Category Archives: Home Life

Time for some work on the old ticker …

Well after a night with not too much sleep – the beds here are like sleeping on an ironing board (not that I have done that before), it was time to get some exploratory work done.

The vampires had been work over night with more blood taken every 4 hours or so. I am not sure that there is any more to give.

During the morning, I had found out the name of my doctor, Justin Ardill and after some googling it showed that he wasn’t too bad a doctor but also owned a winery. Another doctor friend confirmed that he wasn’t too bad a doctor as well. 🙂

There were 5 patients today scheduled for angiograms, 3 private and 2 public and I was number 2 in the queue. The team didn’t get away from here til 2am and were now back again at 10am. Hopefully the are awake for me. 🙂

At a quarter to 12, I was wheeled in my bed to the OR – no walking around here. It wasn’t long and I was being prepped. Last night in preparation, I was shaved in 2 areas – my wrist and the nether region. The doctor checked my wrist and decided to go in there so that was a waste of manscaping down lower 😉

The team were all decked out in colourful lead coats – hey what about me.

It wasn’t long and the catheter was inserted into my wrist and you could see it on the big screen near my heart – I was awake for the whole procedure with some local anesthetic in my wrist and a sedative in my artery.

After quite a few injections of dye, a blockage was found on my right artery and a balloon and stent was inserted in through the wrist with the whole procedure finished just over an hour after being wheeled in. So at some point in time I have had a heart attack. It will be another couple of days when I found out the extent of the damage when an ultrasound is carried out.

Below are some happy snaps showing the blockage prior to the stent and what the artery looks like after the stent was inserted – quite a difference.

Those pains don’t feel too good …

I woke up this morning aching all over my chest and back. It felt like I had been doing the weight lifting exercise of my younger years but there hasn’t been any weights lifted for years.

Going back a few months to just before my 50th birthday and I undertook a big checkup with some things requiring looking at including cholesterol and weight. So then started the treadmill regime with 45 minutes / 4 kilometres each day. Over the next few months I had shed 8 kgs but each time I started, there were pains that I attributed to being unfit and worked through it.

That was until Thursday when I felt really bad and even though I recovered quickly, “muscular pain” persisted.

Fast forward to today and after waking up to the aches, I thought a chinese massage would be the go but on the way I thought a chat with the doctor might be a better option.

It was getting close to knock off time at the Medical Clinic and when I asked the receptionist to chat with a doctor, her reply was that “we normally call an ambulance for that”. I convinced her that it wasn’t that bad and I was soon chatting with the doctor.

After explaining my pains when exercising, his thoughts were with angina but it still needed to be checked out. A phone call to the Chest Pain Centre and I was booked in for an immediate admission. Now just how to get there.

I rang Jenny and she was still at Mt Barker for softball. A call to my brother and he was also on the way to Mt Barker. Finally I got onto Dad for the ride down. All said why not an ambulance and the doctor had said that it was not an emergency and even offered to take me when he knocked off.

On arrival at the Chest Pain Centre, I was the only customer so there was immediate attention. It wasn’t long before being hooked up to the “machine that goes bing” and some blood taken.

The results indicated that I had indeed suffered some sort of heart issue but would require more tests to determine the extent so the Cardiac Care Unit was going to become my home for the next 4-5 days. 🙁

February 12 of 12 …

After forgetting the 12 of 12 in January, I was not going to miss this month.

Today was an average work day with just a few meetings (even with a wrong date on the agenda) and some paperwork and no exciting incidents to attend. I did manage some exercise up and down the stairs between meetings. 🙂

There were some noises coming from the front of the car. One ended up being the siren speaker having come unattached from its mount which was quickly fixed by our work electrician. The second noise is a little more serious and will hopefully be fixed tomorrow by Nissan.

Once at home, it was time to get the recycling ready for tomorrows pickup and check that the parrots had left us some peaches (we netted the tree last night).

A giggle to finish the day with some Engrish instructions that arrived with some waterproof phone/GPSr pouches I received from an eBay seller in Hong Kong.

