I thought it was going to be silent when our trusted neighbor left for France with his girlfriends 5 dogs and 2 cats. But I was wrong. Today a large container truck dumped an empty container in front of the empty house. Soon after the break of dawn, the team of workers literatelydemolishing the inside of this small beach house.
Just like a cancer patient sometimes you have to remove or destroy before you can rebuild. Radiation seems like such an inhumane thing to a non cancer patient. But just like this house the rotted part must be dealt with in a timely manner.
My other neighbor, quite small in comparison, a nuthatch is feverishly building a nest in our bird house. This is no ordinary bird house it is an exact replica of a Frisians house. In the epic Beowulf it is spoken of Frisian sustaining fighting power. ie. survivability. This symbol of sustainability give me hope to see this nuthatch every 5 to 10 minutes working hard at his new luxury house. Providing all the comforts to his family, as my fries-husband does for me and my little one.
Sometimes I stop to watch the small but simple chirps between the husband and the wife. One hanging from the small branch on the tree and one on the entrance hole of the house. Just like any project even cancer, you must have communications. Information, whether it is building or destroying a nest, it is important factor to survival.
Parents feel children often more ill after starting nursery
Most parents will agree that nurseries are breeding grounds for coughs, colds, and tummy upsets.When a young child starts at nursery, they seem to suffer an endless cycle of minor ailments, that then seem to infect the whole family.
But the jury is still out about whether this is a bad thing, or whether early exposure to germs plays a key role in the development of a child’s immune system.
Little research has been done in the UK into how many respiratory infections are caught by children attending nursery - and the knock-on efects this can have on the rest of the family.
Risks
Dr Nicol Black, a public health expert in Newcastle, has examined the issue in close detail.
Pre-school children in day-care are three to four times more likely to have a respiratory infection than a child who stays at home
Dr Nicol Black
He has just completed an 18-month study to examine whether there is any truth in the anecdotal belief that nursery attendance is linked to a greater risk of infection - and whether there are good grounds for promoting vaccination against certain illnesses.
Dr Black collated data from around 100 local nurseries and involving 550 episodes of illness.
His findings seem to support his contention that nurseries are a “wonderful melting pot” for infections.
“Pre-school children in day-care are three to four times more likely to have a respiratory infection than a child who stays at home,” said Dr Black.
“And that fits what, anecdotally, parents are well aware of.”
He added that in half the households studied, when a child became sick, others in the house were also ill either just before or just after the child.
About 13% of the adults were quite ill and had to have an average of six days off work.
Further analysis
Dr Black is to analyse the data further to assess further not only the health impact, but the economic impact on families, and the wider population in general.
He will look at issues such as whether illness spreads to other members of the household, and how much time off parents need to care for a sick child.
He will also look at whether prevention measures, such as vaccinations against serious conditions such as pneumococcal infection and flu, are needed.
The completed data from the study, which is expected to be published early next year, will be sent to the Department of Health.
But should we keep our children away from nurseries until they are older, or would that just be delaying the inevitable?
Leukaemia risk
Research from the US has shown that children who attend nursery may be less likely to develop childhood leukaemia and that delaying their exposure to infection may result in them having an underdeveloped immune system, which puts them at a greater risk.
Dr Jackie Bucknall, consultant paediatrician at the Homerton Hospital, in London, believes there is no good health ground for not sending children to nursery.
“If you have a child that is fit and well and has not got any condition that can make them immunosuppressed, such as receiving cancer treatment, then I would recommend all parents to send their children to a place where they have got a good peer group mix.
I would recommend all parents to send their children to a place where they have got a good peer group mix
Dr Jackie Bucknall
“Although it may often seem that they always have a runny nose this is the way they stimulate their immune system.
“There is no problem. Children are going to be exposed to infections at sometime and it is probably better that it happens when they are nursery than when they are older.”
Dr Bucknall stressed that toddlers were no more vulnerable to infection than those at school.
But she said it was important that children going to nursery were vaccinated against the most important childhood illnesses, such as measles, to protect themselves and others.
