Constipation

Laura is still very constipated despite drinking gallons of water every day. Her lips and skin show signs of dehydration too. Both most likely due to Topamax, one of her epilepsy meds. So after having no improvement to Benefiber and Lactulose, we've reduced her Topamax again. Fingers crossed it works, although we do have a further plan, Movicol and Lactulose together.

I think part of her behaviour (screeching) is down to the constipation as today she had a BM (it usually happens once a week on a Saturday morning) and has been much happier since then.

We're having a fight with a local SN out-of-school provision as they've refused to allow Laura to attend their playscheme, Saturday club and after school club due to her medical needs. I'm pretty angry as they sat on her application for almost a year saying they were waiting for a place to become available and now they are using a variety of excuses to exclude her from going. Zoe at the hospice and the deputy head at her school are looking into it for me. Grrrrr.

The house is slowing coming on with most big jobs fnished and mainly niggly things left to sort out. There are still boxes to unpack but that's mainly due to Alex losing his study and there not being room in mine to store all his stuff. He's finished his 2nd year at Uni and is heading off to Milan for a week's holiday in a fortnight. Then he'll be back here for the summer and will be working on some projects at the Kennels. I'll be good to have him around again.

My walled vegetable garden is coming on nicely with sweetcorn, onions, squash, courgettes, runner beans, french beans, fennel, raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb, not to mention, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the greenhouse! Lots of help in the garden from Dad and Helen.

I've just finished putting some pond plants in the newly cleaned pond. Next week I'll get some fish. There are a few frogs and news in there but goldfish would be nice.

We managed to persuade Laura on the front patio last weekend when the Diana nurses were here. She was VERY reluctant and sat in her wheelchair, determined not to move from in front of the Tweenies. But I strapped her in and wheeled her out, much to her disgust!! With bubbles being blown and a bowl of soapy water in front of her, she soon came round and thoroughly enjoyed it. I got some good photos but can't upload them as I'm using Mick's laptop until I get Broadband connection back on my computer.