Not the promptest of starts given the lateness of everyone’s bedtime yesterday but Scarlett and I went over to the doctors at about 930am. She has had a patch of skin on her lower leg since Christmas which is itchy, scaly and just isn’t healing. It will look almost healed for a while and then erupt into weeping and bleeding again. Swimming at the pool seems to aggravate it but no amount of various creams and potions I’ve tried on it have had any real impact and over the last week or so two other patches have developed on her bum and the base of her spine. The GP took one look at diagnosed impetigo. I have to confess I am not completely convinced of this diagnosis however he has prescribed a 5 days 4 times a day course of oral antibiotics which appear from the instructions to treat all sorts of skin infections so hopefully even if it is a misdiagnosis the Abs will kick it into touch whatever it is. She is delighted with her own bottle of lurid pink medicine that tastes nice and has to be kept in the fridge and has thus far been very diligent at bringing it to me for her regular dosings. She is slightly affronted it means no sips of wine for the next 5 days! 😆 😉
Scarlett got stuck into Zoo vet and although she needs some small level of supervision with it she is loving it so that was a good replacement choice for the evil dolphins :). Davies and Becca did all sorts of dual DSing and pictochatting which was great as Scarlett is still not at that level yet really so it was ace for Davies to have a peer to do that with.
Lucy came over with The Rs for a couple of hours and unfortunately the dynamic of the 5 children didn’t really work so well so after far more intervention than I expect to have to carry out we recommended Davies and Becca go and play DS together quietly and Scarlett, Rebecca and Richard play together elsewhere. Although the younger ones seemed slightly lost without the older ones for a while this eventually seemed to work and harmony was restored. 🙂
As promised to Becca we went to Worthing an hour before swimming lessons so they could have time on the beach altogether, which they spent playing chase the waves before Davies,Scarlett and I walked back across the road to the swimming pool leaving Katy and Becca to carry on playing in the sea and then meet us back at the car with chip shop chips for their tea. Swimming lessons were okay for Scarlett but not amazing or remarkable – I did take her over to the people lane swimming after her lesson and show her how they coordinate their breathing, arms and legs which hopefully went in a bit for her. Davies did really well though and with 3 others swam the 10metres across the pool longways. The instructor said she wants to see them do it a couple more times before signing off their 10m badge but Davies is chuffed to know he can do it now :).
Then followed a slightly manic hour of getting everyone home, the children and Katy eating their chips, me changed for work, Ady home and showered and dinner on for later, my Dad arriving and Ady and I leaving again with Katy shortly afterwards. I was working at and Ady was attending an evening talk about local history through books. It was a really good talk by the Local Studies librarian from Worthing and was quite well attended. I rather enthusiastically poured several glasses of wine in red, white and rose not all of which ended up being drunk. I managed to pour the rose and white back into their bottles but the red had come out of a box so despite already having had 2 glasses of white my boss *insisted* I have one of the glasses of red as Ady was driving home. Ady got to meet Mike and Rose, my favourite couple from Reading Group and he stayed behind to help put the library back together again after everyone had left. He and I were the last out setting the alarm etc which brought back memories of keyholding B&Q stores from many years gone by together.
My parents had been here with Davies and Scarlett so Dad took them off to bed carrying them the same way he’d carried me to bed as a little girl while Mum and I put the finishing touches to a curry for us all.
So another late night for me and the children which we will probably all pay for tomorrow and I should therefore get myself to bed in order to limit damage as much as possible!
It was lovely to see Katy and Becca who were the first other Home Educators we ever met in real life, which we were fondly reminsicing about last night. Becca is excellent company for both Davies and Scarlett and slots in with them really well in ways plenty of others struggle to do so it was just nice, easy company that we all enjoyed being in :).
Erm, someone you do see, occasionally, on a Friday has an impetigo outbreak going on with her two. So maybe diagnosis correct? Email me for further info if you want. I’m sure it’s not a secret (as she’s announced it on an email list) but don’t want to be blabbing her business in a comments thread.
Comment by Allie — 11 June 2008 @ 4:29 pm
When Poppy had impetigo (aged 2 or 3? I remember her kicking up a huge stink because we didn’t see our usual doctor, and the bloke ended up doing the whole appointment in the waiting room!), it was clearly impetigo (the classic round her mouth pattern) and although he started her on ABs straightaway, he also did a swab to check that it was.
Comment by Alison — 11 June 2008 @ 9:17 pm