Teeth and Tickers

Both kids are fully recovered from their sicknesses of last week. Thank Goodness....

Xav is no longer choking on his own cough and Grace is back to constantly eating, trying to regain the 2 kgs that she lost. She has not stopped eating since she rediscovered her appetite, filling up on 2-3 breakfasts and 2 servings of lunch and still wanting more! She's back to about 20kgs, so all that food is building back up her stores and filling her out nicely.

I took both kids along to the Dr yesterday, the hospital had requested that I take Grace as a follow-up and I wanted to re-confirm what to do when Xav gets asthma again. The lovely Dr Drew read over Grace's discharge notes and gave her a thorough check over. All was good, and the heart murmur that the paediatrician had detected had disappeared - where too I wondered?? Seems it was just stressed induced and not something that we need to worry about.

Next on to Mr Xav. He sat on the bed, following the lead of his big sister and raising his top for the chest checks, then taking big deep exaggerated breathes - very cute! Dr Drew asked how long Xav had his heart murmur for, to which Duane and I looked at each other surprised and answered in unison "Never!!"

Are heart murmurs contagious? How the hell does one of my children have one last week and then the other this week? They have both had their hearts checked before, so you'd think it would have been picked up before now. Anyway, Xav's is apparently quite loud and something that we should be following up. She's suggested we make an appointment for him in a month, then if it's still there she'll refer us on for ultrasounds and cardiograms. Let's hope his magically disappears within the month like Grace's did.

After the Dr's I then headed over to the Dentists. Yes, apparently we are destined to see the whole scope of medical professionals over this month. I've had some pain in my front tooth, mainly in the gum. It's not been unbearable like the last tooth pain I had - but enough to cause annoyance and the need for more creative ways to eat. It's tricky trying to bite into things without use of your front teeth, so it's been pre-cut food only for the last few weeks! I'd kinda written it off as just a gum problem, you see I've had a root canal on this tooth so figured that nothing else could be too wrong with it. Seems I know nothing at all about dentistry. After x-rays and a consultation, it appears that the pain I've been feeling is actually another bloody abscess and I'll be requiring another bloody root canal. Fun. What a fantastic way to spend my ever-increasingly precious time. I've been feeling pretty crappy lately, so no doubt it's the horrible infection running through my system.

Starting next Wednesday, after a course of antibiotics to rid the infection, I'll be fronting up for stage one of the root canal. It's done over 3-5 stages, over a few weeks. What a crappy clash of times, considering I am starting Uni in a little over a week.

The only bright side to all of this, is that once again I am taking full advantage of our wonderful public health system. Thanks to Duane's crappy Greenkeeper wage, we are lucky enough to have a health care card which gives free public dental. Normally there are long waiting lists but after going on a waiting list I was lucky enough to get a cancellation spot.

So, once my tooth is fixed up, that'll be our last medical visit for A LONG TIME 'ok?