It's very pleasant here at Nakiska today, well above zero degrees. We've gone for the long, flowing locks look for Lara this morning for skiing.. It might change this afternoon when she straps on her snowboard for the first time...
Saturday, 7 March 2015
Monday, 16 February 2015
Dan the One-Armed Bandit
While Lara was tucking into her supper before I took her up to bed last Wednesday, Dan decided he should get in on the action. He wasn't being very teary unless we tried to pick him up, and Olga was growing more concerned about his shoulder. He was able to high-five me, and turn his head to both sides, without wincing in pain, but as soon as we tried to lift him, in our normal way, from under his arms, he would yelp in pain. We knew there was an urgent care centre in Airdrie that was open until 10pm, so at 9.15pm Olga took him there for a check up.
This is how he came back 90 minutes later (with his coat on, of course!)...
He'd been seen by the triage nurse, who had quickly had him seen by the doctor, who in turn quickly had Dan x-rayed, which showed a clear "fracture of his clavical".
So he was sent home with his sling, and he's on regular painkillers as and when we think he needs them, and we have an appointment to see a doctor, back at the Children's Hospital, on Wednesday afternoon, to see what the next steps would be.
On Thursday he wasn't too keen on wearing his sling, but then he got used to it, and now we think he likes wearing it. He's very good at taking his hand out when we need to dress or undress him, and we've developed a pain-free way to pick him up. Other than the sling, you wouldn't know that he's got a broken collarbone, and I think it doesn't bother him most of the time. It's quite amazing to watch him move around the house using only one and a half arms, he can use his right hand within the restrictions of the sling. He was running about Toys R Us on Saturday, and enjoyed a trip to the zoo on Sunday with Lara and I.
This is how he came back 90 minutes later (with his coat on, of course!)...
He'd been seen by the triage nurse, who had quickly had him seen by the doctor, who in turn quickly had Dan x-rayed, which showed a clear "fracture of his clavical".
So he was sent home with his sling, and he's on regular painkillers as and when we think he needs them, and we have an appointment to see a doctor, back at the Children's Hospital, on Wednesday afternoon, to see what the next steps would be.
On Thursday he wasn't too keen on wearing his sling, but then he got used to it, and now we think he likes wearing it. He's very good at taking his hand out when we need to dress or undress him, and we've developed a pain-free way to pick him up. Other than the sling, you wouldn't know that he's got a broken collarbone, and I think it doesn't bother him most of the time. It's quite amazing to watch him move around the house using only one and a half arms, he can use his right hand within the restrictions of the sling. He was running about Toys R Us on Saturday, and enjoyed a trip to the zoo on Sunday with Lara and I.
Lara enjoyed high-fiving one of the hippos..
Hernia Last Week, Gone Already
Lara had her hernia repair operation on Wednesday, 11th February. She had to stop eating by midnight the day before, so we treated her to whatever she wanted for her tea on Tuesday, which was a bacon double cheeseburger meal from Burger King. She's pretty much grown out of eating kids meals now, although she likes the whole idea of a Happy Meal in McDonalds, so she usually ends up having a McFlurry dessert to fill her up.
We had to get her to the hospital by 12.20pm on Wednesday, she wasn't nervous at all, in fact she enjoyed looking at the photos on the hospital website about what would happen while she was there.
The staff were very good at making her feel comfortable, but there wasn't much they could do about the waiting around. At first we were warned it might be at least two hours before she would go in for surgery, but it turned out to be 4 hours before she was taken into the holding area, and another 40 minutes there before they took her in for surgery. She'd not eaten all day, and nor had Olga, out of sympathy, (I'd only sneaked a mars bar).
As soon as they took Lara I had to dash off to collect Dan from nursery and bring him back to the hospital. I arrived just before nursery closed, and Dan was a bit teary and being cuddled by one of the staff in a play area. He'd been horsing around with three or four of his mates and he'd tripped over, and his friends all landed on top of him. The staff member thought he might have hurt his shoulder, but when I grilled him about where his owie was, he pointed at his neck. He didn't like being picked up, but other than that he seemed ok. He was happy enough when I took him to McDonalds for a quick tea - I had to eat something before I faded away from lack of food all day!
We returned to the hospital just as Lara had been given the all clear to go home. She looked tired, but was generally in good spirits, and she was delighted to see Dan. She was brave when the nurse took the IV out, I was expecting some tears from that, but she was great. She admitted later that she had been a bit teary when she first came round from the anesthetic, and had asked for Olga to come and see her, and she'd been in enough pain for the nurses to give her some morphine, but she perked up once they gave her some popsicles (ice lollies) to eat.
The icing on the cake was that she was allowed to leave the hospital in a wheelchair, she'd been looking forward to that part almost as much as the popsicles or the bubblegum-flavoured gas they'd given her to disguise the smell of the anesthetic gas.
We had to get her to the hospital by 12.20pm on Wednesday, she wasn't nervous at all, in fact she enjoyed looking at the photos on the hospital website about what would happen while she was there.
The staff were very good at making her feel comfortable, but there wasn't much they could do about the waiting around. At first we were warned it might be at least two hours before she would go in for surgery, but it turned out to be 4 hours before she was taken into the holding area, and another 40 minutes there before they took her in for surgery. She'd not eaten all day, and nor had Olga, out of sympathy, (I'd only sneaked a mars bar).
As soon as they took Lara I had to dash off to collect Dan from nursery and bring him back to the hospital. I arrived just before nursery closed, and Dan was a bit teary and being cuddled by one of the staff in a play area. He'd been horsing around with three or four of his mates and he'd tripped over, and his friends all landed on top of him. The staff member thought he might have hurt his shoulder, but when I grilled him about where his owie was, he pointed at his neck. He didn't like being picked up, but other than that he seemed ok. He was happy enough when I took him to McDonalds for a quick tea - I had to eat something before I faded away from lack of food all day!
