Surgery on the knee and a biopsy done!

Apologies to my readers, I have been off the blog for a while. 

Update: I got the suspect mole I spoke about and showed you all on here previously...well it was removed surgically (excised) off my skin - and now I have a small scar above my knee with two layers of stitches - under the wound are dissolvable stitches, and the scar itself had 4 sutures on it which sadly fell off within a week - had to use steri strips to keep it together. So I was told to use Vaseline on the scar every day to keep the scarring to a minimum. I have to wait 8 weeks for the biopsy results now and I am hoping it was just skin deep and that I caught it in time. 

Magnesium Paste for head cysts...my 4 c-sections story

I am going to write this post up as I guess I should have done it a year and a half ago...anyway I hope no other woman has had this side-effect to pregnancy and basically maybe this might clear you up too.

This article might also give immense relief to a woman who may be about to have a 4th c-section and have fear!! I am living proof that a 4th c-section can go OK. I was given a lot of scaremongering before he came into the world and that was because you are told usually in a hospital to stop at 3 c-sections. Given that my first baby died on the first c-section...I really had risked it on my last child and I don't regret it!! He is wonderful and he is doing great now and its just so lovely to have all 3 children...

I feel like a cat with nine lives or something writing this - anyway hopefully it will inspire and helps someone out there. I am all for humanity which some doctors and hospitals, they can sometimes lose sight of this.

When I had my baby 17 months ago, my baby was born prematurely at 35 weeks - I named him David - thankfully he was okay and never needed to be incubated. I have had 4 c-sections and what I learned was you take a bigger risk on the 4th c-section so make sure if you can to get a good consultant. I was a high risk case...I never knew how much I had risked my own life and his until he came out! I didn't know my womb had become paper thin which may have stopped me carrying him safely in the last month so maybe it was a good thing he came in a hurry!..when your womb is paper thin, they tell you to stop having kids...as the risk of uterine rupture can really kill you v quickly within 2-3 minutes I was told. 

Anyway back to his op, I got a doctor called Dr. Wong and all I remember saying to her was Dr. Wong I hope this does not go wrong! She was brilliant. He was born within 6 minutes but it felt like 30! and she said its just like pulling something out of your purse...I could not wait for the pulling to stop...I stupidly asked for a top-up on the local anaesthetic cos I could feel them going in...don't top the anaesthetic up! or if you do don't budge your head like I did.. I developed BAD headaches after the op and in recovery thought they would never go away cos I twisted my head to look at the clock that was perched on the wall! Not a good move lol. But it was to distract myself from what was going on below. Anyway, I sadly got an infection over my c-section scar after the op, but this was mainly because I had been stapled there previously and got re-stapled...to have those staples plucked out of me again on day 5. I love the photocopier in my work so yeah lol that's why I told her to staple me again as I had already gone down the route of the dissolvable paper stitches previously but what I found was the staples healed the skin over the scar quicker...The recovery was slower for me cos of the infection I had there but in the end I somehow got over it by moving around as much as possible after the op once my legs returned. 

Peppermint oil was my best friend right after the op and I started to drink peppermint oil in hot water - totally recommend doing this after a c-section - its got LOTS of healing properties and helped going to the bathroom resume much quicker...without the need of a laxative. Hurrah.

Anyway moving on...3 months after I had him, I developed a small head cyst on the crown of my head! This usually involves surgery to remove the cyst and its reportly common to get these in middle-aged women..OMG I thought, am I really getting prematurely old?  lol... I am only 34. 

I had already overcome cysts on my ovaries with a Cystectomy operation right after the c-section of my second daughter Isabella. Her c-section was required as she was a breech baby and we couldn't turn her.

Looking back, I think I had a developmental error in David's pregnancy which caused me to get a head cyst after he came out of my body. I have a great chemist friend and she told me use some medicated shampoo with magnesium paste in order to avoid surgery - so I did that and the cyst dropped off me naturally in the shower after 2 weeks...no surgery needed in the end...but prior to this I had to do an MRI scan on my brain to make sure I didn't have a tumour...ugh. Thankfully I didn't have anything worrying and it was benign...and I cleared up. But the point I want to make is irrespective of what you go through to get the beautiful child out of your body...and what you may or may not have to deal with after...its so great to have them now!!

