School Holidays: Days 6 & 7

Hosanna, Judea and Nevaeh

On day 6 I babysat three children for the morning and kept my fluids up all day preparing for my Red Cross Blood Donation scheduled for later on in the day. The maintenance guy did come back although I thought he was finished the day before but apparently he still had a few holes to sand back. The winds were worst that day and I had to call housing after going outside and noticing that my antenna was hanging by a wire. While outside I had also noticed that a tree out the front had a few branches blown down and were also hanging so I had to get the ladder and handsaw them down. The maintenance guy didn't offer a hand, watching from his truck but must have been impressed asking me out for coffee next weekend. I declined but was very flattered, even if he was almost twice my age. The kids were good and got picked up soon before I was on my way to the Red Cross Van and after the anenna guy had taken what was left of my antenna down. On the way I almost turned back twice. I hate needles, not passionately but I do get nervous when I have to get blood tests etc. But I put on a brave face walking into the van with the kids both asking why I'd willingly want to have a needle when I didn't have to. The afternoon turned into a bit of a learning experience for us all in the end and knowing that my donation would go towards saving three lives was enough for me. The actual needle itself was much bigger than I had anticipated and apparently my vain was small making one of the nurses call for a co-worker to do the incision. In the end they cut off the circulation in my whole arm and told me to squeeze a stress ball. That was fine until I lost all feeling and function of my arm. The nurse ended up missing the vain but fiddled the needle through and into my vain. I cant explain how painful that was. They still didnt give me back my circulation until around 30 seconds after the needle was in although I tried begging. Once they had a nice flow of blood they took the pressure off my upper arm and I was left with a pins and needles sensation from my elbow to my finger tips. It was bizarre. 30 minutes later after a nibble and a cool drink I was free to go. I felt fine half expecting to feel some sort of change. I was told to take it easy over the next few days but I actually did feel fine so I made a decision to do shopping. 2 hours of shopping, a thirty minute dinner before going to a candle party. It ended up being a late night but the worst was yet to come. The next morning I felt faint.

Courageously giving blood

 I felt sick. I felt poisoned. Anyone who has had food poisoning would know how I felt the next day. It was horrible. I couldn't get out of bed so I just didn't. Jie helped Nevaeh with breakfast and I slept a little longer. I couldn't figure out why I was so sick. When I did get up I looked at the pamphlet given to me after my donation. I had a bit of a read of the symptoms after donating and everything I felt that morning was there. Only intensified because I had chosen to have a glass of wine the night before at the candle party. What a stupid stupid move. I switched my phone on to call the red cross hotline when my phone was going berzerk with message beeps and vibrations. Something like 6 missed calls and a few messages. A friend was asking me to desperately babysit three littlies and me being me agreed. The hotline just said to keep my fluids up and to get plenty of rest. Lucky for me the littlies big brother stayed to help me and I did get plenty of rest throughout the day. After dinner the kids were all settled watching a movie together the parents gave me a call after leaving the funeral they attended with a time to pick them all up. The kids all wanted to stay so I offered to take her other one tooso her and her husband could go and see a late night movie and spend some quality time together. They were stoked and excitedly accepted! Although the

Altius content with 6 kids in the house

  son with them had fallen asleep and was now in bed, their other son had got home late and wanted to come hang out with us so they dropped him over instead. They got to download a movie and snuggle on the couch for the night and I had 7 children. The kids drifted off all at different times until it was only their eldest and my eldest (the night owls) awake. I snuggled on the couch until I couldn't keep my eye balls awake much longer Jie and Zach went to bed around a half hour after me (at least I think they did). Although there were a few hick-ups with Matt picking Nevaeh up late, the night was awesome, the kids were well behaved and my house was kept relatively clean. I was quite impressed and the night was perfect school holiday fun for all ages!