Saturday, November 29, 2008

Everybody's workin' on the weekend.....

Well, not everybody, just GG & me in this household..........

Good Sat'dy Morning.

Beloved & Vboy have just left to go off on an end-of-footy-season waterskiing trip. Sboy is at Port Macquarie doing some serious stress-reduction with his Yr 12 friends. I'm not sure what exactly has caused him stress, but whatever...... GG worked last night, partied, will work again tonight, party, then work again tomorrow...... I worked last night, again tonight (and all the other nights this week), then a day tomorrow.... and then....days off..... YAY!

GG is on the mend. She had a favourable report from the surgeon, but he wants her to continue daily dressing changes until she sees him next in 2 weeks. The procedure gives her a lot less discomfort now, but the logisitics of having it attended to on a daily basis are difficult. I'm not sure what will happen next weekend when she goes to Sydney for Homebake...... Just to keep life interesting, Sboy has a pilonidal sinus as well. After his sister's experience, he asked me to look at an area of concern in his butt crack as well, & sure enough, there they are: three little holes that look like very deep black heads, except that the dark areas are deeply embedded flakes of hair, skin & sebum. His haven't inflamed yet, but I am concerned that with the heat & humidity in Indonesia together with the amount of time that he will be spending riding his bike, that they may. For some inexplicable reason, a foreign country is not the place where I would like my son to be having invasive surgery..... A quick trip to the docs & some antibiotics are in order I think......

Nothing much has been happening around here otherwise. Not that I have my finger on the pulse here, mind you. Things just happen whether I'm in the game or not. I am considering the position of my Festive Bush. There are a couple of options..... and I am home on December 1, so that might be the day, I think. Hopefully, GG will get enthused with me.

It's so hot & steamy here: I live inland, you know, where it's dry heat. As Professor Julius Sumner-Miller would say: "Why is it so?". There you go... now you all know how old I really am........ I hate the humidity. I have no desire to visit Bali, or holiday in the tropics. It's dry heat or plain old cold for me, I'm afraid. I was worried that I would slip off one of my patients last night, it was so hot, or that I would knock them out with my sweaty smell..... What's wrong with airconditioning, that's what I want to know....... More hot, sweaty rain to come, too..........

Has anybody tried to get a passport lately? Evidently, the marriage certificate that Beloved & I payed for 21yrs ago from the Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages is not legal proof of my change of surname. I need to apply to The Registry for a newly issued one, certified with new stamps & dates, that says the same thing, at a cost 0f at least $40+, mind you... bah humbug..... Evidently, the old ones may be fraudulent..... I said that if I had to have a new marriage certificate, then perhaps I should have a new spouse as well....... This was for Sboy's passport, not mine. I've never been overseas.... double bah humbug....

Anyway, I'm probably boring the pants off you. I'm off. I still have that damnable assignment to finish...... yep, the one that I've mentioned over that last few weeks, except now it's due in on Monday. Now people might understand when I say that I'm not a good candidate for a nursing degree by distance education... no ficus (I'm leaving that there, no focus either hahaha), that's me...... no photos either. How boring am I!!!!!

Have good weekend!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Jack, get back, C'mon before we crack.... lose your blues...

Morning All!

Yegods it was freezing yesterday! This weather has been so inconsistent & weird lately. I usually pack away all my winter clothes, but this year....... Today, there is miles & miles of blue sky, & the day is full of promise.

Great weather for washing!

Well, last week ended up being another of those weeks in the Blogmuggle household. Poor GG's abscess turned out to be a pilonidal sinus, which is basically a deep infection of a hair follicle in the natal cleft (aka the butt crack). These can be really nasty little suckers, that can reveal, of all things, a collection of hair & teeth deep within them. Yep, you read that right: teeth & hair deep within the recesses of one's butt crack.......

Anyway, after being unwell & in loads of pain on Sunday, the emergency doc "fixed" her up with some antibiotics on Monday & some advice that surgical drainage is often the only way that these things resolve, so be sure to come back in a few days... no advice on pain relief, though.

By Tuesday, GG spent the day nauseated & vomiting, spiked a mild temp & had stomach cramps as well. Poor chicken. Despite the antibiotics, the infection had spread, and was tracking an angry red further across her cheeks.

We attended the ED early Wednesday morning, the nurse in charge gave GG a shot of stemetil & sent us to wait see the emergency doc at the docs surgery, and said that she would probably see us again later when GG would be admitted for theatre on Thursday. You have to go & sit & wait to see the doc: there is none on duty at the hospital at any time, & they are called in when needed. So back to the surgery we went. We waited nearly 2 hrs to see the doc, who then referred us to the surgeon, so we waited another 2hrs to see him. Then we waited for paperwork, & headed back up to the hospital for GG to be admitted. Thank heavens that I had taken GG for the stemetil shot earlier.... The only position that she has been comnfortable in has been lying down, so she was laying on the floor in the docs until they cleared a bed for ther in the sisters' procedure area.

