No joke, I'm sad to say.  Don't seem to hear many these days.  The Daleks aren't interested in rendering Poser scenes, all they seem to care about is galactic domination.  I have to unplug the speakers because their constant ranting about being the supreme beings and all that malarkey is driving me daft.  I'll have a word with them about paying the forum designers a visit, though.  ;)

In lieu of jokes, here's a thmbnail of what's been going on here since I last put in an appearance.  Not too many laughs, thoughh...

Early this year Claire almost died. Taken to hospital in severe pain, blood tests all came back wrong. Doc says you only get these results when you're dead. Complete loss of liver function, massive infections, immune system rolled over, jaundice and all kinds of secondary complications, just to make it interesting. Cause? Gallstones, even though Claire had her gall bladder removed some years ago.

Stayed in hosp a total of 6 weeks, most of that in Intensive Care. She had a paranoid meltdown, too, and turned into a complete swivel eyed loon. IV Tramadol was to thank for that. Huge surgery, which left a big - really big L Shaped incision, held together by 39 staples. Once home, 3 months to get out of the woods, another 2 months for a complete recovery. One of our friends looked after Ilona while Claire was in hospital, I took care of Sam. They came over every day, so Ilona could still see her daddy and big brother. Visiting Claire was, most of the time, out of the question. Too far away to travel with the nippers, what with having to use public transport. We did get to see her a couple of times, though. Her dad and Auntie and Grandma managed to get to see her, so she wasn't without visitors.

Claire managed to get a weekend at home, during her stay in hosp, but had to return Sunday night, ready for surgery Monday morning. Her dad did all the ferrying about.

There's a whole lot more about that episode but that's enough to give you the idea.

We've been increasingly concerned about Sam, because he doesn't seem to have an "off" switch. At all.Nor does he seem to understand the consequences of his actions. He's a very, very intelligent little lad but some things just don't go in. Anyhow, we got a referral to our local Child Development Centre, which is the number one place for all things to do with Childrens' health, development and so forth. Initial assessment show Sam "most probably" has some form of autism - probably Asperger's, and ADHD. Full diagnosis will take a while but there are very strong indicators.

Summer this year, Sam broke his arm. Has a trampoline, with safety net. Tore a big hole in the net, fell through it, broke arm. Poor little guy. Now fully recovered from that but not actually learned any caution or care from the episode.

Sam is now full time at school and loving it. He's doing really well, and the teachers are full of praise for him. Ilona is part time - mornings only - but she also loves it, and the teachers also think she's a great pupil.

As an aside to that, there are strong signs Ilona may also have some autism spectrum disorder but we've been advised to wait a little longer.

A lot more stuff has happened but I won't bore you with the rest of it.

Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.

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