Tiff Firth: day tripper

4 years ago Sean had a range of skin allergy tests done at the Pulmonary Clinic at the Women's and Children's Hospital. With his asthma being so severe so young, we needed to know his triggers to help manage the condition. Its taken 4 years since the referral letter to have his next set of allergy tests done for his ongoing management.

So there was no way we were going to be missing this appointment. Sean's had a week of unwellness leading up to this appointment, and thank goodness for his sake, he came good just in time. Poor little bloke has lost weight and looks so thin now. There's not a lot of padding on his frame in the first place so losing a kilo or two really shows.

He and I had to be at the airport by 8.30am to catch our flight across. All I need to check in for luggage was his car seat for travel in a car.

Unknown to him at all, Paige was meeting us at Adelaide Airport to be with us for the day. She offered to drive the 2 hours the night before from where she's living to spend time with us and to help us out as far as transport. All organised very last minute (sorry Paige) so she drove into the night and arrived Adel about 1am. Hence the need for his car seat.

As Sean and I travelled to Lincoln Airport the sky was building up with some awesome looking cloud formations

At the Airport I explained to him that we are going on the plane with the pink nose (Pink Ribbon) and I must have said it like it was his plane. He wanted to keep it and take it home after. I had to laugh and say no, we don't have a shed big enough or gates wide enough for it. He was a bit sad about the idea of giving it back. Funny little fella.

All the way over his face was stuck to the window looking at the 'tiny' little world down there, looking for ships and whales.

Paige met us and surprised Sean no end. Lots and lots of big squeezy hugs all round. As the day was fairly warm and we had 4 hours until Sean's appointment, I ditched the idea of going to Harbour Town. That concrete place is a hell hole when its hot. So we headed to the Museum to enjoy the aircon and educate ourselves a bit. Paige hadn't been since she was little and Sean's was there when he was an itty bitty little babe.

Selfie outside the Museum

'Stepping in' to the Museum

The big Squid freaked Sean out a bit and he refused to have a photo of him with it, so Paige did. We were on the 3rd floor and this Squid runs the height of all three levels. This shot is at the very top of the head looking down all three stories. Paige was lying down on the Perspex floor so I could get this shot at this angle.

Sean had quite a fascination for the dig pit. Its a oversized sand pit with 'bones' buried waiting to be uncovered.

Of course we had to have a photo with the penguins. I didn't cut the head off the penguin in the original shot, but with the Polaroid framing, it clipped it a bit. :(

In the Marine section there is a big display case that has access for kids to go under it and lift their heads up into the perspex bubble to eye ball the Wobbegong

All in all we spent 2.5 hours there. The time did pass fairly quickly and I'm very thankful that Paige was with us as it was much for fun for Sean as well.

After a quick Macca's lunch and picking up a bag of things for Annie from my sister in law, we headed to the WCH.

With 19 skin pricks done and the histamine control prick showing the only reaction, his level of allergy triggers has decreased. Even the only one that showed up last time, Pine Tree Pollen, being negative this time. This has answered our questions of wheat, barely, oats, ryegrass crops that flower in October, but on the other hand, raises more questions of what is it that sets him off during this month.

All in all it shows he is a seasonal asthmatic rather than allergenic asthmatic. So this in itself is great. He was super fantastic whilst all this was being done. Not a flinch or a cry out, during the pricking of the skin. All he wanted to see was the numbers on his back so Paige and I took a couple of shots with our phones to distract him while the pricking was happening.

Paige was really keen to come in and observe the process. Being a Registered Nurse, she wanted to know the process so she could relate to future patients down the track. Of course we were so happy to have her there.

We gave him some time to run around the hospital playground to burn up some energy before heading back to the Airport. By this time the day had changed from filthy hot, to humid and overcast. Storms were looming and it was damp.

Paige left us at the airport so she could get some study time done (she's going for her Mid Wife degree) and Sean and I had two hours at the airport to fill in. The playground in there has moved out into the main walkway of the airport and is so clean and bright. Sean had a ball in there burning up more energy. He did let me take a photo of him waving goodbye for Paige to send to her.

Sean's never had time on the moving walkways before, and as we had plenty of time to play around. He flattened me after taking this shot.

I was nearby with the phone hooked up to a power point to recharge. If the eating places had power points everywhere, you could just imagine the numbers of their customers rising. Nearly everyone has a device that needs charging up at some point, and to sit down with a coffee, or something to eat, while its recharging would pay for the install costs so quickly. As it is now, people are sitting down on the floor near very occasional power point along the wall of the main terminal to recharge their gadgets. This is something I really noticed at most airports I've seen lately. The best solution I've seen so far, is a stand that has four faces to it with power points. (up to you to carry adapters etc) You plug in and hover near it so no one walks off with your gear. Not the best way to get it down with a bit of security I admit, but it does get it done.

The weather closed in and the airport was in shut down as far as flights go, while thunder and lightning raged overhead. Some incoming flights were diverted to Melbourne and all out going were grounded. As our flight was still some time away I didn't worry about it too much, weather conditions change so quickly

We met a local family coming home from their overseas trip so the boys all had a great time together. All good distractions for each other. We boarded our flight on time.

We did end late for our takeoff as our plane waited for a connecting flight that had been diverted during the storm. There were 4 passengers from that flight that should have been on our flight. I didn't really mind. I had no time pressure and Sean looked like he was going to fall asleep shortly anyway, which he did.