The beat goes on.................

Hi Guys.

You'd better get a drink and some nourishment, now that I've re-read this finished post. And make sure that you do some exercises to prevent deep vein thrombosis... it's a bit long-winded. You've been warned.

There isn't much to report on the Nan front. It's all sideways stepping and "holding patterns" at the moment. Her pain management is not good, and has changed quite a few times. Currently, she's back on the self-administering form, PCA, but she continues to struggle with this. The poor love is still "Nil by mouth", which includes any ice chips or lollies... As a diet strategy, this is effective, but a tad extreme. She is fed via a special dietary fluid that is fed straight into a direct intravenous line in her neck. Her trachy tube is still in place, and her breathing is still augmented by oxygen a lot of the time. The speech pathologist has tried to introduce a speech valve onto the trachy a number of times, but it appears to produce some resistance into the airway, which results in a panicked mum. Not good. So her communication is frustrating at best. And the poor darlin's a pincushion from her fingertips back to her torso and down her thighs. Covered in bruises she is.

Tonight's instalment includes a blood transfusion, another scan on her tummy and the possibility that she may have a type of pneumonia. It's hard to comprehend how a person who has been on antibiotics for around two months, in varying dosages and arrangements can have developed this. I hope that it's not a fungal or yeast infection.... much trickier and harder to cure.

There is no joy in my mother. A pained resignation, frustration and deep-to-the-bone exhaustion are apparent. She will reach for a hand to hold, shed the occassional tear (only because she can't help it; my mother tends to be of the old school of thought when it comes to showing emotion), grimace or pucker up for a kiss. Most of the time, however, she is a blank mask.

I have not seen my mum smile since the morning before her 1st surgery on Feb 28.

I realised today that I haven't extolled the excellent performance by Scorpaboy in the Oceanic Mototrials Challenge in Queensland at Easter. And excellent he was. The Kiwi representative was older, more experienced and competition-savvy than my boy. Kiwi-Nick, whose dad is a multi-champion and Mototrials park owner, has just stepped up into the "Expert" grade, whilst Aussie-Jack has just stepped up to "A" grade. At the end of the 1st day, Kiwi-Nick was 50 points ahead of Jack, which is quite a large head start. At the end of day 2, Jack had ridden his little arse off to finish just 8 points behind him, and in fact, rode the best lap of the day.

Go Jack!!!


Kiwi-Kevin, Aussies Jack, Garan & Boyd, Kiwi-Wayne and Kiwi-Nick in the front.

The Aussies, Jack, Garan and Boyd, won the pointscore over the event, and became the 2008 Oceanic MotoTrials Champs! That make the score even; the Aussies and the Kiwis have now won the title 9 times each.

The Kiwis, Youth rider, Nick; Masters rider, Kevin, and Expert rider, Wayne, were fabulous guys both on and off the bikes, and a great time was had by all. No animosity at all, just some very friendly rivalry and ribbing. Such as; "how do you make a Kiwi run for his life?"... for one these guys, it was simply a matter of showing him one of our wonderful array of Australian spiders...... These guys were just petrified...... funny stuff. But maybe you had to be there.

Vegeboy had a lovely time in QLD too, catching up with friends on the Sunshine Coast end of Brisbane and enjoying a "Family Guy" marathon.

I spent a wonderful Saturday night with my friend, Angela, in Brisbane. She was the one that I flew to visit in Brissie a couple of weekends ago to bring home lovely lovely old leadlight doors. And you know what? The Easter Bunny delivered a delicious White Lindt Easter egg to me. I was the only one in the family to get one. I must have been very good lately. I love Ange & her husband, John. Freshly brewed coffee, hot cross buns, then a very tasty fry-up for brekky. And also thanks to this pair, I can find my way around the streets of Brisbane & it's surrounds quite well these days.....

And a word of advice to anyone contemplating travelling north . NEVER, EVER, EVER travel up the Mount Lindsay Highway between Warwick, Woodenbong and Beaudesert. It's barely more traversable than a back road west of the Black Stump. Tarred? Yes. Pretty? Yes. Dreadful? Definitely. The 70k's of dirt road to Tenterfield was a doddle in comparison......

What else? I packed up Mum's lounge room, moved furniture, and commenced scraping the old carpet and it's disgusting rubber backing off the floor in preparation for a lovely clean new floor last Sunday. Yes, scraped..... then the floor was scrubbed with steel wool... The old, blind, deaf, incontinent dog had left his mark .... everywhere.... and the new puppies think that they can too. Of course, now all the furniture has been moved, the walls look fairly ordinary, and need painting..... Dad's a bit resistant to this idea. It's been hard enough to get his head around replacing the flooring. He reckons that it's all ok, and it's not that long since it was all painted. Ok. Lounge/kitchen; 13yrs ago. Bed 3; 13yrs ago. Bed 2; 32 yrs ago. Bed 1; 44 yrs ago, but in all fairness, the ceiling was re-painted 13 yrs ago. In the 44+ yrs since the house was built, the living areas have been repainted twice, as was the Bed 1 ceiling, the last time as an insurance claim after a truck accidentally ran into the front corner of the house. It would be fair to say that Dad is no Mr Maintainence.

I'm not interested in painting it myself. Does anyone know a good painter??? And one that is preferably economical too??????

I'm so soft, unfit and lazy these days; I'm still recovering from the physical stuff of it all, and my knees are pathetically sore. And there's more scraping to do this weekend......

I finish at the Day Centre on Thursday. I'll be sad. I have asked to slink away quietly, but no; there is a BBQ with the clients tomorrow, and a morning tea with all the staff on Thursday. God; it's hard enough to leave these wonderful people without all the fuss......
Friday, I have an Orientation at Belmont TAFE, then on Monday, a Hunter New England Health Orientation at Muswellbrook. And then holidays..... *snort* .. as if....

The Renovations???
Chugging along nicely, with all the usual expensive hiccups along the way. I've had to ok the replacement of all the existing gutters and more than half of the roofing, which were only put on 2 years ago, as the builder needs this to happen to marry the old and the new... not included in the quote. $$$$
The builder not realising that he needed to build a pier under a doorway and new stud wall that was a part of the added part of the house... even though it's on the plans $$$$
The window heights were increased as per my (original) request, but the builder than did not make an allowance for this in the placement of the rear verandah roof. $$$$$
The kitchen window opening was placed too close to the side wall; result? A new side-by-side fridge, plus a wall oven and hotplate combo....... to fit the now re-hashed kitchen layout ..... and no dishwasher. $$$$
My mistake? Not measuring the height of the window in the bathroom correctly, and having to swap over the vanity and bath tub positions to allow for the 2 lovely bathroom mirrors that I have already bought..... And then there wasn't enough room for the bath, so we have bought a free-standing one instead...... at 4 times the cost...... $$$$$
And I haven't (yet) cut cupboards into the top section of the linen cupboards. The ceilings are 3.3m high, and everything was done to the standard 2.4m. The equates to a lot of wasted space over the cupboards if we don't use it.... $$$$
And then there's the flooring that I want to be laid in the roof space....... Storage. You can't have enough of it.

Yep. Priceless. $$$$$ NOT

Oh well.... you get that.

Actually, the builder and his guys are doing a good job....... The plumber sorted, but I can't track down the electrician and tiler though...... And the new roof will go on starting Thursday, so expect a hurricane, folks....

Is your bum numb yet????

I think that I've rambled on enough. It's heavenly when the kids are banned from the computer......

Goodnight all. I'll keep you posted.....

Ta ta ;0)

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxo