Blink and a month has gone by...
News #1 - Rowie Progress
9 weeks have flown by. It doesn't seem possible sometimes, but here we are. Last week Rowie started back at work, effectively meaning that life is officially back to "normal". This was a difficult step for her, and I think I understand that the "normality" of it was what was so difficult, that after all the months of waiting, changing dates, the operation and subsequent recovery, it's all over. In a sense there's some grief about the process ending, which on the surface is probably hard to understand; wouldn't you just be thankful that you came out the other end? However I think that months of pumping yourself up for such an event is bound to be hard to transition back down from. Anyway, we're talking it through and this week seemed more settled (so far!).
News #2 - Neil's New Job
I hadn't mentioned on the blog before, but I've been looking for a new job for some time now. After 5 years in Aged Care, I'd gotten to the point where I needed to get out and try something new. In many ways RSL Care has been great for me - it really was a fantastic opportunity to take all those years of technical experience and apply them to a "greenfield" site, and I know that I've succeeded in my goals. I.T. is now embedded into the organisation and I am proud of how I've achieved that. But, like all things, the price paid is high. The politics in the place were entirely negative, and I felt stifled and unable to constantly affect change in the end.
I have been looking for a while, and in fact had done quite well through a couple of interviews; no new job though. In August I applied for a role through an employment agent and got the usual form letter "Thanks but Sorry", but this time I pursued it. Email rejection letters are in many ways more difficult to receive than posted letters... So I pursued the comments, and got into quite a discussion with an employment agent who gave me some good feedback... and the week following called me about a role for a company called RP Data. This company is entirely online and provides real estate data to agents across AUS/NZ. This is interesting in itself - I've wanted some e-commerce experience for some time now - but as I went through the interview process and got to know more and more about the place, the role appealed more and more. They are essentially growing at a rate of knots and tripping over their growth (very similar to RSL Care), and require someone to come into the organisation and build solid processes, policies and procedures to manage both the technology and growth. And that someone is me!
They vetted me through three interviews (final one in Sydney) and I was offered the role...
So I'm currently taking a week between jobs having finished my notice as of last Friday. It was quite emotional in the end - which in itself was a surprise - but in the end I'm glad I've been able to move on. My boss took me out for lunch and then in the afternoon my team organised an afternoon tea, with the usual speeches etc., then I was gone.
I'm starting tomorrow, and I'm beginning to get that nervous feeling... lots of questions running around my brain about the new place, but I'm trying to be calm about it.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Good News Week
“My name is Rowena and it’s been 6 weeks since my last operation.”
Just practicing for when I go to rehab. A lot of you probably thought I should have started rehab a long time ago but this is cardiac rehab. Sounds like fun, no?
Do you like my cow picture? Calf valve, get it? Now if I could just lose some weight I’d be a very happy little heifer. I really haven’t been eating all that much but I just can’t seem to stop grazing all day. Oh a-ha ha ha ha.
So how am I doing? Well, to be perfectly honest I’m actually a bit over it all being about me. So obviously I thought I’d write a blog all about myself. But Neil says that people want to know how I am. That’s very kind of you, thank you. I have a check up tomorrow and hopefully I will be given clearance to drive again (can’t wait) and perhaps start working again (can wait for that) and probably given permission to take these oh so attractive white surgery stockings off (hooray!). My chest seems to be healing up quite nicely. I’m still a bit stiff and sore some days but definitely improving. I’m still pretty unenergetic though and having a nap almost every day. I’m very disappointed in this but a visit recently to the GP (and more blood tests later, cos you know I didn’t get enough of that whacky fun in the hospital) had me diagnosed as being anaemic. Not due to my iron level but my haemoglobin level is still low. You may remember that a day or two after my op I had to be topped up with a couple of pints of blood (mmm, yummy) because my haemoglobin was really low. No blood transfusions this time, just some iron supplements to hopefully encourage my red blood cells to go forth and multiply. Have only been taking the iron tab’s for less than a week and it has only been 6 weeks since my open heart surgery.... so it’s possible that I’m expecting too much too soon (who me, impatient??!!) but I had high hopes that after the surgery I wouldn’t be so horribly fatigued all the time. I mean, that was the whole point of the operation right?! Oh yeah, and to increase my life expectancy past 40 years of age.
So that’s about how I’m doing. Maybe I’ll get Neil to take some photos of my scars to post to gross you all out. Oh and let me just say, I actually had 1300ml of fluid drained from my lung (not the 700ml they estimated in the hospital as per Neil’s earlier blog) and it was reeeally not a fun process. Especially when the tube got a kink in it and I was in excruciating pain for about 24 hours... But apart from that, I must say that I had excellent care. Thank you Prince Charles Hospital staff and Holy Spirit Intensive Care staff. There was one nurse of course (there’s always one). I won’t mention any names but I prefer to refer to her as Nurse-zilla or The Nurse-inator anyway. She, quite frankly, scared the living daylights out of me. But everybody else was just wonderful. Thank you again and thank you to my surgical team headed up by Dr Andrew Clarke. Great bloke. The anaesthetist was an interesting and helpful chap too. Can’t remember his name unfortunately but he quite accurately predicted that after the surgery I would feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. Indeed.
So in the next week or so things should hopefully start to get back into some semblance of a normal routine. Mum, who has put her life on hold to come down and look after me (again, a big thank you owed there) will be able to go home and reclaim her life. I know Dad is missing her and she him. Oscar, who’s behaviour has been fairly erratic the last two months or so, is starting to settle down. I won’t go into it but suffice to say his behaviour and emotions have been on a real rollercoaster, up and down almost minute to minute. However, in his good moments he’s been wonderfully caring towards me, fetching me drinks (with straws to make it easier for me, how cute), helping me out of bed and insisting on carrying things for me. Interestingly, Missy has also been out of sorts but is now starting to settle down. Neil has been magnificent, especially given the amount of stress he’s been under with work as well. He even put a little bell beside the bed for me so that I could ring for him. Awwww.
Friday, October 9, 2009
No news being good news
Thought I'd take a break from blogging for a while, as I probably went over the top during the week of the operation.
Rowie is progressing well, all signs are that she is recovering as expected. Last week she had x-rays and there was some concern about the prescence of both water and air in her lung cavity. The x-ray last week indicated that the problem was dissipating, and this weeks (today's in fact) shows that the trend is continuing.
Rowie's still got heaps of aches and pains, but she's managing her pain very well and is largely using panadol and aspirin for the most part. Amazing really that you would consider these common, purchase-in-supermarket drugs for pain relief, but there you go.
I'm trying to get hold of a scanner this weekend so that I can scan one of the x-rays for the blog. I had imagined that Rowie's new valve would be, you know, stitched onto her heart somehow (hey I'm an IT guy not a doctor!). In fact it appears to be encased in a "crown" of some kind of metal (I assume stainless steel or titanium) which is in turn stitched on. It looks amazing! It really took me by surprise when I first saw it! Rowie too - I think she had concluded the same as I. I will try and get an image for the blog.
Oscar has returned back to school this week after a largely uneventful (for him) two week break. His transition to Narangba Valley school has not been great - I think he's gone from being "Oscar who everyone knows" to "Oscar who?" and it's been quite difficult for him adjusting. However, he's also had a temporary teacher for this past semester as his "real" teacher has been on a sabbatical trip around Australia, and has now returned. What a change! Ms Vela (his temp. teacher) seemed very nice but I guess the nature of temporary teaching is quite difficult - you will by nature not "bond" as much as a permanent teacher would I suppose. This does in fact seem the case, as "Ms Brinkworth" has returned and, in Oscar's words, school is "totally different" - she's putting order back into school life and, for Oscar, that has always been important. So, all is well at school, particularly this week as he's had swimming FOUR days in a row!
I have returned to work this week also, and to be honest it's been a struggle getting back into the day-to-day stuff... No doubt it'll come back to me, but somehow it seems a little trivial in the bigger picture.
Looking forward to the weekend and some downtime.
In the meantime, here's a lovely picture of Oscar pulling a "funny" face!
Rowie is progressing well, all signs are that she is recovering as expected. Last week she had x-rays and there was some concern about the prescence of both water and air in her lung cavity. The x-ray last week indicated that the problem was dissipating, and this weeks (today's in fact) shows that the trend is continuing.
Rowie's still got heaps of aches and pains, but she's managing her pain very well and is largely using panadol and aspirin for the most part. Amazing really that you would consider these common, purchase-in-supermarket drugs for pain relief, but there you go.
I'm trying to get hold of a scanner this weekend so that I can scan one of the x-rays for the blog. I had imagined that Rowie's new valve would be, you know, stitched onto her heart somehow (hey I'm an IT guy not a doctor!). In fact it appears to be encased in a "crown" of some kind of metal (I assume stainless steel or titanium) which is in turn stitched on. It looks amazing! It really took me by surprise when I first saw it! Rowie too - I think she had concluded the same as I. I will try and get an image for the blog.
Oscar has returned back to school this week after a largely uneventful (for him) two week break. His transition to Narangba Valley school has not been great - I think he's gone from being "Oscar who everyone knows" to "Oscar who?" and it's been quite difficult for him adjusting. However, he's also had a temporary teacher for this past semester as his "real" teacher has been on a sabbatical trip around Australia, and has now returned. What a change! Ms Vela (his temp. teacher) seemed very nice but I guess the nature of temporary teaching is quite difficult - you will by nature not "bond" as much as a permanent teacher would I suppose. This does in fact seem the case, as "Ms Brinkworth" has returned and, in Oscar's words, school is "totally different" - she's putting order back into school life and, for Oscar, that has always been important. So, all is well at school, particularly this week as he's had swimming FOUR days in a row!
I have returned to work this week also, and to be honest it's been a struggle getting back into the day-to-day stuff... No doubt it'll come back to me, but somehow it seems a little trivial in the bigger picture.
Looking forward to the weekend and some downtime.
In the meantime, here's a lovely picture of Oscar pulling a "funny" face!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Home and the Road to Recovery
Got a call from Rowie this morning saying that the doctor was ready to let her go home! Quite a surprise - we expected her to be in at least until Wednesday. The drain was removed Monday AM and X-Rays yesterday and this morning confirmed that the fluid was gone and not returning so... no need for further observation.
So, eight days after the operation, Rowie was back at home and tucking into pizza to celebrate not having to have hospital food anymore!
It's quite amazing when you think about it, that eight days ago a new valve was put into her heart, and today Rowies back at home... It doesn't seem long enough somehow, one expects a procedure like this to require some significant time in a hospital to fully recover. It's standard procedure though these days - hospitals being full of germs and of course the cost to operate being a significant factor. But still, it does seem to be astonishing that turnaround is this short.
Now of course the "other" hard work begins, the long road to rehabilitation. We have a booklet on what to expect over the next few weeks and months, the key message of which is DON'T lift anything heavy. The risk that the incision and break in the bone will be compromised is the greatest in the first few weeks, but the booklet indicated that by 8-10 weeks "normal" activities should resume. Poor Rowie won't be able to drive for at least 4 weeks, and then only for short distances. No cleaning either, ironing or washing (doing and hanging) definitely a no-no... She can read a book, watch TV or play cards or do a jigsaw... woo hoo!