Exposure
Mother Sam Salter, whose three-year-old Daisy goes to a local nursery agrees, saying she would rather Daisy had early exposure to infection.
“I would rather she had them now than when she went to school. It is easier for them when they are young and it is usually less serious.
“But I have noticed that Sean, my partner, has become more ill. He has had a lot more colds since Daisy started nursery.”
Sam, from Surrey, has not had Daisy vaccinated against any illness, but says she does not worry about her becoming exposed to them.
She was not vaccinated herself as a child and had most of the illnesses including measles, German measles and whooping cough.
“I do not worry about her coming into contact with any of these childhood illnesses.
“But when we lived in London I was concerned about Daisy being exposed to TB and when there was an outbreak I would not go on the bus.”
I always have great plans, and sometime they fall through. But every Mother with cancer and young children have to accept their limitations. At 3 years old “catch me if you can” is great fun, but Mommy just can’t keep up with a darting preschooler. I don’t even try. I disengage immediately asking the help to fetch her or find some other more restful game to play.
The result is that she was whisked away to the shops to buy simple things like garbage bags. Another thing I don’t do often is take my child shopping. I on-line shop even for my groceries and have them delivered up my flight of stairs ( well worth the extra 5 bucks).
But today I am feeling lonely wandering what is taking my help so long to get garbage bags? It is a nice day I look out the window and my child is sleeping quietly in her stroller, and my help is sitting relaxed on a park bench and is staring off into space. They have been to the store alright because I can see the bag from the store hanging from the arm of the stroller.
I want to be that person sitting on the park bench enjoying the sunshine, but I can’t. I can’t sit on hard surfaces for long. I definitely can not afford sun burn or catch something from being out in public. So I watch the world go by from my picture window knowing that my white blood cell count is so low that my doctor personally wrote the emergency number on a memo pad for me. Sometimes you just don’t have a choice.
Mommy do you have physio today? as she wakes from her groggy sleep. I say yes I do. We get into our normal Monday routine of getting new clothes on and discussing what we will have for breakfast bread or cereal. She sighs and says pasta. Pasta? okay. What is the difference it is biological 4 grain pasta and has just as much nutrients as bread or cereal right? Daddy comes out of the shower to see his girls cooking, and having a bit of a chat in the kitchen. He just shakes his head and moves on to get dressed, because he knows that the day is getting away on him and he has already missed probably an important phone call on his cell phone.
The problem with having a routine and chemo is sometimes you get chemo brain and forget to make the physical therapy appointment on the day you always have it and you have made a switch last week. But on chemo you don’t remember and you are often more forgetful. This was the case today. I went for the first time in months by bike to physical therapy, and quite proud of the achievement when I finally sat down in a nice leather chair in the waiting area. Only to find out the my appointment is for Thursday not the longstanding Monday. What a blunder! I tell her no biggie and return to my bike sheepishly. I guess that I should have looked at the calendar when my baby asked do you have physio. I must assume nothing and check everything while chemo brain is in full force.
My lunch date with a parlimentarian’s wife is going to be late. She is “between meetings” at her consultant group. All power to her, I say.
My help is notoriously late and today is no exception. My daughter needs to be picked up at play school. I will wait to get a phone call before I get myself over to the playground. As a cancer patient you have to avoid children and crowds to prevent colds flu and infection. I am not saying live your life in a bubble, but make sure you take active steps to preventive steps to avoidable situations.
I have a scratch on my hand around my knuckle that I could have avoided had I just warn gloves. Gloves, hats scarves, baseball caps, all theses things are a part of a chemo patients every day apparel. I don’t go out with out a hat on my head, gloves on and sunglasses permanently in my jacket pocket.
I saw this artist Nikki perform for a bunch of kids in a studio on Dutch television and thought it was a catchy tune. Now I start this blog with an intro from wordpress which everyone gets, but this time it has much more meaning because hello world use to be a programmers first worlds to a program. Now it is a new blog similar in nature to the program, I have fallen down and just like the lyrics to Nikki , I get back up and keep on trying.
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Pre-school children in day-care are three to four times more likely to have a respiratory infection than a child who stays at home 
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