First of all . . . M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S E V E R Y O N E ! ! !
Wowwww, this update is really overdue, but I didn't realize just how badly it was till just now (I haven't really wanted to look either LOL!). It's Christmas Day already!!! So although this is a Christmas day update, it will only have things that have happened UP until Christmas. I will do another update soon that will have a report on Christmas Day itself, OK (LOL!)
So . . . in terms of Mum's health, it has been a case of no news being good news, and that is a good thing. Yep, I am happy to report that she continues to cruise along quite able to deal with the pain that does seem to appear now and then in her right (amputated) leg without painkillers of any sort, by throwing it over the side of the bed and letting it hang there. Not totally sure why (though I think it might connected to her kidneys like the doctor does, and this action could open and stretch her abdomen, and allow any gravel there to pass more easily), but it works. :)
She occasionally cancels her weekly trip to the hairdresser due to lack of energy, but those times are quite rare, and she still won't have a TV in her bedroom where she spends most of the time, because she prefers listening to either ABC classical FM or the local ABC talkback radio, or reading. Crosswords seem to have passed by the wayside due to the collection of dictionaries she uses being too heavy to lift and open, and the need to use the internet more and more to find the answers to the clues because the dictionaries dont seem to have them any more, and her aversion to computers LOL! One of the highlights of her day is the board game we play each night. We have a few we can choose from, but we usually play Yatzee. I have to admit, she does have fun and is a better loser than me, but I am working on that. :)
Ok, thats the health report done . . . so now to share some of the more interesting things that have unfolded in my world in the last few months. Ok, it was my brother Phil's birthday on the 6th October, and we celebrated with a BBQ out at the farm. Shellie even went all out and got a professional cake made for the occasion . . . its not hard to guess what one of his favourite past times is . . .
Then, a little over a month later, we had another birthday cake for Alison's 81st birthday.
We celebrated that with her with a birthday dinner at the Tolga Hotel.
Ok, moving ahead in time, we come to a visit definately worth mentioning. Mum really does like people visiting, and every year, one of Mum's close friends, Patsy Hannam gets together with her four sisters (Adler, pre-marriage), and they always come and visit Mum as part of their activities.
And finally, I had to include a pic of a beautiful Golden Orb we have living on our downstairs verandah. She lost a leg sometime in her journey, but she is a real beauty. :)
Ok, thats is for this post. I didn't quite finish it before we headed out this morning for Christmas lunch at the farm (followed by the traditional waterfight with the backpackers from down Channel Road), and so I have had to do it after we returned from out fun-filled Christmas Day . . . but all that we got up to will be included in the next update, and I will do that when I get back from my two week holiday in Victoria. I fly down tomorrow (26th) and return on the 10th of January. Woooooo Hoooooo!!! Ciao for now . . .
Greetings from torpical North Queensland :). Yes, an update is definately overdue, but I am happy to report that once again, in addition to my slackness, it has also been a case of no news being reasonably good news, when it comes to Mum's health. I say reasonably, 'cause generally, it (her health) has not been as good as it was in the last update. Her right (amputated) leg has been giving her more grief than the occasional annoyance, and has resulted in doctor's visits for the pain on a couple of occasions. He (her doctor) thinks the pain is being referred from her already weak kidneys, and the idea of grit/particles being eliminated from time to time causing the pain does seem to fit with the unpredictability and inconsistancy of the problem.
Sadly, it seems, in her case, that pretty well all medications with serious enough pain reducing capabilities to take the pain in her leg away, also muck (block) up her digestive system, and some, like the liquid morphine variety, result in her throwing up on and off for the whole next day after taking it, so she is often quite reluctant to take anything at all, which results in some nights of very little sleep as she sits up, dangles her leg over the bed, massages it, and does pretty well anything she can think of to ease the pain so she can get to sleep. Occasionally she gets me up in the early hours to heat up a wheat bag which seems to help at times.
But look, I don't what to give you the impressions that life is living hell for her, as it is far from it. The problem really is irregular, and seems to pop up out of nowhere, and no matter how many times Mum thinks she has worked out the problem and how to best deal with it, the next time it occurs always proves her wrong. If you spoke to her right now as I write, she would tell you she is great, because she has just had a pretty good week, and a wonderful 81st birthday (yesterday, 26th), and I am very pleased to be able to share a few pics that highlight this.
I took the pic above on the first time since 2006 that Mum visited Babinda, the town where she and Dad lived for many years, and where my brothers and I grew up. It was also the first time she had been back there since losing her leg, and that fact did evoke some hesitation in her. But the occasion was an extremely positive and uplifting one, and any fear she may have been feeling was quickly melted away by the very nature of the visit.
You see, she had been invited by Dad's ex pharmacist business partner Fred Lizzio, who still runs the Munro Theatre in Babinda to watch (on Sunday 18th July) Andre Rieu (who always makes her feel wonderful) in a live-streamed concert from Maastricht in the Netherlands. Since being badly damaged in cyclone Larry, insurance payouts and government grants enabled the theatre to be repaired/upgraded with all the latest digital projection equipment, and it is now able to show movies in full 3D AND host live streaming events like this concert, via a satellite link.
On top of that, several friends new she was coming and came down to the theatre to see her before the show as well. From left, in the pic above, you can see her friend from Atherton, Meg, who had come with us at Mum's invitation, and then her Babinda friends May Jago to her left, Patsy and Chris Hannam behind her, and Betty and Wes Richardson to her right. Yep, I've written so much about the theatre, you'll probably have to scroll back up to see them . . . LOL! :)
One Sunday later, on the 25th July (the day before her birthday) we took Mum to the International Club in Atherton for a birthday lunch. From the left, in the pic above, we see Phil, Simon, Doris, Alison, Shellie, Harley, who were all there to celebrate Mum's 81st birthday, and the birthday girl, herself. Yep, I'm not in it 'cause I took the photo LOL! Naturally, there was a birthday cake . . .
The following day was a really wonderful day for Mum, as she was inundated with flower deliveries, cards arriving in the mail, a visit from a past Babinda neighbour, Pam Schultz, who shared lunch with us (forgot to get a pic), and a seemingly endless number of phone calls, resulting in her only complaint for the day . . . her hand going numb from holding the phone for so much of it LOL! She wanted a pic of all the flowers and cards so I gathered them all together, and took this one . . .
Well, that's it for this update. Did I forget anthing? Probably, but, you got the best of all that has unfolded up here at the Atherton Ackland's place since the last update, and so . . . until the next one . . . ciao :)
Morning rainbows are a great way to start the day . . . but more on them later, 'cause I want to begin with the usual health update. Mum is reasonably stable and relatively free from any sort of consistent suffering, though she is quite fragile, needs oxygen every now and then, and has had a few angina attacks recently after waking from scary dreams in which she is being chased. Her right leg (the amputated one) was very painful for some reason last Sunday night (30th May), so she had a dose of Ordine (liquid morphine) to ease it (and so had a great sleep as well), but then the next day (Monday 31st) she vomited several times throughout the day as her body attempted to get rid of the morphine.
The same thing used to happen for the first few days of going on, or increasing, her pain patches, as the body is simply not used to it, and so like a lot of the drugs she takes, it always seems to always be a case of weighing up the pros and cons (side effects) of each of them. I put an anti-itch lotion (Animine lotion, with 1% menthol added by the chemist – an old recipe that Dad used to have made up for himself) on her back every night to ease an itchiness which we presume is a side effect of one of the drugs. It always gets worse whenever she goes onto a course of antibiotics for bladder infections, or the like, which happens from time to time.
Still, her suffering is a lot less than when I first came up here, when she had painful ulcers on her remaining foot and was on pain patches to deal with that, and she still has plenty to live for with an abundance of love of friends and family in her world, and lots of interesting conversations/topics on the ABC radio. She does need to rest for a lot of the time, but refuses to have a TV in her bedroom, and she still enjoys getting her hair washed and set at her hairdressers most Wednesday mornings.
Whenever I take her to the doctors for a warfarin level blood test, she also enjoys going for a coffee at the local coffee shop after it, and then to check out if Millers (a dress shop next door to the coffee shop) have any new items of clothing she might like. She even buys some occasionally. Ok, now on to some of the interesting things in our world since the last update. One was a visit by one of Mum's old (yes, old as in age, but also in terms of length of time they have been friends LOL!) friends, Pauline Gilbey (below, with Mum) the Saturday before last (22nd May).
On the afternoon of the same day, we went out to the farm (for a few hours anyway) for a "Boob's Off" party. My brother Phil's wife Shellie goes into hospital tomorrow (2nd June) for an operation to have her second breast removed after the first was removed last year due to breast cancer, and this party was one of the ways she is dealing with the loss . . . sort of looking it square in the eye, not hiding the problem away somewhere, and making as light of the situation as possible. As you can see (below) she had a little help with this . . .
There was even a beautifully made & iced cake made for the occasion . . .
The following day (Sunday 23rd), I took Mum out to the 80th birthday party of another of her friends Lorna Jackson, who is the wife of an old (as in from a long time ago) boyfriend of hers, George. Mum is the one in the wheelchair on the right in the pic below, and you can just see George over to the left reading out the tribute he had written for Lorna to celebrate her birthday . . .
Speaking of birthdays, Shellie had hers last Friday (28th May) and Mum and I took her, and her mum Alison, and her friend Paula, and her son Harley, and DJ, Harley's friend, to a birthday lunch at the International Club the following day. Phil was working and couldn't make it, but everyone seemed to enjoy the food and the company.
And now finally . . . I get to the morning rainbows. Mum's room gets sunlight in the morning, so I have hung my faceted crystal ball in there near the dooray to catch the sunlight as it streams in in the morning and do what it does best - refract it into the room and create little rainbows all over the walls and ceiling. I took a quick video of them one morning, and here it is . . .
