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Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Hi All

A few things. Reef’s medical aid is not co-operating so nicely anymore and they have to pay 20% cash each times he is admitted or has platelets which is twice a week. They have a bill of R29 000 at Unitas. If anyone can help with donations, pls make deposits to
All Hands On Dec Friends
FNB
Featherbrooke Village
622 157 37042
Savings
250 741
Reference: Reef
Lydia is sending me all the account details to pay. You could also pay direct to Lydia if you wish. Their bank details are on Reef's site.

Jono, is 17. He also has the leukemia monster that he is beating one day at a time. A fundraiser is being held this Saturday 6 March. Please try to attend if you can. It will be an action netball and cricket day with celebrities in attendance. The details are:
Event Location: Montana Action Arena
10:00 till late
R100 entry fee

Tic Tac seems to be coming along nicely. He / she is 9 weeks and 2 days old today. My waist is expanding rapidly and things just don’t fit, but I am not big enough for maternity clothes and at this stage thank heavens not. They say with your 2nd child you grow faster and I am most certainly growing. It may have something to do with the menu. I have the appetite of a king – e.g today I had 2 pieces of banana bread for breakfast, then a bun with cheese, tomato and tomato sauce mid morning, then a crunchie chocolate, then a whole lot of watermelon, then a bun with tuna mayo, then a bunch of grapes and soon its supper which is chicken kiev, gem, cauliflower and cheese sauce and ratatouille. May be overdoing it a tad but I am hungry. What’s a pregnant girl to do?

I don’t have any nausea. I am just very tired all the time. I am in bed by 9 and only get up at 7. Thank goodness I am the boss and I authorised more flexible working hours for myself. I think it’s a little girl, but then I also thought Declan was a girl. Everyone says it would be better if I had a girl because it would be different, but I would actually like a boy. Boys are just the best and then as he grew up maybe I would get a glimpse as to what Declan would have looked like. I am due for a check up next Wednesday and will let you know what Doctor says.

Lots of love

Gillian

Monday, March 01, 2010

Hi All

Yesterday, Sunday (if you only read this on Tuesday), Kim, Claire and I headed off in Daryl’s Dad’s 1980 beaten up Land-cruiser, on a mission to deliver millions of Busy Boxes. Yes, I know Cape Town handed theirs out ages ago, but we just got so many many generous donations that it took us 10 000 years to pack. They were filled to the brim with exciting goodies. Every single monster fighter got a pritt, a pair of scissors, paper, cardboard, stickers, a board to work on, fabric, buttons, bead, gut, small toys, sweets, colouring in paper, crayons, khokis, pens and pencils plus lots more odds and ends. The boxes were divided into age groups and were also gender specific. No boy wants a Barbie sticker and likewise, no girl wants Superman. We were also given gifts by you so we were able to hand those out where appropriate. THANK YOU TO ALL THE GENEROUS DONORS AND SPONSORS.

They wouldn’t allow more than 3-4 in the ward, so we couldn’t take more people, even though I know lots of you really badly wanted to join us. Our first port of call was Donald Gordon. What a beautiful neat and clean place. I was so distressed that I had not been able to have Declan treated there. Hindsight is 20/20 vision so if I had known he was only going to live 8 months; I could have “wasted” money on Donald Gordon. Instead we watched every penny as we thought he would have medical bills for all the 70 years of his life.

Then it was off to Hotel Hell and only Hotel Hell knows how to make your life difficult as we well know. We arrive at the security entrance. They ask if we have anything to declare. We say “like what”? They say cameras or laptops. “Yes, we have 2 cameras,” we bubble. Wrong answer! Oh no, this is terrible news cos we can’t go in with cameras the security very happily informs us. Why we ask. I can more likely stab someone to death with my car keys than my camera so what is it that they don’t want us to take photos of? We don’t get an answer to that. We tell them we are delivering gifts. They don’t care – either we leave the cameras at security or we must turn around and go home.

This whole process of debating cameras takes forever and we still have to get to Baragwanath, so as we are about to leave, I have a brainwave deluxe. “I have a friend round the corner,” I say. “We will go and drop the cameras off there and then come back,” and with that we quickly reverse and go and grab a takeaway lunch at the garage round the corner. We hide the cameras and return 15 minutes later. Mr Very Important, Very Clever, Very Creepy Security Man peers in the windows and satisfied that we are clear of all contraband, lets us through. Give me strength.

We load up our prams (using them as trolleys) and catch the lift up to the 5th floor. Hey presto – the welcoming committee is there, skulking round the lifts – Mr Security Man who is getting creepier by the second. We walk along to yellow block and catch the lift up to the 9th floor and guess what – I bet you guessed. Mr Security man appears there too. I had to wonder what he wanted. Had he by some remote possibility figured out our ruse and was now out for justice, stalking us in the hopes that he could catch the Busy Box delivering secret camera toting fugitives from justice in the act of snapping pictures of that hideous place. Really! Sometimes I just don’t understand why it often has to be so difficult to help and what also bugs me is how a little power in the hands of some can be so abused. Creepy and in the already traumatic environment of a hospital, shouldn’t everyone just be doing everything up help?

After our “ordeal” we headed off to Bara. I was very nervous as I had never been there before and didn’t know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. The ward is really nice and the staff are friendly and helpful. Security let us through without a problem and even gave us directions – how novel. I met a little 18 month old girl, all by herself, no mom with her and just wanted to steal her right out of there and take her home. My heart breaks for these children, especially those who don’t have the luxury of having their moms with them all the time.

Other than the emotionally draining aspect of the day, seeing all those children fighting big ugly monsters and exhaustion of the physical side of packing and carrying boxes around, the day was a great success. The kids LOVED their Busy Boxes and were so curious and we got so many smiles and happy faces. It was all so worthwhile and we must do it again in JHB. We need to do the Pretoria hospitals, and will get to that asap. Thank you Claire and Kim for your commitment and to all of you that helped make this happen. We will post pictures on the charity site soon. Despite our intrepid security guard’s efforts at protecting the hospital from the evil that is the instant camera, we still took photos.

Tic Tac is fine – growing I hope. I have a scan next Wednesday. I don’t want to get too excited in case the heart has stopped beating and I don’t even know. All the books say that happens often but at the rate my stomach is growing, I am probably safe. I am 9 weeks today. Can’t believe it has been over 5 weeks since I found out already. Time flies. I feel fine. No morning sickness. No other symptoms other than that I find Daryl quite trying and don’t have much patience with anybody or anything. I am not feeling the love. Feeling more like an Orc from Lord of the Rings – some anger management issues and a generally aggressive approach to life. Thank goodness my phone is shock proof as it has taken to unexpectedly and at the weirdest times just flying out my hands. Who knows.

Have a great week everyone

Lots of love

Gillian aka Orc Lady

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