It's late....

Quite late....

But I just HAD to update my poor lonesome little blog.. poor lil thing has been so neglected :(

So much has gone on since my last post. But I will update with the latest, scariest, yet relieving (all at the same time!) news...

Two weeks ago today we were in a whirlwind. My oldest son had gone two doors up to ride his bike with his friend, on their property. He'd been gone an hour.. I was sitting on the lounge watching some TV and was JUST about dozing off (its always the way eh?).. and all of a sudden L-man comes in, all hunched over saying "I've hurt myself mum".. I knew from his face and his posture that he WAS hurting bad!

So I got him to tell me what had happened. He'd been riding his bike with his friend, and he hit this bump in the ground that he hadn't seen. The wheel went crazy, the bike went down and he went down with it, and the handlebar got him in the tummy. I said, ok, where are you hurt? And then he lifted his shirt... OUCH I said.. jumped up, guided him to the chair and said, stay there, and I'll get something to clean that up! He had a deep graze on his belly the size of a golf ball. I ran and grabbed some paper towel, moistened it up and ran back to him and went to dab gently to try and clean it up a bit to get a better look at it. He winced and yelped, so I stopped.

Then he went grey. I mean grey. He was talking slightly incoherant, and was on the verge of passing out. Said to hubby, I have to get him checked out. Hubby tried telling me that he'd be fine and to just give him a few to get over the near pass-out. Mama bear took over and TOLD hubby that I was taking him to the hospital to get it checked out. I did the right thing.

Raced him to our local rural hospital, and they immediately had him in the ER with my mum while I gave our information at the desk. When I got to his bed, the doctor looking him over told us he would be transferred to the large childrens hospital in the city. I was gobsmacked. They were putting cannulas in BOTH his arms.. they frightened me! I asked the doctor what was going on, and why all this was happening so fast. He informed me that he'd received a blunt force trauma to the abdomen and was at high risk for a ruptured spleen/liver/bowel. I went into disbelief mode and rang hubby straight away to tell him what was going on.

The transfer ambulance arrived 10 minutes later and we were on our way. Mum drove my car back home, where Keith would then jump in and meet us at the childrens hospital. They said the problem with kids is that they can hold their vitals for much much longer than an adult can, so while they appear fine on the outside, inside might be a totally different story.

Anyway.. almost an hour later we were at the childrens, being taken straight into ER. There was a hustle and bustle of activity and talk of a nasal-gastric tube being put in. I asked the reason for that, and was told that they needed to empty his stomach to prevent vomitting, which could make any possible internal injuries worse. Plus they needed to use the NG tube to administer the contrast for the CT he would be having. YIKERS!.. I was so amazed at how fast they were working, and at the same time amazed at how serious this was becoming!

Keith turned up about half an hour after we got there and we chatted and took turns in keeping Lachie comfortable. I had to leave the room when they finally did the NG tube.. I can handle most things, but I couldn't handle seeing that happen to my son. Keith stayed, and said he never EVER wants to see that in his life, with any of his kids. I felt bad for leaving :( But I didn't want to get Lachie further stressed out when he saw mama crying :( Not good. It took him a while to get used to the sensation of the tube, and he sneezed alot. The morphine they gave him made him throw up :(

Then they gave him the contrast. The nurse totally stuffed the dose up! Supposed to mix 10ml of contrast with 500ml of water. She mixed up 100ml of contrast with 400ml of water... over 10 TIMES the amount it should have been!! They got the CT scan done, and back to the ER. Doc came in and told us that he had a bruised stomach and liver, had a good sized haematoma on his liver, and had "slightly mashed" the abdominal muscle just above those two organs. They said he was a very VERY lucky little man, considering the force the handlebar got him.

Relief doesn't even TOUCH how I felt when I heard that! All the docs and nurses said it SHOULD have been much worse than that, and that someone was watching over him that day! We finally got admitted, and up to his room at 10.30pm. 6 1/2 hours in the ER was long enough!

They kept him in for 4 days total for observation. Had him Nil By Mouth for the first two days, had him on jelly and clear fluids early on the third day, and then gradually got his diet back to normal. They didn't want to introduce food too quickly incase his poor tummy couldn't handle it and started throwing up again, which would then send him backwards and undo all the healing to his poor tummy and liver. The overdose of contrast gave him a nasty case of the trots, which took a few days to get over. Poor darlin. I stayed with him the first two nights, and Keith stayed with him the 3rd night. On the 4th day, he was allowed home.. what a great day that was :D Was just so blessed and amazed at the miracle of him being so darn lucky ... and it sure makes you appreciate them that much more!

And here are some photos of my little trooper.. such a brave boy, who never complained once about anything!

Watching TV and tolerating that nasty NG tube

He ate all of his jelly once he was allowed to start fluids again!

Playing his DS on the couch that was my bed for two nights :)

Chilling out, talking to his mama for a while :)

Sitting by the big window in the hallway, watching the world go by

And the moment every mother cherishes when their child is hurt.. a big smile.. almost back to his normal self :)

So that is the first update of what has been going on in my otherwise normally boring life! I will try update again in the next few days with other goings-on.. but for the moment, I think that's the most important thing updated!

Life is good, and I have my boy where he belongs... at home with his family :)

We've been and come back, and wish we were still there!

