T'Be Sure T'Be Sure...

We had another appointment at the Hospital for Herself this morning. It was a very important one. It was basically the pre op consultation for her gall bladder removal. It wasn't with our usual White Rabbit, ooohhh my goodness no.. This was with a very genial little Leprechaun of a chap, complete with Irish accent, yes indeed begorrah & bejabers. We both like him, because he is very understanding & compassionate. He has scheduled Herself in for surgery on the 11th of August, before if he gets any cancellations. We are both very relieved to have an end in sight for this whole nightmare. The only disappointment is that the 11th. is when we have our tickets booked for Cirque du Soleil. Its somewhat of a blow, but we both agree that having Herself relatively pain free is far more important than any other considerations. Anyway, our next door neighbor has said that she will take them, so its not a total loss. Funny, the thought crossed my mind that I was tempting fate a bit when I booked them. To complete our surreal experience, we have an appointment with the White Rabbit the day before Herself is booked for surgery. Frankly, I don't know if I should bring the Lucky Rabbit's foot or crawl round in the swamp that laughingly passes as a back yard at the moment & try to find a 4 leaf clover. Maybe I should just hedge my bets & look for a 4 toed rabbits foot. One can never be too prepared you know.

I won

k for me too if the truth be known$32.00 & a free ticket in next weeks lotto to be exact. Not a lot, but its something I guess. meantime, life goes on much as it has been. Herself is still in a lot of pain, but at least we are getting to see the surgeon on Wednesday for what I hope is a pre op examination. If its not, sparks are going to fly. The gallstones are eroding her quality of life badly. The meds are affecting her appetite as well. She has lost 8 kg since May & can ill afford it.

Hopefully we will have some sort of resolution that excludes the 11th of May, which is when we are supposed to be going to Cirque du Soleil, but knowing our luck at the moment, anything is likely. I haven't posted much lately, because not a lot has been happening. Herself's youngest son came down for the weekend which was nice. I tried to give them as much time on their own as I could. made a nice break for me too if the truth be known.

I got an email from one of my cousins this morning to tell me that one of my other cousins has passed away at age 83. One of those blessed releases really, she had suffered from Alzheimers for years. Its a bit of a family thing on my Mum's side of the family apparently. Dad died of it too, so I guess the outlook is pretty bleak for me as well. I must admit to a certain morbid curiosity as to how much an alzheimers sufferer is actually aware of. Do you reach a certain point & everything just becomes a blank, or is everything locked away in a corrner of your brain while you slowly watch your body degenerate. All in all , I don't really want to find out first hand, but you have to agree the chances are fairly high....

Old friends, book ends

Herself & I went out for tea tonight. We went to the Workingman's Club in town. An old friend of mine, Peter, invited us. Him & his wife are off to Australia for 3 weeks holiday. It was Karaoke night as well. Its not a place that I normally go to, because I used to work there, but we enjoyed ourselves. It was good company with some that I knew & some that I didn't know at the table. What was nice was that a number of people that we have known for years came over to our table to say "Gidday" & pass the time of day.

We had a nice meal as well. Nothing flash, but it was cooked nicely & there was plenty of it & the company was good. It was nice to be able to relax & have a few beers as well. Herself isn't drinking at the moment, because she is on some fairly hefty pain medication that precludes alcohol. Still, she had a nice meal out & contact with some lovely folk that made a point of coming over for a hug from her. She was hurting a lot by the end of the evening though.

I'm not entirely happy about the way things are for her at the moment. Her level of pain control is much higher than I feel that it should be. I think I am going to take her back to the doctors next week. I know that if it gets any worse over the weekend I will have no hesitation in taking her to the hospital. It can be a very lonely place to be when you have the responsibility of someone you love's health in your hands. Some time its really hard to make decisions for someone else, but hey, I guess you do what you have to when you have to.

I will keep you all posted anyway. In the meantime, we had a lovely evening out. Herself is now safe & warm snuggled up in bed with 2 ginger cats as hot water bottles & a silly old dog on self appointed guard duty at her side. Its raining outside, but the fire is going & we are all warm & dry. Life does have its compensations I suppose. If you look for them that is..

