There's nothing worse than when your children are poorly, as a parent there's only so much you can do until you yourself feels completely useless and when your child ends up in hospital it's a million times worse.

I was speaking to a friend of mine who actually took part in the fight for parents to be able to stay with their children in hospital, for that I am truly thankful.

You all know Looby is a bright,bouncy unicorn even if we occasionally have tween angst.  I can tell you that seeing the light vanish from her has been the scariest thing.  For anyone who has t been following my updates Looby is currently in the RVI with orbital cellulitis.  On Sunday she had an operation to scrape her sinuses and surgeons also drilled a hole in her forehead to put a drain in.  Since Friday we have been in an eternal cycle of pain, morphine, tests, CT scans, more tests and still today we are here with her sleeping better but still waking up crying with pain until morphine has been administered.

It's all been very concerning but the doctors and nurses are amazing, the level of care is incredible and we are so lucky that we still have the NHS, can you imagine having 3 CT scans in 2 days if you were in the USA, the costs would be prohibitive.  

Our NHS is a wonderful, beautiful British institution, free healthcare for all, no matter what age, status or circumstance.  When Looby needed an operation on Sunday it was a combination of a 2 consultants and a senior registrar who performed the surgery.  We have seen consultants every single day and yesterday we saw the very top eye doctor in the whole of the hospital (she's lovely) and they're monitoring her eye sight so closely as she's got some problems from the infection.

Today as the junior doctors strike happens I'd like to throw my hat in to say I support the junior doctors strike.  The doctors, all of the doctors work under the most immense stress and pressure making life or death decisions, I can't even imagine how that feels.  Yesterday even though our consultant had a day off he still consulted from home about loobys care.  I don't think it's possible to feel more cared for.  The nurses are just incredible, there for the parents as much as the children, that hug I received just after I kissed  and said goodbye to my poorly child as she slipped under the anaesthetic was the most needed hug I've ever had.

Quite wrongly the NHS is not today run by doctors but by politicians and beurocrats.  The decline of the NHS is wholly upon their heads, not the nurses and doctors who love their jobs so much, those who always give more than is asked.

On friendship and being grateful

Good morning dear reader, another Monday heralds the start of a new week and you find me still very much under the covers and this is pretty much where I plan to stay today because I am ill/poorly/sick.

The germies have absolutely infiltrated  and I have my first cold of the year which during the night was kind enough to graduate to my chest and stop me from breathing properly.  It's not the best way to start the week but at least I have an Iain who is going to pick up Looby from school later and Abigail will get the bus home, small mercies having older children, Petunia is staying at her dads until tomorrow as she's off to visit her pack today, she goes every couple of weeks to see all the other lovely huskies and she loves it.

I think given my current state I might just hold off on conquering any small countries for the foreseeable but I am pleased to report that I did get through Loobys birthday luncheon before the germs really took a hold thank goodness.

Looby had a great luncheon joined by Abigail, her daddy and 4 of her very best friends, all who are utterly lovely girls, they're also all moving on to the same secondary school together which is lovely as when Abigail transferred there was only 2 other pupils from the same school who went with her.

It makes me realise just how important friendship is, even from a very early age our friendships help to define us as people, they become the people we laugh with, we cry with, people we turn to in times when we're not strong enough to face things alone and we in turn do the same for others.  It's taken me many years to have a solid, small, sturdy group of friends who I can share my life with and over the past few weeks I have really come to understand how much I'm loved by that group of special people as much as how much I love that group of brothers and sisters who have become an intrinsic part of my daily life.  Some of them I may not see very often, some of them I have known for years but only on line but that doesn't mean that they are any less special to me and if you're one of them who is reading this right now I want to say that I love you and I want to thank you for being in my life right now.x

I'm so proud of my beautiful daughters and my son too although the chances of you seeing a photo of him on here anytime soon is slim!  They really do amaze me with their wit, knowledge and strength of character, Abigail and Looby are like chalk and cheese for two people who have only 16 months between them you really can't get 2 people with more differences between them, it's lovely then when you see them hugging and telling each other that they love them.  Looby gives freely with hugs and love, Abigail not so much but occasionally she does tell me she loves me and hugs me back and that makes it all worth it, behind every hormonal angry teenager is a lovely young lady just waiting to get out!

So today think of me with my Lemsip cold and flu tablets, at least I have a comfy bed, warm blankies and a lovely environment to be poorly in (well apart from the 22 My Little Ponies and Lucy the scary welsh doll), some people are truly alone in this world without friends, family or a nice place to live, some don't have a place to live at all and so today lets all be grateful for the things we do have, go tell someone you love how much you truly care about them today, I promise you will make their day and it will make you smile inside your own heart too.

Migraine Attack

Yesterday I suffered the worst migraine attack I've had for the last 10 years and thanks to my darling husband who managed to get new supplies of my sumatriptan injections first thing this morning I am just about well enough to see and I've stopped being sick!! With that in mind I would ask for your patience, particularly if you've come to see photos from Louise and Matthews wedding on Saturday. As soon as I feel less horrid I'll be editing them later on today and sneaky peaks should hopefully be on my blog by 6pm this evening.

Thanks for your patience and sorry for my horrible illness!!