Frustration!

Yet again, our little world is disrupted whilst Tykling (formerly know as Toddler Tyke) suffers another bout of Strep throat. 
We seem to have got ourselves into a Winter cycle of fortnightly high temperatures with every third becoming a full blown dose of strep.  We went through this all last winter and it seems that we are repeating the pattern this winter too.

For several years, Tykling has been suffering with random and regular very high temperatures that we could not explain.  Initially, we put it down to teething but, once he had all of his teeth, we quickly ruled this out.  The one thing Tykling has never done, is complain of a sore throat.

After a particularly severe bout of high temperatures a couple of winters ago, I had a mad rush to A and E one evening when Tykling (then Toddler) was screaming in agony due to stomach pains. 

I cannot stand to see my little boy in pain, and feel so helpless when he is suffering.  On that particular night, I was convinced that Tykling was suffering some terrible, life-threatening illness.  I had visions of ruptured spleens and all sorts of horrible scenarios.  I'm not a nurse.  I avoid the doctor's at all costs.  The noise coming from my child on that night sent me into pure panic mode.  Once we arrived at the hospital and they finally had Tykling's temperature under control, the doctor made his diagnosis of Strep throat.  I felt terrible.  How did I not know that my son had a sore throat? 

I asked plenty of questions, and along with a good session of googling, I learned that Strep Throat does not always present itself as a sore throat.  Suddenly it all made sense - those high temperatures, the stomach pain, the stiff neck - it was all Strep throat.  My son had been suffering for months and I had been putting it down to teething.

With my new found knowledge, I now knew what to look out for.  The first symptom Tykling will have is a high temperature that comes out of nowhere.  This is usually controlled with Calpol and Nurofen but that doesn't fix the Strep.  After a few days, Tykling will complain of stomach pains.  This is caused by the swelling of the lymph nodes in his stomach.  Around this time, he will start to get terrible breath as his tonsils become covered in white spots and start to weep yellow pus.  By this point, I have usually seen a doctor and got him some antibiotics.  After that, he suffers with a really stiff and painful neck as the lymph nodes in his neck become hugely swollen.

So, here we are again.  Tykling saw the doctor today who confirmed yet another dose of Strep and prescribed antibiotics.  Within 4 hours of starting the antibiotics, Tykling was a new child.  He was eating, he was playing with his toys and he went to bed without the aid of Calpol.  Whilst at the surgery, the doctor we saw confirmed that he did indeed seem to suffer with regular bouts of Strep, and that his tonsils were scarred from repeated infections.  She also recommended a tonsillectomy.  This was the news I was waiting for!  The thought of someone operating on my baby is horrible, but the thought of him suffering every few weeks like this is worse.  Now that he is at school, he seems worse - he is missing out on so much through this illness.  I really worry about his attendance.

So, back to the title of this post - frustration!  A couple of hours after seeing the doctor, we had a phone call informing us that she was no longer able to write a referral letter.  According to guidelines, there are a certain number of times that Tykling has to suffer before he becomes eligible for a tonsillectomy.  Apparently, my child has not yet suffered enough!  Despite the fact that his tonsils are permanently enlarged and scarred, he still has to suffer another 3 times before they will be able to do anything about it. 

Whilst I fully understand that whipping out tonsils on a whim is probably not a good idea - afterall, tonsils form part of the body's natural defence system, surely my child's history is evidence enough that his are not doing the job they are designed for and, infact, causing him more problems that they solve.  Why can't these cases be looked at on an individual basis?  Why does my boy have to suffer at least another 3 times before they look at him?  Frustration indeed!

Questions to ask your toddler - part 2!

Ok, so Toddler Tyke is no longer a toddler so maybe I should change the title - Questions to ask your school age child (Yikes!  How did that happen?)

So, age 3 and a half, I asked Toddler a set of questions that I had first discovered on facebook and decided it would be fun to get him to answer them periodically and see how his answers change as he grows up and his views on life change.

Today, I dug out the old post and asked him the same questions (age 4 years 7 months).

These are the questions, his old answers (blue) and his new answers and his new answers (red). 


- What is rain?                       R R R R R it goes pitter patter rain drops.  Rain.  Hard.
- What makes you happy?     When I do a poo on the potty.  Errr, the sun
- How old is your daddy?      14  8
- What is Big Brother?           I don't know  Errrr, big brother
- What is food for?                 For tummies   Making you strong.
- Why is the sky blue?           'Cus it's supposed to be blue.  Sunny and cloudy and blue.  Cus it's 
                                                sunny
- Where do babies come from?     Tummies  In Tummies
- What is God?                       I don't know  Don't know
- What does mashed potato taste like?   Yummy  Mashed potato!
- What does music make you feel like?   Errr tingly  Jiggly
- What is your favourite flower?      Errrr, green!  A daisy
- Who is the prime minister?         I don't know  You!
- What is your favourite sweet?     Yellow sweets.  lollipops
- What do you do on holidays?      We play at the beach  I like playing with you
- What happens if you tell lies?     I don't know.  Errr, you go on the naughty step
- What happens if an adult tells lies?   You get happy.  Go on the naughty step!
- If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?    In this house.  With you


No huge dramatic changes in a year, although I do now seem to be PM! 
I know quite a few other people had a go with the questions when we last did, it would be great to hear how your little one's views have changed.

Oops!

Wow!  I can't believe how long it has been since I last wrote on here.  As things have changed in my personal life, I have neglected my blog terribly.  I was reminded earlier today of a blog post I wrote a while back where I asked Toddler some questions with a view to coming back and re-asking him the same questions when he was a bit older.  You can read his answers age 3 here.  Anyway, after popping on to find the list of questions, I then spent half an hour deleting all those annoying automated spam responses to blog posts (how annoying are they?) and it has spurred me on to breathe a bit of life back into my blog.  I also discovered several unpublished blog posts which I wrote last year so they may be resurrected too.

Time to get my mojo back!