I know this is meant to be a sewing and crafting blog, but people have been asking me what happened to Ava. This seems the most effective place to put it. So if you only want to read about sewing, I'd skip over this post.
As Mixie mentioned Ava was very sick a couple of weeks ago. On Friday the 6th June she was having a bad day. She was short of breath and wheezing, but she wasn't actually having an asthma attack. She was still running around the house playing, despite out best efforts to keep her still. I was giving her Ventolin, but it didn't seem to be having any effect, so at midday I took her to the Doctor. He diagnosed her with Bronchitis and said she could have Ventolin hourly to get her breathing under control. I put her to bed at 7pm, but was concerned that she was grunting in her sleep. We decided to take her to the hospital just to make sure she was okay. They took her straight through and put her on oxygen. She seemed to recover really quickly, but they wanted to keep her overnight for observation. We went to the ward to settle in for the night.
Unfortunately Ava's little body wasn't getting better. They kept increasing her oxygen and she kept getting worse. At 2am they transferred her to Intensive care and put her on a BiPac (sp?) machine. At 10am the Doctors arrived from Brisbane, Ava was intubated and we were flown in a helicopter to Royal Children's hospital in Brisbane. She spent another 24 hours in intensive care before she was transferred to the ward. We then spent another 7 days in hospital, because she was slow to come off the oxygen. It was strange because every time they tried to turn the oxygen down, her oxygen saturation levels would drop too low, but her breathing would be fine. It was hard work trying to entertain a 3 year old that felt and looked fine, but wasn't allowed to leave the bed!
Ava on her second day on the ward
We're back home now and it is honestly like nothing happened. She has been fine at all her follow up appointments. Its a little confusing because we are still not quite sure what was wrong with her. The paediatrician that treated when she was sick at the local hospital sent a letter to our GP saying that nothing about her breathing, chest sounds or xray suggested asthma, yet she tested negative for all bacterial infections. They are thinking Asthma combined with a viral chest infection now. She is on an asthma preventor twice a day for now. The important thing is she is better.
After all this I just have to say I am so glad they we live in Australia and that we have the free health system that we do. I can't imagine that helicopter flights and intensive care stays are cheap. I will definitely be making donations to the hospital during their annual appeals.
Back to sewing now...
I was browsing through the junk mail on the weekend when I noticed that Aldi have a steam press that starts selling this Thursday. For $179 (Australian, which is practically the same as American now anyway) this can be mine. But questions remain;
I am annoyed with this pattern. It is an easy pattern, the construction is easy, but the pattern is atrocious. (Harsh words I know, but I'm in a bad mood) I wanted to get this pattern done before Mixie got here, but I have now I have to wait to fit it on her. As you can see in the photo the band of the top is meant to sit snuggly under the arms. But like the last New Look pattern the ease is way too much, so that when I try it on (and I am bigger than her) It gapes under the arm. On top of that, if you follow the guide for where to place the strap you would end up with them falling off your shoulders every two seconds. Basically I am having the same problems as the two people who have reviewed this over at Pattern Review. Once I have finished this, I am done with New Look patterns. No wonder they were on a two-for-one sale at Spotlight!
Ava on her second day on the ward
