Atilla the Hungarian

We went to meet the new Neurological Nurse at Waikato Hospital yesterday. You see, sadly, Pat Simpson has decided that its time for a change & moved to the Stroke Unit. Their major gain, our major loss. So we went to meet her replacement. His name is Atilla Herman, & yes, he is Hungarian. Even more importantly, he has 25 years experience in the field & comes across as being very competent. Certainly, he had a couple of good suggestions that he threw our way, so we counted it a productive afternoon.

I've been feeling incredibly lethargic over the last few days. It has been taking me all my time to get even the very basic things done around the place, let alone get ahead stuff. Its a vicious circle really. The worse it gets the less I feel like doing it & the less I know where to start. I did take Jude for a walk with her friend Dian this morning though. That is always good for the soul. We started at the wharf & walked as far as the supermarket along the coastal walkway that we now have. Its a wonderful asset & very well used. Lots of folk for us to pass the time of day with & a variety of dogs for Whispas to exchange sniffs with. When we got home, I decided to declare today a rest day & opted to curl up & try to snooze for the day.

I say try, because that's about what it amounted to. Every time I tried to get to sleep the phone would ring. Mostly inconsequential stuff but one of the calls was really bad news. Jude's daughter rang to say that one of her friend's husband had some incredibly bad news today. You see, he has been unwell for a number of months now with stomach pain. When we were there on the weekend, she took him to the hospital twice because the pain was that bad. They finally found out what it is & told them today. Not good news. Pancreatic cancer & less than 12 months to live. They are both in their early 40's & have 4 children, down to a 7 year old daughter. Life can be tough sometimes. pancreatic cancer is very painful & , sadly, inoperable. My heart bleeds for them.

It seems as though tragedy is the order of the day at the moment. Certainly, let us feel for the families of the 29 miners that perished at Pike River Mine. Let us also remember that coal mining is a very hazardous occupation, one that is extremely well paid & also that the men were down there because that was what they liked doing. Let us be thankful that their end was in all probability fairly quick & painless. I realise that this doesn't provide any comfort to the grieving families, but it would certainly be a lot more humane way of dying than counting your days down with your body steadily growing more & more weak & painful. Not that I would really care for either way of death.

Jude is going to Patchwork tomorrow. Hopefully, I will replace the starter cord on the line trimmer & attack the weeds along the driveway. Then there are the lawns to do & the gardens to weed, and..... and.... and... and...