What a crazy few weeks with more highs and lows than Alton Towers!
We were just plodding along as normal, getting back into the swing of things after Brainwave and planning our next plan of attack on the local council when out of the blue a letter arrived from the housing department. As you know we have been battling with the housing bods trying to get re-housed in more suitable accommodation but they had insisted there was nothing they could do for us as there is such a shortage of council accommodation in our area. Anyway, just as we were about to take further action and start challenging their whole allocations policy they sent us this letter to tell us about a 4 Bedroom Bungalow, newly renovated that is currently available to rent privately in our village. The landlord of this property has just signed a contract with the council that states he must rent it to people currently on the housing register at housing benefit rates for the next 7 years. In return the council gave him a grant to help with the renovations. We didn't really know what to think at first but decided we might as well go and check it out. Turns out to be ideal, newly extended detached with massive rooms, big driveway and loads of options in terms of making adaptions for both Patrick and Martin all of which the landlord is fine with.
We tried to get the ball rolling and accepted the house straight away, we took Patrick's OT round to view it with us and she has agreed that it should work for us and will come and see us a week after we've moved in with some catalogues, we can get a mobile hoist for carrying Patrick through to the bath and a special height adjustable bed with sides (like a hospital bed really) to save me having to bend down to him all the time. As you can imagine we are over the moon that this house has been offered to us, it all seemed very 'too good to be true' for a while. For the first few days it was really frustrating not knowing if it was all going through alright, the woman at the council who deals with all the financial side of things wasn't in so we couldn't get any firm answers and I spent the whole weekend feeling physically sick worrying about it all. Half of me was worried that we wouldn't get it, the other half was thinking that if we did get it then something bad was gonna happen, sounds silly I know but we're just not used to things going our way this easily so I always feel suspicious of good luck. I kept feeling that if everything went right with the house then maybe something would happen to Patrick?
Seems like I was right to be worried as the following week Patrick started to show signs of not being well, he was really agitated and unhappy when he was awake and very sleepy. Although he didn't have a high temperature or anything at this point we all new something was wrong. We took him to the Dr's on the Thursday who diagnosed an ear infection and gave him anti-biotics, he perked up for a couple of days then Sunday night he was up with a fever and sounding 'chesty'. Monday morning his temperature flew up to 42 and he was very febrile, we got straight on the phone to the Dr's and took him in, he had no energy and was very quiet, not like him at all. The Dr stuck him on a Saturation monitor and his Sat's were at 84 which is very low and he needed oxygen. An ambulance was called and he was taken to Poole Hospital. An x-ray showed he had an infection in his right lung so they just gave him different anti-biotics and kept him on oxygen. The following day after his morning nap he woke up with a fever again and had another febrile convulsion, it seemed he had got worse again. Different Anti-biotics were prescribed and on Wednesday we found out he was actually being treated for pneumonia. While he was in there I stayed with him, we had our own room which was good but on Wednesday I came down with some kind of sickness bug (I think it was something I ate) and had to go home, I felt devastated to leave him but managed to draft in the cavalry, Mum, who stayed with him all night for me.
Patrick finally turned a corner on Thursday and started to look and feel a lot better but still needed to be on oxygen while he slept. All the while his Sat's were below 93 they wouldn't let him home, they were at 99-100 all day but dropped to 90 while he slept. By Saturday I managed to persuade the Dr's to let us go home, Patrick sleeps so heavily, especially with all the medication he's on, I doubt his Sat's are ever as high as a 'normal' child. They have never been measured while he's been well so I think if they were waiting for his Sat's to improve we'd have been in there forever!
Anyway, he's home now and apart from normal cold symptoms he's doing fine. They've just given him an inhaler to help with his breathing. While I was in the hospital Martin managed to get the council to start the ball rolling on the Bungalow and as far as we know we're moving in on the 1st November! We still haven't been able to put the notice in with our current landlord but will do that today and as he needs a full months notice the council will pay for any overlap in the rent. It's all a bit manic now though as we have to get packed up and sorted in two weeks, including cleaning this place from top to bottom and stripping it of any sign that our crazy family of 6 with two pets were ever living here (help!). We're at Naomi House this weekend which couldn't come at a better or worse time, then the week after we move in we're on holiday at Centre Parcs, so much to think about and sort out, I don't know how it's all gonna get done and I'm sure the next few weeks are gonna be a blur but at least I can say that we will be in our lovely, spacious, new home for Christmas which I hope will be a quiet one!
