#457 Saturday 17 December

After a good night I woke at 5am to the sound of heavy rain ..( .. Kadek has left the washing on the line.... oh well ... I'll set up a drying line in an air conditioned room.)
At 5:30am the power goes off ....I need to check whether it's the external power or just the fuses ... It's still pouring.... what the heck ... Strip off so I won't get drenched (it's like swimming through a vertical bath) .... go out to the fuse board.  Sho 'nuff ... the main fuse has tripped again. Turn on - all ok.  This is a problem that I'll have to find a solution for .... can't have it doing this when guests are here.  The first step will be to fix the leaking garage roof.  This is an obvious candidate for the cause.

8:50am Breakfast at Gardenia was yummy as usual.  Kaylia is into a good routine with this.  We've decided that it is probably cheaper to use "eat out" breakfast rather than trying to do "in house".


Plans for today?  Maybe a drive into the hills?  .... or shopping?

This morning I tried a lower initial dose of Lovan to start the day ... to test whether the dose could be split rather than topped up.  By 10am she is showing clear signs of the lack of Lovan so I have given her the 10mg that the dose was lowered by this morning.  I now expect that she will come good again (which she has after 10 minutes) and she will probably need the top up at around 1 or 2pm.  So it seems that we have hit on the ideal dosage by accident.  If the initial dose (60mg) is raised, it is too much .... if the initial dose is lowered it is not enough.  The top up of 10mg seems to be giving a good result.

3:40pm  I went off to Surya and Carrefour at about 12:30 leaving Kat with Kaylia.  During my absence she was happy to play  and eat .... she didn't want to go out and didn't want to swim.  This could be the weather ... very heavy clouds with shower to heavy rain.  She's just decided that it's nightie time and she doesn't want tea.  This is OK as she has eaten enough this afternoon.

Lovan top up at 3:15

Before I went on my outing, I had a visit from Yudhi.  We had a good talk.  He & I are on the same wavelength in many ways.
At Surya I was able to replace the faulty controller for the new a/cond.  Then to Carrefour where I found bookshelf units ideal for placing under the wall safes ..... and a set of goggles/snorkel plus another snorkel so I can model its use.  We want to introduce her to the idea of the snorkel to extend her water play.  We explained what they were and she had a little play with them .... then took them to the pool and threw them in!

The water pump has given up again.  The plumbing system here is the bane of my existence at the moment.  I'm a competent plumber with several building projects in my history .... but I cannot make any sense of the system here!  .... and it often malfunctions.  I need a local plumber with good English!

4:45pm  The thought been no sooner been written than the answer arrived!  Lanag (the pool man) has experience in such matters and good English.  Together we analysed the current plumbing and determined that it had never been properly finished!  Instead the builder had put the system into service with a 'make-shift' setting.  The system is supposed to pump from the bore to the overhead tank with an automatic shut off when the tank is full.  Instead the automatic shut off has never been fitted and the house has been supplied directly from the bore - without the overhead tank ever being used!  Lanag will bring the parts needed to fit the automatic shut off and fit them next week.  Hooray.  The next step may be to fit a different pump .... I'll wait and see how the existing pump works when properly plumbed.

Lanang will also bring information on a water filtration system to remove the odour from the water supply.

Progress!

#456 Friday 16 December

This another of the "blogs of frustration" ..... I wrote a big entry on my iPhone .... and then the app crashed when I tried to save my work.  This has happened too many times .... I won't use that app any more.   It is useful for inserting photos into the blog so I'll keep it for that purpose.

Now what had I said?  It's now 4:30 pm and all that was done at about 7am .... so I can't duplicate the lost work.

Today?  .....has been good.  Kaylia has been a gem.  Kat and I are pondering the change.  We think it is probably due to the medication change.  Just as splitting the Risperdal made a good change, so splitting the Lovan has been good too.  So far it has just been a small top-up dose after lunch.  Tomorrow I'll try a reduced morning dose with the top up at lunch time. It may be that the smaller dose will still have a good effect for a shorter time and the top up then extends the useful period.  Following the principle that it is best to have the least possible medication, it will be worth finding out what the smallest useful dose is.

