30 August 2008

Shhhhhh...

Can you keep a secret? You guessed it, I'm home. I only got home late last night so I'm going to spend all day today resting and getting back into being at home. Just to let you know it looks like the surgery was a success even with a slight complication a few days ago. I'll explain more in the next day or so. Thanks to everyone for their kind words and prayers, I needed them. Now it's time to do some more recovering. See you soon and for those of you in the states who are about to have a nice long weekend I say, Enjoy....

20 August 2008

Just when I thought it was safe...

Now the usual way to end that phrase would be "safe to get back in the water" but my phrase is going to be "safe to live normal again" So just when I thought it was safe to live normal again I find out I'm WRONG. It seems that after all the headaches, fevers, ct scans, and blood tests I have now found out that I will be going back into surgery this coming Friday (your Thursday in the states).

It seems that the surgeon is going to have to go in and repair a small tear somewhere in my spine because the tear is allowing CFS (cerebral spinal fluid, the kind they take out when they do a spinal tap) to leak out and it is creating this sac of fluid that is now pressing on the nerves that they recently freed up back in July. They will have to re-open the wound that is currently healing, find the tear and close it. They use a special glue to close it because they find that sutures don't always close the tear completely and this special glue does. They won't be doing any fixing or remove of things like they did the first time it is simply about closing the tear, draining the sac and relieving the pressure on the nerves.

I wanted to let everyone know where things stand. I also want to thank everyone for sending me your thoughts and kind words. I really appreciate each and everyone of your messages. Funny thing is and I may have written about this before but I feel funny about telling everyone about all of the drama in my life only because of the recent episodes with some bloggers that have created lives and situations that are not there own or real. I will tell you here and now that I would love to say this is all a big lie just for the fact that it would have kept me from having the first surgery and it would surely keep me from having surgery this Friday. I haven't even told you the implications of not doing the surgery and the fact there is I don't have a choice or should I say I do but I don't like the choice and that basically is do the surgery or risk losing all feeling in my legs and possibly the ability to walk. I figure I will go with the surgery.

Anyway, once again I'll be out of pocket for several days. I will try to read up on some of the blogs I normally read and you know who you are. I can read them using my phone. I won't try to post from my phone because I don't have the patience with all of the small keys. I'll say goodbye from Sydney for the time being and hopefully I'll be able to get access back to my computer at home on Wednesday. I'll let you know how things are as soon as I can. Fingers crossed for a positive post next week. Take care !

15 August 2008

Back among the living...

I'm here after crawling and clawing my way back to the land of the living. Seriously people the way I felt the past few days is so extremely horrendous, you have no idea. Now in saying that let me recap what you've missed because I know you are all waiting with baited breathe to hear about my recent illness. (You should all seriously look into getting a hobby, I'm not that interesting.) Anyway, for those of you that need/want to know, here goes. Beware this is a long post so don't say you weren't warned.

You will remember that on the last episode of (Tony Falls Crook) I was about to go see the doctor. Well when he saw me the first thing he said "Wow you look awful". Thankfully we don't have to pay for doctors visits here because if we did I sure wasn't going to pay for that brilliant diagnosis. After acknowledging his medical expertise I felt it best to fill him in on just how bad I felt to get me look so awful. He then proceeded to do what doctors do with the poking and the prodding. Next some lab forms with all sorts of blood test on them were handed to me and he also wanted me to have a CT scan of my abdomen and my lower back where I had recently had back surgery if you remember back in July.

So off I hobbled to the X-ray/Imaging facility down the block. Oh here's the best part I had to walk about two blocks and wouldn't you know it but it just so happened that winter had decided to make a grand showing on the same time with freezing temperatures, rain, sleet and snow all at once and all on top of my head. Guess who didn't have an umbrella? Anyhoo, I made it to the imaging place and handed the lady my forms. She in turn told me that this would take about an hour and a half and to have a seat as she would be right back with a nice little drink for me to ingest. Now you know as well as I do that this lovely concoction was far from lovely. It was not only tepid but it looked like pee and tasted like a mixture of lighter fluid, formaldehyde and lemonade (not that I've ever tasted such a combination before but I'm guessing that would be what that combination would taste like). I was to drink this concoction slowly over the next 30 minutes. I finished gaging my way through the entire 8 ounce glass just as she came out to get me to take me in for my scan.

