Family Woes

I haven't mentioned this before, but lately we've noticed some odd behaviour with our youngest son.

It first started out as a delay in his speech. He understands well enough, but doesn't seem to bother to want to talk. Which is ok, as long as he listens - which sometimes he doesn't and he tunes you right out.. can be very frustrating.

This spring he started 'spacing out' where he'd freeze up and become non-responsive for 5-10 seconds. These spacing out sessions have slowly gotten worse, and we were starting to get a bit worried. Then a woman at Fun Mountain noted that it looked like seisures. This of course was the cause for much concern.

Well, after some testing, the doctors have confirmed he has epilepsy, and have started treatments. They were surprised it was not diagnosed sooner... symtoms that are clear to them weren't so clear to us, and no doctor in Winnipeg ever suggested that there was something wrong. Problems like his speech delay, his lack of sleep, his knack of tuning people out, his temper tantrums, etc. should start to get under control and be more manageable - or so we hope.
The doctors have started him on Tegretol, the most common of the treatments. Hopefully the treatments will start off on the right foot, I would hate starting to experiment meds on the poor little guy just cause the doctors can't sort out what level of epilepsy he has...

The tortures of Physiotherapy

Whoever said: "It has to hurt to heal!" surely was thinking of physiotherapy!

I'm in week 3 of physio now and my arm hasn't quite straightened out. The elbow is still at a 30 degree angle, and there's a knot in my shoulder muscle. So they've really started laying on the pressure, litterally! At week 6 since my accident, there's little worry about my bone, it's strong enough to support most weight, so weight they are applying to get my elbow straight... if we don't get it fixed soon, it may never staighten out... a scary thought.

So I'm taking the pain, my arm is still a little sore, but I have so much more flexibility in it now that I'm just going to grin and bear it!

Monday we toured a bit of Halifax. It was rainy, but not cold, so we wandered the streets getting soaked. I have some beautiful pictures of the Public Gardens which I'll be posting soon as I take them off the camera. I was hoping to get pictures of the Halifax Citadel, but at $25 for the family to see an old fort on a rainy day, we decided to wait till nicer weather.

Found a great place for Gelati downtown Halifax called Nio Gio, they're a little expensive compared to what we used to get in Winnipeg, but as this is the first place we've found serving the Italian Ice Cream confection in this town, we're willing to pay for it.

Look Ma, No Sling!

Well, I started physio this week, and as painful as it is (well not a lot, but enough!), it's really paying off!

I can almost straigten my arm out (after 1 month of being up in a sling, it's not easy) and since my appointment yesterday I've tucked my sling into my backpack and haven't used it since! I'm patting myself on the back on this one....

My physiotherapist is hoping I can straighten my arm out fully by the end of the week. A challenge considering how tight my bicept is... My bone hasn't completely mended and the arm is still bruised and swollen. My arm won't be able to do much for a few weeks, not till the bone is fully healed, but just having it 'look' normal is a pleasant change.

I can type a lot easier now, and can even write without it hurting.. my arm still can't support itself, so most of the things I do sitting down.

Let's see what I can do after they're done torturing my arm today after I get off work..