Anyway, she's home now and trying hard to get comfortable enough to sleep. She's gotten used to being woken up every two hours for monitoring, so it'll take time for her to adjust back to normality.
So, eight days after the operation, Rowie was back at home and tucking into pizza to celebrate not having to have hospital food anymore!
It's quite amazing when you think about it, that eight days ago a new valve was put into her heart, and today Rowies back at home... It doesn't seem long enough somehow, one expects a procedure like this to require some significant time in a hospital to fully recover. It's standard procedure though these days - hospitals being full of germs and of course the cost to operate being a significant factor. But still, it does seem to be astonishing that turnaround is this short.
Now of course the "other" hard work begins, the long road to rehabilitation. We have a booklet on what to expect over the next few weeks and months, the key message of which is DON'T lift anything heavy. The risk that the incision and break in the bone will be compromised is the greatest in the first few weeks, but the booklet indicated that by 8-10 weeks "normal" activities should resume. Poor Rowie won't be able to drive for at least 4 weeks, and then only for short distances. No cleaning either, ironing or washing (doing and hanging) definitely a no-no... She can read a book, watch TV or play cards or do a jigsaw... woo hoo!
Anyway, she's home now and trying hard to get comfortable enough to sleep. She's gotten used to being woken up every two hours for monitoring, so it'll take time for her to adjust back to normality.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Progress
Here's the first "authorised" piccie of Rowie since her op, by which I mean the only picture Rowie will let me put on the blog without her killing me!
This was taken on Thursday evening, with only a few tubes still connected. Friday morning I did some housekeeping stuff and then took the grandparents and Oscar down to the Powerhouse theatre for a holiday showing of "Tashi", one of Oscars favourite characters. He has all the books and this is probably the last year he'll enjoy the plays (next year Tashi probably won't be cool - he's growing up too fast!). Afterwards we went for an ice-cream at New Farm park, then visited Rowie in the afternoon.
Bearing in mind she's now at four days since the procedure, here was Rowie sitting in her bed with absolutely no connections to any monitoring or draining type things - amazing really. What's more amazing is that, since Thursday, the only pain relief being offered was Panadol or Aspirin... imagine that.
Rowie was in some discomfort but, for the most part, she was battling on and without the kick-ass painkillers was able to remain quite lucid and aware. We went for a short walk - the physio-therapist and doctor recommend a bunch of exercises which will help her recover quicker - managed to get out of the ward and down the lift at which point she felt whoozy and so we put her in a wheelchair and got her back to the ward. Shortly after we left, to allow her to rest.
Friday was quite a big day actually, as Rowie had to endure a bunch of tests including an echo-cardigram (to check her new valve) and some x-rays.
The Good News
The ECG reports that her new valve is doing it's job well - the enlarged chamber is dissipating, blood pressure is good, and overall the surgeon is very pleased with progress.
The Not-So Good News
The X-Rays showed a fair amount of fluid build-up in Rowie's lungs - approx 800ml in one and 700ml in the other. This is bad although not altogether unexpected - 50%+ of all heart surgery patients get this build-up as a consequence of the procedure (apparently they use fluids to essentially "inflate" other organs and get them out of the way, which can add 5kg to the patients overall weight post-op).
Friday evening Rowie called me to say that they "might" drain at least one of her lungs... she was scared, as I would be too. That just sounded bad. I went back to the hospital.
The protocols in place around decisions are many and varied, but we as patients and loved ones only see the outcomes, which are generally lots and lots of time followed by either nothing, or sudden activity. So it was last night. The on-call doc had to make a call and advise his supervisor, who had to discuss with the surgeon, then they all had a look at the X-rays... and have another think... and another look...
Amongst all this, Rowie and I were seeking clarification from the head nurse, a nice guy named Clinton. Clinton seemed to think that they would probably wait til Saturday morning before doing anything, so after some deliberation we decided that it was best if I went home and got Oscar taken care of.
20 minutes later, Rowie SMS'd me saying that they were going to drain one of her lungs after all... so back to the hospital! I missed it, so wasn't there for her, and I felt terrible... it was quite a painful procedure, although via referred pain due to the local anesthetic. Poor Rowie has a drain tube and it looks like they may have to do the other today...
This was taken on Thursday evening, with only a few tubes still connected. Friday morning I did some housekeeping stuff and then took the grandparents and Oscar down to the Powerhouse theatre for a holiday showing of "Tashi", one of Oscars favourite characters. He has all the books and this is probably the last year he'll enjoy the plays (next year Tashi probably won't be cool - he's growing up too fast!). Afterwards we went for an ice-cream at New Farm park, then visited Rowie in the afternoon. Bearing in mind she's now at four days since the procedure, here was Rowie sitting in her bed with absolutely no connections to any monitoring or draining type things - amazing really. What's more amazing is that, since Thursday, the only pain relief being offered was Panadol or Aspirin... imagine that.
Rowie was in some discomfort but, for the most part, she was battling on and without the kick-ass painkillers was able to remain quite lucid and aware. We went for a short walk - the physio-therapist and doctor recommend a bunch of exercises which will help her recover quicker - managed to get out of the ward and down the lift at which point she felt whoozy and so we put her in a wheelchair and got her back to the ward. Shortly after we left, to allow her to rest.
Friday was quite a big day actually, as Rowie had to endure a bunch of tests including an echo-cardigram (to check her new valve) and some x-rays.
The Good News
The ECG reports that her new valve is doing it's job well - the enlarged chamber is dissipating, blood pressure is good, and overall the surgeon is very pleased with progress.
The Not-So Good News
The X-Rays showed a fair amount of fluid build-up in Rowie's lungs - approx 800ml in one and 700ml in the other. This is bad although not altogether unexpected - 50%+ of all heart surgery patients get this build-up as a consequence of the procedure (apparently they use fluids to essentially "inflate" other organs and get them out of the way, which can add 5kg to the patients overall weight post-op).
Friday evening Rowie called me to say that they "might" drain at least one of her lungs... she was scared, as I would be too. That just sounded bad. I went back to the hospital.
The protocols in place around decisions are many and varied, but we as patients and loved ones only see the outcomes, which are generally lots and lots of time followed by either nothing, or sudden activity. So it was last night. The on-call doc had to make a call and advise his supervisor, who had to discuss with the surgeon, then they all had a look at the X-rays... and have another think... and another look...
Amongst all this, Rowie and I were seeking clarification from the head nurse, a nice guy named Clinton. Clinton seemed to think that they would probably wait til Saturday morning before doing anything, so after some deliberation we decided that it was best if I went home and got Oscar taken care of.
20 minutes later, Rowie SMS'd me saying that they were going to drain one of her lungs after all... so back to the hospital! I missed it, so wasn't there for her, and I felt terrible... it was quite a painful procedure, although via referred pain due to the local anesthetic. Poor Rowie has a drain tube and it looks like they may have to do the other today...
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Passing the Time
Rowie's now been moved from ICU and into the Prince Charles Hospital, which is next door. Dr. Clarke is extremely pleased with her progress thus far and is confident that she will recover "as expected". The anesthetist got it exactly right in his description - poor Rowie looks like a truck has hit her! We visited last night and, while she looked completely knackered, she also had a spark back in her eyes and colour in her fingers. For the past year Row's suffered from exhaustion and with her, you always knew because her eyes seemed always to be tired. So to see the sparkle back in her eyes despite (obviously) being very tired was great for me - a good sign that she's on the road to recovery.
Rowie called me this morning (our wedding anniversary!) and asked if we could not come in today - she wants time to recover, sleep and I think, focus. I'm cool with that although I may just pop in this afternoon (have an appointment in the city) just to make sure all is well.
Oscar saw mum for the first time since the op yesterday. We were quite concerned that seeing Row with all the tubes etc she needs at the moment might frighten him, but in his usual way he'd logic'd it out - "Well, she needs them to make sure she's ok so no problem"! He's been quite frustrating over the past couple of days, but I think that's more about us than him - how could he possibly comprehend the enormity of what's happened? So when the doctor had explained to me the situation when Row came out of theatre and I said "Mummy's going well" his reaction seemed almost disconnected and for a while I was a bit shocked, until I looked at it through his eyes... his default expectation was that Rowie would be fine, and she was - what was the big deal?! Fair enough..!
So no visit today and hopefully she'll be feeling better and stronger tomorrow.
Rowie called me this morning (our wedding anniversary!) and asked if we could not come in today - she wants time to recover, sleep and I think, focus. I'm cool with that although I may just pop in this afternoon (have an appointment in the city) just to make sure all is well.
Oscar saw mum for the first time since the op yesterday. We were quite concerned that seeing Row with all the tubes etc she needs at the moment might frighten him, but in his usual way he'd logic'd it out - "Well, she needs them to make sure she's ok so no problem"! He's been quite frustrating over the past couple of days, but I think that's more about us than him - how could he possibly comprehend the enormity of what's happened? So when the doctor had explained to me the situation when Row came out of theatre and I said "Mummy's going well" his reaction seemed almost disconnected and for a while I was a bit shocked, until I looked at it through his eyes... his default expectation was that Rowie would be fine, and she was - what was the big deal?! Fair enough..!
So no visit today and hopefully she'll be feeling better and stronger tomorrow.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Through the Operation
Just a quick update: Rowie's operation was without drama. The surgeon had expected some issues from her previous operation as a baby - scar tissue can be a real problem apparently - however it was dealt with. The surgeon gave me a full run-down of the work that had been done, and reinforced my confidence in the outcome - the valve is in place and functioning well, Rowie remained stable throughout the procedure, and was progressing well.
I've just left the intensive care unit where Rowie is getting all the care and attention she sorely needs right now. She awoke a couple of times and was looking a little dazed and confused (as would be expected!) but seemed pleased to see me waiting for her, so some browny points there! I debated for some time as to whether I would stick around the ICU all night but the decision was made for me when the night-nurse shift change-over came, and the new nurse - a stern but gently lady named Linda - suggested that I was no good to Rowie tired out, and that I should go get some rest. So I've just come home.
I was fine all afternoon right up until we got back to the hospital at 5.15pm, and I went looking for a status update. No-one could tell me anything (not sure whether that's the normal tactic) and I fairly quickly descended into worst case scenarios. Fortunately, around 6.00pm an ICU nurse came out to let us know that the theatre had called ahead to prep the ICU for Rowie's imminent arrival - which we took to be good news obviously! Around 7.00pm I was allowed into the ICU. It was a shock - Row looked pretty much how the anesthetist had described she would feel - and the nurse reacted brilliantly by letting me know that all signs were good.
So, from here on we will be limiting visits to 15 minute pop-ins, as we don't want to wear Rowie out. This next two days will be critical to her ongoing recovery so we don't want to risk anything.
It's been a hell of a day and one I won't ever forget, but now it's done and hopefully by the end of the week Rowie will be out of intensive care and beginning the long journey towards "normal" health.
Thanks again to all who have contacted me and wished us well, your messages have been great...
Looking forward to Friday now.
