The trip of a lifetime

Well I have been a little slack about keeping the blog updated - been a bit busy of late - conference in my home town - more on that later - and of course getting everything organised for my trip of a lifetime!!!


Next Wednesday I am off, leaving on a jet plane to head to California to attend the Cochlear Americas Celebration. But perhaps most exciting of all, I am getting to meet Dee.



It is a long and complicated story, often times people think we are all just a little strange when we tell it. In fact someone asked just recently who Dee was on my facebook page and she replied it was kind of complicated we were part of a gang but a really nice friendly gang hahahaha

Back in 1998 Karen B & I started CI Circle. We started it so that parents could get information about cochlear implants for their children but without being judged by others for considering this option. When it started we had 8 people, now we have over 1700 members!

When CI Circle got too big we missed the "chats" the original 8 had so we set up a group on our respective computer email programs and nicknamed ourselves "the gang". Over the last 11 years we have been corresponding with each other sharing stories, good days, bad days and everything in between.

In fact in April of 1998 we put together a little book with a page about our families and photos and one child of the families designed a cover for us and everything, then we had it printed and bound, so we could all "meet" from our different parts of the world.

In August of 2002, Mike, Dee's son was in Australia for a study tour, so we flew him to SA and he attended a Parents of the Hearing Impaired of SA (PHISA) camp with us. It was brilliant meeting Mike and having him come on camp with us and then stay a few days with us. A was pretty stoked to have Mike in the house so there were two people with implants staying at our place.

Up until now Mike's mum, Dee, and I have never met. Then early this year this amazing lady made me the most generous offer. She was using her frequent flyer points to fly me to the conference so that I could stay with her and then do some sightseeing with her in her hometown as well! I am still pinching myself at the generosity she has shown me and I am just about busting with excitement that we are going to meet in a matter of days now!

Then I get an invitation for a garden tea party, and read on to find out I am the guest of honour, yep I am serious! Her workmates are experts at planning these things so they have taken it on so Dee and I can just sit and enjoy ourselves in her garden and she can introduce me to the family and friends that are special to her. I have never been the guest of honour at a garden tea party before - it is quite overwhelming.

So on Wednesday I hit the skies for my flight to the otherside of the world (14 & 1/2 hours for one of the flights!!) I haven't left yet and already it is the trip of a lifetime. I can't wait to see what awaits when I get there. To meet Dee and her family/friends, to meet some of the CI Circle families whose emails I read quite regularly on the circle, to see Rachel again - it seems so long ago since she was here with us in December last year. It is going to be a jam packed week over there and I am so excited I am like the child waiting for Christmas....

The sublime moments

Just a quick note of one of those sublime moments that caught me today.

A was complaining of a sore back so I made him an appointment with the physiotherapist. It is one of those clinics that unless you have ongoing care issues, or a burning desire to see the same person every time, you can just get an appointment with whoever. Since A wanted an appointment today we took the latter option.

So there he is, all 6'4" of him stretched out on the bed, with his face shoved down inside one of those donut type pillows they use. The physiotherapist was a lovely young Indian girl who still had an accent in her speech. She started asking A questions about where it hurt and what it felt like when she did this or that. I sat there having a moment to really ponder just how far we have come. There is A face down, answering all these questions, with her accented speech. No other cues for him but auditory listening to her speaking. What a wonderful gift the cochlear implant has been for him, and how different might his life been if this technology was not available to him?

Cruising on down memory lane!

Oh girls, you book pushers you - you know who you all are!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

I am in my study surrounded by sh*t everywhere and it is all your fault. I started looking to see what bits and pieces I have that I can lay my hand on.

I just found the very original post when Pam Talbot started AV Circle which was our group to swap therapy ideas for just those parents who were using AV therapy with their kiddos - that was in April 1997!!! Then of course I have to read a whole heap of the emails I printed from back then - printed with the perforated edges mind you, you know where the paper moves through those little feeder things and comes off in one long sheet and you tear along the individual page break perforations! Some of those people there I still have contact with today - now that is just too awesome.

From there to another folder called Adam's stuff - in there - a veritable goldmine. I found journals that he and I did together when he was 5 and we journalled each day together and put stuck in pictures from the day or if we were really scraping the bottom of the barrel he got one of my lame drawings in there. I found pages with feathers stuck in there, tram tickets, all kinds of stuff - very, very cool.

