16.09.2008

Web blog entry number One.

We have started a new blog, a common blog as it were, so since the last blog gets updated more frequently by either Terje or myself. From now on you can read here about our news, our thoughts and feelings that we like to share.

Since last I wrote, things have changed, a lot. Freya has been diagnosed with epilepsy and gets medicated for it. And after a long period of going in and out of the hospital with bacterial infections followed by an organic fungus infection ( caused by all the antibiotics ) Freya was also diagnosed with reflux, this is when the urine flows back up to the kidneys. In Freya's case it was so severe that it would not have been possible to heal by itself anymore so she had to have an operation which she has had meanwhile. The surgeon said the operation went exactly the way he wishes an operation to be so that sounds hopeful. These surgeries have an 98 percent chance of being succesful.

Its a complicated procedure and it took 1 hour and 45 minutes, followed by ten days of being strapped to a bed with three drains...

Anyway, she is home now, she will need to take antibiotics for half a year after which another MCU is needed( test for reflux )to see if it really worked.

Axel is growing like crazy, his teeth give him some problems, specifically since yesterday when he fell from a small stairs and he jammed his two front teeth halfway back into his jawbone, the are kind of skewed aswell. I took him to the dentist this morning to check the seriousness of the damage ( for Axel its very serious, he points to his mouth on regular bases and says " ai, ai " )and the dentist said they didn't have to do anything now but keep an eye on it, it will most likely grow back by itself.

*sigh*

We are all suffering from post-hospital-fatigue, but I promise to keep the site better updated from now on, and if not me then Terje will.

BR,
Amanda


Interesting links:
About reflux: http://www.urologyhealth.org/pediatric/index.cfm?cat=01&topic=155 ( In English )
MCU: http://www.deflux.com/Templates/Page.aspx?id=10975 ( Auf Deutsch )

21.09.2008

Web blog entry number Two.

September is here and we have red numbers popping up like poppie-flowers when I open up our bank account.

It is some kind of law of nature that has absolutely nothing to do with economics: after summer all the money you didn't spend will fall down from the banks penny-tree and wither away. I know this for a fact now, since we hardly spent any money at all during the summer, all locked up as we were, trapped in the hospital with Freya.

Spending your complete vacation listening to other peoples children crying away the nights was a new experience for me. Not that I am complaining, I didn't have to lie still for 10 days(!), strapped to a bed, unable to move, like my daughter. But it surely gives you a rather heavy feeling when you have to be alert and back in work again. It feels like someone stole something from you, and it feels like it is a shame you can't meet this person because you'd rather like to tell him or her some carefully selected words...

Freya is doing better now. She is regaining some weight and she is up to no good again. She's still very tired but I can see the old Freya returning gradually. She really is one tough cookie! It is sad that so many bad things need to happen to such an innocent, brittle, smallie. She's been through more than the rest of us together and she's only three.

So I really hope things will work out from now on.

Terje

23.09.2008

Web blog entry number Three.

Today we had a post-operation check up in the hospital for Freya. The doctor was looking for signs if the little holes they made in the bladder, where now the ureter tubes end, had narrowed or even closed ( by ultra sound). This we would be able to see because then the kidneys would be full of fluids as the urine can't go anywhere. But luckily this was not the case, the kidneys were not infected and the doctor was genuinly pleased with what he was seeing on the ultra sound pictures. Freya got a picture of her left kidney as a souvenir ;)

Needless to say that this whole excersize was very stressfull for poor little snutta. She was in panic before anything started and refused to go into the examination room. I tried to explain to here that this time it wouldn't hurt, that no needles were involved that it was just Freya-belly-tv. At some point she just gives up fighting, somehow I doubt that it is because she finds it less scary, its more like she realizes that resitance is futile...

Good news though, step two passed, up to step three, which will take place in a month, its another ultra sound, step four is an ultra sound in six weeks after that and step five is another MCU in eight weeks from that, then the antibiotics will be stopped when things look like they are fully functional and then we hope for the best!

BR,
Amanda