The scan was harmless and pain free. She did initially want to inject me with the common iodine solution that they use to get a better picture. I had to tell her that she would not be able to do that as I am allergic to intravenous iodine because I tend to have an anaphylactic response to IV iodine and then I die. So we both decided it would be best that we didn't go down that road. Besides what the hell was all that crap I just drank for the past 30 minutes? As I said the scan was a breeze except for the cocktail. I got the pictures from the scan and headed to my next adventure on Ton's big day out.

I was off to the vampire's lair otherwise known as pathology to give them fourteen tubes of blood and two small bottles. Not only did I feel like shit but now they were going to attempt to take every last bit of life giving blood from my body. The people that take blood almost always hurt me. It wasn't always that way. Before 2000 I was a smoker and I weighed between 160 and 165. (I know, can you believe it?) and I had veins everywhere so getting a sample from me was easy. After 2000 I quit smoking and unfortunately I gained a little weight and a lot of my veins disappeared under a newly acquired layer of fat. (No I'm not going to tell you how much I weigh now) The blood letters now tell me it's difficult to find a vein. My husband you remember the one who works in the Emergency Department and save peoples lives every night, tells me that I have great veins and that they are just either lazy or bad at their job. Anyway, blood was taken, I was hurt and by now I was already to call the funeral home myself because I felt so over the whole ordeal.

James took me home I collapsed on the couch. Five minutes later the phone rings and it's the doctor wanting me to come back down to his office right then. I drag myself off the couch and off we go down to his office. As a side note the weather has not gotten any better by this time in fact it's gotten colder and the combination of what was falling was getting heavier, but I digress. We find a parking spot and get to the doctors office where he tells us the results of the scan. It seems that there is a lump of some sort that has developed next to the area that I had recent surgery. They believe that it is a collection of fluid and they need to stick a needle into the area to drain off some of the fluid. They then can send the fluid off to see if it is infected and if it is it would explain the temperatures and everything else I had been feeling. At the same time by draining some of the fluid and releasing some pressure from the area I should get some relief from the pain coming from my back. On the other hand it might be possible that the growth could be something entirely different and that it might mean I would have to have surgery again to remove it.

By this time I'm beside myself as I'm not good with people stick big needles into me and stabbing around hoping to hit the right spot. I agreed to do the procedure as it had to be done. My doctor had a look from the outside and then he said he wasn't comfortable with finding the right spot and he didn't want to cause me any unneeded pain. He said it would be best to have the fluid/sample removed with the help of an ultrasound to locate the exact spot. Once again forms were filled out and appointments were urgently made. It was 4:00 at this point. The appointment was made for 5:30. James and I went back home so I could lay down for a bit before we headed down to the ultrasound. The test was performed with no pain as they numbed the site and the sample was taken however there was no fluid to be found. ??? Instead we ended up taking a small sample of gelatin like substance over to the after hours lab and then went home to collapse.

To make a long post short. every test has come back normal. We are still awaiting a few result from the sample taken from my back but at the end of the day everything is pointing to some type of viral infection. I am going to Sydney next week for a review by my surgeon and my neurologist. We hopefully will get some more information up there in reference the thing that has developed in my back. As for me currently all of a sudden as quickly as it came 7 days ago what ever attacked me left and I'm feeling fine. As I said they will still need to decide what to do with the growth and I imagine that they may require another MRI. All I know is right now I feel fine except for the fact that my fingers hurt from typing this post. I will now put this to an end so that you may tend to your bleeding eyes.

12 August 2008

Still not well...

I'm going to see the doctor this morning because I'm still not well. It's very strange, as I have a day in between when I feel fine like yesterday but last night I woke up and the headache and the fever had started all over again. I even reached an all time high on the fever this morning coming in at 39.1C (102.4F). I did finally get that high temperature to break and I'm down to 37.7C (99.9F). So anyway, I just thought I'd let everyone know what's happening and I'll let you know later what I find out from the doctor. Take care one and all...

10 August 2008

Bug version 2...

Well just when I thought it was safe to get back into the swing of normal life I receive a return visit from the bug that hit me a few days ago. I was just fine until late last night (Saturday) and the fever returned along with the stabbing headache. The fever was not high but high enough to be noticed and the stabbing pain was not as intense as the previous episode. When is stabbing pain in your head a good thing? Anyway, as the evening drew to an end and I dragged myself off to bed at which time my fever was up to 38c (100.4F). Around 3:00 this morning I was awoken by a very, very, very sharp pain in my head and I had to go take some more pain medicine. Lucky for us we can get Nurofen (ibuprofen) over the counter with codeine in it and lucky for me we had some in the house. (ps we can also get panadol (tylenol) with codeine in it over the counter too I'm just sayin') My fever had gone up to 38.1c (100.6). I know that the fever was not that different but apparently it was enough to aggravate the pain So, I'm off to bed now and I think I'll sleep the rest of the day. If I can't enjoy my weekend I hope that you can enjoy yours. Enjoy!