And there was a newspaper clipping of A with another boy when the government was going to cut back on the preschool program he was in the headline screams

"Angry parents blast decision"

and then goes on to quote the president of the management of the preschool committee - ah yep that'd be me - somethings never change : - )

I even found a document from our gorgeously, wonderful, amazing CI surgeon which has information about the implant and then on the back the list of possible risk and the occurrence of each risk in 200 operations already performed - and that would have been handed to me back in December 2004 - this surgeon was sooo before his time in empowering and informing parents.

Hey never mind the book right now I gotta go, more mining of the goldfields to do......

He has no damn right to be that bright

Lovin this title and it came from a really good friend of mine and was made in reference to A.

yeah he is a bright cookie, in spite of my parenting....afterall grown up mature responsible adults don't go around mimicking the voices of the Lego Darth Vader in the cafeteria video off the net, now do they??? well at least one does : - )

So the senior years of high school would be hard enough for any student without a hearing loss. A never does anything by halves, let's just make it even more interesting, let's see if we can have a go at the International Baccelaureate program (IB). The IB has as a component a foreign language and it is a compulsory requirement for the program.

Fortunately the language that A would be doing starts midway through year 10 and finishes midway through year 12, so he gets half of this year to see how he goes with the language before making the IB or SACE choice of stream for year 11 and 12.

He started Italian (yeah Jodi - Italian!!!) about 9 weeks ago. Last week was his first oral assessment. In true A fashion he put the time in preparing for it and wrote it all out. With spaces between lines it was about a page of writing. He had to introduce himself, his address, who is in the family, pets in the family and something about each member of the family - me he chose the word "bizarro" - yep and I love him too!!!

He cruises into my office at the end of the day and I asked him how the Italian oral went. He gets this flustered look on his face, runs his hands through his hair - at which point I am about to hyperventilate worrying about him - just as I am about to tip over the edge, this huge grin crosses his face and he jumps in the air, arms thrown upwards and a "Mum I aced it!"

In reality he scored 15/15 with only two minor pronunciation corrections - helllllloooo - did no-one tell you that you have a profound hearing loss??? Well yeah, but it sure hasn't made any difference to what this kid is capable of.

And if that wasn't bad enough!!! (well good enough really : - ) he was fitted with his Freedom processor for the N22 two weeks ago. We were visiting the audiologist to see how he was going etc and the audiologist decided to see just how well he was going with some sentence level testing.

He scored 94% in quiet and 86% with the background noise being equal to that of the speaker - pretty impressive. After he finishes he smiles at the audiologist and says, I was going to give you a really good answer for one of those sentences but I thought you would score me wrong and that would pull my results down. At which point the audiologist and I know we should know better than to ask, but can't resist the urge to do just that.

"Well" he says "one of the sentences was the house had nine rooms and I have just done all that for my Italian oral. So I was going to say the sentence in Italian not English just for fun" He then went on to say it in Italian for us. The audiologist was impressed but clearly was enjoying the banter with A, and made comments about how sometimes you really like people until you find out just how capable they are then you really go off them. He then told A what he wanted in feedback from him about his new maps when he goes back in two weeks time...when A did his "yeah yeah no problems" response, the audi quipped back with "oh and in Italian too please".

It was all great fun, but not a day goes by, now even 13 years post implant when I am not astounded by just what this young man can do!

Perhaps this says it all

Below is a beautiful video from you tube, that I think really just says it all.What a wonderful dedication from his family to this young boy and all that have been part of their journey...enjoy.....

oh have the kleenex handy...

what a week!

Hmm it has been awhile since I have blogged here - didn't realise quite how long!

I know it was the case for me and I know speaking to parents of newly diagnosed babies it is the case for them too, when you find out your child has a hearing loss, all you want to know is that they are going to be ok!





I can remember all those worries as if they were yesterday, would he have friends, how would he cope as he got older etc etc etc.





Last week was such a wow week and has made me reflect back to those feelings at that time, and how far we have come since then.





Last week A has been on work experience week. He chose to do it at one of the Universities here in the school of Chemical & Pharmaceutical Engineering. The work experience program itself looked daunting, but for us as his parents all the rest of the stuff was just as daunting.





OK so he is a teen, and maybe we have protected him just a bit *smile* but for one reason or another, it hasn't happened that he has needed to travel on public transport on his own. Being able to head into the city every day while we were working meant that this was going to happen during work experience week - a somewhat scary thought for his parents!



