Ingrid has recovered from the lumbar puncture and is feeling well again, but she’s still on antibiotics and her facial nerves are still not working quite properly. From what I understand, it might take a while for all the symptoms to disappear. But they no longer affect our everyday life.

Ingrid shopping for pralines for me.

Today was another girls’ day for Ingrid and me. We took the train to town for some shopping. Ingrid wanted to buy Christmas gifts; I wanted to buy socks. Twilfit was out of plain black socks so we only came home with some Christmas gifts.

Eric and Adrian were away so Ingrid and I had a girls’ day. This included having pizza and going to the movies. Ingrid asked for a coke with her pizza and I obliged her. Then she asked me to help her open it because she didn’t know how. I guess this probably was her first can of coke ever.

On our way home we stopped at a playground. We were the only ones there.

Ingrid having lunch lying down. Pasta, meatballs and ketchup.

She went to school in the morning because she was feeling so well then, and also because she really wanted to be there in her horse mask for children’s literature day. But after less than two hours she couldn’t continue any more and came home.

Then I did some googling and learned that the thing to do when you have a post-lumbar puncture headache is to lie down totally flat. Not just lie down and rest, but get the head level with the rest of the body. (I really wish someone at the hospital had thought of telling us.) So that’s what Ingrid has been doing most of the day today, including at mealtimes. It seems to be working – she has been feeling a lot better.

Caffeine is also supposed to help so Ingrid got Coca-cola with her lunch.

Ingrid is not feeling well at all. Headache and backache and nausea and generally feeling miserable. I’m not sure how much is due to the disease and how much to Sunday’s lumbar puncture – probably a bit of both. She’s feeling so ill that she cannot event watch a movie – any time she tries to do anything, she feels worse.

Here she’s resting in my bed, which is softer than the sofa and is more comfortable for her back.

There will be a “children’s literature day” at school, when the kids come to school dressed as a character from a book. Ingrid first wanted to be Olaf from Frost but I couldn’t think of a way to craft an Olaf costume in time. Then she suggested a cat, but we couldn’t think of any interesting female cat characters. We then settled on Sigge, the white horse in the eponymous series of books. So I am crafting a white horse mask.

We spent the entire day at the children’s emergency department at the Karolinska hospital. It seems that Ingrid has contracted Lyme disease. Currently the main and only symptom is one-sided facial palsy, which is what you can see in the photo. Here she is trying to squeeze both eyes shut, and obviously only one half of her face is obeying her.

If you look carefully at yesterday’s photo you can already see the symptoms beginning to appear – which is why we went to the hospital.

The day consisted of endless hours of waiting; repeated application of anaesthetic cream on various parts of Ingrid; the leaking of that cream from the adhesive plasters it was covered with; repeated ripping off and reapplying of the plasters – and then a lumbar puncture as the grand finale, repeated twice before it succeeded. Ingrid emphatically said this was the worst day in her life.

Ingrid and I took the train to town for some serious shopping. Winter clothes, crafts material, advent calendars, books, etc etc. This is her on the way home.

Ingrid with iPad.

The “turning of the clocks”, the end of summer time, coincided with our trip to Madeira. It feels like the world just went dark when we came back. It’s twilight when I pick up Adrian from preschool and dark by the time we get home.

The lack of daylight complicates this photography project. I really need to figure out some kind new plan, or I will end up with an endless stream of dinner table scenes, kids with iPads, and Ingrid reading.

From one extreme to the other.

First, Pico do Arieiro, Madeira’s 2nd highest peak. The peak was completely enveloped by a cloud, and therefore so were we. Wet, and no view whatsoever. But the drive there and back was beautiful.

Then, Madeira’s only sand beach, with sand imported from Morocco. Swimming, splashing, and sand castles.

Ingrid was disappointed by the lack of waves. The beach (like all the others at Madeira I believe) was enclosed by breakwaters because otherwise the waves would probably be too hazardous, so we could see them out there but almost nothing reached us.