We returned to the hospital just as Lara had been given the all clear to go home. She looked tired, but was generally in good spirits, and she was delighted to see Dan. She was brave when the nurse took the IV out, I was expecting some tears from that, but she was great. She admitted later that she had been a bit teary when she first came round from the anesthetic, and had asked for Olga to come and see her, and she'd been in enough pain for the nurses to give her some morphine, but she perked up once they gave her some popsicles (ice lollies) to eat.
The icing on the cake was that she was allowed to leave the hospital in a wheelchair, she'd been looking forward to that part almost as much as the popsicles or the bubblegum-flavoured gas they'd given her to disguise the smell of the anesthetic gas.
We'd been warned that she might feel a bit sick on the way home, but she was fine. It was 8.30pm when we got home, and she had some bread to eat and when she was ready I carried her up to bed.
She's to have 2 weeks of rest from all sports, but a few days on now, and it's hard to keep her from running around, to look at her you wouldn't know she'd had an operation a few days ago.
Tuesday, 27 January 2015
Early Morning Skating
Lara has started the next level in the Canadian skating programme, she's moved up from CanSkate to StarSkate. This is something that's decided by the coaches, and they invite children to move up to this level, so this is a promising thing for Lara. It means more commitment, she has to put more hours of practise in, but she gets more one-on-one time with her coach too. The best way to give Lara the time on the ice to practise, and to fit it in with school during the week and skiing at the weekend, and also to allow us time for Dan too, is for Lara to skate before school.
So now, usually once a week, Lara skates between 6.15 and 8am. This means an alarm call at 5.15, and we have to get Dan up too, so Olga or I take Lara to skating, get her onto the ice, then take Dan to nursery, then back to the rink to watch her. As a treat we take her to her choice of fast food place for breakfast. At the moment that means Subway, which is fine. She's moved on from kid's sandwiches in there to a proper 6" ham sub.
For this week, and the next two Mondays, Lara will be doing pre-school skating twice a week - her usual morning is Thursday. This is because she'll be going to hospital to have her hernia repaired on the 11th February, and will have at least two weeks off all sporting activity, so we want her to make some good progress and get settled into the morning routine. Hopefully she will see the benefit too in doing a lot of skating in the next few weeks (she also has an after-school lesson on Wednesdays) so she is keen to return to action as soon as her surgeon gives her the OK.
Yesterday morning was my first morning session, and Lara's third, having missed last week with her cold. I took a few photos and videos..
We're trying to keep it a fun experience for her, and not pressure her into going. She does enjoy it, and she will only benefit from the ice time, and mixing with the older girls during these morning sessions. Yesterday there was Lara, the coach and three teenage girls, and Lara spent the most time of them all on the ice. The older girls are really nice to Lara, high-fiving her when they get together to do some group practice work, and not belittling her at all. They must remember how they felt when they were Lara's age. The one girl that was left at the end of Lara's ice time helped out with the coaching, which was good for her as well as Lara:
We know Lara isn't a prodigy, but everyone's got to start somewhere, and so long as she wants to go to lessons, we'll try to make sure she goes as often as we can fit in, and she'll reach a standard where she realises that she's actually really good at it, and loves skating, and then early mornings won't be a hassle at all. For her, anyway... :-)
Monday, 19 January 2015
A weekend off
We had an enforced weekend off this weekend, as Lara has come down with a bad cold. It started on Tuesday, she went to school on Wednesday, but by the time Olga picked her up from school to take her to her skating lesson, she was feeling really bad and we decided it wouldn't help her if we made her go skating.
This also meant a lie-in on Thursday, instead of a 5.30am alarm call. Lara has moved up now in to the "StarSkate" program, which means more one-on-one coaching time, and more practice time on the ice, but the easiest way to achieve this is for Lara to practice, and have some coaching time, before school. So she now has a skating session on Thursday mornings from 6.15 to 8am, which involves 15 minutes of one-on-one time with her coach, and some group coaching and some time when Lara can just practice what she needs to work on.
By Saturday afternoon she was still very poorly, and whilst putting a brave face on things, it was clear she wouldn't get any better if we took her out to Nakiska for her skiing lesson, so we had a weekend at home, getting some jobs done, recycling some old clothes and toys, and I even managed to take down the christmas lights from outside the house. The tree had gone to the dump straight after New Year!
I'd already bought some steaks that I had planned to cook on the firepit at the trailer, so the next best thing was to fire up the BBQ here at home and cook them on that. Fortunately the weather is very mild at the moment, above freezing in the daytime and only a little below at night. We can see more grass than snow!
This also meant a lie-in on Thursday, instead of a 5.30am alarm call. Lara has moved up now in to the "StarSkate" program, which means more one-on-one coaching time, and more practice time on the ice, but the easiest way to achieve this is for Lara to practice, and have some coaching time, before school. So she now has a skating session on Thursday mornings from 6.15 to 8am, which involves 15 minutes of one-on-one time with her coach, and some group coaching and some time when Lara can just practice what she needs to work on.
By Saturday afternoon she was still very poorly, and whilst putting a brave face on things, it was clear she wouldn't get any better if we took her out to Nakiska for her skiing lesson, so we had a weekend at home, getting some jobs done, recycling some old clothes and toys, and I even managed to take down the christmas lights from outside the house. The tree had gone to the dump straight after New Year!
I'd already bought some steaks that I had planned to cook on the firepit at the trailer, so the next best thing was to fire up the BBQ here at home and cook them on that. Fortunately the weather is very mild at the moment, above freezing in the daytime and only a little below at night. We can see more grass than snow!
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