Hi all,

The weekend started somewhat sombre with Mom and Dad getting the call first thing Friday morning that I had to undergo further brain surgery, in May. Dad was about to leave for work when he took the call, and after sharing the news with Mom and I, he opted to stay home a while, as we all became very emotional. Although we’ve always know more surgery would be needed, we didn’t think that brain surgery #7 would be so soon.

We’ve always known that the AVM needs to be closed completely. The complications and risks to the closing of the AVM, are not as dangerous as leaving it open. While we are on a very different journey to most people we don’t at all regret any of the decisions or things that have happened. We are eternally grateful to a dedicated medical team, who are invested in a positive outcome. Just to prove it, after Mommy SMS’d Dr Nicoletta, she called even though she was on duty at the hospital and had the worst night ever.

Well onto the rest of my week. On Monday Daddy stayed home, as it was Easter Monday. It was definitely a bit of a rainy day, but while it was still moderate outside, I convinced the old folk that we should go for a walk around the park outside our house. Even though Mommy and Daddy have walked around this park alot since they lived here, this time it took them a long time to get around it. This is not really because they are old and slow, but because I went up and down the grass and crisscrossed the road at every opportunity. What I haven’t mentioned yet is that Roxy came with us. This is the first time she has been for a walk since Jake has left us, and she was very jittery. I gave her lots of reassurances and she gave me lots of hugs in return.

Just as we got home the rain started again, thank goodness we timed it the way we did. Shortly after the walk I was fast asleep. Daddy decided to take my pram’s wheels to be pumped up at the garage, see the attached photo, Suspension City here we come. Mommy phoned Discovery Health to pre-authorise my MRI which, as you know, was scheduled for Thursday morning. As always they were amazing and helpful, so within 5 minutes all was sorted out. Here’s a shout out to Discovery – You Rock! In Twitter speak that would look as follows: #ShoutOut Discovery Health.

In the evening Mommy and I were singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ and Mommy decided to let me get some stars out of her scrapbooking kit and play with them. I believe her intention was for me to have one or two. I on the other hand got them all out, it was a wonderfully sensory experience. I loved it.

On Tuesday Mommy and I had some errands to run. Mommy asked Granny if she wanted to join us, but she was busy. Mommy and I headed off to Cresta to get all our vehicle licences. My very clever Daddy has managed to organise both cars and the bike all expire in the same month, so only 1 errand run is required. We went to get money from the ATM, I was so excited to be able to press buttons, that Mommy got a lot more money from the machine than what she really wanted and quickly SMSed Daddy to tell him that it was me, and not Mommy, about to go on a spending spree. We then proceeded to make many new friends as we stood in the queue waiting for our turn. Mommy says that lots of people have bad queue experiences in SA but actually we were in and out in 10 minutes, complete with three renewed licences. I then decided I needed a long walk around the shopping centre.

I had my midday snooze and suddenly Granny and Tammy arrived. After I woke up, Mommy and I joined Granny and Tammy at Piatto in Cresta. I munched on some of Granny’s pasta and some chips, but I reckon Tammy was hungry because she ploughed through a bowl of Spag Bol while I played right next to her without saying a word. When she had recovered her blood sugar levels, Tammy and I set about a noisy afternoon of hide and seek and reading books with absolute delight. We headed off for home as Daddy had called very excited about something.

It turned out he had bought Mommy a new state of the art Blackberry. We lost her for the rest of the evening.

She must have worked very hard on that Blackberry, because that night Mommy slept through me trying to escape my cot. Daddy got there just in time before I went head first over the side of the cot.

On Wednesday Mommy spent more time on her phone, but relented when we went off to Lauren (where Mommy did some support for Lauren on her Blackberry – now we can all IM each other). After my sleep and back home, Mommy left me to play on my indoor jungle-gym. From the kitchen she heard “Oh Oh”. Sprinting through to the lounge she found me with the bowl of chocolate eggs in front of me, not eating them, but rather crushing them with a candle and distributing them around the table. I quickly made friends with a new appliance, the dustbuster. Early afternoon I went to Mommy’s club at Colleen & Joseph’s place. Later on in the afternoon, Mommy looked up from her laptop to see me handing Sonic the cat a DVD and saying Ta for her to take it.

