28 April: Readings & Comments

5.5  /  99  Fasting         07:23:32  
7.7  / 139  Pre-Bfast       08:48:38  
7.7  / 138  Post-Bfast      11:23:47  Crumpet w/ peanut butter
4.9  /  89  Pre-Lunch       13:16:44  
5.8  / 104  Post-Lunch      15:57:49  2 crumpets w/ sf maple syrup, 1 egg & bacon
5.1  /  91  Pre-Tea         18:12:47  
7.7  / 139  Post-Tea        20:16:35  homemade buffalo wings

Nothing much new. I'm still having daily dressing changes done by the RDNS nurses. It's been raining the last three days and it's great as we haven't had a good steady rain in a long long long time.

I've installed Amarok and have been having fun rating my music collection and checking out the program. I quite like it.

Whoo Hoo! Samba & Network Printer... ALL BY MYSELF!

Well the title gives it away.... but before noon today, I'd managed to get Samba going securely so that on our windows machines when we connect to my Linux box it requires a user name and password just once, but allows access to our individual home directories (for the person logged in ONLY) plus the other few folders we mutually use. The test area for websites in development, our music, and downloaded files.

And then not more than half an hour after that success, I was happily looking at the test page print out. The printer is connected to my Winblows laptop and accessed via the network from Rod's computer and as of today, from mine as well. Yes! I have a printer again. For the longest time I was saving files and accessing them from the laptop to print. No more extra steps for me!!

I reckon those two things were the highlight of the day. The rest of today I've just been mucking around and setting up various things to make my life easier. Amazingly, the one thing I had to search for today was an Email notifier. I've been using GKrellm, but most of it's functions take up less space by using the Gnome panel applets (little mini programs that run on the top panel of my desktop). But it also has a mail notifier that I've used for years and so I needed something to replace it on the panel. I did finally find one. Gnubiff, if you're interested. It has a cute little penguin that sleeps until mail comes in. Now I'm waiting for an Email to come in to test it. Where's the damn spam when you want just a test message, eh??

24 April: Feisty Fawn & Getting it Together

In my last post, I whinged about things not making sense with getting the data off my glucose meter. Well tonight I realised what was wrong. Somehow my monitor's date got set for a day ahead of the current date. The PC software that came with it is stupid and only wants to know about dates that are current and not in the future. OK, so I suppose that's the way it's programmed, but a good program should have told me my meter had dates in the future that it wasn't going to import. At least then I would have had a clue. I only discovered this when I wrote down all 25 readings on the meter tonight before importing the data and then marking the dates on each. So I tricked the software by changing the date on my laptop to tomorrow's date so everything would get imported from this batch of readings. Then before importing to the database that shows everything on the web page, I manually adjusted the date. Pity I didn't notice about the times until later... at some point I changed the setting on the meter to use 12hr time. Big mistake. It got it's AM and PM confused and so I had a bunch of 6am readings I marked as 'fasting'. Turns out those were probably my pre-tea readings. So have put the monitor back to 24hr time, and after uploading the data and making sure I hadn't lost anything, I deleted the data on the meter so my next readings should have the right date and time. I'll have to keep an eye on it though - the date & time could be getting changed inside my case when I've got it in my purse.

The reason why I had 25 readings on the meter is because 1) I was afraid to try downloading the data after last weeks fiasco, and since last Friday, I've been otherwise occupied with installing Ubuntu's Feisty Fawn on my computer. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution, and I've heard and read lots of good things about it, and I was a bit annoyed with my previous distribution - Debian - since it hadn't been updated for so long. I had quite a few issues I hoped that Feisty would resolve for me. For example, I have a 4 port USB port, but none of the ports have worked with Debian for months now despite my attempts to resolve the problem. I knew it was a software thing because I could use a 'live' Ubuntu CD and have access to the USB ports without a problem. So it wasn't the hardware. I also had problems with my Email software, Evolution. I couldn't upgrade it on Debian due to library issues and it had bugs that were fixed in newer versions but not being able to upgrade meant I just had to deal with the bugs as best I could. Most of the time it just meant closing and reloading the program, but you shouldn't have to do that several times a day.

So Friday, I stayed home to be a geek. My first order of business was to make backups of my essential files. Unfortunately this took most of the day but those backups have been a good investment as they've saved me heaps of time in getting things back to how I like to have my computer set up. I didn't finish backing up to DVD/CD until about 10pm Friday night and then started an install on a USB Hard Drive. It took ages and then it turned out as I finally sorted out on Saturday morning that my computer BIOS says I can boot from the USB HD, but reality says 'No'. So I installed on my computer, and actually made it so the drives I didn't want formatted weren't visible or 'installed' so that I didn't have to worry about losing Gigs of music and downloads. That went much smoother and faster.

My next order of business was to get mail set up. I'm not a typical user. I don't just have my mail program do a POP3 poll for mail on the server. Oh no, I had to install Exim4 (a Mail Transport Agent), procmail and fetchmail so that I could have the same arrangement as I've been using. Fetchmail uses Pop to go out and get mail for me from my main server at VCSWEB and also my Yahoo account, and then passes the mail onto Exim4 which is a mail server, and that in turn looks to procmail and my procmail filter file to sort my mail into various folders (and I have a LOT - all neatly organised). This actually went quite well as I had my previous mail spool and all my folders copied over. The nice thing is once everything is set up (in the right order) and running, it's all done behind the scenes. Fetchmail runs as a daemon and every 5-10 minutes goes out and collects the mail and the other programs just deal with it for me.

Where I ran into problems was in copying over my older config files for Evolution (my mail program). Some how the file permissions were wacked and I actually CRASHED the computer (something that only happens very rarely with Linux) when I tried to convert an Email to a task (what a cool thing to have as an option!) and the task directory wasn't writeable. Everything has worked fine once I fixed the file permissions on like every file in my home directory (so it seemed).

