6th of September

DAY 164

It has been 5 months since Brendan's transplant. Our happy, cheeky little boy's personality has returned.

Brendan has been attending school on a part time basis for the last few weeks. He is at the point where I can leave him without him fretting. He is really enjoying school and will now be staying until lunch time. He really wants a lunch from the school tuck shop. Between medical appointments and school, Brendan's days are becoming busy and fulfilling. The medical appointments are always long and often drawn out. He seems to be coping better with all the waiting again. Thank goodness for hand held games. What did children use to do when they were constantly waiting at medical appointments? His moods are also a lot better. He has gone from several tantrums a day to the occasional one. This morning he had one and when asked why, he said: "I still have problems controlling my emotions".

While we were in Sydney, Tara was an extra on "Home and Away". She will be on TV on Monday 15th and Friday 19th September. If you blink you might miss her. She is an extra in the cafe in both scenes that she appears in.

On Friday, Brendan had his first visit to Australian Hearing. He has been assessed as having a moderate to severe hearing loss. He has had moulds taken of his ears and will have his new multicoloured hearing aides in two weeks. Being at school with Brendan has really shown me that Brendan has quite a bad hearing loss and often misinterprets what has been said to him. He continues to have problems with his sinuses and lungs. We removed his nasogastric tube to help his sinuses. This helped a little but still not enough. He is on a medication regime to try and fix his nose. His chest remains a source of worry. He has an amazing cough and his lungs are full of 'crackles'. We hope that once the sinuses are cleared up that maybe his chest will too. If not then he needs to see another group of doctors for his chest.

Brendan is very excited about his up coming Camp Quality camp. He will be away for the first week of the holidays with his companion Shaun. This time his camp is a local one and only 15 minutes from home. This means if he needs us for any medical reasons we are no too far away. Camp Quality have also helped us by letting us use their local caravan for a week in the summer holidays. The park is on the beach and only 20 minutes from home. As Richard has almost no holidays,we can still have a break and Richard can come home and feed the dog and pick up the mail on his way to work.

Overall Brendan is doing well. He is happy, cheeky, loud and causing his usual chaos with his brother and sister.

Talk to you all again soon.

Love from Anna