Lockdown 2.0, Days 21, 22, 23

It's been a rollercoaster of a few days. Numbers were lower again on Wednesday, under 300 - promising. Then Thursday was 725. I felt sick when I first saw that result, and every time I thought of it since then. Today was in the 600s. Not good. I'm in awe every day of the way Dan Andrews and Brett Sutton keep fronting up to the press, calmly and solemnly making the announcements, taking responsibility for what's happened so far and outlining the next potential steps. It looks like a thankless, exhausting job.

On a personal level, I felt a little better on Wednesday. I even felt well enough to drive Caitlin in to Yarra Glen to the post office. I went to the chemist to try to get some homeopathics to help with the bleeding but the naturopath wasn't there so I planned to go back the next day. I spent a lot of the day on the couch/in bed, playing games and watching tv = The Gallery (Mandalorian), Gilmore Girls. Amelie had Guides, Caitlin tried to do her Cheer Zoom class but the internet was dodgy. I went to bed feeling positive that things were going to get better health wise.

Thursday I was about to go and get my blood test when I had a massive amount of bleeding. I was quite scared for a little while. I spoke to Nurse on Call and one of the doctors at the surgery and they recommended I come in. A friend took me to see the doctor, we tried to find somewhere for me to get an ultrasound, and she ended up taking me to emergency at Box Hill because I was pretty dizzy and finding it hard to concentrate. It was unnerving being at the hospital in lots of ways, no visitors or support people allowed in, everyone in masks, staff with face guards as well, signs everywhere. It was obvious the longer I was there that COVID is impacting the care that the hospital is able to give - things like ultrasounds are now only done if really urgent (so even though the Dr I saw wanted me to have one, it wasn't approved so I couldn't get one while I was there). I was really happy with the nurses and doctors who I dealt with, they did everything they could to reassure me and did seem interested in trying to figure out what was going on. My blood test came back with no worrying results, so after they checked a few things out they sent me home and asked me to get an ultrasound as soon as I could and organised a gynaecology appointment for some time in the future. Tony came to pick me up and it was really lovely chatting in the car on the way home - we don't get much time together without the kids around. The kids were really pleased to see me when I got home - I'd been gone all day and left before the older two woke up. We watched more Gilmore Girls and ate Nachos that Caitlin had cooked. The girls lay on the couch with me while we watched, and Liam stayed in the lounge room and watched with us. I was exhausted by the time I went to bed but surprisingly felt better than I had been - even though I still wasn't well I felt like it would get better.

I slept badly and had some anxious moments through the night - got up and had a shower at around 4am and that helped a lot. I got some good sleep when I went back to bed. Once I woke for the day - a beautiful sunny day, although a little foggy early - I felt better overall - physically and emotionally. Still bleeding but not so worryingly so. I spent time on the computer, hung the washing, felt a bit more normal than I had in a while. I went to have my ultrasound, - a relief to finally have it done, and I'll talk to my doctor tomorrow morning to see if it shows any answers. Afterwards I went to McDonalds (which was really busy - the girl at the window said they're busier during lockdown than they have ever been before) and bought my ultimate comfort food - fries and a chocolate sundae. I stopped in Yarra Glen and was able to get some homeopathic Phosphorus - she said it really should help. I drove then up to a spot on Old Healesville Rd, which overlooks the valleys on both sides of the road - over to our house and the mountains beyond Healesville, Pauls Ridge and Mt St Leonards, the hills of Dixons Creek. I ate my fries and sundae, took some photos, listened to music, read my book - it was a lovely hour by myself. Back at home I watched some TV with the girls, did some of my creativity course, chatted with a friend on the phone. Caitlin and I watched The Kissing Booth 2 - I got way more invested in it than I wanted to - it wasn't great but slighly better than the first one, and it was fun to watch with Caitlin, while she made bucket hats and we all ate takeaway pizza for dinner. 

Lockdown 2.0, Day 8

I'm obviously becoming a bit immune to the news. 317 cases overnight - I know that's a huge number, but it doesn't upset or shock me like previous record numbers have. If it stays at that level for more than a few more days though then I'll be worried (not that I'm not worried now, but I'm hoping that this is just catching those people who were infected around the time the lockdown started, and that soon we'll start to see the results of isolation. Assuming that enough people have actually been doing what they should be and staying at home when they can. There were a lot more masks worn in Yarra Glen today - the first 4 people I saw in the IGA had masks on, and I've probably only seen 4 there at all over the past several months.)

