Lightening does strike twice...

Well it does in this house! Just almost 6yrs to the day my youngest Anneliese had the mildest case of chicken pox ever - 1 solitary spot on her head, bear in mind she was just over 2 months old, so I was rather pleased with this!

If you look through my previous blogs, back to 2007 you'll see an entry titled 'Why Does It All Go Wrong?!'

Hermione was the first to get 'The Pox' on April 30th 2007, she would've been a cute almost 3yrs 9mth old then! Cameron got it next on May 16th 2007, he was 5yrs 10mth old & suffered awfully - he was covered head to toes & the spots were all over even in every mucus membrane too, including the whites of his eyes!

I don't have a record to hand of the exact date I noticed Anneliese's solitary spot back then, but I think it was only a day or two after Cameron broke out in his rash. I remember the health visitor saying she may have got away with this mild case & never get them again, but she could actually suffer with them later in life if this wasn't the case.

I had actually thought myself lucky up until today as since she started nursery in September 2010 we've seen 'The Pox' come & go each year through the school but never had it return to the house... That was until now, getting ready for school this morning Anneliese complained of an itchy spot on her left foreseen  & another above her left breast bone (not that she has boobs yet), on inspection we counted 6 spots of varying sizes from tiny to just over the size of a pin head - to me these two itchy spots looked like chicken pox, but hubby was thinking insect bites... The more I looked the more I was concerned & decided to keep her away from school.

I myself had an epilepsy meds review this morning, so thought I'd try n get her in with the Dr to double check while there... I managed to get her an appointment 40 minutes after mine, not too bad. Before leaving home I decided to recount spots & draw around them - this way I'd know if any new spots appeared, there were 10 spots now!

So the Dr confirmed 'The Pox' & we're now stocked with calamine lotion, the two main spots are starting to blister fill now & more first stage spots are appearing, no doubt in a day or so she will be spotty all over.

I know she's itchy & with just a few spots she's not complaining that much yet, I think she is mist chuffed to be home with me alone, no school & just to be able to not do much at all.

I'm going to try n get photos throughout, got 3 this morning & going to take a few more now... I'll take some more maybe twice daily for the next few days at least, I'll do a collaboration collage with a blog write up once she is all crusty & scabby - she won't be contagious then x

Purple & Blue for Me & You

Interesting title yes?! But what does it all mean? Well in the space of just a week I have supported two causes very close to my heart...

Firstly March 26th this year was 'World Epilepsy Awareness Day' for which Purple is the supporting colour (my fav colour) as you may know I suffer with epilepsy & have done since I was young, although it wasn't diagnosed until the year 2000 & formally diagnosed only last year 2012 - I'm now currently on medication which controls it somewhat. I wore a bright purple top all day, along with a purple bra!

Secondly, today April 2nd is 'World Autism Awareness Day' for which we must 'Light it up Blue' myself & my son (who is High-Functioning Autistic) both wore blue in support & I'm about to have a nice relaxing bath with a blue glo-stick for ambience too! But although it's officially 'World Autism Awareness Day' the whole month of April is devoted to Autism Awareness too, which is just great.

Not nearly enough information or awareness about these conditions is known to all so spreading awareness & information is high on my agenda with both myself & my son having a condition each...

I post a lot on both subjects on Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest (I have 2 specific boards) which most find useful, although a few people have in the past not favoured the awareness/support/information I share. But why should these conditions be overlooked or frowned upon like they're a taboo subject?

There are an awful lot of people & families affected by these incurable conditions, that can often disable sufferers in daily living - simple tasks for neuro-typical people can be quite difficult to others whose brains are wired differently or that malfunction regularly.

For example; my short-term memory is dreadful & my brain backfires regularly so I don't always remember details like names, numbers & suchlike - only today I couldn't do my online banking as even though I've done this for years today I couldn't get my online bank ID in the correct order - I had to phone up & look like an incompetent fool as I had just 2 digits round the wrong way!!! I sign in weekly too, but my brain wasn't playing this morning.

So you see, sometimes things are much slower for people like me or my son as our brains take longer to process things - it can be quite awkward at times & frustrating too.

Now before I write a novel instead of a short blog, I'm off to have my relaxing soak by the light of a blue hue courtesy of a glo-stick!!!

Unique Freak & Proud!

Yes... That's me!

Why do I say that? Well there's a few reasons but the top being my epilepsy - I've always had it my original Dr said I was just prone to black outs, but it took a change of surgery & then to 2000 after a referral to the Old Radcliffe when I was 26 to get first diagnosed, then just after I had Anneliese in 2007 there was much debate from my then neurologists if in fact I did have epilepsy & it took countless appointments, tests, scans to this September (21st, 2012) to have it 100% confirmed & permission to start taking medication to control the wretched condition!

Now as if that isn't bad enough..... I yet again am one of the 'rare' cases that has a severe allergic reaction to the medication they've tried to start me on - I had a severe allergic reaction back in 2006 (I was covered in hives from my thighs to my ankles) when they tried to put me on Fluoxetine (Anti-D meds) & had to come off them gradually (tablet every other day for a week I think it was).

Almost an identical reaction happened this time (I've had various side effects since starting on the lowest dose (2.5 weeks ago), I had only just got 1/2 way through the first week of 1 x 25mg Lamotrigine tablet twice a day) but this time I was starting my Anti-Epileptic meds, this major reaction came on out of the blue last night so straight to Dr's this morning & told in no uncertain terms Do Not take anymore! I was obviously worried about coming off to quick & risk of seizure, but Dr said this was better than being weaned off as reaction could be MUCH worse if I did that.

I dread to think what might've happened if I'd continued to take them?! So now I have to take allergy meds for the next 4-5 days or so till the reaction clears & I get to start another Anti-Epileptic med in 1-2 weeks time when this is safely out of my system.

It's hard to describe how intense the burning itch feels, I've hives from my belly button right to the soles of my feet & a few odd ones on my arms... It's hideous!!!

Check the pics if you don't believe me - the foot on the beige sofa was at 2:15 this afternoon, the others were taken just before I wrote this blog at 22:55, not much improvement from the allergy pill is there???
Still I'm uniquely me & like to be different!