Day 1 post op.

Thanks so much for all your good wishes.

This is the view from my chair. I've just had lunch.

The op went really well. The anaesthetist took my issues with my previous experience on board and the whole thing went really smoothly.

I have been up walking with physio and the frame and, bliss, had a shower. All dignity goes out the window when you're in hospital, doesn't it. My nurses have been wonderful but some of them look as if they should still be in high school!

I am being sensible and asking for meds if I feel the pain increasing but haven't had to much at all.

I did learn that leaning towards the right and bending over to pick up a pencil is NOT a great idea.

Tomorrow I should graduate to crutches and independent mobilisation and home Sunday.

When we left home it was still dark. We drove through some beautiful country with low mist as the sun rose. 

Can't wait to see that countryside again. The Mermaid is driving me home and I told her minimal freeway driving!

Getting weary now so will go and have a nap. 

MIA for a bit longer

Life has become a cross between busy as all get out and boring as a wet week - of which we have had a few.

The house, whilst so close to finishing I can taste it, has ground to a halt as we wait on people to come and fix their stuff ups. I can't begin to tell you how frustrating this is.

Other than that nothing is really happening apart from still loving where we live.

Three and the girls came down a couple of weeks ago over the King's birthday long weekend and it was lovely to see them. Alice is such a chatterbox now.

Tomorrow we head off at sparrow's fart for my 11.00 admission. I have every hope to be back home on Sunday if I can convince the Mermaid that I do NOT need to spend time at her house and she just needs to get me home asap. 

How long before I get back here is unknown but I will be back. I will try and post a quick update from hospital.

Love you all.

Catching up

I have taken a bit of a break from blogland. Indeed, the whole interwebs. 

Anyway, I am now back and should get back to regular commenting soon.

I left home after criminology and craft on Tuesday. I went via Rosedale (about 2 hours from here) as they have a yarn shop that I had to check out. Two balls of stripey sock yarn fell into my hands. I bought a take away coffee and a hedgehog slice as it was getting late and they only had a couple of sandwiches left. The car was pointing away from the highway so I decided to go the pretty way. Along the South Gippsland Highway through Yarram, Foster, Leongatha, and then up through Tooradin the way I usually go. The scenery was spectacular and I had a great drive but it did make a 4 hour drive more like a 6 hour one! Oh well, it was on my bucket list and I won't do it every time.

I saw the eye doc on Wednesday and he lasered both eyes. That was a very strange (and expensive) experience (I ended up about $400 out of pocket) but the difficulty with reading small print is much improved.

I headed home on Thursday. I might have taken another *ahem* short cut (as the crow flies, yes, as the car drives, not so much as it was a dirt road) but then I saw these views and was so happy I did. 

I am always a sucker for mountains and clouds ...

... and trees and paddocks and wide open spaces.

 

I love this photo. The road, the clouds, the smoke from the bushfire and the hill in the background. There were no alerts so I assumed the fire was possibly even a planned burn.

 

 

I got home and was so glad to be here. 

As I said before, I love clouds and Lakes always provides a stunning display ...

 

The house is coming along well. All the flooring is down. The site supervisor thinks we could get handover by the end of the month. How cool would that be?

On Saturday we chose our curtains for the living area. They won't be ready when we move in but we have blinds on all the important windows and with double glazing and good insulation we won't suffer with heat loss. 

Yesterday the weather turned. We have had rain and wind and more rain. I love this weather but think I am in the minority.

I went to history this morning and we had another great chat about lots of things. 

You have seen lots of photos from my balcony and today the surf was amazing even from this distance ... (biggerise the picture to get an idea of the waves and the spray - we are a good 4 or 5 kms from these waves).

On Saturday when we were in Bairnsdale we popped into the local Hyundai dealer and ordered one of these ... 

... it is another Kona but larger than my current one and has more bells and whistles safety features. I love the bright yellow. It is a very safe colour and I will never lose my car in a car park! I was happy with my current car but Himself has been itching for a new vehicle and as his car is the dog mobile it is not practical to replace it so I get a new Kona and he gets to drive it. We picked the sweet spot for trade-in. The change over price is excellent.

It should be here at the end of the month. About the time the house will be finished and I get a new hip! I really hope I get to drive it BEFORE the op or it will be a three week wait - maybe I can ask them to delay delivery.

Regardless, the next few weeks will be very busy with lots of things happening.

A pleasantly full day.

History at U3A. We discussed dentists, how to remove fingers using a hydraulic log splitter, how to get gloves to fit after said removal, selling houses, old pubs, female licencees of said pubs ... and watched the video we were there to watch and discuss! Still covering the beginnings of Islam. Fascinating.

Came home feeling fabulous as I always do after social interactions (well, most of them!). Before class I popped into fave cafe for a take away coffee and had a lovely chat with the owner. We aren't the only fans of their meat pies, apparently. They are getting a really good reputation and I hope she goes from strength to strength. She is such a lovely person, puts so much back into the community and deserves every success.

Once home I packed my bag for my trip to Melbourne. When we first moved into this house the washing dried in no time but now we are heading into winter the south facing backyard and lack of wind makes drying a challenge. You have to grab the sweet spot when the sun is out and the clothes have dried before sun moves and the cool evenings draw in and everything gets damp again.

I finished Himself's jumper that I started a good two years ago. He is wearing it as I write and loves it (at least, he says he does - wise man). It will be a good dog walking jumper if nothing else. I am never knitting with 80% acrylic again. My fingers get too sore.

