Lawks a lordy…still no flipping pictures of sewing progress, but yesterday I did make it to the sewing loft. My progress is thus:
- Oh Suzanna smock – sewn but awaiting elastic at the neck and sleeves to finish it.
- Lilac jeans – I have the back yoke attached and topstitched. I have the front pockets almost finished.
When you write it down it doesn’t seem like much but I did spend several hours in the sewing loft yesterday. I think it will all come together tomorrow.
Today…well…today was a very different sort of day. I’ll tell you about it but if you’re only here for the sewing do feel free to duck out now and come back tomorrow for a kcwc update.
Between parent/teacher meetings at school and hospital appointments that ran way over time I didn’t make it to the machine today. And we’ve had a bit of news at the hospital that has me feeling faintly exhausted, so tonight I’m not sewing…just a few gentle rows of knitting and a movie.
You may have noticed from pictures of him that The Boy has divergent squints in both eyes. This means that both eyes tend to turn out towards the side of his head.
Another little gem of a sweater Made by Ma!
Edited thanks to Ma to say this is Pattern 2338 from Jolly Beachcomber Knits (a great book), knitted in mystery Aran weight donated by my lovely friend Liz.
As well as this he has little to no binocular vision. So he has very limited 3D perception, which affects things like walking up and down steps, catching a ball, even walking from a carpeted floor to a tiled floor can make him pause whilst he works it out.
He has amazed us with his ability to develop splendid coping strategies… so much so that unless you knew he has a problem, you wouldn’t be able to tell.
So the surgery that we thought was today, but wasn’t, is a small operation to straighten his squints.
Today we met with his surgeon who noticed that he had a bit of an eye infection. This is nothing new. He gets them all the time. Turns out he has a problem with a blocked tear duct.
At this point I threw in a perfectly innocent question about whether this would have any connection to recurring problems he has with runny and blocked noses. Problems that we’ve spent 2 years trying to get someone to take seriously and tell me something other than “he’ll grow out of it”.
Yeah…he might…but in the meantime he’s miserable every time he gets a cold.
The surgeon promptly decided that when she operates to sort out the blocked tear duct, she’ll have an ear, nose and throat surgeon in theatre with her, who will check out that side of things and do any treatment necessary.
It took less than 10 minutes for her to decide this. I cannot tell you how grateful and relieved we are.
So, the upshot is that before Christmas our little man will have a surgery to resolve his issues with his continually sore eye and his problematic, if exceptionally cute, nose.
His squints will then be fixed at a later date.
It means another surgery, which I’m anything but thrilled about.
But I am thrilled that finally someone has listened to us and is prepared to help The Boy.
So I’m drained because a two year struggle to be heard is over…and I’m not sewing…and I’m OK with that.
PS…apologies for crappy iPhone pictures.
Pendle Stitches 
The photos aren’t crappy at all and that’s fantastic news that someone has listened to you, the balls now in motion and those problems are finally going to be resolved. xx
Thank you. I’m so relieved I can’t say.
I’m so happy for you – sometimes it is hard to get a busy doctor to really really help you – and you walk that fine line of appearing to be a concerned mother and an overly-anxious one. Thank goodness you struck gold with this doctor!
I know…the doctors on the NHS are so stretched. I’m just glad we’ve got the result we needed for him. He’s had a rough time, bless him.
Sometimes it’s hard to get heard as a mother, but you got there eventually. It will be such a relief to you all to have these things sorted. Glad you won’t have to wait too long
It is hard to be heard, and we are so glad we have been now. Just to get him through these surgeries and we can relax a bit.
You’ve got the very best result you could have because you persevered and trusted your instincts as a Mum. It’s no wonder you’re feeling drained- relax you’ve earnt it.
I do think that these days mother’s instincts are sometimes disregarded. We are happy, though, that we got there in the end. Thank you.
How wonderful someone finally listened! The little guy is lucky to have such a kind and caring mom. And he’s so cute too!
Thank you. He is cute…and we think that we are the lucky ones having him and his sister!
I’ve been meaning to comment since yesterday but I fell asleep and got side-tracked… Just want to say that I would never have guessed that your son has challenges with 3D perception or any squints. Goes to show that he’s amazing at compensating for this. And I can totally understand how incredibly stressful it must be for you. Knowing your baby needs to have 1 operation, much less 2, is scary! But it seems that you have an excellent medical team looking out for him and he’s obviously very hardy – as well as cheerful and well-dressed in numerous sweaters. Giving you all good vibes so that childhood colds are less miserable for all. xo
Thank you for these lovely thoughts. He’s an astonishing little chap…they both are. They had a really rough start in life but dodged so many bullets that this seems such a small thing in comparison to the “might have beens”. Thankfully, this surgeon is splendid and I’m confident my little man is in good hands. Which is a huge relief that has been palpable in our home this weekend.
So glad you persevered – it will all be sorted but it´s a worrying time. My mum suffered from blocked tear ducts too but once they were sorted, things changed dramatically for her so fingers crossed for the same results for you guys 🙂
That’s so good to hear…I’m hoping it works for him. But at least now we have the opportunity to find out.
Oh wow that’s amazingly good news! There is nothing as frustrating as knowing there is something more to a child’s ailment than being given inane platitudes constantly.
Gorgeous sweater too, of course.
I do feel like the weight of the world has been lifted. And will feel that even more so when the surgeries are over.