Annika is Tube Free

Yay!! Annika is tube free.
On Tuesday 27th October Annika's feeding tube was removed. Of course with anything we wonder if we are doing the right thing and hope we haven’t rushed into removing the tube too soon. Annika seems to be doing so well without it but I don’t think our medical people in New Zealand would have agreed with us.
I'll keep writing what happened in between Annika becoming tube free as I know some of you who have tube fed children will won't to know exactly what happened. Forgive me though if I don't get there though, time just gets sucked away in hospitals.

Day 11: Thursday 22nd October 2009 – Annika weighs 10.8kgs
10am: ERGO (occupational therapy) with Bettina – suggestions are to get Annika to lean on both arms, like a push-up. She needs to develop more muscles in her upper arms.
11am: LOGO (speech language therapy) with Elisabeth – talk to Elisabeth about how long it will take before Annika becomes less messy (and spill less) when drinking. And of course as in anything she said this will take time. A doctor from Orange County hospital watched in on the therapy, they also have a tube weaning program run over 3 weeks. They apparently use Chinese herbs to help induce hunger and thereby get children eating.
12noon: spielessen – there are always new faces at the play picnics. Some families come once a week or come to meet Prof. Dunitz-Scheer. Today there is a family from Poland.
The doctors are still very happy with Annika. We have Nitya, Jah’s sister, for the afternoon. It’s great that Bella has someone her own age here. We tram and walk back up the hill to our hotel, with some groceries and Annika’s flecainide. We set up the laptop so that the girls can watch a Barbie movie (all girls seem to love Barbie). Forgot to say that it had rained this whole time and poor Natya and her dad have to walk back to their hotel (Hirschenhof) which is about an 8 minute walk.
Annika is drinking Nutrini in the morning and at night, we have run out of nutrini and borrow a few bottles from the hospital. Feels like we’re cheating somehow by using the special high calorie drink instead of other food. Will have ask the doctors what they think.

Day 12: Friday 23rd October 2009 – Annika weighs 10.82kgs
We were able to fluff around this morning and have a late breakfast.
11am: PT (physiotherapy) with Eva – cancelled as Annika is doing fine
12noon: spielessen – Annika was very confident around food wanting to try different things.
I write some more blog while Gareth takes Annika into town to see if her glasses are ready. Bella and I meet up with him later and see Annika’s new quirky Austrian made glasses. Hopefully they last until we get back to New Zealand at least. We look into hiring a car for the weekend (Euro 175 for 3 days). Monday 26th October is also a holiday in Austria and is their national day. We walk back through the hauptplatz where the emergency and armed services seem to be having a display on. Bella has great look through an army armoured vehicle and an ambulance (Bella seems the only one interested in the ambulance whereas you can’t get into the Polizei (police) display of riot gear … for all the people around). We meet up with Jah, Nitya and family at the jet ski!? I presume the jet ski is for the many lakes around the country but assumed it was a snow mobile until I got closer. All the kids clamber on board to pretend they’re driving.
We go to the Höf backerei and discover a harpist busking on the corner (not something you’d find at home) and it was very atmospheric listening to it among the old buildings. Both girls loved the harp.
We then took the camera to a repair shop as I had dropped it on Sunday and it no longer zooms in for photos. Luckily for us it still focuses as the repair shop said it would take a week to get a part to fix it and that we might as well wait until we are back in New Zealand again. They didn’t even charge us to look at the camera! Printed some instant photos in the shop ourselves (took like 4 mintues to print 10 photos) and then looked in a map shop and trammed back to the hotel for tea very tired.