Happiness - TED talk - this is brilliant...

I think the below image makes me happy lol :)

Diagnosed with (nonactive) melanoma!

I had just got home from the hospital with my son who was getting over a bad bout of gastroenteritis when suddenly one of the moles on my body started to ooze and bleed - sorry tmi. Anyway I suddenly noticed another mole on my body was twice the size of what it should have been and had two colours - it was a pigmented lesion - originally a mole...it freaked me out enough to get an emergency appointment with the GP. So I rang my GP and I was told we are booked out. I eventually found a nearby GP who was not my normal one who saw me and he said its a melanoma and you need an urgent referral to see a dermatologist.

OK I said so perhaps you can give me a referral letter? No I can't as I am not your normal GP he said...I said but you just told me if you were my patient you would give me an urgent referral letter? so why not just print me the letter and send a message to my normal GP that you gave me a letter for this?? I can't do that he said...so then he let me go from his office and I felt distraught! It was bad enough I was coming to terms with a hospital making a mistake on my son's IV drip...anyway I rang the GP the v next day who told me to come straight in at 3.30 p.m. so I did and finally picked up his message of what he had sent my GP. A locum saw me instead of my normal GP and he was v nice and understanding at least and gave me the letters I needed for the hospitals as they won't let you see a dermatologist without a referral letter. Anyway, I asked him if he could examine me and tell me if it was benign..I don't have a derma-scope here he said (this was a free service). Upset with no real answer I left this time slightly happier with a letter in my hand, rang a private clinic - paid the fee and saw the best senior doctor/consultant there and he had a dermascope in his office. I waited a painful 3 minutes to know what the results were and he said its a non-active melanoma but he believed it was benign YET suspicious.

So I said if its suspicious measuring at 1cm - double the original size of 0.5 cm does that mean I need to have it biopsied and excised? well that is why I am still going to send you to the pigmented lesions clinic in the hospital - they will hopefully do a mapping of my body and then most likely excise it which will leave a little scar and where did this melanoma set up shop? my knee...so I can't even kneel down and pray..but I think my prayers were answered when he said its benign...nevertheless I am still bit antsy cos I know although its inactive now - any of the moles on your body can become active and that is why if you ever see any changes whatsoever on your body in relation to moles you really can't wait on the fence with them...so I think a scar is better than possibly having cancer...let's cut that mole up! its ugliness can be seen to the left here or maybe I might try to possibly shrink it with Frankincense oil - like this one:
https://www.youngliving.com/en_US/products/essential-oils/singles/frankincense-essential-oil
or on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Frankincense-100%25-Therapeutic-Grade-Essential/dp/B00O13KZ70/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437568604&sr=8-1&keywords=frankincense+essential+oil
though I think I will still need to have it excised! I like natural cures...and I guess I will have to keep on drinking turmeric which I think I have already told you readers I am a huge fan of. I asked the private doctor if I could rub eggplant extract on it...in the form of a cream but I hear some stories that this cream is bogus and actually is currently marketed as snake oil. If anyone comes across a genuine eggplant extract cream let me know..

I then said my ugly duckling mole is not turning into a swan!

Infiltrated IV drip! horrible...just horrible.

My son James had a bad gastroenteritis the other day as you possibly saw in my previous rant/entry on this blog...so we went back to the hospital as he had got worse and started throwing up in the Reception area which I was catching with a bowl, then the waiting area, then triage...until they finally gave him an anti-sick injection...then I was faced with 12 episodes of diarrhea - nearly once every hour...told that it can take up to 7 days for him to  be completely rid of the diarrhea and that he is contagious for about 10 days! I was happy he got seen to finally and that they gave him an anti-sick injection which gave him great relief and then they put him on a IV drip to re-hydrate him which is why we came in the first place...except they didn't get the cannula insertion in correctly and instead of his vein getting the IV fluids - his muscle got 4 bags of IV fluids. It was 5.30 a.m. in the morning when I noticed something was wrong! and called out to the nursing staff who tried to tell the plastic surgeon that it infiltrated at 6 am...no it didn't I said..it was 5.30 a.m. as I text his father who was watching our baby at home. Anyway his hand and arm swelled up to his elbow - about 3 times the size of his hand and arm..I was horrified. I called at them and demanded they tell me what was wrong now? they said his IV drip has been infiltrated. The alarm on the IV drip had not gone off but here is the thing, I don't think they were giving us enough nursing attention to begin with and anyway we got shipped off to a private room then near surgery in the hospital and he saw 3 plastic surgeons! and they were checking his pulse every 24 hrs and we had it elevated in a sling just to get the swelling down. I asked the plastic surgeon if he felt this was done in error. He told me the alarm didn't go off - then the machine was set incorrectly I said...furious for my son. He said he didn't want to comment and left pretty promptly.