And one last thing . . . for those who did not see the winner of the European Song Contest, it's Lena, representing Germany, with "Satellite". It's a bit of a crazy/quirky love song, but this 19 year old German girl sings in English and has the weirdest accent. It's kinda cute, and probably was that "X" factor that resulted in her winning the competition. Enjoy . . . and blessings to all . . .
Yep, I sure am . . . but more on that in a minute LOL! I just noticed it's almost been two months since the last update, and I can hardly believe it. Time seems to be moving soooooo quickly these days, but I'm also happy to say that it has been a case of "no news being good news", particularly in terms of Mum's health. She is cruising along really well, with very little discomfort in her world at all, despite still feeling pretty weak generally and still needing oxygen at times after she exerts herself a little. So all's good there :)
"Ok, ok, who is it that I'm in love with", I bet you've been wondering LOL! Well . . . let me tell you about her . . . she's beeeaautifullll!!!! . . . she's absolutely exquisite . . . she's just about as deep as they come . . . with a thirst-quenching cool clarity that sort of evokes inner peace and tranquility just being in her presence. She is truly a perfect example of the archetypal femminine . . . and she's a little bluey-green in colour too :) No . . . she's not Naytiri out of the movie Avatar, but rather . . . she's a lake . . . Lake Eacham, to be precise LOL! Had you going there, didn't I :)
It's funny, you know, she's been there, just 15 minutes away from Atherton, for all the two years I have lived here, but I never really saw her, nor appreciated how extraordinary she is. That was until a friend, Lesa, took me out there one day for a walk around her (3 km) followed by a very refreshing swim in her crystal clear waters. I remember thinking as I walked "Wow this track is so beautiful that I can even imagine jogging around it every now and then without finding the exercise boring", and later as we relaxed in the soothing water I knew there could be no better way to cool off after a run than to bathe in this water. It was literally only days later that I began to see this wonderful lady as regularly as possible, and begin to find myself "in love" with her :) Thankfully, getting away for a couple of hours in the afternoon works fine with Mum, so it's a win/win for everyone :)
Anyway, I went there one morning, and using my phone, I made a few videos of her to share with you. The first one (above) begins at the top (the right side looking at the lake) of the main swimming area at one end, and heads a little way up the circuit track that I jog on. The second one (below) begins at the left side looking at the lake above the main swimming area and moves down the boat ramp a little way before heading over to one of the entry points (into the water) of the main swimming area.
The third one, below, heads down a track to the left of the boat ramp to the pontoon, and you get to look back at the swimming area from there. One of my favourite things to do is to paddle a couple of hundred metres out into the middle of the lake on a noodle (one of those brightly coloured foam plastic flotation devices that look like a giant straw and work brilliantly in keeping my head above water without any effort on my part LOL!) and just take her all in. It's a very meditative, and relaxing, and calming, experience, and it fills me to overflowing with gratitude for just being right there, right then, in such a fabulously beautiful place.
So . . . if you have one of those "100 things to do before I die" lists, make sure you add a swim in Lake Eacham to it . . . 'cause it's definately something I'd love to share with YOU . . . sometime in our future :)
Well, an update is definately due, but there is not a huge amount to share, due to things cruising along pretty smoothly all round. But firstly, 'cause I have not done it yet, I want to wish each and every one of you the most fabulous Twenty Ten imaginable. May you be filled to overflowing with unconditional love for yourself & others, and may you be blessed with everything you would like to experience here in 3D . . . and more :)
I know we (North Queensland) have been in the news a bit with two cyclones dancing around each other, then with each other, then around each other once more before transforming into rain depressions pouring copious quantities of H2O onto the land, and keeping the weather forcasters on their toes, but honestly, Atherton has not really felt much of them at all, and it has felt no different to any other wet season to me. On the positive side, EVERYTHING IS GREEN AGAIN! Woooooo hoooooo LOL!
Healthwise, Mum is fairly stable, and her complaints (headaches every now and then, and her amputated leg playing up from time to time), have been well outweighed by her enjoyment of life here in 3D. The 12th of January (the anniversary of Dad leaving his body) did bring up memories and provided an opportunity to grieve his passing a bit more, and at Mum's request we submitted an "In Memoriam" classified into the Cairns post, which I have included here . . .
One highlight since the last update was the Hannam's & Moore's visit. Here they are with Mum below, and Mum got to meet Maximo Moore for the first time. Maximo is the one biting furiously on her Mum Rosie's finger (teething no doubt). Peeking around between Rosie & Rosie's husband, Tom (Moore) is Rosie's Mum, Patsy, with her husband Chris (Hannam) looming happily (he does enjoy being a grandfather) above. Now was that confusing, or what LOL! Hopefully not too much so :)
And thats about it for this update. Thanks for reading . . . you make submitting updates worthwhile LOL! And thanks for being you, cause this world would simply not be the same without you in it :)