I've just left the intensive care unit where Rowie is getting all the care and attention she sorely needs right now. She awoke a couple of times and was looking a little dazed and confused (as would be expected!) but seemed pleased to see me waiting for her, so some browny points there! I debated for some time as to whether I would stick around the ICU all night but the decision was made for me when the night-nurse shift change-over came, and the new nurse - a stern but gently lady named Linda - suggested that I was no good to Rowie tired out, and that I should go get some rest. So I've just come home.
I was fine all afternoon right up until we got back to the hospital at 5.15pm, and I went looking for a status update. No-one could tell me anything (not sure whether that's the normal tactic) and I fairly quickly descended into worst case scenarios. Fortunately, around 6.00pm an ICU nurse came out to let us know that the theatre had called ahead to prep the ICU for Rowie's imminent arrival - which we took to be good news obviously! Around 7.00pm I was allowed into the ICU. It was a shock - Row looked pretty much how the anesthetist had described she would feel - and the nurse reacted brilliantly by letting me know that all signs were good.
So, from here on we will be limiting visits to 15 minute pop-ins, as we don't want to wear Rowie out. This next two days will be critical to her ongoing recovery so we don't want to risk anything.
It's been a hell of a day and one I won't ever forget, but now it's done and hopefully by the end of the week Rowie will be out of intensive care and beginning the long journey towards "normal" health.
Thanks again to all who have contacted me and wished us well, your messages have been great...
Looking forward to Friday now.
Sharp Focus
Rowie is currently in surgery. We spent the morning with her, deciding to pop out for some lunch at the local shopping centre only to receive a 'phone call shortly after parking, from Rowie, letting us know that she was heading into the theatre... a hasty drive back to the hospital, parked the car and ran as fast as I could to the ward, but it was too late, she'd gone in... my heart stopped. Luckily, one of the nurses saw me and allowed me into pre-op so Rowie and I spent the ten minutes prior to her going through talking and amazingly, joking. That's whats amazing about Rowie - in the face of this kind of thing she always see's the bright side, and she always put others ahead of herself...
The surgeon came in again this morning just to see how everything was. He seems a good, decent person, although his manner is what some may consider a little too frank, his view being better to completely understand what's going on than be left in the dark - which we prefer anyway. The anesthetist also came in, in many respects his job is far harder than the surgeons, far more risk. He seemed like a good man too, very concerned about the details which is always good. He set Rowies expectations well - "expect to feel a bit like a Mack truck has hit you" was the precise quote! He explained that Rowie will start to feel "normal" again by about 2 months, which we kind of knew but it's good to hear from a professional.
Anyway, we've a long wait, it's 3.00pm now and they're not expected to be out until some time after 5.30pm. Will post up another entry when I know more.
Thanks again to all for your kind thoughts - they are appreciated by us all.
The surgeon came in again this morning just to see how everything was. He seems a good, decent person, although his manner is what some may consider a little too frank, his view being better to completely understand what's going on than be left in the dark - which we prefer anyway. The anesthetist also came in, in many respects his job is far harder than the surgeons, far more risk. He seemed like a good man too, very concerned about the details which is always good. He set Rowies expectations well - "expect to feel a bit like a Mack truck has hit you" was the precise quote! He explained that Rowie will start to feel "normal" again by about 2 months, which we kind of knew but it's good to hear from a professional.
Anyway, we've a long wait, it's 3.00pm now and they're not expected to be out until some time after 5.30pm. Will post up another entry when I know more.
Thanks again to all for your kind thoughts - they are appreciated by us all.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
All go for Monday 21st
Rowie has been admitted into the hospital today, surgery is scheduled for "sometime mid-afternoon" tomorrow.
We were... subdued this afternoon, as you might expect. Once Rowie was checked in and had the hospital procedures explained to her, the surgeon came in and went through the details. At this stage the transplant valve may likely be from a cow - this is because a) a cow's valve works in a very similar way to that of a human heart valve and b) a cows valve lends itself to simpler surgery down the track - apparently when this one starts to deteriorate (and it will - as would any donor valve, even human) there's a possibility that a new valve can be inserted through a simple procedure wherein a second valve is "delivered" via the aortic artery, skipping the need for more invasive surgery.
Rowie is holding up well, all things considered. I think though that the situation becomes stark when the surgeon begins talking about a life-span of "maximum" 10 years if she doesn't have the surgery - that certainly puts things in perspective. Oscar is bearing up well, although his behaviour is up and down - again, very understandable.
Rowie's parents are here now and I can only imagine what's going through their minds, after all they've been through this once before and back then this type of surgery was extremely radical.
Anyway, we'll be off to the hospital tomorrow morning to provide support and... well, whatever we can do. It's the start of a long and painful journey for Rowie I'll do what I can to help her through it.
We were... subdued this afternoon, as you might expect. Once Rowie was checked in and had the hospital procedures explained to her, the surgeon came in and went through the details. At this stage the transplant valve may likely be from a cow - this is because a) a cow's valve works in a very similar way to that of a human heart valve and b) a cows valve lends itself to simpler surgery down the track - apparently when this one starts to deteriorate (and it will - as would any donor valve, even human) there's a possibility that a new valve can be inserted through a simple procedure wherein a second valve is "delivered" via the aortic artery, skipping the need for more invasive surgery.
Rowie is holding up well, all things considered. I think though that the situation becomes stark when the surgeon begins talking about a life-span of "maximum" 10 years if she doesn't have the surgery - that certainly puts things in perspective. Oscar is bearing up well, although his behaviour is up and down - again, very understandable.
Rowie's parents are here now and I can only imagine what's going through their minds, after all they've been through this once before and back then this type of surgery was extremely radical.
Anyway, we'll be off to the hospital tomorrow morning to provide support and... well, whatever we can do. It's the start of a long and painful journey for Rowie I'll do what I can to help her through it.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Shuffles and Re-Schedules
Blimey.
Well, we were as good as packed. Time off work booked, Oscars school notified, ready to go. One day out Rowie gets a call from the hospital advising that she's been re-scheduled due to a higher priority coming through.
Talk about last minute.
I can only imagine the psyching up that Rowie is going through, because as much as I try and empathise with her situation, I will never truly know whats going on in her mind. I would imagine though that it's pretty tough getting ready for whats going to happen. To have a re-schedule literally at the last minute is not good, to put in mildly.
Rowie was rightly ballistic, and headed down to the hospital to - I think - express her anger at this FOURTH delay. In the end though, she asked for some tests as she's been feeling a little tight across the chest and had assumed that the operation would "fix" it, so of course re-scheduling the surgery meant that she was now more concerned.
Surgeon Intervenes
After her trip to the hospital, Rowie received a 'phone call from the surgeon who will (eventually) perform the procedure. We think he was as frustrated as Rowie, because he's now re-organised the schedule so that Rowie will book into another hospital (adjacent to Prince Charles), "Holy Spirit" on SUNDAY NIGHT (20/09/09). The actual procedure is at this stage scheduled for the following Monday (21/09/09) @ midday - it's a 6-8 hour operation.
So, annoying but the schedule is only slightly changed, plus it looks like this one will hold - the surgeon intervening suggests that a) he's tired of the mucking around and b) he deems Rowies surgery as suitably important enough that it should be done sooner rather than later.
The rough schedule is now:
Sunday 20/09/09 - Rowie admitted into Holy Spirit (Private hospital)
Monday 21/09/09 - Surgery commences @ midday, then is placed in ICU for 24 hours
Wednesday 23/09/09 - Assuming all is well, Rowie will be transferred to Prince Charles for monitoring
About 6-10 days later - Rowie discharged from hospital and the really hard work begins...
Will keep you updated as/when anything changes.
Thanks to all for well wishes over the past few days, I know Rowie appreciates them.
Well, we were as good as packed. Time off work booked, Oscars school notified, ready to go. One day out Rowie gets a call from the hospital advising that she's been re-scheduled due to a higher priority coming through.
Talk about last minute.
I can only imagine the psyching up that Rowie is going through, because as much as I try and empathise with her situation, I will never truly know whats going on in her mind. I would imagine though that it's pretty tough getting ready for whats going to happen. To have a re-schedule literally at the last minute is not good, to put in mildly.
Rowie was rightly ballistic, and headed down to the hospital to - I think - express her anger at this FOURTH delay. In the end though, she asked for some tests as she's been feeling a little tight across the chest and had assumed that the operation would "fix" it, so of course re-scheduling the surgery meant that she was now more concerned.
Surgeon Intervenes
After her trip to the hospital, Rowie received a 'phone call from the surgeon who will (eventually) perform the procedure. We think he was as frustrated as Rowie, because he's now re-organised the schedule so that Rowie will book into another hospital (adjacent to Prince Charles), "Holy Spirit" on SUNDAY NIGHT (20/09/09). The actual procedure is at this stage scheduled for the following Monday (21/09/09) @ midday - it's a 6-8 hour operation.
So, annoying but the schedule is only slightly changed, plus it looks like this one will hold - the surgeon intervening suggests that a) he's tired of the mucking around and b) he deems Rowies surgery as suitably important enough that it should be done sooner rather than later.
The rough schedule is now:
Sunday 20/09/09 - Rowie admitted into Holy Spirit (Private hospital)
Monday 21/09/09 - Surgery commences @ midday, then is placed in ICU for 24 hours
Wednesday 23/09/09 - Assuming all is well, Rowie will be transferred to Prince Charles for monitoring
About 6-10 days later - Rowie discharged from hospital and the really hard work begins...
Will keep you updated as/when anything changes.
Thanks to all for well wishes over the past few days, I know Rowie appreciates them.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
All Doom & Gloom?
Lately most of the posts we've made have been pretty sober, I guess because the subject matter is fairly serious.
The upside of the bad news is that Rowie has finally found a reason behind the fatigue she's been suffering from. I have to admit that on occasion I've questioned whether there was actually a problem (before we found out what was going on) - sometimes it's "easier" to assume the simplest answer, particularly when the various doctors Rowie has seen are confirming that, from their point of view, all is well.
It's not all bad.
Sure, this operation isn't going to be easy... Just getting through the description of it was a pretty harrowing experience from where I was sitting (Rowie of course took it in her stride and asked all the right questions). But once it's done, it's done for at least 20 years, and by all accounts, Rowie's life will resume after the two months of recovery. Personally I think it will take at least six months, but then Rowie is a fighter - she has a goal in mind and wants to get there.
The oddest thing is how life goes on... but then I guess it isn't that odd really.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed the full moon and thought it'd be a good opportunity to spend a couple of hours doing one of my favourite things - night photography. I think it's the fact that you have to apply a bit of thought to actually getting a half decent photo that I like. This image to the right is of a building called "Customs House" which is one of Brisbanes older buildings.
In contrast, the photo to the left is of a group of buildings that have been built around "Kangaroo Point" which used to be a bit of an after-thought in Brisbane. Now it's a yuppy haven and prices have hit the stratosphere - even in the current G.F.C.
Lastly this one was taken from Kangaroo Point facing into the city. Story Bridge suffers a little from not being the Harbour Bridge and not being in Sydney - personally I think it has a certain character that will develop as Brisbane "grows up".
So, some stuff that's not bad news...
