A Photo a Day: Week 42

October 15

Toby and Ethan made a slingshot out of toilet rolls.  The motivation:  Link, from the Legend of Zelda uses one.

October 16

The hot weather has been hitting us and so I hit back with smoothies for afternoon tea.

October 17

My calling at church is the secretary in the Young Women's.  Every Wednesday night we meet at the chapel and participate in activities, whether it's cooking, craft, service in someone's garden or learning a little bit about photography.  For our Young Women in Excellence evening the Young Women have been taking photo's and relating it to an inspirational scripture.  I had a few examples to show them as well as a few pointers about taking photo's.  Here was one of my examples below.

"And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!"  Alma 36:20

There was a bit of tongue in cheek with that photo and scripture, but it does explain the joy and the pain (or the possibility of pain after jumping).

October 18

Sam's MAG3 kidney scan to see how much of his kidney is draining, for more details see here and here.  The photo below is of Sam receiving the injection of the radiopharmaceutical MAG3 before the first lot of scans.  Sadly he's going to need a lot more injections and poking and prodding in the future before and after his kidney surgery.

October 19

I was so impressed with myself.  I've had a taste for Gozleme lately and decided that I could make them myself.  So I did.  I made the dough, filled it with feta and silver beet and fried it on a big pan.

Gozleme recipe can be found here.  I put all the dough ingredients into the breadmaker and set it on dough, so it was kneading and rising while I could do other things. I'd recommend rolling the dough as thin as you can without it breaking and have a couple of packets of feta instead of only one, it needs the moisture and flavour of the cheese and spinach (silver beet) for it to taste great.  Make sure you have some fresh lemon to squeeze over it to serve.  They were delicious and my boys were most excited and impressed that I had made them.

The Good . . .

Tuesday two weeks ago was the longed for day where the large screw was removed from Donald's tibia and fibula.  He hasn't been allowed to put any pressure on his foot since August 18, Soccer Grand Final day.  A long time for your muscles to deteriorate.  So he spent a day at the hospital and didn't feel so good afterwards.

 . . . but Donald can walk again, albeit tentatively.  He came out the next morning without crutches and has been improving every day since then.  Donald hasn't used his crutches in nearly two weeks.  Yay!!  Glad he's on the mend.

. . . the Bad

Sam and I visited the Paediatric Urologist on Wednesday two weeks ago and today we visited a different Paediatric Urologist, one who specialises in laparoscopy.  Sam's left kidney is still not draining so he will need surgery within the next month to prevent his kidney from deteriorating.  The first Urologist we visited told us everything we needed to know and that this was his area of expertise, his style of surgery was open surgery.  The surgeon we saw today does laparoscopic surgery or key hole surgery which is less invasive but a little more time consuming on the operating table.  So now we have to weigh up which way to go and who can perform the surgery for Sam within the next few weeks.  Sam has a PUJ obstruction and needs Pyeloplasty, surgery to correct the obstruction and allow his kidney to drain properly.

It's a rather complicated surgery, which involves a stent being inserted and removed a few weeks later.  He may also need further corrective surgery or at least be monitored regularly with MAG 3 scans to ensure the kidney is draining and there are no ill effects after surgery.  We really want to keep Sam's kidney functioning.  So now we just wait until the hospital tell us the date for surgery and absorb all of the information that I've been researching about this surgery.  We're keeping our fingers crossed it's not going to be on Sam's 13th birthday, November 22.

   At least for now my two big boys are still reasonably healthy and mobile.

. . . . and the Ugly

I've got blisters on my little toes from running in silly slip on sandals.  Sam and I were almost late for his appointment this morning and it took ages to get a car park at the hospital, only to find out we were at Westmead Hospital and not at Westmead Children's Hospital.  So in the 30°C heat we were running from one hospital to the other 5 minutes away.  I didn't want to give up our car park so we ran.  I think I'll spare you  pictures of my ugly blisters though.