We had a good night

Last night we went to the Northern region volunteer dinner for St Johns Ambulance. We had a lovely time. If you recall, Herself was Friend Of The Emergency Department for them for a number of years. And she did it very well to. So much so that when she got ill, they wouldnt let her resign, so we still get invites to all the social functions, which is wonderful. Last night, the regional head of the FED department made a point of coming & getting Herself & introducing her to Lady Blundell, who is the national patroness for St Johns in New Zealand. Not only that, He made a point of getting a photo of the two of them together. That was I think, a very proud moment for Herself. Me ? I got my ass roasted for not calling an ambulance when Herself got ill Saturday . I rather think that if I did, there would have been at least two of them at the gate fighting for the privelege of taking her.

Today I bought an album called Bruce Springsteen Live in Dublin, with the sessions band. It has this track on it. Watch, enjoy & weep unashamedly as Herself & I did....

Weekus Horriblus

So far, its been a right horror. Herself started vomiting about 10.00 pm Saturday night & just didn't let up. Not even when I took her to the emergency department at our local Hospital. At the moment, she is ensconced in Waikato Hospital on a nil per mouth regime. She has pancreatitis. They are of the opinion that one of her gallstones has dropped down. The pancreas & the gallbladder share a common outlet into the intestine & they think that the stone has dropped past the point where the pancreas drains in. It's not fair, its not funny & she is in a hell of a lot of pain. I have come home tonight to do a bit of washing & a few other chores & will be back over there tomorrow. She had an ultrasound scan today so I am hopeful that something constructive will happen tomorrow, but who knows. Anyway, I will keep you posted on developments. I should be back Friday anyway. Catch you all later..

Requiem for a fighter

There isn't really a lot I can add to this email & the attached poem. I received it from a brave lady in Wellington who is fighting Motor Neuron Disease as well. I didn't make it through the poem without a tear in my eye either. Here it is.


Hello friends,
This is Rob Muldoons daughter.
Her book is worth reading.
Merle


Hi All.

Sadly Barbara Died at home 27/04/09 at 8.15am in my arms.
She was working in the morning but suddenly went down hill on Easter Monday Afternoon
and within 4 days she could only move her eyelids. She refused to feed or drink and she
was given Madazalin & Morphine until her death.

Her Book: Losing my voice! Living with Motor Neurone Disease is selling slowly but constantly at 3 per week worldwide.

Barbara was remarkable. She had no voice and PEG fed herself but still, in her Medical Research job
Travelled to all major hospitals in Australia & New Zealand for 18 months.

By having an interface that showed and interactive keyboard on screen she worked as Research Manager
for a Drug Trials Company till 15 Days before she died. She laboriously selected on each letter with a click of her mouse.
Barbara wrote her story as to help others who suffered from MND/ALS and got great satisfaction out of being involved in OZ PALS.

Kind Regards to All
Kevin Williams

This is the poem.

The time of fairy thistledown has come
And I know, And I feel I have mastered the wind
that gently cradles their seed

The urge is so strong....
The fields are silent & green within my mind,
while the spiderweb dew no longer settles in my eye
except with the smell of the sweet manuka flower
I see, when you are holding the earth I was born on.

The time of fairy thistledown has come;
And i know and I feel you have mastered the wind
that will gently cradle your ashes.

The pain is so strong...
The fields are so silent & empty within my mind'
and the spiderweb dew has settled within my eye
as I try to smell the manuka flower again
when I walk the earth you were born on

By Kevin Williams
1st verse written 1971 at Wellington & appeared on our wedding invitation 03 June 1972
2nd verse written 04 May 2009 & read on that day at Babara's funeral

Sooty & Sweep, the Sequel

As the fire still wasn't working as of last night, the nice men from the plumbers came back this afternoon for round 2. Meanwhile , in an effort to resolve the problem, my chimney brush got stuck in the flue yet again. I managed to get it out on my own this time. After a lot of huffing & puffing & other manly pursuits such as the removal of the firebox, we found the problem. The flue & the outlet of the firebox don't line up. They don't do it by about 6 inches or so. This problem was rather cleverly solved by the manufacture of a rectangular stainless steel box with appropriate holes with bits of duct attached at the right places. This had sorta slumped backward , filled with soot & the flue had dropped a bit, all conspiring to reduce the flow of smoke. Anyway, its all fixed now & working again. Herself is happy again because she is warm again. Its a bit cool tonight & the forecast isn't good for the weekend. But we don't mind. Our fire is working again, so its all good.