Another 12 of 12 is over …

November 12 of 12 …

Today was a quiet sort of day. Being a Monday meant that it was a day off but I didn’t have a lot planned for the day.

8:00 am was the time my on call for the weekend ended so off with the magnetic roof lights until Wednesday when I am on call again. It was then school drop off time, taking Rachael to Blackwood High School.

After getting a $1400 electricity bill, solar is starting to look attractive. Had the first salesman come to go through the options, get up on the roof then give me the price. Have another couple of companies coming around next week. I can see a lot of confusion coming with all the different options of inverters and panels.

It was time for some chinese massage time on the lower back – one day it will be normal again. A long overdue haircut then back home for a couple of toasted cheese sandwiches and a coffee for lunch as well as get some pathtags ready to post to the US.

Being a Monday meant that Rachael finished school early at 2:25 pm – they never seem to be at school. Bradley has already finished his last high school exam and is getting ready for Schoolies.

Last task for the day was an inspection on our rental property to see what cost I am up for for repairs. Seems to be a lot of electrical stuff with some plumbing and painting. Hopefully it isn’t too much.

That is it for November 12 of 12 ….

 

Ducks on the “Duck Pond” ….

Each year, once the swimming is finished at the end of summer, we let the pool “go” and then hit it later in the year just before the following summer ready again for the next swimming season. It saves a lot of money that way rather than maintain it all year round.

Around lunchtime today, Molly Dog was barking non stop for about 20 minutes. I just thought it was her barking with the neighbourhood dogs.

I went out to check and found that she had found some new friends that had decided to make our swimming pool their new “Duck Pond”

March 2011 – “12 of 12”

Doesn’t time fly – here it is again another 12th of the month.

Having had a Japanese Student (Yukari from Morioka), the happenings in Japan over the last 24 hours were of interest. Yukari was heading home to Japan today and with the Airports in Tokyo closed, it was unsure whether she would get home. We have had no contact with her parents since the Earthquake but this is more than likely because of no phones at the moment.

By midday, it was confirmed that Narita Airport in Tokyo had reopened so we bid farewell to Yukari and wished her and her family well.

This weekend being the Adelaide Cup Long Weekend, is also the Family Camp for the Blackwood Scout Group at Roonka. It is a great weekend away but I am also on call so Jenny took the kids while I stayed home with the dog (Molly) and budgie (Henry). Molly was hoping to go away as well and waited at the door expectantly while the car was packed.

Jenny’s travels up to the campsite were tracked with our Spot Messenger – unfortunately there is no phone coverage up at Roonka so I cant get here to turn it off now ……

With regard to on-call, I have been to 4 calls so far, so staying home has not been quiet although I have a lot of paperwork still to complete before next weeks, Clipsal 500 Motor Race.

There was a package waiting for me at the Post Office from overseas – it was my new pathtags to take with me on the Reno trip in 2 weeks.

Today is one of two Geocaching 12 of 12’s for the year, so I headed out this afternoon to grab a few caches:

GC25Y1W – Dead End

GC2N9A7 – Sitting A-Round

GC2MZ68 – Back to School: Craigburn

GC2MZ6D – Glen’s Dale

GC2NHWN – Reserve

GC2KW79 – Lovely Valley

GC2KJZE – Rocky Flagstaff

12 of 12 for February 2011 …

It is always interesting to see what the day will bring on the 12th of each month and today was another very different and varied day.

It started out with a visit to Lions Bargain Centre to drop off a couple of old stoves we had accumulated over the years. The Bargain Centre is where Lions Club members have provided the Blackwood community with the opportunity to “dispose” of their unwanted saleable goods which have been turned into cash and in turn donated back to many worthwhile local recipients.

Only problem was when I had loaded up the stoves and started to head off, one of the new tyres on the Fire Camry was flat. The tyre was not even a day old yet …. so out with the compressor and dropped off the stoves. Like lost things that are dropped off, you don’t even get them off the trailer and someone has bought them. It is a busy spot on a Saturday morning.