I stayed in my slump overnight - slept badly and woke with a bad headache, and just felt really low. I slept until after 8 which is really unusual for me, although is happening sometimes now if I am awake a lot during the night. I didn't do much in the morning apart from a long, hot shower which helped a little with my headache. I took Caitlin back to the nurse to have her hand checked and dressed again - there's a little bit of blistering and swelling but on the whole it looks pretty good. We did a really quick grocery shop, then came home so I could have my counselling appointment over Zoom. It was  a good session and helped me to feel calmer about a few things and gave me some ideas for how to improve some stuff that's been bothering me.

I watched Gilmore Girls with the girls and played on my phone for a while, then we went for a walk. The girls just went around the dam then headed home, I went across the creek and way down the back and chatted to a friend as I walked. It was a mild afternoon and the late afternoon sun made the clouds quite pretty. I felt a lot better by the time I got back - my mood had lifted and my headache not so overwhelming. I did a bit of work on the driveway, chatted with Tony and did some proofreading while Caitlin cooked nachos for dinner. I did the dishes then played Unocorns (a Unicorn themed version of Uno) with Amelie. I watched Liam play Get Over It for a while - he makes it looks so easy! He showed me a video of someone doing a speed run through the game - it looked amazing! It was nice to hang with Liam for a bit - he's quite nocturnal at the moment so some days we don't cross paths much. I'm feeling really tired now though quite happy so it's a nice way to end the day.

Lockdown 2.0, Day 7

I hit a bit of a slump this afternoon, even though I'd had a really good day. I was thinking we were about to hit a week of lockdown and somehow from there things got exhausting. So I've spent the last couple of hours playing games on my phone and watching Gilmore Girls with the girls, it's been fun.

This morning was pretty relaxing, I had several hours by myself and did some housework, some outside time, some creative stuff and spent some timing sorting the kids old clothes (which I've jusr realised are still all over my bed). I played Monopoly Deal with Caitlin for a while and then was doing some photography research when Caitlin burnt herself with hot oil, over about half of her hand. We ran it under hot water for 20 minutes and she was feeling pretty numb by then, and I wasn't sure if there was still oil on the skin. I took her in to the doctor at Yarra Glen - it was so weird with only 4 chairs in the waiting room and lots of social distancing signs. The nurse dressed the burns (which didn't look too bad, and we wondered if we'd overreacted, but the nurse said they might get much worse overnight and wants us to come back tomorrow) after the doctor had checked them. Caitlin ended up with one of those finger sock things on her middle finger which looks pretty funny. We did a bit of shopping in Yarra Glen once we were done, including getting supplies (and paint) for painting our kitchen cupboards which was pretty exciting.

By the time we got home Caitlin was in a lot of pain so she had painkillers and put Gilmore Girls on to lie down and rest. I went for a walk just before sunset then tried to help Amelie find some fabric for something she wants to make and then crashed.

Feeling apprehensive about the thought of further restrictions but also feeling like not a lot will change - unless I can't get Amelie's phone back from the repairer before it gets locked down - that would be pretty disastrous. Wish I hadn't thought of that...

I'm going to go now and clear the bed off, make a cup of tea and go to bed and read for a while.

Hanging out with Grandparents

I had an appointment at 8.30 yesterday morning, so Mum and Dad came down to look after the kids for the morning. Tony ended up still being at home with his sore back, though we figured it would still be easier for Mum to be here to help get breakfast etc and Tony could still rest. It was a foggy, cold morning when I set out, which turned into a beautiful sunny warm day by late morning.

I went to my appointment then called in to see a friend on the way home. Her boys were initially disappointed that I had turned up without my kids - then they were excited that they could show me where they were up to in their games, and they sat next to me and showed me their progress in all their favourite iPad games - it was lovely, and I realised that I don't always have a lot of interaction with them when my kids are there - I might try to check in on their games each time I visit from now on.

When I got home everyone had had a lovely morning. Caitlin and Dad had been doing some multiplication, LiAM and Mum had cleaned up the kitchen and LiAM and Millie had made more patterns on the peg boards. The girls decided to get in their swimmers and go on the trampoline with the hose, and LiAM was meeting a friend at Maroondah Dam for a picnic and to do the Aussie Backyard Bird Count. We left Dad in charge of the hose and 2 happy girls on the trampoline, and Mum and I dropped LiAM with his friend and then went out for lunch at Mocha and Lime in Healesville - lunch was my christmas present to Mum from last year, and we hadn't managed to find a day that suited us both until now. We ate great food and had an enjoyable chat and it didn't matter that it had taken us 10 months to organise it. We had a little bit of a walk around Healesville afterwards, then went back to pick LiAM up.

