Can you believe my baby is 16?! It just goes so quickly. She’ll be getting a pension shortly (not that I will tell her that at this stage), she’s doing VCAL, she wants to get her learners. I’m not sure what to do about that one. She talks about really expensive cars that she wants to buy and drive. I guess it wouldn’t hurt her to sit for her learners but there is no way in hell that she’ll be able to be let loose on the road. Not the way she is now anyway. She can’t even walk down the street without holding hands because she does her funny jump in the air thing and might land in the street.
I had no idea what to get her so we’re letting her go and buy a turtle today. We also got her a giant muppet type of puppet, a gorgeous handbag that she chose, one that fits her tablet, and a do it yourself mosaic mirror. She’s been doing mosaic’s a lot at school and seems to enjoy them. I got her a couple of dvds from the kids. So I think she’s done ok. Bev and John are giving her the Family Feud board game that she asked for.
I was talking to some friends yesterday and the subject of after high school came up. My friend’s sister in law has a son with autism, they don’t live far from here. He is attending a media school which caters to adults with disabilities, from 18 – 21. It sounds fabulous, I’ll put a link here. They can choose their own characters and write plays around their choices. They can do tv presenting which Beth would LOVE, even presenting the weather. It sounds just perfect. It’s not too far from here, in Ringwood.
Things have been a bit up in the air at the moment. Just for a change! I had a type of seizure a couple of weeks ago. I then had an MRI and they found a benign tumour, pushing on my brain. So basically I have to go into hospital in the new few weeks and have it removed. It’s a fairly big op, I’ll probably in hospital for the good part of a week. It affects my balance so if they see that the tumour has grown into the balance nerve they may have to sacrifice it which would mean staying for longer and going to rehab to retrain my body to balance. And I’ll have a whopper of a scar. The nice side of that is that I now qualify for a wig to be claimed on extras so have somebody coming to fit me for one on Tuesday! (Glass half full and all that, you know me!) The other problem is that they don’t actually think it caused the seizure. So I still have to have heart monitors and a thing called a Doppler. I will also see the actual neurologist at the Alfred Hospital, where I saw the neuro surgeon on Wednesday. Anyway, there you go, as long as I’m alive, that’s all that matters. I can deal with the rest. This means however that obviously I can’t drive. So not sure what’s going to happen with getting kids to school. Bridie’s not so hard, she’s not that far away. But I might have to home school Beth. I’m going to find out when she is doing her VCAL subjects. I believe they are covered over 2 1/2 days over the week. If that’s fairly intensive then I may be able to send Beth, even for 2 days a week. Then her teacher can send me home the rest of the work. They’re very accommodating so will speak with them in the new term. If I’m not in the hospital. There’s already been talk of organising a bus to come over this way from Beth’s school, to travel not far from Bridie’s school, as there are a few from the Dandenong Ranges attending now. So we might be able to slot in there somehow. Anyway, Beth would be happy to be at home, that’s for sure. The kids have been worried about me. When I first came home from the tests I told Beth that I am going to be ok and she said ‘Well at least you don’t have a brain tumour’ to which I had to state that actually, yes I do. Then when she kept asking if I would die, and I would say no, she would say ‘but you said that about Gransha and he still died.’ Which is true, but only when I didn’t think he was. So I had to go through that he was sick, there were other things wrong, he was older. But the reality is there are no guarantees.
She’s been rather dominating in the last few weeks, standing her ground. Not sure if it’s because of what’s going on with me but I’m pretty sure it’s just her being a teenager. She’ll refuse something, such as eating something that Paul has cooked. He’ll say – you have to eat this – and she’ll say – no I don’t and I’m not going to. I know the secret (as does Paul) of just calling out from bed – ok then, no tablet for the rest of the night – and that will make her eat it! Paul tends to go over the top though and I’ll tell him so, he goes to the other extreme. He’ll say things like – you’ll never go on the tablet again – or – that’s the last time you’ll be able to do that then! – in his desperation to basically get his own way. I try to explain that you can’t make a threat that you can’t carry through with but he is so in the moment that he believes he will!
I’ll pop some photos on of Beth’s birthday when I get some. Otherwise it might be a while so I’ll see you on the flip side!
