Of Sydney and Ankle Oddities

What a week! Tuesday saw me head up to Sydney for the day to fix parts of a poor neglected network before it completely crumbled. The work I needed to do went smoothly and without a hitch... it was just a bummer that it was in Sydney!

Now it's not a Melbourne-Sydney thing - I really do not like Sydney. I quite passionately dislike the place... and to top it all off this client has sites in Surry Hills and Castle Hill, so I have to drive in Sydney as well. Yuk! Not a pleasant experience - especially without a GPS!

There are a couple of things Sydney does have going for it, however. You can happily go about 20kms above the speed limit without anyone really caring; and when you need to change lanes or merge into traffic, drivers politely make room for you (that never happens in Melbourne!) On the flip side, your flights always seem to circle the airport for ages waiting to land; the roads are way too narrow; there are way too many one-way streets; and you can't turn right anywhere. Oh, and it is nice to return to Melbourne and have all the taxis yellow once again ;-)

And now for something completely different...

One thing that has bothered me for my entire life has been my right ankle. Pain. It stopped me doing activity of an impact nature back in school, and it's trying it's best to stop me training at the gym right now. The problem? Initially, Tarsal Coalition. I have 2 coalitions in each foot/ankle, and had surgery on one of the coalitions in my right ankle when I was 11 years old. They took out a 1cm cube of bone! Anyway, the surgeon did a very good job of the surgery (apparently) but a piss-poor job of post-op care, leaving me with a pinched nerve and osteoarthritis (not sure if I can blame the surgeon for the OA, but I can damn well try!)

Over the years I have had numerous cortisone injections (OUCH!!!!), pretty much all the nerve blocks you care to mention, physios, osteos, natropaths, accupuncture, myotherapy, and the list goes on... Nothing has helped much or for long. I have been doing some research on my own over the past few days instead of wasting my time on quacks (with my experinces relating to my ankle and endometriosis et al I really have little time for the medical profession!)

The results: textbook case of tarsal coalition combined with oseteoarthritis.

Armed with this knowledge, I can devise a plan of attack... which I have done & am editing as needed as I go along. Main things I have learnt and have put into practice that have really helped - at least one 20min session on my new TENS machine per day; a proper ASO ankle brace (not support) that I can wear all day; apply heat before an exercise session; apply ice after an exercise session. This 4 simple things have made the world of difference so far - and it is very early days!

Some people are incredibly rude!

Hubby took my car for a drive to Bunnings today - no problems there. While it was parked in the carpark, however, some idiot backed into it and over the bonnet. Must have had a jacked-up ute or something...

Anyway, nice big dents in my bumper and bonnet accompanied by deep scratches in the paintwork were the result and the idiot didn't even leave a note under the wipers saying "Sorry - here's my number."

That is just plain rude.

Unfortunately Bunnings don't have any video surveillance of their carpark so no luck there... I just have to put in an insurance claim and deal with the stupid brokers that we keep saying we'll move our insurance away from.

All in all a relaxing day ruined by an anonymous bogan (it was in Melton after all...) leaving me in a bad mood.

*sigh*

Paperwork Arrived!

It's here! It's real! It's really going to happen!!! I am actually going to have a "...Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy, removal of tubes and right ovary, treatment of endometriosis, Cystoscopy..." on 12 September 2011 at Epworth Hospital! I have asked so many times over the last 20 or so years for the doctors to just "cut it all out" and now my gynaecologist is going to do exactly that - cut it all out (except my left ovary). My nemesis - my right ovary - is going!!! The major source of my pain and sufferring, as far as we can determine, is being killed!!!

Hyster Countdown: 38 days!

The start of a new week... and month...

It's Monday again - but you guys already knew that... And it is the 1st of August! Already! But you guys already knew that too... Where has the year gone?! It is all moving a little fast for me - the girls are definitely growing up too fast for my liking but there isn't too much I can do about that. Just enjoy every moment I have with them now and savour the memories.

Six weeks to go. "To what?" I hear you ask. I have suffered from endometriosis and polcystic ovaries ever since I was about 15 years old and it has never let up. There is only one pain that I have experienced that was more painful than endo & PCO and that was when I literally smashed my wrist. Anyway, a hysterectomy has long been on my wishlist. In 6 weeks today, my wish will come true. I will finally be getting a hysterectomy.

Some of my friends are seriously considering having another baby. I'm looking down the barrel at the "end of my child-bearing years" forever, end of story, no more discussion, all over. Am I bothered? No. Not even a little bit. I'm perfectly content with my two beautiful girls - who were both difficult to conceive and infertility treatment isn't something I'd want to go through again! I'm actually looking forward to it. I will, finally (with a bit of luck) be pain free for the rest of my adult life. No guarantees on that as endo can be a bit of a bugger and hang around, and I'll still have one ovary that could play up, but odds are pretty good it will be "pain, pain, go away!"

The only thing I'm not looking forward to is not doing anything for 6weeks or so... I'm not even allowed to drive for the first 6 weeks post-op! I guess I get some serious bearmaking time :-)

Wordless Wednesday : Colours of Paint

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Piercing Little Kids Ears

As I arrived at school this afternoon to pickup the girls I was greeted by Leah exclaiming "I'm getting my ears pierced today!!!" Well, OK. News to me, but if you want, then that's cool. Abigail tentatively agreed to get hers done too - but reserved the right to change her mind.

We went to our local chemist as soon as we arrived home and Leah proudly announced she wanted her ears pierced and she was going to go first. All was going fine (after about 15mins of choosing just the right pair of earrings) until the first earring was in. Major meltdown time... Leah errupted and wanted the earring out and didn't want to get her other ear done, was crying and carrying on and was holding on to my arm so tightly that my fingers fell asleep!

While she was recovering from her meltdown, with me telling her she was not going home with only one ear pierced, Abigail got her ears done - one after the other, no crying, not even an "Ouch!" No problems - "That didn't hurt!" she proclaimed. Not to be outdone by her sister, Leah braced herself and quietly muttered "I'm ready" as she clinged desperately to me as her other ear was pierced. "That only hurt a little bit!" she announced loudly, causing us all to break out in laughter. I should mention that even when Leah was having her meltdown she had a massive grin on her face and stopped carrying on everytime we showed her the mirror...

Meltdowns over and ears pierced, the next 15mins or so was filled with the girls admiring themselves in the mirror and Leah chatting non-stop about getting her ears pierced, how it didn't hurt much, how brave she was and on and on - what a little drama queen! LOL! The walk home was slow - everyone along the way had to admire the girls' newly pierced ears and hear all about them just being pierced today. Lucky they are cute and the people around here are friendly and mostly parents of young kids!

The rest of the evening consisted of me getting them to listen to newly-pierced-ears-care-instructions, getting it through to them that they had to leave the earrings in for about 6 weeks so we weren't going on an earring-buying shopping spree right now, and assuring them that their earrings were not going to fall out. All the time they were admiring themselves in any reflective surface they came across - so cute!

My New Bear Label

As most of you would already know, I design and handsew teddy bears. I have a seperate blog for my bears and bear-related stuff, but I thought I would quickly mention that I have changed my bear label name (again... but this really is the last time!) to Tarradale Teddies. If you're interested, pop on over to the blog!