Today we were in full "normal routine"  Out-a-bed, shower, breakfast, walk to the beach and swim, back to the villa for more swim.  Lunch, then drive to Big-H, back home by mid afternoon for down-time.  Now it's 5pm and she's in play mode before bed.

The maid arrived at 6:30am today ... and she wasn't quiet!  Banging doors & furniture while she cleaned.  I thought that maybe she had arrived early to cook breakfast ... but there was no sign of that.  Her English is less than basic so we haven't been able to find out what she was thinking.  I have mentioned to the agents that given the type of clients who'll be renting, the maid must have a reasonable command of English.  They will try again.

Late morning saw the installer arrive to fit the a/conditioner.  It's now working well.

I spoke too soon about being ready for bed!  She's been back in the pool for an hour now!

#455 Thursday 15 December

Breakfast at Gardenia. K is very happy. We've had an hour or so in the pool ... Kaylia jogging about while I tackled the heavy buildup of scale on the waterline.  Using a sharp tool, it can be scraped off and it makes a big difference.  (A good task while in the pool!)

The a/cond that is to be fitted today is running on Bali time ... maybe tomorrow!  While trying to call them I found that the phones are giving trouble again.  Internet is OK so it's an internal problem.  We have to get this fixed.

The power went off about 8pm last night and we settled down to wait .... it was a long hot night and by 4:30 I woke and I could hear a radio (!!)  I went outside and there were street lights on!  It wasn't a power failure after all .... the fuse had tripped!  (OOOH how embarassing!)  a good lesson .... check the powerboard first.  We didn't have to sleep in the heat at all.

#454 Wednesday 14 December

Transition Day 1
So far .... excellent!  She is not in the mood to do much apart from rolling on the cool floor with her dingle-dangles .... no car, no shops, no pool .... just lay about.  She has just demolished half a pineapple for lunch.  Today she gets a free pass on food.  No pressure.
Kat has gone off for a walk/explore (she wants to try a bemo) and I'll see if I can interest Kaylia in a trip to J-Co's when Kat gets back.

Kaylia has just gone and found the box of balls.  She knows what toys she has at the villa.

3pm  I was having a snooze and woke to find that she had taken herself off to the pool! (Kadek was watching her)  We then spent a good hour or two in the pool.  A storm is coming .... the clouds a becoming dark.

After swimming Kaylia had 'bath time".  We noticed that she was showing anxiety behaviours so I gave her a 10mg top up of Lovan.  Soon after she was back to normal.  I think this Lovan split is going to be another good idea.  (Her paediatrician has approved it.)

So far we have had none of the terrible transition problems that we usually have on Day One.

I'm currently thinking that perhaps the good experience this time is largely due to the "split dosing" of medication.  The next trip will be a further test of the theory.



Tea at a restaurant set in rice padis .... not a good experience.  The menu was very limited ... no beef or pork .... then many of the items we wanted to order, they didn't have any!  No pineapple.  No chocolate milkshake,  No icecream.  They served Kaylia with sambal on her plate!  Fortunately she had a full milkshake in front of her so it was down the hatch with that .....   then at the end of the meal, they had no transport!   We won't be going there again!  Back to the restaurants near home.

#453 Tuesday 13 December

A good night. Kaylia is over the "full moon blues" .... strangely the lunar eclipse had an effect too.
We have a further "fine tuning" of medication to try ..... once she has settled after transition, we will see if spreading the Lovan into two smaller doses has a better result than giving it as one daily dose.
Kaylia's medication is a tricksy thing .... there are few rules and guidelines ... it is careful trial .... try to remove variables so that just one change is tried .... make a small change and assess the result. Our process seems to be working. Of course the result is never static .... Kaylia's growing body means that the effect of the medication can change over time.

Her last day of school for the year! Home from school, finish packing and off to the airport for the 6pm flight.

11:30pm

Well the trip got a 9.5 out of 10!



She was perfect before the flight, on the flight and after. When we got the the villa door, the lights in the garage wouldn't work so it took a while to find the key to get in .... she lost it while I was doing that .... she was wanting to get to bed ... but she's fine now.

Talk in the morrow!

