Last Friday I left work feeling a little tender and generally run down. By the time I got home I felt very ill. I got in and put Lucas to bed. All the time feeling worse and worse. By the time I had finished feeding the animals I was barely able to control my shivering so I put on a think pair of fleecy jogging bottoms, a big fleecy hoody and got into bed where I stayed until Saturday morning.

Saturday morning came and went and I was eventually able to get up remove my thick layers and have a wash. I spent the morning watching Superman – The Movie laid out on the sofa as this always makes me feel better. Then I decided to go and watch the second one up stairs on the laptop. I curled up on the bed and began watching.

Later that afternoon I was getting hot so decided to remove my jogging bottoms and noticed my lower right leg felt very tender so I had a look at it and realised it was a bit red and blotchy. This very quickly changed. Over the period of about an hour it went from pink to red to purple and seemed to be spreading. Now, I don’t usually bother with doctors but this had me worried. My already scared leg was now very purple, very blotchy, very swollen and extremely hot. So, without any prompting I suggested to Kristin that I should go to the local walk-in centre to have it checked out.

Well, one look and the doctor diagnosed Cellulitis. This covered everything from the fever to the rash on my leg. It was assumed the infection got in via a recent ingrowing toenail I’d had removed on the Thursday just gone and was packed off with 500mg flucloxacillin and some 400mg ibuprofen. However, when I returned the following day to have my toe redressed it was discovered that there was no infection and there was no connection between my toe and the rash on my leg. I was advised to allow the antibiotics to continue to do their thing but if I was still worried by the morning then to return and have it checked over again.

Well Monday came round and the pain was increasing so off to the doctor I went again where the doctor clearly showed how bad it was by her reaction. “Oh my god! That looks hideous!” she blurted out. “I’d like to get a second opinion before I decide what to do”. She disappeared out of the room in search of another doctor. They both returned and both looked concerned. “I’d like for you to take a letter and go to A&E. We need them to take some blood test and give you a scan as this is a very bad case of Cellulitis and at the moment we have no cause”. So of to hospital I went.

After a day of waiting around in A&E, going back and forth for various tests and consultations I was told they couldn’t fit me in for a scan and that I would have to come back tomorrow but in the meantime they would give me an injection of Walfarin to thin my blood just incase there is a blood clot in my leg. So on my return trip the next day I finally got the ultrasound scan on my leg. This showed up exactly what it should have done. Large lymph nodes in my groin area, which tied in with the Cellulitis but most important the lower leg showed no signs of blood clots. Unfortunately this meant we were no closer to finding out the cause of this sudden infection and it was ruled that I must have had a bite from and insect that I hadn’t noticed. So home I went to rest and try and reduce the amount of swelling, which had increased considerably from walking around the hospital for 2 days.

The subject of the vet had come up before but hope that he might just get better stopped us making that appointment. We had sat for several evenings discussing the options which invariable led to tears. We knew what needed to be done but neither of us wanted to lose our ‘Potters’.

Kristin phoned and made an appointment on the 4th July but within the hour had phoned back to change it for that evening. The 30th June. Watching Spot trying to stand to walk outside was too much.

We’ve been out and bought a plant and a pot so he can sleep in the garden when he comes home.

Spot was one of the best dogs I’ve ever met and be will be missed immensely.

RIP old friend x

The other thing I wanted to tell you about was the fact that he was able to crawl now but that has been somewhat outshone by the fact he is standing now. Even pulling himself up by himself. He isn’t quite standing on his own yet but the rate he is going it wouldn’t surprise me if it wasn’t long before he was.

I love watching him growing up but it does appear to be happening a little too fast for both mine and Kristin’s liking. If the last nine months are anything to go by he’ll be running around the house and telling me about his day before we have got used to this stage of his development.

Six months old and what better way to celebrate then the appearance of his first tooth. It feels like it’s been coming for months. The white buds appeared around July/August time and we were beginning to wonder if they would ever make an appearance. I say it feels like is been coming for months like we’ve had to go through it ourselves. All we have had to put up with is a very grumpy like boy occasionally with bright red cheeks. Lucas has had to deal with a tooth cutting it’s way through his gum. Poor little bugger.

I do think Lucas may have enjoyed certain elements of the process. I have never seen anyone enjoy teething gel as much as him. He obviously felt that he’d rather suffer than leave the delicious gel on his gums to help soothe them. Then there is the powder. Ashton & Parsons. He loves it! As soon as the box comes out his mouth opens like that of a baby sparrow when it sees it’s mother flying back with a batch of mouthwatering worms.

He is such a character now. He sits around on the floor playing with his toys randomly making noises at them as he starts to get frustrated. Then, as soon as he realises he is being watched he looks up and flashes that gummy grin at you.

I can’t wait to see his gummy grin with an enamel imposter.

I appear to also have lost the use of my calendar. After a quick Google of the problem it doesn’t appear to be jailbreaking related but it is still very frustrating. Oh and to top it off I accidently deleted all my contacts whilst trying to correct the problem. Thank god for back ups!

So, as a result of jailbreaking and adding all the apps and tweaks I mentioned in my previous post I have now deleted the vast majority and reverted back to simply having the ability of adding a wallpaper, multitasking and have five icons in my dock (this is handy).

As for the calendar, I’ll just have to wait until I get home. Fingers crossed!!

I then got the urge to jailbreak again and open up some of the functionality that others had. Multitasking, wallpapers on my homescreen, that sort of thing. Only now I have a whole lot more. By downloading a few tweaks I am now able to have 20+ apps per page. I can have a page of apps that scrolls up and down as well as left and right. I also have 5 icons in my dock as well as in my multitasking pop up window.

One thing that had surprised me a bit is that you hear people saying you will never love anything or anyone as much as your own baby. I thought ok I’ll love him lots, he is my son afterall but wow, these people couldn’t have been more right. It’s a different kind of love. I can’t explain it but I can’t imagine anything he could do to stop me loving him.

It amazes me the effect he has had on us. Bearing in mind he is a one week old baby. All he does is lay there, gurgle, eat, sleep and fill his nappy, but we just can’t stop watching him.

I can’t wait to watch him growing up.

Well… 2 out of 3 ain’t bad