The upside of the bad news is that Rowie has finally found a reason behind the fatigue she's been suffering from. I have to admit that on occasion I've questioned whether there was actually a problem (before we found out what was going on) - sometimes it's "easier" to assume the simplest answer, particularly when the various doctors Rowie has seen are confirming that, from their point of view, all is well.
It's not all bad.
Sure, this operation isn't going to be easy... Just getting through the description of it was a pretty harrowing experience from where I was sitting (Rowie of course took it in her stride and asked all the right questions). But once it's done, it's done for at least 20 years, and by all accounts, Rowie's life will resume after the two months of recovery. Personally I think it will take at least six months, but then Rowie is a fighter - she has a goal in mind and wants to get there.
The oddest thing is how life goes on... but then I guess it isn't that odd really.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed the full moon and thought it'd be a good opportunity to spend a couple of hours doing one of my favourite things - night photography. I think it's the fact that you have to apply a bit of thought to actually getting a half decent photo that I like. This image to the right is of a building called "Customs House" which is one of Brisbanes older buildings. 
In contrast, the photo to the left is of a group of buildings that have been built around "Kangaroo Point" which used to be a bit of an after-thought in Brisbane. Now it's a yuppy haven and prices have hit the stratosphere - even in the current G.F.C. Lastly this one was taken from Kangaroo Point facing into the city. Story Bridge suffers a little from not being the Harbour Bridge and not being in Sydney - personally I think it has a certain character that will develop as Brisbane "grows up".
So, some stuff that's not bad news...
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Set-backs and Ironies
I may have mentioned in previous posts that Rowies original op date of 7th August was withdrawn as a consequence of the Swine Flu epidemic that was at the time (June/July) sweeping the country and the World. Essentially, the delay was caused by the requirement to have heart/lung machines available and on stand-by for the severest cases.
Last post I said that Rowie's op date was now tentatively set at 3rd September - unfortunately a couple of things have occurred which have set that date back to a now pencilled-in 17/09/09.
Thing 1: Neil Got the Pig Flu...
In typical style, I waited until it was commonplace before contracting it. Couldn't have come at a worse time, and just my having it would be enough to cause a delay. I've had a cold for a couple of weeks, and went back to the Doctor last Monday for a re-check. Doctors seem unwilling to prescribe a suitable amount of time off these days I find (also aware of how old that statement makes me sound) - my doctor prescribed me with a couple of days off and no medicine as it was "probably swine flu". It wasn't, but developed into it this past week and is now fully blown (I'm on the Tami-Flu and everything). If she'd have given me the Tami-Flu last week when I first presented, I'd probably be back at work - but hey, doc's are the experts right??! So, I've imposed a quarantine on myself and have been studiously avoiding everyone...
Thing 2: Rowie has a "Cold"...
...at this stage anyway. Again, this alone is enough to delay the surgery (although Rowie told me today that a cut she got on her finger yesterday was also enough - evidently any type of issue which may cause infection is an instance no-no operation-wise). It's not the pig flu, at least all signs indicate that it's not at this stage. All we can do is avoid one another for the next few days and hope that it doesn't develop into it like mine did.
Rowie is, obviously, extremely annoyed at this new delay. She is being incredibly pragmatic about the whole thing and has today attended the pre-adminision "Stuff you should know" interview at the Prince Charles so as to gain further information.
So - thanks for all the messages of support and make a note, new date is:
17th September 2009.
Last post I said that Rowie's op date was now tentatively set at 3rd September - unfortunately a couple of things have occurred which have set that date back to a now pencilled-in 17/09/09.
Thing 1: Neil Got the Pig Flu...
In typical style, I waited until it was commonplace before contracting it. Couldn't have come at a worse time, and just my having it would be enough to cause a delay. I've had a cold for a couple of weeks, and went back to the Doctor last Monday for a re-check. Doctors seem unwilling to prescribe a suitable amount of time off these days I find (also aware of how old that statement makes me sound) - my doctor prescribed me with a couple of days off and no medicine as it was "probably swine flu". It wasn't, but developed into it this past week and is now fully blown (I'm on the Tami-Flu and everything). If she'd have given me the Tami-Flu last week when I first presented, I'd probably be back at work - but hey, doc's are the experts right??! So, I've imposed a quarantine on myself and have been studiously avoiding everyone...
Thing 2: Rowie has a "Cold"...
...at this stage anyway. Again, this alone is enough to delay the surgery (although Rowie told me today that a cut she got on her finger yesterday was also enough - evidently any type of issue which may cause infection is an instance no-no operation-wise). It's not the pig flu, at least all signs indicate that it's not at this stage. All we can do is avoid one another for the next few days and hope that it doesn't develop into it like mine did.
Rowie is, obviously, extremely annoyed at this new delay. She is being incredibly pragmatic about the whole thing and has today attended the pre-adminision "Stuff you should know" interview at the Prince Charles so as to gain further information.
So - thanks for all the messages of support and make a note, new date is:
17th September 2009.
Monday, August 24, 2009
We have a Date
Rowie got a call last Friday from the Prince Charles hospital but unfortunately we were out and so only got a message.
She called today and it looks like we have a tentative surgery date of 3rd September 2009.
It's tentative, because we have to wait for absolute confirmation that it will go ahead; however, Rowie is pleased to have a date in mind now.
I will keep all up-to-date as and when we know more.
She called today and it looks like we have a tentative surgery date of 3rd September 2009.
It's tentative, because we have to wait for absolute confirmation that it will go ahead; however, Rowie is pleased to have a date in mind now.
I will keep all up-to-date as and when we know more.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Perspective II: Rowie's Turn
*Blogged by Rowie*
My first active participation in the webpage (beyond viewing it). How exciting! Of course, I’ll just be typing this up and asking Neil to actually load it for me.
I read Neil’s previous blog and had to add a bit more to it. Namely an overview of his gallant undertaking of 90% of the move logistics and labour. Also thought I’d expand a bit on that, “...it was a typical nightmare move...” sentence.
The “typical nightmare move” began with the water leak as Neil told you about. The drama of which was greatly eased by our good friends’ Christopher & Caroline’s generosity in letting us bunk with them for a few days. Please note that the irony didn’t in any way escape us of being in a situation of owning two houses neither of which we could live in. At this point, Neil had packed roughly 50 boxes whilst I had packed about 5. So while I went off to work as usual on the Monday after we sprung a leak, Neil went about packing more boxes, organising plumbers to show up sometime before 2010 and giving Mouse Control strict instructions to annihilate anything that moved in our ceiling. Anything that wasn’t a plumber that is. Mostly. He also hired a trailer to haul our beds up to the new house, loaded said beds and then engaged in ferocious telephone arguments with the solicitors who were stalling on the new house settlement. He was ably assisted in all this by Christopher who I think is the only reason Neil doesn’t have stubs left for teeth from grinding them together in frustration. After all that we arrived at the new house only to find it wasn’t fit to sleep in. Not if we didn’t want to de-louse ourselves the next day. Slight exaggeration there, but suffice to say we didn’t really want to sleep on mattresses on the floor until the floor had been cleaned. Unfortunately, I had been given the sanitised version of what had happened during the day (wasn’t even told about the solicitors at that point) as no one wanted to stress out the chick with the dicky ticker. (I won’t mention here about a certain someone scaring the bejesus out of me pretending they’d electrocuted themselves trying to fix the water leak.) Therefore I was, ashamedly, a little less than positive in my reaction to the state of the new house. Poor Neil was desperately trying to look on the bright side while I was staunchly refusing to budge from my negative viewpoint. If only he’d told me he actually agreed with me (which he told me later he secretly did) instead of trying to be Mr It’s Alright Lets Make The Best Of It & Be Happy, then maybe I wouldn’t have been Ms It’s Not Even Close To Alright And I’m Going To Keep Insisting So Until You’re All As Unhappy As Me. Ah the benefit of hindsight.
But Neil was my hero and had the cleaners in bright and early the next morning. Luckily for us they were quite switched on (well one of them was) and discovered that our oven was missing the inner glass on the oven door. Which means, best case scenario the oven won’t work efficiently or at the correct temperature. Worst case scenario, the glass will explode and blow my legs off while I stand there stirring something on the cooktop or kill Oscar/Missy as they happen to be walking past. Needless to say we haven’t tested the oven door limits and are STILL awaiting a replacement part which we keep being assured is “on the way”.
Hmmm, gee, what else? Oh yeah, there was the box of our belongings flying off the trailer at 100km/hr on the highway. There was the trailer that was lent to us by one of Neil’s work colleagues that got broken. There was Missy injuring her paw by almost ripping one of her claws out somehow and bleeding ALL over the new patio (giving my heart another shock it didn’t really need. Did I mention that someone pretended to electrocute themselves in front of me?). There was the high speed internet connection we were assured would be available at our new address and wasn’t which Neil then spent over a week getting hooked up (having more ferocious telephone arguments). There was my reaction to being told my surgery had been postponed. Being emotionally retarded I spent the next 24hrs behaving like a complete beast to everyone within slaying distance and then realised why I was acting the way I was acting and spent the next 24 apologising to anyone who’d come within my target range. There was the joy of basically camping in our new house for a week with beds, a bar fridge and toiletries. There was the dickering with the insurance folk about who was going to pay for the repairs (and how much thereof) to the old house, including the Oscar-size hole bashed in one of the walls by the plumbers during their “exploratory” work. Neil once again handled this, along with the real estate agent and the stress of getting tenants in to start helping us pay the mortgage! There were plenty of other fun things too but I won’t itemise the whole lot. Suffice to say Neil summed it up with “it was an exercise in whatever could go wrong did go wrong”. BUT, nobody got hurt (although somebody did pretend to electrocute themselves – did I mention that?) so it really could have been worse and we should be grateful it wasn’t.
So basically whilst Neil was handling pretty much all of the details and hard labour, I focused primarily on getting Oscar settled into his new school and new before-school-care and trying to maintain some sort of status quo ante with usual rules and routines. Not an easy task as our sensitive, slow-to-adjust, I’m-7/8yrs-old-it’s-all-about-me boy had a few melt-downs expressing some interesting behaviours and languages. This has improved somewhat but Oscy is still struggling to find his niche at his new school as, having been to his class a couple of times now I can attest, there are some “big personalities” for him to contend with. Fortunately he has begun to make friends and there are some children in the street he has made friends with too (not without dramas of course) and because they can all ride bikes suddenly Oscar can too!
So don’t get me wrong... it’s not all bad news. I just felt the need to expound on Neil’s previous blog and talk a little about that “typical nightmare move” sentence. I don’t see toooo much that’s typical about it but I must acquiesce that most moves are nightmarish in their own way. I also wanted to try and get across to what great lengths Neil went to, to protect me from the huge majority of the stress of the move which he really didn’t mention at all in his page.
Am worried now that I’ve rambled on a bit and my first blog is getting too long so will do another one another time with all the good news highlights and I promise – no whinge-fest!
xo
My first active participation in the webpage (beyond viewing it). How exciting! Of course, I’ll just be typing this up and asking Neil to actually load it for me.
I read Neil’s previous blog and had to add a bit more to it. Namely an overview of his gallant undertaking of 90% of the move logistics and labour. Also thought I’d expand a bit on that, “...it was a typical nightmare move...” sentence.