She was scheduled for theatre to incise & drain the feral butt crack sometime on Thursday. She went well, especially considering that it has been her 1st ever hospital experience, & that the last time anyone saw her butt was when she about 5.......... She came home late Friday afternoon after the horrendous experience of having her wound unpacked, washed then re-packed...... this is excrutiating for her, and it has to be done daily at the moment. On Friday, they had to give her a type of morphine tablet so that she didn't have to be scraped off the ceiling. Evidently, is very hard to access the natal cleft when the patient is all the way up there.
For Saturday's re-pack, she was sucking on nitrous oxide gas, which only just managed to take the edge off it the pain. Sunday it was done at the local hospital with just panadol....... hopefully, the community nurse can come and do it at home from today. Poor GG cries before they even touch her in anticipation of what's to come. She's always had pretty good pain tolerance: this had just rocked her. She knows that she needs to (Literally) get her head out of her arse, & find a happy place while it's being done, but is struggling with this. And one can't have clenched cheeks at a time like this........

Poor love. She remembers her manners though: she always thanks the nurse for putting her through the worst pain on her 19yrs....

She knows that this may go on for quite a while........ often, pilonidal sinus can take months to heal competely. She is very concerned about her "Homebake" concert on December 6.

Today, we'll plug some of her favourite music in her ears while it's being done............

At least I've got today off. I'm absolutely shagged after last week. With GG's going on & work, I feel as if I lived at Muswellbrook hospital last week. I had yesterday off too, but was too tired to do much else other than washing. Poor Beloved was tidying, moving stuff & sorting in the yard, & all I could do was watch...... Put me in a position less than 45 degrees from upright, & I start to drop off to sleep.....

Today will be better. I have plans.

Did anybody watch the Adam Hills special on ABC last week? Adam said that when we are happy, we tend to swagger a bit & drum our tummy. And in Egypt, the traffic is so bad, that when the frustation builds & becomes too much, people get out & dance on the roof of their cars to some Arabic-style "Footloose" music to release their tension.

Well, that sounds good to me.

I'm choosing to drum my tummy, and stand on the metaphorical roof of my car & dance my frustrations away.........

before I work for my last 6 days at Muswellbrook hospital before I return to Scone hospital.......

Have a good day everyone. Remember to tummy-drum & dance, even if it's only on the inside!

Cheers ;0)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

In a world of my own....

Morning All! I'm getting on the "point form" bandwagon:

Life is good. All the usual stuff (hiccups/dramas) in the Blogmuggle life.

  • Beloved is working too hard. He had a good day with his Mum on Sunday (his only day off) cleaning her ceiling fans & light fittings. He's going with his brother on a "blokes weekend" to Oran park in December, though. He wants us to finish the hallway & hang all the photos so that it's nice when his Mum & sister come up the Sunday before Christmas. I'm not sure we'll have time....
  • GG has been working at the petrol station, & spending as much time away from home as possible. This has been compromised at the present time as she is struggling with an abscess in an area that some may have experience with. She is very excited that she now has tickets to both Homebake and Soundwave.
  • SBoy had his Yr 12 formal on Thursday night. He looked very shmick in his suit, as did all the other young men & the girls all looked lovely, as usual. I can't find any photos of the formal.... nobody seems to have put any up on Myspace. Maybe these kids have a life or something .... I wish that more attention would be paid to appropriate underwear... quite a few frocks looked less "dressy" due to a lack of attention to suitable underwear! He was only in attendance long enough to be awarded his portfolio & commemorative glass, then he hopped into his car & drove to Sydney so that he could fly out to Perth early Friday morning. He's been riding in a Freestyle trials exhibition at a "burnout/car/rev-head" fest at Narrogin. He probably won't be home for Christmas as the team will probably head off to Jakarta for 3 weeks or so of exhibition work at a theme park.... I guess there's no chance of him ever making a crust & having fun on his motobike is there???? ... *snort* The owner covers all his expenses, and pays Sboy as well.....
My Dad says that Sboy should get his head down & get a trade first, then do "all this riding stuff..." . The way I see it, Sboy is only 17, really doesn't have too much interest in a trade at this point (& vice versa), and will have an aging body that won't allow him to do this sort of riding for any real length of time. You only live once. He's learning some valuable life lessons along the way as well. And as for the political unrest in Asia? Well, there's not too much I can do about that. We let our kids out loose on the roads in their cars & hang on the streets & and that's pretty dangerous too.