That and coping with people he didn't know, expectations of him from people that didn't know him and had probably never dealt with a person with a cochlear implant!! Oh it made me want to wrap him a in a hug and keep him safe with me : - )



Of course it was never going to be like that! Of course he would go, it was an ideal time for him to grow, take on some new challenges - I mean for goodness sake he is old enough to get his "learners"!



So the last week of the school holidays, A and I did the dummy run on the train into the city, walked to the Uni and even met one of the people of the work experience program when we went to find the office he had to meet at the following Monday. It nearly killed the both of us being up early enough to catch the train just after 8am!



That Sunday night we chatted before he went to bed that he was a little nervous about the next day, not so much the train trip on his own for the first time but more so work experience and what it would be like.



Of course I made the mistake of opening my mouth and letting B know that - no he didn't tease him - read on to find out why that was a mistake!!



I didn't sleep well Sunday night - you know worrying is part of the mum job title! I kept dreaming that things happened and he was stranded in the city! I mean really he has a mobile and all the wonders of modern technology at his disposal - so why was I worrying???



Monday morning came, B and I headed off for school, hubby and A left for the train station. I had asked A to sms me when he arrived at the Uni just so I knew he arrived safe and sound. A short time later hubby called to say he had deposited A at the station and offered to let him sit in the car awhile, but A was having none of it, he was out on the platform ready to go.....so hubby drove off leaving the image of a lone soul at the station in his rear view mirror.



Then around 9am came the sms, he was there no worries, and of course I was under instructions to sms hubby when I knew that our "baby" was safe!



I had to be in the city that first afternoon for a meeting so I arranged to meet A at the Uni and drive him home - well I don't think he shut up the whole way home, except the momentary stop in order to draw breath.

First he started talking to me about a friend "Ben" on the train - I thought at first it was another school friend going to work experience that happened to catch the same train. Nope Ben was an arts student at the Uni, and apparently he had to make a mad dash sprint for the train because he was running late and nearly missed it - oh and that was because he had one of those mornings when you keep hitting the snooze button thinking to yourself "just 5 more minutes, just 5 more minutes" and next thing you know you are running late and have to sprint for the train.

Of course this information was gleaned in a mutual conversation on a moving, rumbling train with less than brilliant acoustics chatting to some guy he had never seen before, but who between the two of them, had struck up a conversation on the way into the city!

After we exhausted that subject it was on to the supervisor and the photos of the 2 dogs she had at her desk in the office. He was suggesting to me what breeds he thought they were but that he didn't get a chance to ask because there was so much work experience related stuff.

Then it was on to the student paired with him for work experience "Tatiana". He shared with me, what school she was from, some stuff about her parents, and her country of birth, the subjects she was doing at school blah blah blah blah...

Here was me worrying about how he might do dealing with people and what if he had trouble understanding them??? Trouble understanding them, sounds like he drove them nuts involving them in conversations all day!

Although I did ask about him and his haste to get out of the car in the morning at the station...."oh mum I love Dad, but he WAS DRIVING ME NUTS!.....asking me if I had this, had that, did I know this, know that....I couldn't stand it, I had to get out!

Oh and telling Master B of A's nervousness about day 1.....turns out I was not the only one that didn't sleep well..apparently he tossed and turned all night worrying about his big brother going on the train by himself for the first time and into the city and work experience and all that...what a beautiful soul my son has, his sensitivity and caring takes my breath away some days.

And that was just day 1 - I have 4 more days to post yet!

The stuff of dreams

It has been a big few weeks in our household. A is more travelled than the rest of our family these days.

He went with the schools gifted and talented trip to Canberra where they spent 3 days looking at all kinds of things. They visited the war memorial, parliament house, old parliament house, the National Gallery, the Australian Institute of Sport and other places of interest in Canberra. Despite being almost 16 years of age, A recognises the huge benefit he gains using his FM in noisy environments. So at a meeting prior to the trip he negotiated with the teacher accompanying them that they would hand the transmitter to each of the people speaking. At the end of the day A would take it back to charge it up overnight. The whole system worked beautifully and he could enjoy standing at the back of the group (where all cool Yr 10 boys stand on these kinds of trips!!) and still hear everything that was said. Using his FM gave him the freedom to just hang with his mates and still benefit from what the speakers were sharing with the group.

