cat urine, and even found cat poo in the bedrooms. The previous owners hadn't even bothered to clean, they had just taken their stuff and left! How they had managed to mask the smell I just don't know, we had to leave the windows open and disinfect everything.

Shortly after we moved in Jedi became very ill. We took her to the doctor and he said she had a virus (don't they always?) and that it was probably due to the cats and the condition the house had been in. Jedi was very ill for about a week and lost rather a lot if weight. I had a set of portraits done of her about two weeks after she recovered and she was still painfully thin, poor baby.

Since that time Jedi has been allergic to cats and has suffered from reacurrent chest infections. The winter of 2001 Jedi completely missed Christmas. She came down with Bronchitis about two weeks before Christmas, and then developed an ear infection on top. She was very poorly and the doctors had to try a few different antibiotics to try and combat the infections. She spent three weeks in bed and couldn't remember anything about Christmas at all. She didn't recover until into the New Year.

Every time Jedi caught a cold, which didn't take much doing, she would have awful coughs that she couldn't shake. She had many boughts of Bronchitis and Bronchillitis. Whenever she caught one of these colds I would make regular trips to my local surgery to have her chest examined in the hope of catching any infections early. At the end of 2005 she had one of these colds. I had made an appointment for her to be checked out. When the day came she seemed to have improved and I nearly cancelled the apointment, but I thought I'd better take her, just to be on the safe side.

Jedi fell asleep in the car on the way to the doctors, she always sleeps a lot when she's ill so I took no notice. When we arrived she didn't wake up, so I carried her in. We were called in to see the Practise Nurse and she still didn't wake up. In fact we couldn't wake her up. The doctor was called in, he pinched her and pricked her, but she still didn't wake. An ambulance was called. Jedi did come round in the surgery, eventually, but it was like she was stoned. She was very spaced out and didn't know where she was or what was happening. We were whisked off to hospital in Taunton where it was found she had Pneumonia. There was fluid on her left lung.

Jedi also had quite a severe allergy to artificial food colourings. When we first realised it when she was around two she used to have extreme tantrums, banging her head on the floor and ripping her fingernails. These tantrums used to last for anything up to 2 hours. When she was a little older she once described the feeling as being 'itchy on the inside'. When Jedi had Pneumonia she obviously needed to have antibiotics. The only thing the hospital could offer her were the wonderful kids liquid antibiotics that are usually bright yellow, you know the ones. I had a blazing row with one of the doctors. There was no way on earth I was going to give my little girl, who was lying in bed with an oxygen mask on, the evil 'itchy' stuff. The last thing she needed was that stuff coursing through her body. The hospital couldn't offer her anything else, which amazed me. So I had to make the toughest descision of my life. I had the doctor insisting that she needed the antibiotics now and that my only other option was to wait until morning and go to my local pharmacy for an alternative!

Jedi came home that night, but I didn't sleep. I stayed awake all night, watching her and making sure she was breathing ok. The next morning we ended up having to get adult capsules of the antibiotics and breaking them open and mixing the powder with yoghurt. How are they allowed to even make medicines with such evil ingredients?

Anyway, Jedi recovered from that episode but has continued to have problems. She has been to hospital a few other times with asthma attacks. I wouldn't say she is necassarily asthmatic, it's just when she gets a cough she gets very wheezy. When we moved up to Wales in November last year she had yet another chest infection that she couldn't shift. She ended up having 3 courses of anitbiotics for that. She had yet another rough winter.

I have a cousin who lives not far from us who is a Chiropractor, she told me she may be able to help. I was very dubious, I couldn't see how she could help something that was on the inside, Jedi's problem was nothing to do with bones but her lungs. I was wrong. My cousin discovered that Jedi's ribcage wasn't quite right and that she had some ribs out of line. She believes it is due to the way Jedi didn't complete the whole compression and release of a natural birth (see previous post). The said ribs were causing a pocket to form on Jedi's left lung, which was retaining fluid and causing the repeat infections.

Jedi has had 3 sessions with my cousin since the beginning of this year. Her lung capacity according to her peak flow meter has improved by 80%, she has had one cough (which she got over in a few days) and no longer needs to use her inhaler. She is a different child. Healthier and happier. She did so well at sports day this year, a couple of years ago it never would have happened. I guess this winter will be the real test but I just wish that I had known 10 years ago what could have been done for her and then I could have spared her the misery and discomfort of all those infections.

Jedi's Story Part I

Well today is all about J. Or Jedi as she likes to be known!! 11 today! How quickly have those eleven years passed? I still remember quite clearly that day (funnily enough, a Friday) when I woke to find myself bleeding to death at half five in the morning! I had a placental abruption the day before she was due, I still remember every last detail, like it was this morning!!

When I woke I thought my water's had broken, but after going to the loo to investigate, I discovered I was bleeding heavily. My husband (at the time) was away due to work, but luckily my mum was with me. Mum doesn't drive so off I went to North Devon District Hospital by ambulance. I was taken straight to delivery and poked and prodded in all the usual ways. My labour started and they broke my waters. Before long however Jedi's heart rate began to dive. The mad rush that followed maybe should be a blur but isn't! I was shaved, had a catheter put in, had to remove all my jewellery, and had an IV put in by a student who was totally incapable and made me lose even more blood. I remember them reading the consent form to me and just desperately wanting to sign it, I didn't care what it said! I was in considerable pain but was only allowed oxygen.


Jedi was on her way but they didn't want to risk it so I was whisked off to theatre. Poor baby had to be dragged back up the birth canal (which later caused huge problems that I will write about another day) and was born at 7.19 am on the 5th September 1997. Jedi only scored 3 out of 10 on the Apgar scale when she arrived and was whisked off pretty quick. For those that don't know the Apgar scale gives a score of 0 to 2 on five different things, i.e. breathing and muscle tone. So Jedi must have scored 0 on a couple of things. I knew nothing about it of course, as I was completely out.


I had always wanted a boy and was convinced that she was. I was a bit worried that if she was a girl I wouldn't bond with her. But when I came round from the anaesthetic and they showed me a polaroid of her in special care do you think I gave a toss? Of course not, I asked if she was ok, and when told she was, I went back to sleep!!



Anyway, Jedi is a tough cookie and after only 7 hours in special care we were reunited for the first time!! And after four days (!!!) I had the staples removed from my stomach and we were allowed home. Four days? Staples out?? I was afraid to laugh or sneeze or anything!!

So here we are, 11 years on, and I have the most amazing daughter anyone could wish for. And for those of you that say you forget the pain and trauma of childbirth you are lying!! But it was worth it. (And I did do it again!!)

Happy Birthday Jedi!!