ANYWAY thankfully my son is home now - the swelling has THANKFULLY resolved but he came pretty close to needing surgery in his arm...and I am furious they let 4 IV bags of fluid go into his hand and arm...in the first place...when all we came in for was a simple re-hydration of the child in order to make him comfortable. So then the same nurse in question who I had originally complained to, she was a senior nurse manager and I couldn't believe she had effectively made this rookie mistake...anyway she said we will have to put another cannula into his other hand to get the fluids back into him. I agreed but said I was concerned they might make another mistake on him again if that happened in the first place. Oh this is v common for this to happen with young children. James is 3 and a half years old. Anyway, she thankfully put the second cannula in okay and he got the fluids he needed. But I had to take a force majeure from my job in order to stay overnight with him in the hospital and pray that he didn't end up with surgery...then to get my health insurer come around the next day that the room we had been effectively whisked away to - its 1000e a night for a private room in a children's hospital which thankfully he is fully covered for as he is under my plan...and just so you know 817e for a semi-private room. But he is okay - a bit out of sorts and I think he is trying to hide the pain he has been in. He got pain relief for the hand and arm. But yeah poor little boy...at least the sickness has stopped today and he is sleeping better..

Waiting for that doctor (who rarely comes to the scene) to simply come in a hospital

Waiting Times - room 101 of rants.

I have a lot of respect for the medical profession etc. but today my patience has thinned enough for me to write a blog entry of complaints that will probably be annoying to read but this was really annoying to happen so here goes.
________________

Is it just me or have the waiting times got progressively worse in the children hospitals lately?? Feel free to comment below if any of this has happened to you. Maybe this is just where I am but I hope its not happening wherever you are.

I have health insurance luckily but still I don't feel it makes much difference from someone who say doesn't have it.

My son recently got a bad case of gastroenteritis and I went into the ER room to make sure he wouldn't dehydrate. He had a projectile vomit and a couple of bad episodes of diarrhea during the day. I think he just picked it up as my other children thankfully (for now!) don't have it and hopefully it will stay that way..bring on the bottle of bleach huh and constant hand washing.

Anyway, I was absolutely appalled at the lack of treatment we got. I must have counted 8 doctors walk past us and blatantly ignore him. I finally cracked after the long old wait (and him getting no treatment whatsoever) and as am nursing a 1.5 year old baby still and simply wanted to go at this point. We were told to take the queue. We did that. The nurse said that there are people like you with these circumstances sitting here too! People like me I said? explain?? I found this kinda patronizing. But for anyone who has small kids and knows how this is - for a 3.5 year old to wait for a doctor to come at 10 p.m. at night when they are more than tired and flopping....I just found it ridiculous and kinda cruel.

I asked for the nurse manager. I said I want to make a formal complaint. My son has been here for AGES and has not been seen whatsoever. He started innocently kissing her arm as I went to say this to her. Cringe. I said shame on you! There he is innocently kissing your arm and you have ignored him like as if he wasn't a human being all this time!!

The nurse didn't even ask us for a stool sample - that was my idea. He had an episode of diarrhea so I scooped a sample up into a container and handed it into the staff to send off to the lab, this was at 8 p.m...you will have to wait one week to get the results back I was told. Okay. But at least I might have more of a clue of what is wrong with him if they take a sample I thought. (Doc agreed later). Roll on 8.30 p.m. - how many kids are in front of us, I painfully asked? ...2 she said..okay...9.30 p.m. - give me 5 mins said the nursing manager - okay... how many kids are in front of us now? 2 she said. You told me that an hour ago!! then at 9.45 p.m she tells there is 1 child ahead of us...and to give her 5 mins... at 10 p.m.  I had had enough and at this point my child was flopping...so we went to leave as I had simply had enough and I said if he gets any sicker I am holding this hospital responsible for NOT doing a thing to help him!!