  • Vboy has become very mature. Actually, he's spent way to much time amusing himself of late. Beloved & I went to a works Dinner on Saturday night, & we had to leave Vboy at home with a mate. The pair of them ended up at another mate's place watching the "Scary Movie" series. He's the original latch-key kid these days. He gets himself up & readies himself for school, including making his own lunch. He's usually the first one home of an afternoon as well. I often feel a bit superfluous around here these days, but then I look at the mounds of washing, the messy house & the empty fridge & pantry, & I am reassured that I have a place in this family....... Vboy still loves to cuddle his mum, as well. And he always needs money for something.
  • Me???? I love my job. I am a little concerned that I have to look for a new contract come May next year, but there's going to be plenty to occupy me between now & then. I believe that this traineeship was given to me for a reason, & that nursing is where I am meant to be. My back has improved, but it will take a while to resolve the inflammation that is present. I'll probably always have problems with it, so my work practices will have to reflect this. Maybe I'll need to come & work with Twist with the little tiny patients.....
I spent Sunday with my Dad & an old family friend going through loads of old photos. "Aunty Dawdley" is such a character! She's one's one of life's real survivors; it's been a hard existence for her for sure, but she has a robust sense of humour & a remarkable outlook . She even discussed her funeral plans, which to me is incredibly important. I wish people were less afraid to discuss this sort of stuff: every other celebration in life is planned to the tiniest detail, but this greatest celebration of all is often left in the hands of grief-stricken & sorrowful people who are often unable to think straight. And it is really hard to think straight, believe me. Another old aunt decided to share her "after-passing" plans with me recently. I asked had she told any of her 5 (adult) children, one of whom was in the room with us. She said "no, she was telling me, so that it was done right..." I hope that I am around to honour her wishes. I asked to her write it all down, put it somewhere safe, and tell a few of the kids where she'd put it. I also asked her son (the poor man had buried his wife 6 weeks earlier) whether or not he had been listening, & he assured me that he had... thank goodness.....

Over last year, I have had a lot of exposure to the experience of death & dying, on both a work & personal level. I have developed a great respect for it all. It is an eventual reality for us all, isn't it. It is a hell of a lot less traumatic when the person is old, but still sad. I am quite comfotable with caring for the dying these days, & think that it is a priviledge to care for someone who is approaching the end of their days. Once the family/carers have accepted the fact that their loved one is dying, the most common comment seems to be; "we wouldn't put our pets through this....", or something along the lines of "this shouldn't take so long..... it's too hard ..."
It's a hard thing: when does:" intervention" stop? What is "comfortable"?..... What is "Dying with dignity"?????..

Ah well. That's a discussion for another day. I've blogmuggled my own post......

The washing machine is calling my name.....

Enjoy your day!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

He's so fine......

Hi guys!

No deep & meaningfuls from me today.

My back is on the mend, but by the time I finish my last shift on Saturday, it might be a bit rough. I need to get some Bowen therapy done to sort it out, I think.

I have to go over the road to sew Sboy's suit pants for his formal on Thursday night, this morning. I bought him a "Cheap" suit at Lowes, as the Lowes account is the only spare money at the moment: he picked the most expensive on e in the shop! I promised him that I would run in the legs to make it look a bit more "edgy"....... WHY DID I DO THIS?????? My sewing machine is dead, so need to use Gay's to do this. At least I get to spend an hour or so in the company of this lovely lady ;0)
He's not really that fussed about his formal, & had to be talked into going as he has to drive down to Sydney afterwards. He's going to cut his evening short, as on Friday morning he flies out to Perth to perform freestyle trials at a SummerNat-style weekend, then flies home again on Tuesday. Then next week, he & his mates have a schoolies week at Port Macquarie. What a life he has! There is also talk of him going to Indonesia over the Christmas-New Year period to perform at shows over there. Beloved & I have some reservations about this as a result of the unrest over there. We will see how things pan out.

I'm sure GG thinks that she has missed out, all because she can't ride a motorbike, & I'm wondering if Vboy thinks that all this sets the benchmark for him. All I know is that Sboy seems to have all the pieces fall into place for him. He even has had the local electrician ring him over the last few weeks to ask whether SBoy would like to come & give him a hand....
At least SBoy will get to wear his suit again Thurday week, as he has been invited to an awards night dinner as he has been nominated for Year 12 Retail Student of the Year by Hunter Youth Express! I hope that it doesn't clash with schoolies..... He was a bit excited when he told me yesterday!

Anyway, I'm going to load up the washing machine, & put on the recording of "Supernatural " from last night.

Have a good day!

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Blue skies smiling at me................

It's a beautiful Sunday up here in Wattle Grove.

Miles of blue sky & sunshine.

Beloved has been called in to work.

GG has had a sleepover, & will then go to work.

SB will be going to work.

Vboy has had a friend here since Friday evening, & is busy trying to get in some last minute PS3 skateboard action before SB takes his mate (and the game) back home to Muswellbrook.

I have miles of washing to do. And an essay to write.