9 August 2008

Under the weather...

Hello peoples... I usually have an excuse for not putting up any posts, something to the effect that I don't know what to write, I've been really busy etc., but in the end I'm just being lazy. This time it's a combination of all the above with a dose of I've been sick. It seems that I was sideswiped by an evil virus, probably sometime on Tuesday when we were out running errands. You know it's a risk we all take when ever we go out into some common grounds where a variety of people gather such as the mall, department stores, restaurants etc. Sometime and somewhere during our outing someone had the audacity to cough my way, touch me or I touched something they touched and in doing so I picked up whatever it was they were sharing.

On Thursday night (your Wednesday in the states) I was feeling just fine. My other half was going to have his weekly massage and that would mean a late dinner (9:00pm). Anyway, I told him to call me as soon as he was on his way home and I would start dinner. Now at about 6:30 I started to get a headache which is no big deal except I don't usually get headaches. I also felt a bit warm. We took my temperature and it was not very high (37.5 = 99.5) but maybe high enough for me to notice. My husband told me to keep an eye on it while he was gone. He left at 7:15 for a 7:30 massage. By 8:15 I could hardly stand up because the pain in my head was so bad. My fever had risen to uncomfortable levels 38.8 (102) The headache became like someone was stabbing me in the head with and ice pick I was otherwise fine, no vomiting, diarrhoea or any of that bad stuff

It was off to bed for me with lots of water and panadol (Tylenol in the states). I slept restless all night due to the fever and the pain. I stayed in bed all the next day Friday (your Thursday) and then as qucikly as it came it left. The fever broke around 5:00 pm and the head stabbing abated. So here I sit typing this early on Saturday morning. My temperature is normal but I still have this residual pain in my head in so that if I move my head up and down to fast I get one quick short jab of pain so I tend not to move like that if I can help it. James says it probably a little left over from the virus and also a little dehydration from the fever. Needless to say I sort of actually had an excuse for not writing this time but it was hardly worth it. I guess I'll live

4 August 2008

Reading is fundamental...

Well it's another meme ans this one is all about books. The 100 books on this list are what some would deem as must reads and some are considered classics. I'm afraid to say that I have only read 16 out of 100 and one of those I never finished. I must note that # 4 is a total of 7 books and #36 is one book out of 7 so to be fair I have actually read 29 books.The funny thing is I love to read. I have two shelves full of books in our bookcase that I need to read. I suppose I like more contemporay writers. Anyway, I must give credit as I stole this from here and other than that you may see how you do with the list and have a look at how miserabley I've failed in my reading fundamentals.

Look at the list and bold those you have read.
Italicize those you read part of but never finished.
Underline the books you LOVE.
Strike though those you hope to never read again, and sometimes wish you could un-read.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible

7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (The Tempest, Measure for Measure, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, All’s Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night / What You Will, Henry IV, part 1, Henry V, Richard III, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth,Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline)

15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20. Middlemarch - George Eliot

21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34. Emma - Jane Austen

35. Persuasion - Jane Austen

36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell

42. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50. Atonement - Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72. Dracula - Bram Stoker

73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses - James Joyce

76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt

81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94. Watership Down - Richard Adams

95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

3 August 2008

Friday Night at the Movies (on Saturday)...

Okay as I mentioned earlier here are the Friday Night at the Movie quotes a day late and a dollar short (what ever that means).

"If my dog was as ugly as you, I'd shave his ass and teach him to walk backwards."

Character: Max Goldman
Played by: Walter Matthau
Movie: Grumpier Old Men

Your turn

"Poor Winston's idea of foreplay was, "Brace yourself, Effie."

Character:???
Played by:???
Movie:???

Last weeks answer


"I hope you bring the cocktail sauce. She's got the crabs and I don't mean Dungeness."


Character: Mrs. Euphegenia Doubtfire
Played by: Robin Williams
Movie: Mrs. Doubtfire


Enjoy...

2 August 2008

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3...

I read some where that Blogger is stopping people from posting due to some spambot technical malfunction thingymajig or something like that. Anyway, I just wanted to see if this thing was working and it looks like my end is working okay. Sorry to hear others are having trouble. I hope they get their's fixed soon. OK well, I can get onto my regular Friday Night at the Moves post which I forgot to post earlier. It will be a day late and a dollar short. So sue me. I'll post it in a little while.