I busied myself with helping out the Australian Government by being a Tax Commissioner. In other words I started on the quarterly BAS statement where I work out what tax I have collected on behalf of the Government and send them a cheque. One day I should send them an invoice for the time it takes to collect the tax on their behalf.

It was then time to make my way out to Speedway City for volunteer duty on the Fire & Rescue Crew. Of course I grabbed a couple of caches on the way out and home as well.

It was a quiet night with small fields for most races until the novelty Ramp Jump Race where old cars with basically a roll cage head round the track going over 4 ramps while trying to stay upright and not catch fire. It is really a Demolition Derby with jumps. Even though we didn’t have any fires, there was plenty of rollovers and fuel spills.

The most spectacular part of the night was the sunset with red clouds away towards the east and orange clouds on the horizon to the west.

Until next month – I am on call on the 12th March so anything is possible …..

December 12 of 12 – nearly forgot …

If it hadn’t been for a tweat from Mundoo, I would have forgotten that today was the 12th of the month.

Today was a cruisy sort of day. Had to drop off Bradley at a friends house at Flagstaff Hill. This gave me a chance to grab a couple of caches and at the same time hide a Gnome from the GeGnome Project. The GeGnome Project is a Geocaching Australia caching game where 217 garden gnomes have been hidden around Australia and for the months of December and January get moved around by geocachers.

One of the Gnomes (Firesafe Hoe) I have hidden has travelled so far from Port Lincoln to Melbourne to Los Angeles to Memphis so is leading the ladder for distance. I hope he makes it back to Australia.

I have been out of action walking wise for a couple of weeks now due to a bad case of gout. Yes I have heard it all – getting old, drinking too much, etc., etc. It may be the old bit but not the drinking bit as I have been on call most of the last two weeks.

Today was the first day I have felt like walking so I decided to go for a walk in the Sturt Gorge Recreation Park to grab a cache – Marri Track.

Back home and the deck is now finished around the pool so I had the pool fence to go back up. I was ably supervised by our dog, Molly, although I think she was more interested in the birds and other dogs making noise around the neighbourhood.

Yesterday I attended a Pathtag Swap Meet which meant that I had about 50 pathtags to log today as well.

BBQ with family friends for tea, then once it got dark, time for our Xmas lights to spring to life. We then dropped Bradley off at his friends for a sleepover and took the girls Xmas Light spotting. The most impressive ones were behind the BP at O’Halloran Hill.

So ends the 12 of 12 for December. 🙂

Pine Tree Down …

For a number of years we have been waiting for this day. Our neighbour has a number of large pine trees on the boundary. They have always been an issue with the pine needles blocking gutters (so we removed them), filling the drains (regular drain cleaning) and now they are leaning our way.

The smaller of the three was taken out a number of years ago but the neighbours couldn’t afford to get the others out.

Bring it forward a few years and the second largest tree is deemed unsafe and the contractors have moved in to remove it.

It was planned to be a one day job but with the thunderstorms around the last couple of days it is now going to go out to a two day job.

Birds in the attic …

Was heading home from work last night when Jenny rang through saying there were no lights in the house with the RCD tripping and not going back on when reset.

We knew that we had some young birds in the roof space. We thought there was 1 or 2 birds in there. This is the second year they have been there but they were no trouble last year. The original plan was to let then grow and leave the roof as they had before.

This year was to be different. When I got home, I checked the attic and found where they had chewed through a Gyprock panel creating a hole 500mm x 100mm. Not only that I counted 3 young birds.

It was then time to start lifting off roofing iron to see what else they had been chewing. I removed 5m of roofing, to find about 20m of wires and 2 light fittings chewed to death.

The hardest part then was to find an electrician who would do the job. Many I rang told me Xmas time so it was a phone call to a family friend who hasn’t quite retired yet and three hours later at 9pm, the wires had been replaced.

Today was spent putting the roof back on after bird proofing it. Just after I got the roof back on, the parents tried to get back in but thankfully the bird proofing worked.

In the end, I found 6 young birds which have now been relocated to our local Fauna Rescue person who already is hand rearing 7 parrots. The birds were Crimson Rosella’s.