All of this is difficult as I have "acute backpain", as diagnosed by Dr Tony on Friday afternoon. It started on Tuesday afternoon, I rested it all day Wednesday, then worked (I use this term very loosely: I am in deep gratitiude to my patients who were quite helpful in doing things for themselves to save my sore back) Thursday & Friday. I have been quoffing 6hrly nurofen plus, with little effect. The doc suggested that I continue this, but take paracetamol as well, rest, don't sit, walk for 5 mins every hour or so, and perform some wee stretches while laying flat on a hard surface............. Well, stuff me if it doesn't feel any better at all. And all the household crap still needs to be done, and I have 6 days straight at work this week....................... At least he bulk-billed me, gave me some free Somac so that the nurofen plus doesn't burn a huge hole in my gut & suggested that I could come back if it doesn't improve.

And it that it may last 3 days to three weeks.

Cool.

Only 16 days to go.

I think I'll need more Somac.

Got to go, guys. I can't sit here. It's too uncomfortable.

Have a lovely Sunday!

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

What a wonderful world........ oh yeah.......

Louis Armstrong crooned this in the funeral chapel on Monday towards the completion of PoppyDon's funeral service.

It pretty much summed up PoppyDon's approach to life.

His was a lovely service, with "no bullshit", as was PoppyDon's request. Overseeing the celebration of a life well lived was Annie Laurie. Annie is a retired nun(?), grief counsellor & representative of the "Make Today Count" organisation, which helps people with life-limiting & terminal illness. She is a genuinely caring, compassionate & honest woman, without the sleek oiliness that can sometimes be apparent in people who choose to stand out the front in church. She officiated at a funeral that PoppyDon had attended: he requested her presence for his own. He's always been a good judge of character.

It was a sad, yet positive occassion.

The first song that was played was for PoppyDon & NannyVal. Nat King Cole crooned "When I fall in Love"; it was a beautiful start, and the lyrics are true. When Don fell in love with 14yrold Valmai, he had to wait until her parents decided she was old enough to marry at 19. He really did mean that "it would be completely.... and forever" . And she was certainly worth the wait.

My Beloved delivered a heartfelt eulogy about his dad: I am so proud of him. <3, <3, <3.
10 grandchildren all stood up the front supporting each other as 3 grandsons & 1 granddaughter shared their thoughts about their Pop.

The grandsons then all walked their Pop out to the waiting hearse. It was good planning to have 6 grandsons, wasn't it? Actually, in 1992, 18yrold grandson, Michael, died in tragic circumstances, and PoppyDon told me that "he didn't like having an odd number of grandchildren, & could I please provide him with another grandson, please?" Of course, I was happy to oblige: Vboy is the result.

Over 200 people attended. A measure of the man indeed.

His favourite toast was "Happy Days". I can't recall him ever saying another.

Some other excerpts:

“Some people walk in and out of our lives
without making an impression…
Others stay a while and make the time
to leave footprints on our hearts…
and we are never the same again.”
SONIA BROWN © 2003

Donald John Kavanagh
Born: 18 July 1927 in Adamstown, NSW
Died: 28 October 2008
Aged 81 Years

• Don was the fourth born child to Jack & Molly Kavanagh and brother to
Patty, Veronica (Bubby), Del, Nola & John.
• Well Known as ‘Kav’ to his mates, Don was raised in Adamstown where
he completed school and served his apprenticeship as a motor mechanic.
• On the 13th January 1951, Don married Valmai and fathered four
children Owen, Kristine, Susan & Darren. He became grandfather to
Michelle, Michael, Justin, Keith, Daniel, Abby, Joshua, Sophie, Eloise,
Jack & Reece and great grandfather to Micha, Amelia & Mackenzie.

• After working as an NRMA Road Service Patrolman for most of his
career, Don semi‐retired and continued his passion of restoring motor
cars. Winning a number of awards for his efforts, Don was recognised as
a superior tradesman by car restoration clubs.

• Some of Don’s favourite expressions were; tops, beaut, immaculate and
“get your hands off my car”. The best of all expressions made by him
was “Happy Days”.
• Don was a keen sports enthusiast, with a particular interest for all sports
involving motor cars and motor bikes.

• Known for his optimism Don always saw the glass half‐full and was
happy to help his family, relatives and friends when in need. Don was
dignified, proud, loyal, fair, fun, a larrikin, positive, hard working and
happy.

• Always a gentleman and loving husband to Val, Don will be sadly
missed by his family and friends.

The programme won't let me copy the great photo of PoppyDon that is on the order of service, and believe it or not, there are no pictures on this computer. I've even been looking through my old posts as I know I blogged some after Pop's 80th birthday, but do you think I can find them: no way. I have written a lot of stuff, though........

Oh well, I'll find one later........

To quote a great man:

Happy Days!