The “typical nightmare move” began with the water leak as Neil told you about. The drama of which was greatly eased by our good friends’ Christopher & Caroline’s generosity in letting us bunk with them for a few days. Please note that the irony didn’t in any way escape us of being in a situation of owning two houses neither of which we could live in. At this point, Neil had packed roughly 50 boxes whilst I had packed about 5. So while I went off to work as usual on the Monday after we sprung a leak, Neil went about packing more boxes, organising plumbers to show up sometime before 2010 and giving Mouse Control strict instructions to annihilate anything that moved in our ceiling. Anything that wasn’t a plumber that is. Mostly. He also hired a trailer to haul our beds up to the new house, loaded said beds and then engaged in ferocious telephone arguments with the solicitors who were stalling on the new house settlement. He was ably assisted in all this by Christopher who I think is the only reason Neil doesn’t have stubs left for teeth from grinding them together in frustration. After all that we arrived at the new house only to find it wasn’t fit to sleep in. Not if we didn’t want to de-louse ourselves the next day. Slight exaggeration there, but suffice to say we didn’t really want to sleep on mattresses on the floor until the floor had been cleaned. Unfortunately, I had been given the sanitised version of what had happened during the day (wasn’t even told about the solicitors at that point) as no one wanted to stress out the chick with the dicky ticker. (I won’t mention here about a certain someone scaring the bejesus out of me pretending they’d electrocuted themselves trying to fix the water leak.) Therefore I was, ashamedly, a little less than positive in my reaction to the state of the new house. Poor Neil was desperately trying to look on the bright side while I was staunchly refusing to budge from my negative viewpoint. If only he’d told me he actually agreed with me (which he told me later he secretly did) instead of trying to be Mr It’s Alright Lets Make The Best Of It & Be Happy, then maybe I wouldn’t have been Ms It’s Not Even Close To Alright And I’m Going To Keep Insisting So Until You’re All As Unhappy As Me. Ah the benefit of hindsight.
But Neil was my hero and had the cleaners in bright and early the next morning. Luckily for us they were quite switched on (well one of them was) and discovered that our oven was missing the inner glass on the oven door. Which means, best case scenario the oven won’t work efficiently or at the correct temperature. Worst case scenario, the glass will explode and blow my legs off while I stand there stirring something on the cooktop or kill Oscar/Missy as they happen to be walking past. Needless to say we haven’t tested the oven door limits and are STILL awaiting a replacement part which we keep being assured is “on the way”.
Hmmm, gee, what else? Oh yeah, there was the box of our belongings flying off the trailer at 100km/hr on the highway. There was the trailer that was lent to us by one of Neil’s work colleagues that got broken. There was Missy injuring her paw by almost ripping one of her claws out somehow and bleeding ALL over the new patio (giving my heart another shock it didn’t really need. Did I mention that someone pretended to electrocute themselves in front of me?). There was the high speed internet connection we were assured would be available at our new address and wasn’t which Neil then spent over a week getting hooked up (having more ferocious telephone arguments). There was my reaction to being told my surgery had been postponed. Being emotionally retarded I spent the next 24hrs behaving like a complete beast to everyone within slaying distance and then realised why I was acting the way I was acting and spent the next 24 apologising to anyone who’d come within my target range. There was the joy of basically camping in our new house for a week with beds, a bar fridge and toiletries. There was the dickering with the insurance folk about who was going to pay for the repairs (and how much thereof) to the old house, including the Oscar-size hole bashed in one of the walls by the plumbers during their “exploratory” work. Neil once again handled this, along with the real estate agent and the stress of getting tenants in to start helping us pay the mortgage! There were plenty of other fun things too but I won’t itemise the whole lot. Suffice to say Neil summed it up with “it was an exercise in whatever could go wrong did go wrong”. BUT, nobody got hurt (although somebody did pretend to electrocute themselves – did I mention that?) so it really could have been worse and we should be grateful it wasn’t.
So basically whilst Neil was handling pretty much all of the details and hard labour, I focused primarily on getting Oscar settled into his new school and new before-school-care and trying to maintain some sort of status quo ante with usual rules and routines. Not an easy task as our sensitive, slow-to-adjust, I’m-7/8yrs-old-it’s-all-about-me boy had a few melt-downs expressing some interesting behaviours and languages. This has improved somewhat but Oscy is still struggling to find his niche at his new school as, having been to his class a couple of times now I can attest, there are some “big personalities” for him to contend with. Fortunately he has begun to make friends and there are some children in the street he has made friends with too (not without dramas of course) and because they can all ride bikes suddenly Oscar can too!
So don’t get me wrong... it’s not all bad news. I just felt the need to expound on Neil’s previous blog and talk a little about that “typical nightmare move” sentence. I don’t see toooo much that’s typical about it but I must acquiesce that most moves are nightmarish in their own way. I also wanted to try and get across to what great lengths Neil went to, to protect me from the huge majority of the stress of the move which he really didn’t mention at all in his page.
Am worried now that I’ve rambled on a bit and my first blog is getting too long so will do another one another time with all the good news highlights and I promise – no whinge-fest!
xo
Monday, August 10, 2009
Perspective
First things first...
Rowie was scheduled for surgery 7th August, however thanks to Swine Flu the hospitals are overflowing with patients and so the operation has been put off until "sometime in September"... exactly when in September we don't know yet. Obviously will keep all posted.
We have now finally moved into our new place - address and 'phone number will follow via email shortly.
Our move could best be described as an exercise in proving that whatever could go wrong, went wrong...
Firstly, two days prior to settlement on the new house, we were enjoying a night with some friends when we noticed a hissing noise coming from the guest bathroom. On investigation, we identified that one of the pipes in the roof had burst... On further investigation (by Rowie), we found the source of the "burst" - alarmingly, the break in the pipe had a definite rodent-y feel about it, like a mouse (or more likely rat) had chewed through the pipe (it's a vinyl pipe - nothing but the cheapest for these new houses!).
Naturally, I panicked - firstly I HATE mice/rats, and secondly I HATE having to go into the roof... could be anything up there! However, friend Chris is one of those people who will have a go at anything, so the next day we headed down to Bunnings (Hardware store) and bought what we thought were the required bits and pieces... It seemed like a good idea at the time, and after all, how hard can plumbing be?? Turns out, it was quite hard - mostly because the bloody vermin hadn't stopped at the one area, and "fixing" (well we came close!) the obvious leak only weakened the other leaks (never did find out how many there actually were). Essentially, a critical and total failure of the (cheap and nasty) plumbing throughout the house... at this point, I called a plumber and went into emergency mode.
We are very lucky, we have good friends who offered us a place to stay so that problem (at least in the short term) was solved. I went into planning mode. Firstly, since the whole point of this was to get our Beresford place ready to rent, it seemed logical to focus on fixing the plumbing "issue", so I posted myself at Bereford and waited for the trusty plumber to appear... and waited... and waited. 10.00am he said he'd be at there - he turned up at 4.00pm. We expected to go through settlement at 4.45pm that day, so the best outcome seemed to be to get our beds and essentials up to the new house, bringing the move-in date to the Monday, and then go back to plan 'A' and move the rest of our gear on the weekend...
So we got the keys at 5.00pm (after a major drama with the so-called solicitors), and in we walked... into a sticky mess of a house very recently vacated. Rookie mistake was to not specify a requirement to have the new place cleaned prior to settlement... won't make that mistake again. We stayed another night at Chris/Carolines...
A few frantic 'phone calls Tuesday morning had us a cleaner. I must have upset a few people as I started calling at 6.00am! We had our cleaner secured by 6.45am, so the new house was on track again. The old house however, was not going quite so smoothly. The initial repair done by the plumber had been attacked by whatever had holed up in our roof and had destroyed it, resulting in the work needing to be re-done... this was not good, as we all know plumbers costs quickly get out of hand... At this stage, I put the plumber on hold as obviously this appeared to be a vicious circle. Time for the exterminator. I called around and found the exterminator that would "guarantee" removal of the offending whatever-it-was-in-my-roof and got him to guarantee next-day... which he didn't do. I swear, these tradespeople think we're all happy to sit around waiting for them for hours on end!
Anyhoo, with the vermin problem taken care of, the plumber was back on. The urgency was apparent, at least to me - however the plumber didn't share my urgency... 12 days it took him to finally fix it!
In short, it was the typical nightmare move... but we're in our new home now and it's been worth it I think. Writing it down now, it seems that everything that happened was fairly trivial, although at the time I was close to breaking point on a number of occasions. Rowie's impending surgery seems to put it all in perspective really... it's just stuff that happens, nothing more.
Rowie was scheduled for surgery 7th August, however thanks to Swine Flu the hospitals are overflowing with patients and so the operation has been put off until "sometime in September"... exactly when in September we don't know yet. Obviously will keep all posted.
We have now finally moved into our new place - address and 'phone number will follow via email shortly.
Our move could best be described as an exercise in proving that whatever could go wrong, went wrong...
Firstly, two days prior to settlement on the new house, we were enjoying a night with some friends when we noticed a hissing noise coming from the guest bathroom. On investigation, we identified that one of the pipes in the roof had burst... On further investigation (by Rowie), we found the source of the "burst" - alarmingly, the break in the pipe had a definite rodent-y feel about it, like a mouse (or more likely rat) had chewed through the pipe (it's a vinyl pipe - nothing but the cheapest for these new houses!).
Naturally, I panicked - firstly I HATE mice/rats, and secondly I HATE having to go into the roof... could be anything up there! However, friend Chris is one of those people who will have a go at anything, so the next day we headed down to Bunnings (Hardware store) and bought what we thought were the required bits and pieces... It seemed like a good idea at the time, and after all, how hard can plumbing be?? Turns out, it was quite hard - mostly because the bloody vermin hadn't stopped at the one area, and "fixing" (well we came close!) the obvious leak only weakened the other leaks (never did find out how many there actually were). Essentially, a critical and total failure of the (cheap and nasty) plumbing throughout the house... at this point, I called a plumber and went into emergency mode.
We are very lucky, we have good friends who offered us a place to stay so that problem (at least in the short term) was solved. I went into planning mode. Firstly, since the whole point of this was to get our Beresford place ready to rent, it seemed logical to focus on fixing the plumbing "issue", so I posted myself at Bereford and waited for the trusty plumber to appear... and waited... and waited. 10.00am he said he'd be at there - he turned up at 4.00pm. We expected to go through settlement at 4.45pm that day, so the best outcome seemed to be to get our beds and essentials up to the new house, bringing the move-in date to the Monday, and then go back to plan 'A' and move the rest of our gear on the weekend...
So we got the keys at 5.00pm (after a major drama with the so-called solicitors), and in we walked... into a sticky mess of a house very recently vacated. Rookie mistake was to not specify a requirement to have the new place cleaned prior to settlement... won't make that mistake again. We stayed another night at Chris/Carolines...