Junior doc suddenly (finally) calls his name at 10 p.m. when I was fed up enough and about to just go...we quickly glided into the cubicle - she thanked us for the sample and asked us if we had been waiting long? YES too long I said. Disgruntled. Shocked at the lack of communication among staff. So let me just repeat all my complaints about my child to you again for fear this information was not given to you in the first place!! I am sorry if I am sounding rude in this post but goodness me...I had been more than patient enough waiting hrs for him to get seen to just be ignored and sat there.

Where is the humanity these days when you arrive with a sick child into a children's hospital? Isn't it bad enough when your child gets sick suddenly and you are left with no choice but to come in to make sure they get better quicker. 

Shouldn't it be their duty of care to respond better? and EVEN IF they get BUSY and they are BUSY the worst thing about last night was they clearly were not busy at the time we were there!!...so it was more than frustrating...at least if I thought they were doing some real hard work at the time before us I would have been much more understanding and possibly more patient. 

Just to get mum we will get to you in due course. Really? can you give me an approximate time? I didn't get a chance to pump milk out as I didn't know I would be forever waiting!!? Can I have the e-mail address to your boss then? is the pen mightier than the sword?? (I wondered) Why do I have to do this in order for my child to get treated with the dignity and respect they deserve anyway?? I said if nobody sees him soon I am going to lose my mind and check myself into your psychiatric ward!? seriously WTH?!

So are you confirming that you have a shortage of doctors at present? (I asked the nurse this prior to seeing the doctor.) Yes there is. I said well how come I counted 8 doctors walk past idly and they didn't look to be doing much either. She said nothing in response. But here is the thing WHY LIE? why lie to people - isn't it bad enough if you have jerked them around and made them unnecessarily wait hrs on end??...for something that could have been sorted within an hr to begin with and hey if you want to cut your list in half why not deal with simple cases quicker that way you have more time to spend and devote on the trickier cases? AND even if the trickier cases need attention or priority before us, and that's fine and all...don't totally neglect the other cases and ignore the person who has gone to the trouble of coming half way across town to get their child proper treatment. Rant over. 

Thankfully my chemist friend gave me an anti-diarrhea powder to add to a drink and its given him much relief. When I asked the doc in the ER if it was okay to give it to him prior with the bug he had she told me what is it? even though the box said Paediatric powder on the side! Then she said sure its fine to give - thank you to let me know about this over the counter solution. Sure....

The silver lining came when my son turned around in front of them all and said I have the best mummy in the whole wide world - I love you...to which I teared up and said I love you too and you are the best most patient child in the whole wide world...exit hospital. I hate the drama of this though. It shouldn't be this hard to get your child seen to. 

Ironically got treated MUCH better in the adult hospital.

Just to add in I wish they had this robotic bear - all the children's hospitals should get something like this...

Never Wet - this one is for the mom's out there! :)

I just stumbled across this spray you can now get - check it out - looks really cool and well imagine your kids pouring all sorts of stuff over you and it literally bouncing off your clothes hahaha...well I did after watching this...fear no more - we don't have to totally go running for the kettle just yet lol...finally we can put some beer in a box of ice without the ice killing the box....hurrah :) genius I love it...Kudos to the chemist majors out there for developing this item!! :) and so its going on my blog.

How essential oils can reverse cancer - Frankincense Oil

I was reading an article the other day and wanted to add this up onto my blog if I may. Apparently using essential oils can stop cancer in its tracks and reverse it. Feel free to comment below this article if you have had any good experiences to report. Medical research has always been an interest of mine so I am going to quote this source which comes from Healthy Holistic Living.

For the past few months I've been learning about essential oils anyway, and I've only just begun to scratch the surface. There is so much to learn. I only know about frankincense from the story of the magi's gifts of gold, frankincense & myrrh. So I did some research to learn how it is used. 