#452 Monday 12 December

We've just arrived home from a very pleasant evening .... the Child Wellbeing Centre end of year nosh up! Good food and wonderful company!



As usual, Kaylia didn't go to sleep till we got home. I think that if we both were away overnight she just wouldn't sleep!

Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011

What a year it has been!  Huge achievements and huge stress.

The year began with the opening of the new Midland office for the Child Wellbeing Centre.  This venture meant that we joined forces with 4 other people (initially) to create a 'one stop shop' for services for children ..... psychology, speech pathology and occupational therapy.  This venture went well for the first 6 months .. and then in July we added early intervention services for children with autism ..... and things began to really hum! We now have 13 people involved and next year looks like being even bigger!

On the Kaylia front, she has been able to resume her ABA therapy two days per week and she is working hard on learning social behaviours.  (These are ways of communicating and relating with people that her autism has prevented her from learning/absorbing as she grew .... so we have to teach her "manually".)  She is showing real progress and she frequently gives us a jolt of pleasure when she comes out with some little gem ... it shows that she is taking in all the things that she is being taught.
She began this year in Year Two at Darlington Primary School but by mid-year it was clear that this school was not the right place for Kaylia and we moved her to South Ballajura PS.  This is where she began her preschool years.  Now in year two she has rejoined the same group of friends from that time and she has one-on-one aide time in a class of six students!  She is so happy there.  It has been a good decision to move her.

Our other big news for the year has been Bali.  In January my older brother Peter began the process of buying a villa in Bali. The process came unstuck and after much serious talk, Naomi and I decided to take over the purchase.  The financial side has been very hard work and we haven't reached the end yet.  By early January, the whole purchase process should be complete.  We have spent this year commuting (almost monthly!) to Bali to do basic set up of a new dwelling plus the extras needed to prepare it to be rented out on a commercial basis.
[If you follow the links to the right hand side of this page, you will be able to see what the villa is like.  As well as a rental venture, it is also our second home and Kaylia loves going there.]

Of course this much activity has created a high stress level for both of us and we look forward to the coming months where the villa settles down to a 'normal rhythm'.

On the people front we have seen Zoe join us for the first part of the year ... wow - what a time that was!  We fondly hope that Zoe may be back in 2012.  After Zoe, Sally joined us ... and then moved on to an Asian travel feast.  Kat replaced Sally mid-year  ..... Now what can I say about Kat?  If I spoke the truth it would appear that I was being effusive and OTT.  Kat has become a close family member for us.  We know that she will probably move on to greener pastures one day ..... but we don't want to think about that.  For now she has no plans to do so and we are all happy.

Health?  Kaylia has been the subject of much "medication work" while we tried to find the ideal dosages.  In November we finally found what seems to be an almost ideal dosage .... it has meant that she is largely freed from the severe anxiety attacks that have made life so bad for us all.  We feel as though we have a new little girl .... she is so happy!

Naomi has been under huge stress from her heavy work load coupled with her heavy study load.  She is close to the end of her Masters in Clinical Psychology and we'll all celebrate when the end comes!  Apart from stress related issues, she has also had the sadness of losing her mother in February. Anyone who has been through that will be able to share that sadness.

Me?  In the early part of the year, I found that severe osteo-arthritis in my right wrist meant that I was diagnosed with a SLAC wrist  (Scaphoid Lunate Advanced Collapse).  This meant surgery to reduce the debilitating pain.  So in May I had surgery to remove the scaphoid bone and to fuse the other wrist bones. I have about 8 screws in the bones that held them all together while the bones fused.  The operation and recovery was a nightmare .... but the end result has been worth it.  I now have about 20% of normal movement ... but no pain!

So... I hope life has been good to you too!  Best wishes to you for Christmas and the New Year!

Naomi, Kaylia and Ian

#451 Sunday 11December

I've just received the first of the Christmas emails .... thanks Marg! It gave me an idea. This year I'll put the Christmas letter in the blog and send a blog link in the Christmas email! (it may not work but I'll give it a go.)

Kaylia has given us some bright spots today .... We're packing for Bali and she brought in some toys to go in the case!

Then Naomi was doing toenail painting .... Kaylia lined up for hers ... then told us "Look at my nails!". (in Kaylee-speak of course)