A few frantic 'phone calls Tuesday morning had us a cleaner. I must have upset a few people as I started calling at 6.00am! We had our cleaner secured by 6.45am, so the new house was on track again. The old house however, was not going quite so smoothly. The initial repair done by the plumber had been attacked by whatever had holed up in our roof and had destroyed it, resulting in the work needing to be re-done... this was not good, as we all know plumbers costs quickly get out of hand... At this stage, I put the plumber on hold as obviously this appeared to be a vicious circle. Time for the exterminator. I called around and found the exterminator that would "guarantee" removal of the offending whatever-it-was-in-my-roof and got him to guarantee next-day... which he didn't do. I swear, these tradespeople think we're all happy to sit around waiting for them for hours on end!
Anyhoo, with the vermin problem taken care of, the plumber was back on. The urgency was apparent, at least to me - however the plumber didn't share my urgency... 12 days it took him to finally fix it!
In short, it was the typical nightmare move... but we're in our new home now and it's been worth it I think. Writing it down now, it seems that everything that happened was fairly trivial, although at the time I was close to breaking point on a number of occasions. Rowie's impending surgery seems to put it all in perspective really... it's just stuff that happens, nothing more.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
iPhone Hype
As a technologist, I consider it important to keep abreast of technology changes and developments. Some might say this is a weak excuse for hoarding gadgets, but I'll stick with it.
I've had PDA's, minidiscs, mp3 players, laptops, mini-laptops, micro-laptops, iPods, more iPods, GPS devices... the list goes on and on. One thing I would say in my defense is that I have one golden rule - these gadgets must be of use to me. So, if you were to interrogate my gadget-laden life, you would find that I will productively use these gadgets to the best of their design. Some used to carry PDA's as an odd sort of status symbol - mine was (in no particular order) an Internet 'phone, a remote control for my house, and of course my mobile email solution back in the days when there were no "hotspots" but there were lots of wireless networks...
The one manufacturer I avoided for some time was Apple. The iPod now is basically THE portable music/video player of choice, but I was always concerned about the approach to control of that music - the Digital Rights Management (DRM) debacle that essentially locked "your" music to "your" single device. To me, this seemed (and still seems) draconian and pointless. I can see the arguement from the artists point-of-view, but DRM was never about artists rights, it was all about the recording industry. In the end however, and shortly following the demise of my beloved iRiver mp3 player (20Gb, with a remote controller, 20 hours battery life and NO DRM! Best $500.00 I ever spent!), I succumbed to the pressure and purchased my first iPod in 2005. I love it and never leave home without it. It's simple design and functionality is exceptional and the video - which I initially wrote off as ridiculous - is great, no better way to effectively shorten a long boring trip on train/plane.
So it is that I have succumbed again, after avoiding the iPhone for a year (a whole year!) I purchased the latest iteration last Saturday... and I hate it.
Here's why:
* It's beautiful - so beautiful in fact, that you feel a desire to protect it against scratches... so you cover it up in ugly cases to ensure it won't be damaged, thus you never see it's beauty!
* It's a power-sucker - I fully discharged, re-charged, discharged (etc - thanks Dave!) fully four times to ensure that the battery would be conditioned... and the best I can get out of it is 18 hours! And I haven't yet spent ANY significant time on the 'phone!
* It's Apps are irrelevent - in the end... of course they are. Widgets are lovely eye candy, most people (including me) have them all over their desktop... but really, is it necessary to have weather reports on one's 'phone? Really? News readers are good, but again, I have Internet, do I need to know which celebrity is doing what rubbish to the minute?
* Did I mention it's a power-sucker? - I mean SERIOUSLY! I recently googled "iPhone Battery Life" and found a number of really useful articles, all of which essentially say this: "Maximise power life by turning OFF 3G, turn down the screen brightness, turn OFF wireless, turn OFF Bluetooth, DON'T play music/video, DON'T use the 'phone too much, and mostly KEEP THE DEVICE LOCKED!! Serious articles...
So here I am, looking at my shiny (I think - it's hidden in a case) iPhone, pondering what use it is given that it's lost fully 30% of it's power since I took it off charge this morning (4 hours ago). I've found a battery extender which handily clips on the back of the iPhone, adding double the bulk to the device and detracting from it's loveliness...
So why did I buy it? The hype, and nothing but the hype I hate to say. It's a nice little game player - Oscar will love it! - but then again, I dare not actually play any games because they tend to chew up the most amount of battery life and then I won't be able to take any calls... maybe I should buy a "normal" 'phone as a back-up but wait a minute... doesn't that defeat the object..?
I've had PDA's, minidiscs, mp3 players, laptops, mini-laptops, micro-laptops, iPods, more iPods, GPS devices... the list goes on and on. One thing I would say in my defense is that I have one golden rule - these gadgets must be of use to me. So, if you were to interrogate my gadget-laden life, you would find that I will productively use these gadgets to the best of their design. Some used to carry PDA's as an odd sort of status symbol - mine was (in no particular order) an Internet 'phone, a remote control for my house, and of course my mobile email solution back in the days when there were no "hotspots" but there were lots of wireless networks...
The one manufacturer I avoided for some time was Apple. The iPod now is basically THE portable music/video player of choice, but I was always concerned about the approach to control of that music - the Digital Rights Management (DRM) debacle that essentially locked "your" music to "your" single device. To me, this seemed (and still seems) draconian and pointless. I can see the arguement from the artists point-of-view, but DRM was never about artists rights, it was all about the recording industry. In the end however, and shortly following the demise of my beloved iRiver mp3 player (20Gb, with a remote controller, 20 hours battery life and NO DRM! Best $500.00 I ever spent!), I succumbed to the pressure and purchased my first iPod in 2005. I love it and never leave home without it. It's simple design and functionality is exceptional and the video - which I initially wrote off as ridiculous - is great, no better way to effectively shorten a long boring trip on train/plane.
So it is that I have succumbed again, after avoiding the iPhone for a year (a whole year!) I purchased the latest iteration last Saturday... and I hate it.
Here's why:
* It's beautiful - so beautiful in fact, that you feel a desire to protect it against scratches... so you cover it up in ugly cases to ensure it won't be damaged, thus you never see it's beauty!
* It's a power-sucker - I fully discharged, re-charged, discharged (etc - thanks Dave!) fully four times to ensure that the battery would be conditioned... and the best I can get out of it is 18 hours! And I haven't yet spent ANY significant time on the 'phone!
* It's Apps are irrelevent - in the end... of course they are. Widgets are lovely eye candy, most people (including me) have them all over their desktop... but really, is it necessary to have weather reports on one's 'phone? Really? News readers are good, but again, I have Internet, do I need to know which celebrity is doing what rubbish to the minute?
* Did I mention it's a power-sucker? - I mean SERIOUSLY! I recently googled "iPhone Battery Life" and found a number of really useful articles, all of which essentially say this: "Maximise power life by turning OFF 3G, turn down the screen brightness, turn OFF wireless, turn OFF Bluetooth, DON'T play music/video, DON'T use the 'phone too much, and mostly KEEP THE DEVICE LOCKED!! Serious articles...
So here I am, looking at my shiny (I think - it's hidden in a case) iPhone, pondering what use it is given that it's lost fully 30% of it's power since I took it off charge this morning (4 hours ago). I've found a battery extender which handily clips on the back of the iPhone, adding double the bulk to the device and detracting from it's loveliness...
So why did I buy it? The hype, and nothing but the hype I hate to say. It's a nice little game player - Oscar will love it! - but then again, I dare not actually play any games because they tend to chew up the most amount of battery life and then I won't be able to take any calls... maybe I should buy a "normal" 'phone as a back-up but wait a minute... doesn't that defeat the object..?
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Time Ticking
To be honest, since my last post we've been holding our collective breath and waiting for some feedback as to when Rowie's operation will be scheduled. I get the feeling that Rowie would prefer to just get it over and done with sooner rather than later. I try hard not to dwell on the procedure, although the doctor was quite specific about what's going to happen (perhaps a little too specific, for me anyway)...
...and suddenly June has come and gone, and we are now madly scrambling to ensure that we're as organised as possible for the upcoming move. We take possession of the new house (did I mention that we got the house?!) 6th July, and we're moving on the 11th. Can't wait. We found out about Rowie's condition two weeks after we'd put in our offer and, in hindsight, would likely not go through with it now - but hindsight is a wonderful thing ain't it?! So, my principle goal is to minimise the trauma as much as possible, and make the move just happen.
We are expecting to have a firm date around mid July, I think for an early August procedure.
In the meantime, I've recently found an excellent Chinese-method physio/acupuncturist who last night administered 75mm needles into my shoulders, back and butt, resulting in my starting to feel much much better as of this morning. I've had experience of acupuncture in the past and I think it's excellent, although you have to find a "good" acupuncture specialist. This one's great, so good in fact that I'm telling no-one about him! These people are like gold-dust if you have (as I do) a problem back, so the less people know the more likely I am to get him!
My finger is now free of it's protective splint and sadly, is beginning to look like it will be forever bent to a 5-10 degree angle, despite my following the physio's instructions to the letter... the high cost of 'D' grade sport... Biggest pain is that it's unlikely I'll ever play Volleyball again, not because I can't but because the risk/reward just isn't there.
Anyway, we will take plenty of photo's of the move and new house which I'll post up over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
...and suddenly June has come and gone, and we are now madly scrambling to ensure that we're as organised as possible for the upcoming move. We take possession of the new house (did I mention that we got the house?!) 6th July, and we're moving on the 11th. Can't wait. We found out about Rowie's condition two weeks after we'd put in our offer and, in hindsight, would likely not go through with it now - but hindsight is a wonderful thing ain't it?! So, my principle goal is to minimise the trauma as much as possible, and make the move just happen.
We are expecting to have a firm date around mid July, I think for an early August procedure.
In the meantime, I've recently found an excellent Chinese-method physio/acupuncturist who last night administered 75mm needles into my shoulders, back and butt, resulting in my starting to feel much much better as of this morning. I've had experience of acupuncture in the past and I think it's excellent, although you have to find a "good" acupuncture specialist. This one's great, so good in fact that I'm telling no-one about him! These people are like gold-dust if you have (as I do) a problem back, so the less people know the more likely I am to get him!
My finger is now free of it's protective splint and sadly, is beginning to look like it will be forever bent to a 5-10 degree angle, despite my following the physio's instructions to the letter... the high cost of 'D' grade sport... Biggest pain is that it's unlikely I'll ever play Volleyball again, not because I can't but because the risk/reward just isn't there.
Anyway, we will take plenty of photo's of the move and new house which I'll post up over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Some Bad News
To bring all up to date...
Rowie has for some time been suffering from fatigue, and we have exhausted a number of different avenues before going down the heart route. For those that don't know, Rowie was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect which involves four issues with the heart. Rowie was one of the first recipients of a ground breaking (at the time) open heart procedure at a very young age, and her heart was corrected - to a degree.
In a sense we've always known that at some stage Rowie would need to have her heart re-assessed. The surgery is known to be generally successful but is also known to require re-visit over a life-span.
So today we finally got our appointment with a heart specialist, who confirmed the worst - Rowie's repaired valve is deteriorating and causing her right ventrical to expand abnormally, which is in short placing a higher than normal stress on her heart - requiring surgery to replace the faulty valve.
