Lockdown With The Kids | Our New Normal In Pictures | Part 1

Our pre normal life before the worldwide lockdown story started in January this year, which is something I’ve wanted to share with you here on my little blog however, its been a non stop rollercoaster and since then I had completely lost my bloggers Mojo.  So, I will attempt to touch base here and now and I will go into more detail some time soon on a future post.

So, we received a phone call from my 7 year old son Cuba’s school on Friday the 24th of January telling us that he wasn’t feeling well. His dad Sean went straight to school to bring him home. He had a temperature of 37.8 degrees and he was complaining of a headache so, i gave him a dose of Ibuprofen and I settled him on the sofa to watch tv.

To our total horror ten minutes later Cuba had a very severe fit. After a very distressing night in hospital with a very poorly boy Cuba was discharged the following day with no real diagnosis but still under observation. Three days later a very exhausted Cuba developed severe Jaundice and he was still very ill.

Four days later on the following Sunday, my daughter Kia was feeling really ill with chest pains and palpitations and I called  111. The paramedics were sent out to our house and after her observations were taken we were told her heart rate was twice the speed of the normal rate so kia and I went to A & E in the ambulance. Since that day Kia has experienced further pains, headaches, extreme fatigue and frequent palpitations. We now know she is severely anaemic and very low in vitamin D, which are the most likely causes to her symptoms but we still don’t know why she is anaemic and she therefore remains under observation and having frequent blood tests.

Approximately a week later on February 4th my partner Sean, began to feel very ill and after experiencing some frightening symptoms. I called 111 and they told him to go to A & E immediately and he didn’t return home for another nine days after that. While Sean was in hospital he developed jaundice and he was extremely ill and in a lot of pain and discomfort.

After both Sean and Cuba’s many tests and observations including a CT scan we finally had a diagnosis of Hepatitis A and Sean was also diagnosed with Gallstones which will eventually need surgery to be removed.

Cuba had already begun his own period of isolation from school for four weeks as he was at the time, very vulnerable to many of the virus’s that were going around. And Sean has only been given the all clear last week so therefore, his workplace has arranged for him to go back to work on phased return.

During all of this my role as mum and partner was stretched and more demanding than ever as I tried to keep everything ticking and as normal as possible for the kids especially my youngest Coco-Ivy.

This included getting Coco-Ivy to her pre-school and ballet lessons, many GP, appointments, two hospital visits a day as Sean was so ill and was prescribed Morphine for the pain and he needed me there on the doctors rounds and I had to be his voice communicating with the many different nurses.

I was eating anything I could grab on the go and as a result was feeling quite exhausted.

We were all desperately looking forward to getting back to reality.

However, during the week of March 20th we were all as a nation becoming increasingly aware of the uncertain times to come.

On Saturday 22nd Sean and I finally managed to have a family walk with Cuba and Coco-Ivy to Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire. It was the week the National Park Trust opened offering free entry for all.

Little did we know or naively expect it to be as busy as it was, we arrived there in the afternoon so luckily the rush had died down a bit and we managed to maintain social distancing.

We really needed this time together in the open air and looking back thank goodness we made the effort.

Sean was still in pain at this point and had to take lots of little breaks.

Cuba had returned to school for two weeks at this point in time before the strict lockdown.

We are now super aware of how quickly ones health can deteriorate out of the blue.

The afternoon out was a very much needed break out of the house.

I do wonder how these rapidly changing and challenging times effect the kids.

During these experiences we have to do our best and hope it’s enough.

We look forward to similar times ahead.

I’m getting my bloggers Mojo back, Finally!!!

And, I look forward to posting my next Lockdown With The Kids, Our New Normal In Pictures Part 2 very soon.

Lot’s of love and Stay Safe,

Dana x x