Back at home, Millie and Dad were playing Skylanders Guess Who and Caitlin had been to visit our neighbour and done some practice on her cursive writing. Mum and Dad headed home and the kids went back outside with the hose and played in the water and the mud - Caitlin caked herself in mud and called herself the mud monster. Tony had been to the doctor and was told that his back pain is muscular so should get better over the next couple of weeks, and he is better to be up and about as much as he can be.

Once everyone was clean, Caitlin and I sewed the green stripes on our karate belts (and LiAM's), and LiAM played Terraria. Caitlin went back outside to practice her cartwheels for a while - she's getting really good. We watched Big Bang Theory and Auction Hunters and Top Gear. Everyone was tired and ready for bed by 10pm which is unusual in our house. Tone rubbed the big kids backs and everyone crashed pretty quickly.

Movies, doctor and library

One of the advantages (there aren't many so I am grateful for the few that exist) of Tony working long hours (or playing baseball on a Monday evening during the summer months) is that the kids and I have less time pressure. It's not that during the regular hours part of the year I rush home every afternoon to be here when he gets home from work, more that if Tony is at home we'd like to be there with him, and we usually eat dinner together so it makes sense to actually be at home and get it ready and eat and so on. But when he's not going to be at home throughout the evening at all, we can stay out if we are enjoying something, we can pick up dinner wherever we are, or come home late and eat then if we're not too hungry.

On Monday we didn't get home until 8.30 after a very long day out - it was nice not to feel like I wanted to rush the kids in the evening to leave Croydon library where we were hanging out, we stayed until it closed then it was a fairly easy transition, to the car then home and had leftovers for tea. We all love going to the library and spending hours there, usually though I feel like we've got somewhere to be afterwards and I spend a chunk of the time there trying to get everyone ready to leave. On Monday the kids watched YouTube videos, browsed the books and DVDs and CDs and borrowed what they liked the look of, and played games on the computers set up in the kids' section of the library. They hadn't been to Croydon before - I've been a few times while Caitlin is at acting - it might even be my favourite of the Eastern Regional Libraries. Before and after we were in the building the kids watched the ducks in the pond, and Caitlin rode her Ripstik.

The reason we were out on Monday is that LiAM had his 6 month check up with the Paediatrician in Ringwood. I hadn't organised anyone to look after the girls, so seeing as we were all going anyway we decided to go to the movies first. We saw Paper Planes - and we were the only people in the theatre, which meant that Millie and LiAM could wander around when they had sat for long enough, and could try different seats, and we could chat about what was happening if we wanted to. I enjoyed the movie, although it wasn't as great as I'd thought it might be. I liked the themes of love, family, perseverance, making sacrifices and facing fears to reach a goal that's truly important to you. The kids all loved it.

After the movie we went down to the food court and shared a honey chicken and rice for a late lunch, the headed over to the hospital. We found a parking space fairly close to the hospital - a pleasant change to not have to walk for 10 minutes from our car. The appointment was for 3.15 and we arrived around 3.10. The kids watched Frozen, drew pictures, read books, played on the iPad, played with my Rubiks Cube and were becoming more and more bored by the time we finally went in around 4.25. The appointment was our basic check up, all going well, get a new script, see you in 6 months. Although it can feel like a waste of time sometimes, I am actually grateful that he does have a doctor who knows his history and is regularly checking on his health (and seeming to care about his health) - if things do get worse again I know I will appreciate having that connection, rather than when he was younger and we felt like no one was bothered with helping us help him be healthier.

From the hospital we went to McDonalds for soft serve cones and then on to the library for about 3 hours. I finished my book while I was there - 'Goodbye for Now' by Laurie Frankel, a very thought provoking book about death and love - which was a very pleasing way to spend an evening. After we'd had dinner at home the kids were winding down to go to bed when LiAM said he'd been watching Mineplex Minecraft videos, and Caitlin said she knew how to get to that server, so the 3 of them jumped on the computer and played Mineplex for an hour or so - I was reading in bed when Tony came home from baseball and he stayed up with them for a bit longer and they all went to bed very happy.