1. I learned that it has a soothing quality that calms the nervous system. 
2. It is often used with benzoin as an aromatherapy treatment. 
3. The aroma can clear a stuffy head. 
4. It is used as a topical treatment on cysts. 
5. Used in creams, it acts as an astringent tightening the skin & reduces the appearance of fine wrinkles.

The aroma reminds me a little bit of the pine oil cleaner Mom used, but frankincense is not quite as strong & has a couple other scents mixed in which I can't quite place. 

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In the journal of Industrial Crops and Products, they found that chamomile oil harnesses powerful antioxidant properties. The research, evaluated 11 essential oils including lavender, thyme, winter savory, rosemary, sage, peppermint, French tarragon, bitter, and sweet fennel, found Roman chamomile to have the highest antioxidant activity.

Frankincense Oil – A Cancer Killer

“Frankincense separates the ‘brain’ of the cancerous cell – the nucleus – from the ‘body’ – the cytoplasm, and closes down the nucleus to stop it reproducing corrupted DNA codes,” says Suhail.

Frankincense oil is effective because it contains monoterpenes, compounds which have the ability to help eradicate cancerous cells at the onset of their development, as well as their progression stages, making it ideal for those who discover their cancer regardless of when it’s found.

On this link it gives a helpful what to do if you have say lung cancer...if something so simple as putting two drops of oil under your tongue works - its worth a shot! right? I am a big fan of drinking turmeric with hot boiled water. Anyway for anyone who is interested by this I recommend you read this link for the entire article. Thanks Healthy Holistic Living...

- Link worth checking out is here: http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/essential-oils-stop-cancer-in-its-tracks.html

Also Dr. Axe has this interesting picture that is worth checking up so I am putting it up onto my blog on the hopes it will help others too! Click on the below image to enlarge and read it.

Pumpkin T-Shirt has gone up! woot :)

I don't know if you or your friends are anything like mine :) but lately we have been having pumpkin flavored everything and so look no further than this cute little fitted white tee shirt which has just been put up on Teespring and the cool thing is Halloween is not that far away now so if you buy this you can OWN that look and the pumpkin scene lol! kinda nice for the kitchen too! ENJOY and have a nice day. I hope this blog brings smiles to many of you out there. If you want the t-shirt anyway just click on the web-link below the image.  :)

http://teespring.com/pumpkin-today-pie-tomorrow-tee

Bad Eye Infection - what I learned & my story...

For the past week I got horribly sick with a bad case of conjunctivitis. I think I caught it in work so I stayed out sick with it for the past week. I went off to the GP complaining of the pain I had and the itching I was feeling. She gave some prescription eye drops and I thought great this should sort me out. Sadly I developed an allergy to the eye drops that the GP had prescribed to me. Maxitrol just did not agree with me whatsoever and shortly after dosing myself the eye swelled. Anyway here is what I learned from the whole experience.

Conjunctivitis - also known as pink eye, as you know it can be horribly contagious too..thankfully (touch wood), my kids did not get it and I am hoping it stays that way....we use separate towels, bed linen etc. Anyway, it has two stages - starts off as a bacterial infection - which is where my eye was at when I went to the GP initially...and then it can become a viral illness pretty quickly soon after.

I am posting this video up for anyone who has it right now as a way to hopefully help you...I hope my story won't scare anyone...but if I had known about garlic powder being a natural remedy before this hit me hard and virally I would have taken it. Here is the video and I hope it helps you if you are currently down with this nasty thing.

Anyway back to my story...

Sadly in my case, I started to feel v ill v rapidly with headaches and developed some really odd symptoms I never thought I would experience. A fever I had difficulty to shake with Paracetamol, flu-like symptoms - aches in the bottom of my back then, I was all congested in my nose and went to blow my nose...and law and behold, blood clots started coming out of my nose (scary!), I even coughed up blood (I don't smoke or drink) so that really freaked me out. This then spurred me to go straight into the hospital where I was put on a drip with steroids to clear me up. This seemed to work well and I had to cleanse my eye under the shower with hot water every day for relief and well my eye was sticking together with this gritty like stuff (that is when you are v contagious BTW) on waking up in the morning - not fun...so used Brolene ointment to soften it down and make my eyelid better - which had coincidentally become red raw and looked like badly drawn eyeliner...except it wasn't!