Smoke gets in your eyes

And it certainly does when it doesn't go up the chimney. Let me explain. We spent a most pleasant overnight stay with my step daughter on Saturday, the occasion being our grandson's 9th birthday. Herself had put her heart & soul into his present. A beautifully executed duvet cover which he absolutely loves. She put his name on it & all. When we got home, we found the cover off our chimney in Herself's garden & the bit of pipe that sticks out the chimney had a decidedly skew wiff & jaunty air to it. Looking at the state of the cover, we decided that it was time for a replacement. While the plumber was up there I asked him what shape the chimney was in & was told not too bad. I told him I had a set of brushes & he volunteered to give it the old brush up. And down. naturally he had to do the down bit first, but you already knew that.

He fitted the new bits & cleared my blocked down pipe as well while he was up there. You wouldnt think that seeds as small as those that come off our Beech tree could clog spouting, but they do. I've still got to get up & clear the rest of the spouting before the rain really starts, but thats not what this is about.

I decided later to light the fire to keep herself warm when she woke up. I think I'm finally coming right energy wise. I no longer really feel the need to have a regular afternoon nap anymore, but thats not what this is about either. When I opened the door on the fireplace to toss a bit more wood in & smoke billowed forth, I sort of got the idea that all was not well in Pyromania. (Thats not a real country, I just made it up in a sad attempt at humour.) In fact there was quite a bit of smoke. Enough shall we say to give me every confidence that should the disastrous happen, we will get plenty of warning about it from the smoke alarms. it really doesnt take a lot to set them off you know. Anyway, I rang the plumber again & was told that the system was probably blocked with soot.

So I dismantled the fire putting the bits in the garden & getting Herself to wet it down carefully with the hose. I meanwhile started inserting various blunt objects up the hole in the firebox where the smoke goes out. It didnt do any good. neither did hitting it with a big hammer. It was then that I had my big brainwave. maybe if I inserted the chimney brush into the chimney again & made vigorous up, down & swirling motions, the blockage might be dislodged. It wasn't. The bloody rods & brush didn't come out either. The system is held together by little spring loaded buttons that very cleverly pop out into holes drilled just for that very purpose. This works fine when hole & button are properly lined up. Sadly, this wasn't the case with one joint. You know the one I mean. Thats right, the one that's tantalisingly 6 inches out of reach of a questing hand thrust as far down the chimney as possible.

I tried carefully putting the other bit of rod down over it. I could get it on, but couldn't get it over the button. I tried using Herself's picky uppy thing that she uses to get stuff off the floor. It didn't work either. We wont mention the bad language. It may have been sufficient to raise the dead, but it certainly didn't budge the chimney brush. It did come out in the end. It involved the use of a torch, a length of wire with a hook in one end & the nice young man thats building his own home on the section next door. It really is lovely to watch. he is doing the work himself, living at present in rented accomodation just up the road. Every time something of importance happens on site, his wife walks down with their little girl in a push chair & they sit in the side door of his van & dream their dreams.

They have got their building permit at last, so its all starting to happen for them. The pilings went in this week. Our properties are on a river flat, so they have to go quite deep. Its a fascinating process to watch. A big digger comes on site, swaps the bucket for a purpose built clamp, picks up these 10" or so in diameter poles about 20 ft long & quite literally pushes them into the ground.

I also finished cleaning the alloy rims on Sherman. That has been a mission. They were painted silver, then lacquered. Even paint stripper wouldn't look at it. A rotary wire brush in the electric drill did the job though.

Next Tuesday I have to take Herself over to Waikato Hospital. She is finally getting her dangly bit of tube replaced with something called a Nikki Button. This will leave her with a more or less flush fitting that looks a lot like the air valve on an old Li Lo inflatable airbed. Notice that I am staying WAY WAY away from any other comparisons. This will make life a lot easier for her as its a lot more discrete.

What else ? Oh yeah ! last night I booked us tickets to go see la Cirque Du Soleil. Herself has wanted to go for some time now & mentioned it when she saw the ad on TV. It's a strange feeling to be able to book for something like that , with the only consideration being what night you can get the seats you want & what night of the week you want to go on. We have seats on a Tuesday night & will be six rows from the front. We are both looking forward to it