It’s lovely to again find ourselves in the company of family. This time on the outskirts of Melbourne, staying with Carol and Sean-Michael (my auntie and cousin). It was a tricky little maneuver getting the van in but Ken does another superb job with Seans guidance and it’s not long before we are settled in and sharing a meal together.
We’ll have about a week here, dependent upon lining up some appointments for Georgia to be sure we are doing all the right things to help her gut heal and ensure we are managing her Coeliac’s well. While she made immediate improvements when we stopped eating gluten, she still has a sore tummy, pain, discomfort, lethargy, nausea and aching joints and bones pretty frequently.
In hindsight this was not the best time to try and peruse appointments with many Dr’s shut down over the Christmas / new year period. However we did manage to get things lined up for either this visit or on our return to Melbourne when we come back to catch the boat to Tassie.
While we waited for these appointments it gave us time to see other family, welcome in the New Year, for Ken the chance to knuckle down and work on the taxes, for the girls to catch up on school work and spend quality time with Carol, Stef, Nick and Sean. Stef and Nick were just newly engaged so it was an exciting time.
The girls were throughly enjoying the comforts of a home on our door step and the interaction with Carol, Sean and Stef. Carol is a teacher and it was wonderful having her help to work through and catch up in some areas of the schooling.
We caught some very hot weather which I guess is expected at this time of year. Despite the heat and being on the tail end of the berry picking season we managed a most delicious haul of strawberries and raspberries. The girls were keen for a visit to the cinema so on a 45 degree day, we choose to shelter in the cool with the new Mary Poppins film.
We also fell foul to the Christmas/new year shut down on a few other outings. Trying to find some great gluten breads and cafes for Georgia. We had been spruiking how good Melbourne was for food and say ‘wait till we get to Melbourne’ only to find everywhere we went was closed. Then in the same outing on the promise and expectation of having her Christmas present of ear piercing fulfilled, that too never came off. With two very sad and disappointed girls, we all returned to the van feeling deflated. Still I suppose well chalk that one up to building resilience.
On our final day we succeeded with the ear piercing and finally found somewhere to eat safely in Melbourne but the appointment with the Gastroenterologist was an epic fail on my part. The second we walked into the waiting room, (full of adults and the elderly), I realized my error. I had been so keen on trying to find a good Gastro guy, well recommended that I total missed then fact he needed to be a Pediatric Gastrointestinal. Doh!!!!! Luckily after our trip to South Australia for the Tour Down Under well be back in Melbourne and have another chance to get it right.