I then developed tonsillitis in my throat which they found out through a blood test - so really bad sore throat basically as the conjunctivitis was attacking my body virally. I was put onto Augmentin and they gave me penicillin through a second IV drip. The doctor told me this was a "viral syndrome" and I simply had to ride it out. I was not prepared for the next thing that happened. I was put in a cubicle behind triage in the ER room so was  hearing all the stories coming in...when suddenly my eye bled onto the sheet!...I was like holy God...then the doctor came back and gave me a shot of steroids again which I had a reaction to and burned momentarily..he said not to be alarmed by this..I think this was the eye's way of healing but I was more worried to lose my sight so then I did an eye test and had blurred vision from the grit I could not for the life of me remove from the eyelashes...doctor said this would get better and thankfully it did. I was calling myself a minion to cheer my spirits up and nicknamed myself Scar Face lol...as I felt ugly as hell. I had the drugs don't work song on my phone as a ringtone which got a few laughs in the hospital...but yeah so off home I went and basically had to sleep it off. But I don't think you feel right for at least 2 weeks...its exhausting..and I was told I was simply run down so for anyone battling this right now. I hope you feel better. You will get your eye back - have hope!

Happy Mother's Day....in advance of March 15th!

Made in America with Irish parts

Since St Patrick's Day is coming up this top has been put up for my American friends with kids. You can get this in a kid's t-shirt now and an adult hoodie :)

Happy St Patrick's Day to all my readers in advance. Here is the link and enjoy!

http://bit.ly/1A2iH98

click here: http://bit.ly/1A2iH98

Happy Valentine's Day 2015 in advance....and please remember the following below :)

http://babstees.spreadshirt.com/women-s-organic-t-shirt-A101352113/customize/color/2

If you want to pull off the subtle look this Valentine's Day lol - finally you can get a t-shirt that is a real hoot lol :) there is owlways an organic t-shirt for that :D Okay apart from the cheese factor and the groans I still think it might be a nice look to wear for the day. Warning: I think this design only really works in black! :) Anyway its available here if you want it ladies and gentlemen!! Have a nice day!! :)

Valentine's Day Top :)

http://babstees.spreadshirt.com/i-love-in-math-top-A101062157/customize/color/18/customize/color/18

Given the fact I am Irish it would be wrong to not have a top on Valentine's Day without a claddagh ring type of symbol on it which I give full design credit and commission too its originators. So if you are brave enough to don this shirt in front of your man or other significant other on Valentine's Day you can now purchase it here hurrah.

You could say you pay for the equation lol! ;)

Belated Happy New Year from my blog & making clothes

I know I am a bit late saying this but Happy New Year from my blog. Okay so I am two weeks late saying it but hey I hope it still applies, right? :) you probably have noticed I have gone mad into designing tops lately. I think its just a wonderful outlet to show your creativity. I really don't care if any of my stuff sells or not. I just hope that people will be like yeah I might wear that top haha. The cool thing about making your own tops is you get to control the design and all that. Yeah I am liking that to a tee you might say lol :) So forgive me a little if my blog is starting to turn into an advertisement paradise! So to plug just that little bit more I am now going to post an Irish music band that I like called the Amazing Apples :) have a good day!! time really is flying huh!! Baby David is nearly 1 on 2nd Feb - and I just celebrated my 34th birthday hence being offline.

Je suis Charlie tops - limited edition - ending on Jan 25th!

In solidarity to anyone affected by this. I made different styles too so you can get tank tops in French colors, hoodies and t-shirts. I hope you will all like these different designs. I tried to make the tops as inexpensive as possible so that we could fill our closets more easily in support of this. 

http://teespring.com/jesuischarlietop

Never underestimate the power of an Irish woman top! Ending Jan 14th :)

So first of all, Happy New Year to all my readers on here. I am sorry I have been offline. Anyway, I have just released a t-shirt for St. Patrick's Day. I know its still a bit far away and all but I think its pretty cute :) might don this look on the day who knows. So yeah for anyone who wants to grab this shirt here is the link. Also comes in a hoodie and different styles etc. and its not too expensive hurrah.

Just click here if you are interested or on the image to go to the webpage.

Also up on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/barbarasclothes