I got a call from the pre-admission clinic to make an appointment. We have a phone consult two weeks before my op. She did ask if I was going to be in Melbourne in the mean time but other than tomorrow I have no plans. I paid the surgeon's fees today and have the quote for the anaesthetist. All I need to do now is get my bloods and ECG done but they have to wait until the two weeks prior to the surgery (they do a cross match in case I need a transfusion so has to be close to the date). This new hip will cost me well below $5,000 thanks to private health insurance. I could wait and go public but I am not patient and would probably have to wait several years. And if I can afford to go private I am freeing up a public bed. 

I won't be back in blogland til the end of the week.

Speaking of dentists, how is this for a review ....

Late edit ... my hip op is next month. This month is the laser fix on the cataract surgery. Sorry for the confusion. 

A quiet weekend

Yesterday we went to our favourite cafe for brunch. Delicious as always. We bought some fresh out of the oven meat pies to reheat for dinner and a couple of vanilla slices for dessert. Oh my goodness those pies were the best I have had in a very, very long time.

Other than that it has been a stay at home weekend. I have completed another set of diamond dot coasters - this time for Ebs although I am sure she won't use them but I had fun making them.

We have watched two seasons of Orange is the New Black are debating whether to take a break. It's pretty intense to binge the whole series.

Himself has gone to get fish and chips for dinner. I am getting a bit worried about his mental health as he worries about his physical ailments. 

The view from the balcony today. I love the colours in the ocean.

 

Take me home, country roads

I left home at 10 this morning and got home just before 5 this afternoon.

My Android Auto (via google maps) took me through some road works which was most annoying. I chose to use it to avoid roadworks. At least it took me off the main highway before it directed me back on to it and the roadworks and the relief I felt as I started driving through farmland was almost overwhelming. I find the fields full of cows and the rolling hills in the distance so relaxing they always put a smile on my face and I feel my shoulders drop.

I stopped at Maccas for a piccolo flat white and a toastie and was greatly underwhelmed. The coffee was cold and the sandwich undercooked. I will have to rethink my pre plasma snack (the blood bank do offer snacks but ... meh).

I found a car park and toddled in for my donation. I had a lovely nurse who was probably a few years younger than me. She has only been there since Feb and apparently is struggling to get up to speed (literally - they want her to work faster). There was another nurse there who was pulled up by the woman in charge for minor things. I got the feeling that this is not a happy place to work. I wonder if managers realise how much their clients are aware of these vibes. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as just not going back but I would be interested to see if there was a way of quietly letting the powers that be know that they need to do something about morale. Still, at the end of the day, it's not my problem and the staff need to stand up and say something. I won't be back until next year as I have to wait 6 months after the hip.

After the road works on the way in I decided to avoid the main route which I have started taking from Traralgon as it takes me through Rosedale (which has a new yarn shop that I couldn't spot on the way in) and then the back way through Sale avoiding quite a few towns. One day I will post a map so you know where I am talking about.

As soon as I hit the back roads I was back in my happy place. These photos were taken on the drive home (pulled over or stopped in the middle of an empty road in case anyone asks!)

The block that is for sale next to us has been sold. It has been bought by a local and I am hoping that it will be a young family who will build a smallish house (like ours) rather than a two storey Taj Mahal. Time will tell and we can't do anything anyway.

A favourite phrase of my mother's when we were growing up was "If you think ... (you can avoid tidying your room, for example) ... you have another think coming". More and more I hear "you have another thing coming which sets my teeth on edge. It's another British English vs American English. Make up your own mind. 

I'm home. Thank you, country roads!

Hopefully you can get an idea of why I am so thrilled with the way Atilla the tiler has matched up the corners. They are all like this.

Yesterday was coffee group. There were only three of us but we still managed to cover immigration, cataracts, rural health, acoustics, real estate, cars, cakes and the olympics. The cakes were as a result of a couple passing through and stopping for a bite to eat and eyeing off the cake display. We convinced them to call in on their way home to try even more!

I left there feeling very happy and upbeat and we went up to the house where we snuck in through the unlocked back door (hush) and had a quick looky look. 

We then did the usual drive around the estate and I started to text Three about something. As we were driving past Nutcase's house we slowed to look at the retaining wall she has installed using the same sleepers as ours and thus commenting on whether we should have done the same (answer "no" in case you were wondering). Out of the corner of my eye I saw her come out of her house and the next thing she is accusing me of taking photos. I said I was texting my son and we drove off.

I was really upset. Stupidly upset but still upset. I thought she was better but more fool me.

That woman really has way of getting into my head and I realise that I am letting her in my head but it's hard to stop it.

HImself took the dogs for a walk around the estate today and she was outside. He asked her what yesterday was about and long story short she apologised. He told her that I had held hopes of maybe being able to at least have a coffee with her after her change in attitude and she said that would have been nice. Well I certainly won't be making any approach to her now. I will do a lot to keep the peace with other people but she has had too many opportunities. 

I kept asking myself why I was so upset and I think it's because of her lies. I hate being lied to or about. 

Today I did a few loads of washing, washed the WHITE floor tiles downstairs where the dogs have left muddy footprints, finished a set of diamond dot flamingo coasters for Three and started a set of skull coasters for Ebs.  I have a weird family.

Tomorrow I am going into Traralgon to donate plasma. I had emailed the blood bank to make sure they would take it with my hip surgery coming up and the rules have changed so they can. I made sure a note was put on my file to this effect as I am not going to be happy if I drive two hours to be told they won't take it. 

Three had an unexpected day off work today so he took Sally out of school and they had a daddy/daughter day. They went to Chadstone and Sally loved it because "it is so Paris-y"! They went to Tiffany's and she was given a chocolate to commemorate her first visit (and probably her last for a long time!). They pretended they were rich and visited all the upmarket shops and he drove her through Toorak. He remembers me taking them out of school for random days and I am so glad he is doing the same with his kids. This is how memories are made.

Lamb for dinner and a couple of gins. Well I am meant to drink plenty of fluids before my plasma donation! I know, I know .....