June hasn’t been the easiest of months. It’s been one of those times when things keep going wrong and bad things happening without leaving us time in between to cope and process with everything. Still, I know other people are going through a lot worse, so please don’t think I’m moaning.
In the Woods
We started the month positively and with lots to look forward to. We planned to go to lots of places, take part in school activities and play the last of the season’s football matches (Caitlyn!), have a lovely family Christmas (Junemas!), and work hard (me). I did manage early on during the month to have a nice walk in the woods with the girls.
Losing Sid
At the beginning of June, we experienced the saddest part of the month, we had to say goodbye to our lovely old dog, Sid. We’re finding this so hard to get over, as it’s changed our lives hugely and obviously not for the better. We miss him so much and it’s taking a lot of getting used to not having him here. I feel lost and lonely at home in the day without him. I still keep expecting to see him and miss his cuddles so much. It’s not the same working from home without him. The kids are struggling, smiles are rarer than usual. I know obviously, lots of people have been through this before and know what it’s like. Heartbreaking.
Manor Park
We went to Manor Park for the first time this year, hoping it would cheer the kids up for a few hours. We did have a lovely time here (blog post pending) but it was also tainted with sadness due to the loss of Sid for us and of local legend, Steve the Gibbon for Manor Park. Poor Lisa and Bryn. We’ve been thinking of Anna and everyone at Manor park and send our love.
Cleddau Bridge
We’ve not felt up to long days out or big adventures. Equally, we realise that sometimes we need to get out of the house, especially as being at home makes us sad as there are so many reminders everywhere. Therefore we’ve been popping out to local places with short walks or just a view to enjoy for a while. So we went to Cleddau Bridge North car park where the kids always enjoy a runaround and an explore.
Christmas Day (Junemas)
Then we had a lovely time planned for June, Christmas (or Junemas). Although we did have a lovely Christmas in December, we couldn’t all be together so we had been looking forward to meeting up in June for ages. We did have a special time- thanks so much to Mum for organising so well and working so hard to make sure we all had a lovely time.
Losing My Card
It was very much like a real December Christmas with the mad rush before the big day. On “Junemas Eve” this resulted in me losing my card in Tesco and panicking as it’s very easy to use someone’s card now thanks to the contactless facility. I didn’t want to immediately cancel it in case it had been handed in or I found it and would have been stuck without a card for a few days. So I quickly transferred all my money to my instant savings account leaving my current account empty. As it happened the card was handed in at Customer Services (thank you kind, honest person!), I transferred the money back and all was well.
Dodge, Dave and Meurig Injured
I won’t go into too much detail as it’s not my story to tell but also on “Christmas Eve”, another incident happened to result in poor Dodge the dog being seriously injured and needing emergency treatment at the vets. Dave and Meurig also needed treatment at A&E. Dodge is home from the vets now but still has a long road to recovery ahead of him. Dave and Meurig are healing and on the mend thankfully.
Caitlyn’s Head Injury
We managed to avoid A&E for over a year. Now, this had been broken by Dave needing to attend there (he was the last one in our home to attend there before the Covid outbreak too!). After that weekend, the kids returned to school. On Tuesday Caitlyn had a big smile on her face for the first time in ages. This was wonderful to see as her face has been pale and wrapped up in grief since losing Sid. She was happy as she had PE in the morning, a football tournament in the afternoon, and football training that evening- the perfect day!
Once the kids were dropped off at school I settled down to work. Our wonderful Christmas had left me exhausted on Monday so I really needed to catch up. I had a productive morning. That afternoon the school called. After years of worry with Danny, due to his heart condition and medication (warfarin), my heart still stops when school ring. Still, I hoped they were just ringing because one of the girls had forgotten something or felt a bit poorly and needed to come home.
Significant Head Injury
Instead, the receptionist told me that Caitlyn had suffered a “significant head injury”. I immediately assumed she’d been injured during the (mixed) game of football and I assumed the worst. She apologised for not being able to tell me more over the phone and asked me to get there as soon as I could to take her to A&E. I quickly got ready to collect her, I tried to text Dave to ask him to pick Izzy up for me if I wasn’t back in time. My phone is playing up at the moment and needs replacing so it wouldn’t work to text him. I tried ringing and he didn’t answer so I rang again meaning to leave a message but he answered. He wanted to come to so we both quickly headed to Caitlyn.
It was hard to see the extent of her injuries initially due to her compress and dressing but I knew it looked bad. We found out that it happened during lunch break rather than football. An older boy rushing to dinner accidentally pushed into her and she fell face-first into the pavement. I dropped her and Dave off at A&E, then collected the other kids (in hindsight, I should have asked to collect Rebecca when I took Caitlyn out but it was such a rush) then back up to get her. There were initial concerns that she’d broken her cheek as the swelling was so bad. Thankfully it wasn’t broken but the A&E nurse warned with slightly more impact it would have been. Her eye and cheek were bruised, cut, and swollen. The swelling made her eye close up. Her glasses obviously smashed in the fall and she cut her hand and knee. My eyes welled up seeing my happy girl from the morning now back to feeling sad and in pain and looking terrible (sorry Caitlyn!) bless her. I have photos of the injury every day to hopefully see an improvement. I won’t share them here as it’s not fair on her. We’re now a week on and she hasn’t returned to school. She’s in pain, sleeps a lot to recover, and can’t see well yet (she can open her eye now but her glasses are too painful to put on). I want her to have full sight before her return to school to avoid falling again while she’s still recovering. I assume she’ll have a low attendance letter soon but this is unavoidable through no fault of her own. She’s also had to miss all her last football matches of the season, for her football club and for County. We’ve had to cancel family activities. Worst of all, she’s shook up as the person shouted at her when they knocked her over and she’s sad as didn’t have Sid to cuddle while she recovers. It’s been a sad time.
Rest and Recover
So that was our June. I did say that we needed a positive July. I take that back, we just need a quiet and peaceful July. A chance to rest and recover.
On the plus side, Danny is doing very well. He’s good heart-wise and has been working hard at his summer job- we’re so proud of him.
We know we’re very lucky, we’ve said goodbye to a number of babies and children in our heart community this month. We’re heartbroken for the families and send all our love. I realise our month not going to plan is nothing compared to what those families are going through, bless them.
I hope July is good for everyone- it’s nearly the summer holidays 🙂