It's been a shock to us, despite understanding that there was a good chance it would be required - it's difficult to hear a doctor speaking practically about the procedure, and knowing that it is going to happen. I guess I had hoped that the doc would say "no need for surgery" but it wasn't to be. So... Rowie will be going into hospital in about six weeks (dates will be posted here when we have confirmation) and will undergo a valve replacement, using a donor human heart valve. They will use a donor human valve (as opposed to a synthetic, pig or cow valve) for purely practical reasons - it's likely that Rowie will undergo this type of replacement every twenty years or so, and the doc explained that the procedure will likely improve such that they may be able to replace the entire valve without invasive surgery in the future. The technique is very new right now (it's called the Bonhoeffer procedure - non invasive)
We're encouraged by the statistics - 4% chance of failure regarding the actual valve replacement, and 5% risk of complications brought on be the procedure as a whole... those are pretty good odds. The long term prognosis is also good - essentially back to normal within 3 months. All good news and I know for sure that Rowie is keen as anything to get it done and get on with life... she's been so couragous since we found out, I'm amazed.
I will use the blog to keep all updated.
Rowie has for some time been suffering from fatigue, and we have exhausted a number of different avenues before going down the heart route. For those that don't know, Rowie was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect which involves four issues with the heart. Rowie was one of the first recipients of a ground breaking (at the time) open heart procedure at a very young age, and her heart was corrected - to a degree.
In a sense we've always known that at some stage Rowie would need to have her heart re-assessed. The surgery is known to be generally successful but is also known to require re-visit over a life-span.
So today we finally got our appointment with a heart specialist, who confirmed the worst - Rowie's repaired valve is deteriorating and causing her right ventrical to expand abnormally, which is in short placing a higher than normal stress on her heart - requiring surgery to replace the faulty valve.
It's been a shock to us, despite understanding that there was a good chance it would be required - it's difficult to hear a doctor speaking practically about the procedure, and knowing that it is going to happen. I guess I had hoped that the doc would say "no need for surgery" but it wasn't to be. So... Rowie will be going into hospital in about six weeks (dates will be posted here when we have confirmation) and will undergo a valve replacement, using a donor human heart valve. They will use a donor human valve (as opposed to a synthetic, pig or cow valve) for purely practical reasons - it's likely that Rowie will undergo this type of replacement every twenty years or so, and the doc explained that the procedure will likely improve such that they may be able to replace the entire valve without invasive surgery in the future. The technique is very new right now (it's called the Bonhoeffer procedure - non invasive)
We're encouraged by the statistics - 4% chance of failure regarding the actual valve replacement, and 5% risk of complications brought on be the procedure as a whole... those are pretty good odds. The long term prognosis is also good - essentially back to normal within 3 months. All good news and I know for sure that Rowie is keen as anything to get it done and get on with life... she's been so couragous since we found out, I'm amazed.
I will use the blog to keep all updated.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Playing the Waiting Game Pt II
Well, some interesting and frustrating stuff has kept us busy this week!
New House - Hopefully!
We put an offer on a property a couple of weeks ago and it didn't get up - I had a bad feeling we were aiming a little too high with that one, so we put it down to fate and moved on. Several property viewing later and we happened across a place that ticked almost all our boxes (although sadly no pool - but I can live with that), so we called the agent.
We also began heading up to the area to do a "drive-by", which turned out well as the agent couldn't make it, but informed the owners and they showed us around instead! Long story short - we've put in an offer and it's been accepted, so now we're anxious about the finance, but generally feeling good about it. We have a good feeling about the place - it seems to be in a family oriented street so with some luck Oscar will make some new friends. 
It's in Narangba which was the area we wanted to get to. 15 minute walk to the train (or 3 minutes by car), good schools in the area, and generally speaking an all round nice place to be - though of course time will tell! We may end up just hating living "out in the country" but something tells me that won't be the case. We have some good friends in the area and that will help.
Wild Weather
Brisbane has had a rough old summer, with some record breaking storms, and the transition to "Winter" is shaping up to be just as varied! We've gone from a 5 year drought to 70% full reservoirs in a matter of 5 months - this week alone Brisbane received 1 third it's annual rainfall in two days! Chaos of course - roads shut everywhere and the whole city essentially stopped for a day or two as people struggled to and from work - one week I'm pleased I wasn't on my bike!
New House - Hopefully!
We put an offer on a property a couple of weeks ago and it didn't get up - I had a bad feeling we were aiming a little too high with that one, so we put it down to fate and moved on. Several property viewing later and we happened across a place that ticked almost all our boxes (although sadly no pool - but I can live with that), so we called the agent.
We also began heading up to the area to do a "drive-by", which turned out well as the agent couldn't make it, but informed the owners and they showed us around instead! Long story short - we've put in an offer and it's been accepted, so now we're anxious about the finance, but generally feeling good about it. We have a good feeling about the place - it seems to be in a family oriented street so with some luck Oscar will make some new friends. 
It's in Narangba which was the area we wanted to get to. 15 minute walk to the train (or 3 minutes by car), good schools in the area, and generally speaking an all round nice place to be - though of course time will tell! We may end up just hating living "out in the country" but something tells me that won't be the case. We have some good friends in the area and that will help. Wild Weather
Brisbane has had a rough old summer, with some record breaking storms, and the transition to "Winter" is shaping up to be just as varied! We've gone from a 5 year drought to 70% full reservoirs in a matter of 5 months - this week alone Brisbane received 1 third it's annual rainfall in two days! Chaos of course - roads shut everywhere and the whole city essentially stopped for a day or two as people struggled to and from work - one week I'm pleased I wasn't on my bike!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Compromises and Disappointments
Dealing with real estate agents is and has always been - for me anyway - a compromise. A compromise of my principles regarding those people in society that I choose to associate with, and those that I actively avoid... However, interaction with these people is inevitably unavoidable when one wishes to purchase a house, a position we found ourselves in this week. We have been planning on expanding our property portfolio for some time and when a house that I've always liked came on the market, we realised that we needed to at least put our hat in the ring. This particular house is significantly further away from the city - ironic that we always seem to be heading away from where I'd actually like to be! - but significantly ticked a good number of boxes - for example, moving there provided me with more choices in terms of getting to/from work (currently have to rely on Rowie to drive me to the train station; new place had a number of "benefits" which meant I would be able to get to the train unaided!) It's probably a moot point since, in three week and 2 days I WILL BE BACK ON MY BIKE, but not being able to ride my bike has highlighted a number of issues for me...
So, we got the funding and put an offer in. Some may describe the interaction between a buyer, a seller and a real estate some sort of poetic ballet; an exchange of views with the price edging closer and closer to a happy middle ground in which both the buyer and seller walk away happy... to me, this "dance" boils down only to the real estate agent winning, regardless of the outcome, as it's he/she that gets a big, fat (and totally, in my opinion, overinflated) commission either way... If I had it my way, I would ideally deal directly with the owner, but that kind of opportunity rarely comes up. So yesterday I spent what amounted to 3 hours discussing what a "view" was, how I was "surprised" by the size of the property when we walked around it - essentially talking the property that we wanted to buy and live in down! What a strange and frustrating experience - and we all do it!
In the event, the final offer we were able to put in was not enough to entice the sellers, and they received a better offer shortly after... so in a matter of one hour the opportunity had gone and we were back to square one. In truth I'm not particularly disappointed - we can only afford what we can afford after all - and there are always more houses on the market. What it boils down to though, is that I can't avoid the fact that we're going to have to engage with these parasites of the modern world at least once more - and that is disappointing!
So, we got the funding and put an offer in. Some may describe the interaction between a buyer, a seller and a real estate some sort of poetic ballet; an exchange of views with the price edging closer and closer to a happy middle ground in which both the buyer and seller walk away happy... to me, this "dance" boils down only to the real estate agent winning, regardless of the outcome, as it's he/she that gets a big, fat (and totally, in my opinion, overinflated) commission either way... If I had it my way, I would ideally deal directly with the owner, but that kind of opportunity rarely comes up. So yesterday I spent what amounted to 3 hours discussing what a "view" was, how I was "surprised" by the size of the property when we walked around it - essentially talking the property that we wanted to buy and live in down! What a strange and frustrating experience - and we all do it!
In the event, the final offer we were able to put in was not enough to entice the sellers, and they received a better offer shortly after... so in a matter of one hour the opportunity had gone and we were back to square one. In truth I'm not particularly disappointed - we can only afford what we can afford after all - and there are always more houses on the market. What it boils down to though, is that I can't avoid the fact that we're going to have to engage with these parasites of the modern world at least once more - and that is disappointing!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Playing the Waiting Game
While we wait impatiently to see if the God's of banking will deem to loan us the money required to take the next steps in our property empire, the house we are looking at buying remains on sale... it would be our luck that we get the financing through just after the owners get an offer. Our friends Christopher and Caroline moved to Narangba a couple of years ago. At the time it seemed a crazy thing to do; when we went out to see their house it seemed like an age before we actually got there - at that time their new place and the surrounding area got the nickname "the country" and it's been that ever since. I took this shot on Friday night, a beautiful clear night with a near-full moon lighting up the area. Our (potential) new house is just a few houses up from theirs and, after we had established that they were comfortable with the idea (and didn't consider us stalkers!), we spent the evening talking "what if"'s and playing cards, having a few drinks (it was a hell of a week for everyone) and generally forgetting our troubles. Perhaps that's what appeals to me about the move - "the country" is very different to here in the 'burbs, not as noisy or angry, or tense. The irony of course is that when we first moved to Bracken Ridge I felt exactly the same way! Our place seemed miles from anywhere (we'd been living in the inner city until then) - since then Brisbane has continued to grow at a frightening rate and suddenly... the gaps have disappeared, and everyone's moved in.
Saturday morning we all stumbled awake, and soon coffee was brewing and bacon and (fresh laid) eggs were cooking lazily on the barbeque... as we chatted the morning away, the concerns of the previous week a (temporary) distant memory... Pictured left, the free range engines producing the lovely eggs previously mentioned.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Labour Day Brighton and Sandgate
We're contemplating moving to Narangba, so it was timely that we went for a wander along Brighton beach this afternoon. It's amazing how complacent people get about where they live - we're five minutes from a great 3 km walk along Brighton beach, to the pier at one end or on to a big park the other. We took Missy along for a walk, she's so often overlooked and loves to walk along the beach. When I look back at the places I've lived and things I've seen, I'm pretty lucky to be 5 minutes away from the Pacific ocean and this great area. 
Summer is now well and truly over thankfully, and the weather from here (May) through to December is, in my opinion, at it's best. Warm during the day, cooling at night - just how I like it! We're really lucky to be here, and if we do move, we will miss the convenience of getting to the ocean. One day we will live close to the sea - at least, that's what I'd love.
KChin's Farewell Lunch
KChin is a young guy that was sponsored to come over to Australia from Vietnam, where he had sustained an injury as a child which necessitated amputation of his right leg from the thigh down. I first came across KChin through my mate Craig Morgan, whose Mum and Dad were sponsoring the trip over and looking after KChin during his stay here. Craig mentioned that, at some stage, KChin would have to go back to Vietnam to resume his life, and that he was doing everything he could to get some work experience. KChin has been fitted with an artificial leg (most recently a titanium one!) and appears to be unaffected by this. 