On his arrival home, his best friend headed off for a different school camp, the one he will head off on in 2 weeks time. So by the time his friend returned, they had missed out seeing each other for almost 2 weeks. As his friend lives near the school, he wanted to go around and visit even though his friend hadn't been at school that day - too tired after camp no doubt. I told A he would need to call to make sure that was ok first. He picked up the phone in my office and called his friend. I left the room to do some stuff and returned to find him still talking on the phone. Yes they had organised he would go over there and he would actually be there in person in under 30 minutes, but no that didn't mean they should stop talking now. So sitting in my chair, on my phone A is giving me the typical teenager hand waving meaning "go away can't you see I am busy here?" I had plenty of other stuff to do so I left him to it.

When I returned he was off the phone and relaying to me what his friend had said about camp. I listened on as he gave me more and more details of how the camp went and that his friend didn't really think that much of this one compared to previous ones. As I listened to him go on and on and on, a warm glow started from the inside. It started in the cockles of my heart and then it started to spread. It spread all the way down to my toes that tingled in delight. It spread all the way up my body, culminating in the biggest smile across my face. So why was I a grown women, sitting there grinning like a cheshire cat?

It was because when meningitis robbed A of his hearing, and I heard the words "profound hearing loss" and I felt all of my internal organs shake in that soundbooth when we tested at 90dB and yet still he didn't hear it, I was devastated. I feared for him and what his future might hold, I was scared to death that maybe he wouldn't have any friends, he wouldn't be able to go to school with his hearing brother. Granted these were fears from a position of ignorance as to just what is possible, but it is a position that I feel many people who don't have a friend or relative with a hearing loss, may well still believe. At that point I knew nothing about cochlear implants, auditory verbal therapy (AVT), FMs or anything else.

At that time I never dared to dream that what I had just witnessed (my teen chatting on the phone to his friend) might even be possible! I never dared to dream that he would turn into this amazing young man, a young man full of self confidence, achieving both academic and social success in his school. Equally a young man who whilst on the flight home from Canberra generously offered to pay for a fellow student's drink as she had no money left and was feeling unwell with a headache on the flight home.

So for parents just starting out on this journey, may you feel the joy of this post. May you just get a small snapshot into what life may well be like for your child when they reach their teenage dreams. For you as parents, take a moment to catch your breath, but most of all take a moment and dare to dream! Dare to dream about just what is possible for your child.

Christmas and a Brighter New Year

I don't actually remember much about that Christmas, it was all really just a blur.

I think as much as we must have celebrated Christmas with the family, if for nothing else than for those beautiful boys, I just don't really remember that much of it.

We were all just trying to stay a float at that point I think...it had been such an amazing roller coaster - almost losing A, him surviving but then discovering his hearing loss, then the hope of an implant, oh my goodness no wonder we were just emotionally wrung inside out!

At this point I guess we were in much the same position as most hearing parents who find out their child has a hearing loss. Initially we thought because A was so deaf he would not benefit from hearing aids and would need to learn Australian Sign Language or Auslan.

The thing is that for most of us, if you have never had any exposure to someone who is deaf, then really what do you know about deafness? If you were like us, not a whole hell of a lot.

So during the very difficult times we were guided by the professionals around us and we listened to what they told us and made decisions based on that.

For many people who are not connected to deafness or hearing loss, they are completely ignorant of the divide between members of the Deaf Community and hearing parents of deaf children when it comes to cochlear implants and young children and babies.

To be fair it is not all members of the Deaf Community that feel this way, there are some very warm, very welcoming members who are genuinely interested in how are kids are going with the cochlear implants and how they do at school etc. However it has to be said there are some members who are down right abusive to parents who decide to implant their children. Only in recent weeks, a friend and fellow blogger, was referred to as a child abuser because her son had been implanted when he was too young to have a choice! This is not an isolated case, sadly many parents, myself included have been labelled as child abusers for having our children implanted with a cochlear implant at such a young age.

The reasons for the oppposition are not always the same.