So we have been away on our vacation, and have been back for a week now. Wow, it was great! Apart from the windy days and the odd bit of rain here and there. We took a whopping 2000 photos while we were away, and most of them are keepers, which I'm amazed at! Once I resize and watermark them, I will post some of the really good ones to show. We really didn't get to go to many places because the weather was kind of ick, and the big jetty we normally go for a walk on was under repair, so that was out as well. But you can't help the weather right?

Hayden turns 3 in 6 days!!! WOW... it really has flown by, and I'm now trying to work out what to get my little man for his birthday. I definitely think some clothes are in order, as he's grown so much, and now that winter is approaching FAST, he needs some warmer clothes that actually fit him LOL Other than that we are thinking of another big truck for the yard/sandpit. He got a big John Deere truck for christmas and it got used every single day at Hervey Bay and it has begun the addiction to them, so we may look at getting him a digger. The one other thing I would think of is a big boy bike. He got a trike for christmas (which is now broken *SIGH*) and he likes to get on Becky's big girl bike and ride it, so that may be the trick! Who knows. Money is also the deciding factor in all of it as well, as this week is a HUGE week for bills coming out of the account, plus two car registrations.. sucks!! But will definitely be making him his own birthday cake, which I usually do each year. This year he will have a Wall.E cake picture to put on top, as he LOVES Eve out of that movie. I will post pics when I've made it :)

In other stuff going on, we've had ALOT of rain over the last week. I mean ALOT!!! We had some flash flooding, Sophie's highschool was closed at midday on the wednesday and when she got home I flew down to Lachie's school to get him. The weather was just crazy! We have had rain on and off the last few days, but nothing like it was last week. We apparently had the wettest May weather for 30 odd years.. but we do need the rain. Our state Premier announced that the drought was now over, but she should have said that BRISBANE drought was over, not Queensland. There are still alot of areas in Queensland that are in dire need of rain, and they are far from being drought free. So now the hope is that the rains build up and hit in other areas of QLD so that they may be on the way to their dams being even half full.

Another thing I wanted to mention was about Keith and I wanting to take our photography so much further. We are looking into doing some accredited courses to learn more, and start taking great photos most of the time. We are really serious about this and want to get to the stage where Keith can go full time with photography and give up the job he is currently doing. That is his ultimate dream. We now just need to work out how much this is going to cost us to get things rolling. I dread to think LOL

Anyway, that's it from me for now. I stupidly started a blog entry when it was almost time to get kids organised for school so I have to keep it short for now. Will be back when I have a bit more time to really go into things :)

14 days, and counting!!

It's only 14 more days until we go away.. 2 weeks!! This time in two weeks, we'll be just starting to put the tent up and get it all organised so we can spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the beach :D Can you tell I'm excited? Well, if you can't tell, then I definitely am!!!! haha The last 12 months have flown by, and I can't believe we are almost there again! I feel like a kid in a candy store lol I just want to be up there, like, RIGHT NOW! Really, if you ever visit Australia (or Queensland, if you are already an aussie), take the time to visit Hervey Bay. It really is a little piece of magic. It's quiet, the water is calm.. the caravan park we stay at is immaculate, and while the washers and dryers are way overpriced, the bathroom block is kept so clean. You have to have a key to get into the bathrooms (unless someone doesn't shut the door properly and then ANYONE can get in *sigh*). Really.. I'll post ALOT of photos once we get home, and you'll know what I mean. I think it will be our holiday spot for the next 10 years or so. And once the kids are old enough and don't want to vacation with us anymore, we may still go, or may find somewhere else to go holidaying.

The easter break is nearly over.. its gone way fast. The kids got a visit from the easter bunny, and this year, they didn't get alot. I find that while they are excited to get the chocolate bunnies and eggs, they don't ever eat them all. So this year they got either a bunny or big egg, and then 5 smaller eggs, and they were happy as larry with that! So next year will be the same. I was constantly finding smashed up easter eggs all over the rugs, so maybe next year might even be just a big bunny and a toy.. maybe.. we'll see what happens :)

So my gall bladder pain seems to be under control lately. I'm not having to take pain relief anywhere near as often as I was. I'm still watching what I eat, but sometimes the naughty stuff does get through, and I find if I eat a little of it, every few days, I'm ok. But its when I'm having large doses of fatty food regularly, that's when I'm in trouble. So its good to know I can still treat myself every now and then, and as long as I keep it in moderation, its all good! Thank goodness for that!

We went for a drive last weekend up to O'Reillys in the Gold Coast hinterland. Mind you, we finally got there after the Navman (GPS)... GOT US LOST!!!!!!!!!! Yes, the Navman navigated us in the totally wrong way LOL So an hour later, we were on the right track, and by the time we got up the top of the mountain, we only had around an hour to look around before we had to head back down to pick Sophie up from work on time. Next time we are going to look at going to Binna Burra for the day, but we're not exactly sure what is there, and how to get there. We're also looking at going for a visit to the Darling Downs zoo one day (not sure when though).. one of my online friends went yesterday, and looking at her photos, it looks like a great little zoo! It's not huge like the city zoos, but that can be better in a way.. so we are finally trying to venture out a bit more and get the kids used to behaving in public LMAO. Really.. its the one reason we really don't go anywhere.. because they are just total handfuls (the smaller two, that is). Lachlan is getting wonderful at behaving while we are out and about now, but we just need to get hte younger two to start listening and doing what we ask them to do. It will make trips out alot more fun, and alot more worth it. I know they are still only young, but they DO need to listen.. its not safe sometimes.

But that's about it for now. I really can't think of anything else highly exciting going on. Off to facebook for a while, and then go tidy up the house.