Visitors from abroad

Yesterday we had the pleasure of hosting the Wright family from LA at our house. Those of you who frequent the OMSFamilies yahoo group would know the Wright family from their long time active membership of the community and the friendly caring advice they have given over the years. Milly, Emma and I picked up Ellie, Jim, Jessie and Katarina from Woloomooloo in the late morning and after a brief stop at the fish markets to stock up on king prawns, we brought them back to our home for a BBQ. We had a rather eclectic mix of food including sausages, a dish of antipasto and a mystery bottle of wine (which turned out to be a very enjoyable sparkling red - thanks Lynette!).

Amelia was a extremely withdrawn at first and quite shy and retiring for most of the visit, but the Wright children managed to draw her out enough so that Kara and I had lots of time to chat with Ellie and Jim. Both Jessie and Katarina were great with our younger two, Jessie was fantastic with Emma and Katarina loved Sophie.

We found a lot to talk about and the adult conversation ranged over various interesting topics, but we always came back to OMS. Katarina has had the condition for many years now, so we had a lot to learn from their experience. As well as confirming many of the things we have been reading about, some of the points to note are:

• Surrounding Amelia with pillows and soft toys might help her sleep by making her more secure when she wakes up (we tried it last night and she did sleep well).


• IVIG has very minimal side effects and we should try it as soon as we can


• Dr Mitchell says that every OMS relapse costs 5 IQ points

After such an enjoyable visit, it was sad to say goodbye to the Wright family knowing we probably won't see them again for a long time. We felt that we could have easily spend more time chatting, but at least we will be connected by the internet.