For some the opposition stems more from the pain and trauma of their own experiences as a young deaf child. For the past generation, there were children who were given hearing aids that really provided little or no benefit. They did not have access to the new technology hearing aids we see today or to cochlear implants. So these kids had technology that simply didn't give them enough hearing for them to be able to hear the sounds of speech, yet they were expected to hear and learn to speak. Those that had picked up some sign language, were on occasions forced to sit on their hands so that they would not use sign language. Clearly this kind of treatment of young children, where sign language was the only useable form of language for them, was barbaric and cruel. Many adults who went through these kinds of experiences are very bitter and angry about being forced to try to speak (especially if they later discovered sign language and an ability to communicate!) Some equally are resentful of their parents for forcing them to endure such treatment in the name of "oralism".

Unfortunately what they do not understand is that the experiences of our children with the newer technology is not the experience that they had. However for some no amount of blogging or trying to convince them will change their minds, they are just totally closed to the idea that being able to hear and speak is both possible and something that the children themselves want as well. I suspect that perhaps the pain of their own experiences prevents them from seeing any other alternative.

Another argument is the notion of the use of sign language. Many advocates of the Deaf Community believe all deaf children should learn to sign. In fact some will go so far as to say that they are born of Deaf Culture, and such sign language is their native language and that they should learn it in order to be with their own kind. There have been many online discussions about this notion of culture. For most people culture is defined by family, where you live, life experiences etc, so that the notion of being born into a culture does not fit with this ideal of what we believe culture to be.

In A's case he was born hearing, and heard for 2 years, then lost his hearing, so what culture does that make him then? A foot in both camps?

There is also an increasing push now for all deaf children to learn sign language, well at least that is what many members of the Deaf Community would like to see.

When A was diagnosed and we were waiting for his implant surgery, we were not that aware of all this controversy. We took our cues from the professionals we were working with. At that point in time the studies that were about concerning children with a hearing loss and their language development and levels of attainment, were consistently showing that Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) was producing the best outcomes for young children. Children with the benefit of the kind of hearing cochlear implants were giving them, were clearly benefitting from AVT.

In those months whilst we waited for A's surgery, we were hopeful it would work and he would hear again, but the doubts still swam around in my head. What if it doesn't work, then we will all learn to sign?

Now here's the thing - it isn't like I have anything against sign language because I don't. In the 2001 census data the number of Auslan users was around 6,500 out of a population of nearly 19 million! So clearly the numbers of people that can communicate with fellow auslan users isn't that high.

The other thing for us was that we knew spoken English, we didn't know Auslan. Whilst many proponents of Auslan suggest that we should have learnt Auslan and taught A to both speak and sign, this was near impossible under the circumstances. We had two boys under 3 years old, we were learning about deafness and what it meant and some days we were just trying to put one foot in front of the other. In essence we would have needed to learn a foreign language to us, at a fast enough rate to keep ahead of A to ensure his full language development. It wasn't that we were not willing to do whatever it took for A, because we were, but at that point we believed spoken language was the way forward for A.

It is my firm belief that parents must make what they believe to be the best choice for their child at that time. I personally know of parents whose children had more hearing than A who chose to educate their child using only Auslan. I didn't understand their decision then and I still don't, but I respect their right to make what they feel is the best decision in the best interests of their child.

So for us it a cochlear implant and AVT.

In that month or so between setting the date for surgery and actually getting to that point, we diligently put in A's hearing aids every day. Quite clearly he could two tenths of bugger all. He never responded to sound at all, but bless his little heart, let us put these chunks of useless plastic in his ears every day.

During that time we had our first visit to the Cora Barclay Centre - WOW, now there was a light at the end of our tunnel. I can remember one of the therapists telling me if all went according to plan we could expect A to use his hearing from his implant to learn to listen and speak. Could it really be possible, did I dare to dream it might be true????

One day while visiting the Centre we met another family of a child not much older than A who already had a cochlear implant. Well there it was, as plain as the nose on my face, this little boy in front of me, turning to his mother calling his name, answering her questions, his speech quite easy to understand...oh my goodness, that light in the distance was shining a little brighter.....

Of course we had to go through the routine hearing aid trial which meant many hearing tests along the way. Same deal for A, hold the block to your ear, drop it in when you hear something...uh-ha, no problems....well except for the fact I can't hear the instructions and I can't hear the damn noise to know when to drop the bloody block into the damn bucket! It sure was a frustrating time, most of all for A, he was only 2 and 1/2 years old with the patience to match!

Before we knew it surgery day had rolled around, we were basket cases by then. Were we doing the right thing, how would he go with surgery????