Thursday was my MRI and the ‘glasses’ incident, but you can read about that at this link.

Mommy needed to do some work so we spent most of Friday inside. The shock to our week, was when Prof. Fourie’s offices called to schedule my next embolisation. Originally, the medical team had wanted to wait 18 months for my blood vessels to grow. Mommy and Daddy insisted on an interim MRI to establish what was happening with my venous drainage, they had seen the results of the MRI hence the phone call.

Even though they have not had the opportunity to speak to Prof. Fourie, my parents are acutely aware of the fact that the venous pressures are so extreme, that they still pose a danger to me. It is obvious from the sudden push for action is resultant from the fact that the last embolisation has not had as much success as they would have wanted it to have. So the next surgery is set for 13 May, 2010.

Despite our initial shock, we pressed on with our week, and Saturday Daddy and I bonded with a boys day. Daddy took me to have my hair cut and while at Lifestyle Centre, I managed to squeeze in a few rides on Sparkle the pony, and other mechanical rides. In the evening we headed off to Primi to have some dinner, as Mommy was on kitchen strike. Strikes don’t just cost the country money in business terms, but they also cost Daddy money when Mommy goes on strike it would seem. We then headed off to get DVD’s as there was a planned power outage for the evening to do some planned maintenance on the grid. Mommy and Daddy also mobilised their ‘power outage’ plan, and flasks were filled and gas bottles moved around, laptops, cellphones and of course my DVD player was charged. Needless to say I slept through the outage, and it didn’t last too long I hear.

Sunday was a mellow day which saw us just doing errands around the house. I practised walking and standing and explored all my toys. Then of course I wrote the blog.

As has become a trend with my blogs I’d also like to share some global happenings with you. Apple launched their much anticipated iPad. On the first day (Monday) 300 000 units were sold. Although my folks are usually quite early adopters with new technology they have decided to wait on the iPad as other brands like Kindle have been around for a while longer. Also, Apple has a nasty reputation of having a massive product launches and then over the next 9 to 12 months launching upgrades. Another interesting, but also tragic occurrence, was the untimely death of the Polish president Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and dozens of top officials in a plane crash. Dad and I did some research about this incident to try determine if any other heads of state, while in office, have died in a plane crash. It seems this may be the first. Another interesting fact is that Lech Kaczynski had an identical twin brother, who the former head of state of Poland. Now that we thing must be a first!

So in bringing this week to a close, let me say thank you to all of you for your messages and good luck wishes and positive energy and angels and guardians. I really appreciate it.

Lots of hugs and loves

Jarrod

 

Photo 1 Playing with stars

Photo 2 Walkies

Photo 3 Backyard repairs

Photo 4 Trying on Tammy’s hat

Photo 5 Drawing

Photo 6 Sporting my new (second) haircut

Photo 7 Our oak tree is starting to look autumn-ish

Photo 8 Hi!

Photo 9 One of the locals enjoy Mom’s sweet basil

Photo 10 Bad idea giving me ice-cream after my bath

Photo 11 Reading in my room

Photo 12 I think I can!

Photo 13 Who, me?

Photo 14 Snoozing with Dad

 

1 Comment on More Surgery Scheduled

  1. Lisle says:

    Jarrod, love your new Hairdo, I cant believe how you have gone from “little baby” to “little Boy” seemingly overnight, when did you get so big?!!!! (groan, i sound like my mother!!!). This is one of those moments i will bring up at your 21’st bday party, that your retired parents (see blog January 2008)will invite me to :). we can then compare notes to your photo 12 “I think i can” to your Dads’ zimmerframe :). Please dont tell him I said this……he’s going to kill me

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