I offered him a couple of days a week work experience, working in my team and getting him some IT experience. KChin started with us in October of '08 and quickly became part of the team. What has amazed me has been KChin's seemingly never ending enthusiasm for anything asked of him; his approach is positive and he's never afraid of hard work - he's been an inspiration to all of us and we were all sad to hear that "D-Day" is coming soon... KChin has to leave Australia as his visa is nearing it's end. So, the team decided to send KChin off with a celebration lunch, and we went to L'Academie for a send-off lunch.Meeting KChin has been a real wake-up call for me; I imagine what life has been and will be like for KChin, and I'm personally in awe of his approach to his life, which in many senses is a gift. KChin had broken his leg as a child and, unlike we westerners, he or his folks were unable to seek medical attention - so they just carried on. Over time his leg became a burden but he managed to carry on, although how I can't imagine. Recently I've busted up one of my fingers and, while feeling sorry for myself, remembered that I'm lucky, in all likelihood I'll have my finger back 100% because I've access to modern medicine and all the benefits that come with it - KChin didn't have these systems in place and eventually that cost him his leg.
So we went off to lunch to celebrate KChin's looming return to his home country. Apparently he may have an opportunity in the tourism industry, and I hope it works out. I know for sure that, whatever he ends up doing, he'll put 100% of his energy into. If he was able to stay I would have him on my team in an instant!
Injuries and Implications
Bad week this week, as I've managed to break the middle finger of my left hand whilst playing beach volleyball. This is BAD for a number of reasons:
1) I was starting to get pretty good at beach volleyball!
2) One little finger has had a massive impact on my life, and will continue to do so for at least the next 3 months...
My fifth game of the season, and I was starting to "get" the ins and outs of beach volleyball. In assessing the game, I'd figured that in the scheme of things the impact would surely be fairly low - it's not touch football after all! The opposing team were well organised and as a consequence, our team ("Hit's 'n' Giggles") lifted our game to suit. All in all it was a great first game (3 games/match) - then I tried to block a drop-shot and somehow managed to have my fingers bent forwards as I blocked the ball... at first it didn't seem so bad, but pretty quickly I realised that this could be quite serious. the end of my finger was bent at 45 degrees from the rest of the finger. Of course, everyone on court became a ringside doctor and all offered their opinion! I decided to err on the side of caution and went off to find a doctor... what a pointless exercise that turned out to be! Turns out that our private health fund is basically pointless for emergency treatment, and the Australian hospital system has been so successfully raped and pillaged that you might as well forget it. In the end Christopher put me in touch with his mum who happens to be a nurse, and she splinted my finger.
Next day I went off to the doctor, who confirmed (by x-ray) that a tendon had pulled off a chip of bone from the last bone in the finger - ouch! Suddenly the conversation went to possibly surgery! Apparently I went white (I'm not good on the idea of cutting into me!)
Thursday I went off to a hand specialist expecting the worst, fortunately he diagnosed a permanent (3 month) splint. No riding my bike though... I'm devastated. For some, a bike or car is a means to an end, transport and that's it. For me, my bike is the solitude and therapy that I need... without it, I'm very down. Three months of trains.. I'm unsure how I'll cope.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Anzac Day - Perfect Day
Having now completed my new camera upgrade with the addition of a Nikon 50mm Lens, I shot this photo of Oscar on Thursday night, then converted to black and white. I'm now really happy with my camera kit, and snapping away like crazy. Saturday 26th April was ANZAC day, falling this year on a weekend and so no long weekend... in Queensland at least, NSW/Victoria get one... 
Anyway, Oscar's school had a number of pupils attending the march and Oscar was adamant that he wanted to march to remember our fallen. We of course had to support this, so we all went off to Sandgate Saturday morning and Oscar proudly marched along.
After the march, we decided to do something I at least consider to be very "Aussie", and went to the beach for the day. We invited our friends Christopher and Caroline along for the day, and had a great time. Although we are approaching Autumn, the weather has been wonderful recently so Oscar was able to splash around in the ocean and had a great time chasing up and down the beach. We had a bbq under a tree and spent the afternoon playing beach Cricket. 
All in all a fantastic day and really a reminder that those young soldiers fighting for our freedom, didn't lose their lives in vane. It's an extraordinary thing our freedom, to us it seems almost trivial but its easy to forget the costs of keeping it. 
Thursday, April 16, 2009
School Holiday Fun
Oscar and I spent the week together for Easter holidays. This week I introduced Oscar to photography, lending him one of my less complex cameras. Sometimes kids can be funny, and a mirror... Oscar spent some considerable time asking for accessories to go with his camera, like a tripod, flash, and bag... just like Dad! Oscar seems to have picked up the basics quickly and has a natural flare (although I biased obviously!)
For instance, we met this character (left) in Woodford after a brunch-break at "Jalla's" (yummy pancakes with bacon and eggs on top - my favourite!), Oscar went straight up to the owner and asked if he might take a photo! He took this one, then proceeded to take photo's of the owner, her friend, and the surrounding area! Gotta love digital photography!
We also got some wooden models and spent an afternoon gluing them together - I got a jet fighter and Oscar got a gorilla. We spent an afternoon putting them together, then painted them and put stickers on. Then I spent the evening re-gluing them as it turns out they're not "Oscar-proof"!
On Wednesday Oscars friend Liam came over for a sleep-over, which was great fun for both kids. On Thursday I took the boys down to New Farm park (nr the city, photo left is the view) which has a great adventure playground. We met some charming children that thought that climbing to the top of the climbing net then spitting on the other kids was great fun! I had a good go at the nasty little grots and took the boys away "tutting" madly at the kids' parents... On Friday Row's parents came down from Childers for a couple of days. They brought the 'van but didn't stay with us, instead they made it a "mini-break" and travelled down the in-land route.
We met up with them at Somerset Dam which also happens to be one of my favourite places, mostly because it's right at the end of a long twisty run of some of the best roads in Queensland... my bike needed a new chain so I took her down to have it fitted, then took the long way round to meet up with Rowie and Oscar later in the day. Needless to say it was a good day all round! We met up with "the gramps" and had a great woodfire bbq - nice way to spend the afternoon. Summer has finally gone and the temperature is starting to settle down - at last!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
End of March News
Well, now I have the blog set-up, all I gotta do is remember to keep it updated!
Last week was a busy one for us all, starting with Oscar's grading from Blue-Belt II to Blue-Belt III. The club is getting bigger and bigger all the time, and this was the first grading in the new "do-Jang" which is Korean for "Training Hall". It was a tight squeeze! Maybe 20 people grading, so I'm not certain of the quality aspect... anyway, Oscar did well in the circumstances, and did manage to grade to Blue-Belt III. Well Done Oscar!
While Oscar geared up for Easter by trying on his new bunny ears for size, I was on a training course all week, learning the delightful skill of "Business Continuity Management" - or at least one view of it. Course was dreary and boring, but could be useful from a career perspective - who knows... Typically for my current employer, there was an expectation that I would need to do my "day-job" whilst on the course, so I ended up putting in a few 13 hour days and didn't get as much revision (there was a test on Friday) in as I'd like. Don't know if I'll pass but I can always take it again.
Meanwhile, life goes on. In my spare time I've been working on collating and processing all the video taken by Friend Christopher during a recent visit to Europe. It's very time consuming and the software has a number of behaviours that need to be learned, but I have really been enjoying the editing process. I'm currently investigating whether it's worthwhile turning this hobby into a money making scheme, lots of people have digital video camera's but don't know how to process them...
That's pretty much all that's been happening in our world this week. I'm looking forward to Easter very much as I and Oscar have a week of activities planned during the school holidays. Lots of pictures for sure.
Last week was a busy one for us all, starting with Oscar's grading from Blue-Belt II to Blue-Belt III. The club is getting bigger and bigger all the time, and this was the first grading in the new "do-Jang" which is Korean for "Training Hall". It was a tight squeeze! Maybe 20 people grading, so I'm not certain of the quality aspect... anyway, Oscar did well in the circumstances, and did manage to grade to Blue-Belt III. Well Done Oscar!
While Oscar geared up for Easter by trying on his new bunny ears for size, I was on a training course all week, learning the delightful skill of "Business Continuity Management" - or at least one view of it. Course was dreary and boring, but could be useful from a career perspective - who knows... Typically for my current employer, there was an expectation that I would need to do my "day-job" whilst on the course, so I ended up putting in a few 13 hour days and didn't get as much revision (there was a test on Friday) in as I'd like. Don't know if I'll pass but I can always take it again.
Meanwhile, life goes on. In my spare time I've been working on collating and processing all the video taken by Friend Christopher during a recent visit to Europe. It's very time consuming and the software has a number of behaviours that need to be learned, but I have really been enjoying the editing process. I'm currently investigating whether it's worthwhile turning this hobby into a money making scheme, lots of people have digital video camera's but don't know how to process them...
That's pretty much all that's been happening in our world this week. I'm looking forward to Easter very much as I and Oscar have a week of activities planned during the school holidays. Lots of pictures for sure.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Surprise!
We attended an "engagement" party which turned into a surprise this afternoon - our friends Elizabeth and Jason went "all the way" and got married! Looking back on it, it shouldn't have been so much of a surprise - after all, who requests formal black tie for an engagement party! However, it truly didn't cross our minds. As you can see, we scrub up pretty well - even if we do say so ourselves.
Oscar was particularly pleased to get dressed up - he seemed to think that wearing a suit was very exciting... Can't say I share his enthusiasm! Rowena of course looked amazing in her black dress.
And so of course the happy couple... Jason looked splendid in his suit (and also a bit like a bouncer!) and Elizabeth looked wonderful in her wedding dress. I chose this photo (I took a lot - see earlier post re camera!) because these guys are happy and enjoy each other, and that's what it's all about in the end...
So the engagement party turned into a very special wedding, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.
Under 8's Soccer - Match 1
Oscar's team is now established, he'll be playing for Ridge Hills FC "Liverpool" (the organisers name each team after the British league - cute!).
Match 1 was a Friendly against a team from the Pine Rivers FC.
This year could be a good one; the team has 8 members, which means the coach can cycle through the kids as they wear out.
First match was a good start! To half time our team were up 5-4 and the kids were running around like crazy, enjoying the feeling of being in the lead... although I may have mis-interpreted their excitement for the half time candy snakes on offer!
Back on for second half, the team continued to pile on the pressure, and although the opposing team managed to get another goal, "Liverpool" managed to sneak 5 more goals in leaving the final score at 10-5!!
We parents were very excited, and attributed the win to our support. Oscar put in a good effort and scored 1 of the goals, but he still has some work to do in terms of his teamwork. All up though, a great start to the season!
Friday, March 20, 2009
And More Piccies
Picking up from the last post, some more pictures taken while Mum and Dad were here.
Here's Oscar with the Three Sisters
This was taken on "Lions Road", on the way back up to Brisbane from Sydney.
Here's Oscar with the Three Sisters
This was taken on "Lions Road", on the way back up to Brisbane from Sydney.
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