Funny thing happened just before that though. I told you before about the most amazing, wonderful man who was our ENT and the surgeon that did A's cochlear implant surgery. Well he believes that parents of kids with a hearing loss have enough to deal with, without heaps of bills, so in essence whatever Medicare or private health rebate to parents paid, is what he charged. Yep not a cent more! Truly this man (though now retired) is an angel that walks amongst us.

Well clearly one of the more unscrupulous, money grabbing private hospitals didn't feel that this doctor was making enough surplus money for the hospitals ever gorging coffers. So in a nutshell they removed his license to operate in their hospital and gave it to an orthopedic surgeon instead - heaven help those orth patients, they would have been paying big bickies then!

So by the time A's surgery had come round we were going to a different hospital, one his surgeon hadn't done an implant surgery at. True to form though, our doctor had been in explaining things to the nurses that would assist him, showing them videos of the surgery, talking them through the whole procedure.

We didn't really have a lot of time to worry about the new hospital setting, A was having a cochlear implant that was all that mattered! Plus I respected and trusted his surgeon, so I knew he wouldn't let the change of hospital have any impact on A.

Well we felt like royalty when we arrived, the first paediatric cochear implant patient at the hospital. None less than the Director of Nursing herself met us as we entered the hospital entrance, with a bright colourful helium balloon in hand. She personally escorted us to A's room and introduced us to members of the staff. It was all very sweet, very welcoming and certainly put us at ease.

Before long A was ready to go and was called into surgery.....that wonderful surgeon, yes he let us walk all the way down carrying A and holding him until the anaesthetist had put him under. Next came the longest four and a half hours of our lives. "Go for a walk, grab a coffee, some lunch or something"...oh yeah right, while our baby is in there with you???? We made ourselves go out and walk into the city centre....not that either of us ate anything, that rolled up tight ball in our stomachs went half way up our throats, there was no food going down there - a coffee at a squeeze and that was it! We did however buy out almost all the Thomas the Tank Engine merchandise in the city shops because they were As favourites and nothing was too much for him then!

Back at the hospital the surgeon emerged, wearing a big smile that put us instantly at ease.."everything is fine, he is fine, the surgery went really well, he will be up in a short while....."

Well in came this dear little man with his head wrapped up in a bandage like a wee turban. There is something about children in hospital when they are wheeled back to their rooms on a full size gurney. They look so small, so vulnerable, so helpless. For the rest of that day he slept on and off, waking with a bit of a grizzle and a moan, and then after some liquid panadol for the pain, back to sleep he went.

We had decided prior to that I would go home and collect B from whoever's place he was that day (B's story is a whole nother blog!) while hubby would stay with A. So at the end of a long day, I kissed my sleeping angel good bye and gave hubby a kiss and a hug and headed home. We were both so exhausted, not so much because of anything we had done but because of the stress of worrying, of wondering, of waiting.....

I don't know why it is, but when you have important things to do like go see your little guy in hospital again the next day, suddenly all these unforseen things appear that just have to be done....like where were they last week or the week before? Why do I have to do them today, can't they wait a week? Ah no, it appeared not! So B and I ran around doing all these stupid errands before making it back to the hospital around mid-morning.

Now remember I had left young grumpy bum dozing on and off and not really being that happy with the world at large the night before. I approached his hospital ward with trepidation....

Before he went into hospital we had made sure we had some button up shirts so they wouldn't need to go over his head - it was summer, it was boys wear, they were loud and colourful (quite appropriate in the future it would seem!).

So I am approaching the ward, trying not to sprint the last 100 metres down the ward to collect that angel into my arms and smother him with kisses. Well I look up to see this multi-coloured 2 foot nothing tornado barrelling down the hallway at a million miles an hour throwing bodies behind him (well ok not throwing bodies but the rest was true)! He tore down the corridor towards me, his face a beaming smile, eager to see me and of course to see his little brother. The change in him from the night before took my breath away!

Oh it is so true what they say, we parents suffer the anxiety, the sleep deprivation, the worry and for what? So we may look like death warmed up to those that see us, while the cause of our worries, our dear sweet child, no he is as fresh as a daisy and raring to go. Not that I minded of course, it was wonderful to see him so happy and so unaffected by his surgery.

Mind you his hospital stay was not without its moments, more on that in the next blog....so you will have to keep checking into find out more....