I was able to easily work out what I needed to do to get my webcams working on the new system. It only required one line in the /etc/modprobe.d options file. I had jotted down the two key pieces of information (card number and tuner type) from my old system which saved me hours of trying to figure it out again as we've been through this exercise a few times in the past.

The only snag was that when I rebooted after making the change, somehow the system lost my 'window manager' (metacity) and that made it so I only had one window to work in, and there were no tops on program windows so I could resize or move them and things like alt-tab didn't work to switch between windows/running programs. I found the answer to the problem using Google and fixed it. I had to add metacity to the list of files that get run when I log in and then re-log in. Worked a charm. I'm sure a newbie wouldn't have been able to work that one out though.

The very first bit of software I installed was mc (midnight commander) as I'd be lost without it. Basically it's a file browser that runs in text mode, and shows two directories at once so you can copy from one to the other etc.. It has a lot of built in things though like a text editor and you can look into archived files with it, copy files from archives to where ever and run all kinds of commands on files. The only thing is that I use it both as root and as 'me' but Ubuntu doesn't have a root login, so there's no home directory for root. This means that the configuration settings for mc (like being able to store frequently used directories to get to them quickly) keeps disappearing for either user (me or root). I have to admit the graphic file browser that comes with Ubuntu is quite nice, but having screwed stuff up in the past with graphic file browsers, I tend to use mc instead as it's safer -- for me.

I'd wondered if my little script that I found online to make the backgrounds change every few minutes would work with Ubuntu but no worries. So I have all my nice family photos and other neat pics as my background and it changes every 5 minutes or so.

I'm also a bit weird. I don't mind using Gnome, but there are certain KDE programs that I must have available. KDE and Gnome are desktop managers - each are different and come with their own base programs. For web design work, I prefer to use Quanta which is part of KDE, and I also prefer to use Konsole for my term (this lets me type commands and use MC and such). Gnome's term uses different key strokes for certain things and it messes up my ability to use mc which uses the F-keys and Esc key for many of it's functions. I didn't have any problems installing either Quanta or Konsole, and was pleased that it didn't like it had to do a complete install of all of KDE just so I could use these two programs. It only installed what was actually required.

And Quanta is MUCH more responsive. I've no idea what version I had and what one I've upgraded to, but what a huge difference.

I spent last night trying to get Samba going the way we want it to work here. Samba is a server that lets other computers connect to my machine to share folders. I need it to require a user name and password for our personal directories and so far I haven't succeeded in getting this going, and that's despite having our previous config files. I'll keep at it though.

So what with the bug fixes in Evolution and a faster Quanta program plus other nice touches, today I finally feel like I've accomplished more than a few things that have needed doing. Having the ability to save a list of tasks is essential for me - my short term memory is horrible these days. Being able to organise tasks and just the nice feeling of crossing them off the list is a great feeling. I still have lots to do and catch up on. I haven't read the mail from the various mailing lists I'm on since Friday, and because I reorganised where I store the web sites I work on, I need to do a lot of work in setting up the 'projects' in Quanta for the sites I'm responsible for (it's only about 20 different sites!). Meanwhile though, I'm just tackling things as they come.

Tonight I compiled the two little programs that I use, and finally got my glucose readings online since I hadn't done this since last Thursday. I also added more postcards to the Flickr site. I had 4 come in today. One was from a lovely teenager in Germany. All of them had neat stickers on the back too. I've put a link on the sidebar for the blog here to the Postcards on Flickr, and also earlier today added this link to the sidebar of my website.

Basically, I've just plain been getting things DONE, and that's a nice feeling!!

19 April: Spilled Tea, Etc

Yesterday I showed the nurse two areas on my back that are feeling odd - one was just a bit of pressure on the side where all the healing is happening and the other is a small little nodule that hurts on my spine, right on top of where I had the arthritis flair up last year. She was quite concerned about the area where it feels like a bit of pressure and said it looked swollen to her. She rang Flinders and got me an appointment for today. She couldn't see anything special with the other little area.

So today at Flinders they couldn't really see what the RDNS nurse was on about - I think perhaps the swelling was being a bit like a car you take to the mechanics and had actually settled down before my appointment. But they gave it a full irrigation - ie poured clean saline into the wound and let it come back up on it's own. The nurse doing it said it was really weird. She'd pour it in, the water would disappear and then come back out a minute or so later. This helped get some minor/normal gunk out and I have to admit it felt like I'd had a 'shower' there on the way home. Hard to describe, but it had a clean feeling. Still hurts like heck when they do the dressing changes. The doctor could feel the little swelling on my spine but didn't know what it was but didn't think it was much to worry about. That's good.

As far as healing goes, the area looks good but the size is still the same (and it was painfully painstakingly measured today. So I'm happy it's looking good and doesn't have signs of infection. The rest will come along eventually.

I also have an odd pain on the side of my right leg (same side as the hole). It was there last week too but I figured it was just caused by a change in posture and walking and such while carrying Boris (the 2kg VAC pack) on my other shoulder. It's become more noticable this week though, so if it continues I'll have to ask my GP about it too when he returns from his holiday. He'll be back on the 30th. It's not intense or anything like that so I'm not overly worried about it, but thought I'd mention it just so I can reference it with a date if needed in the future. It feels like I bumped into something or perhaps slept on it wrong, but I'm not sleeping on that side either. Probably just a change in posture because of the hole, I reckon.

While waiting for my appointment I had a book with me to read and it's a good book. But I had to stop reading and couldn't even play solitaire on my phone because I kept having problems with double vision. Grr. Have never had a problem with double vision before so dont know what's up with that. Was OK later today, at least for playing solitaire.

I hate typing this stuff as it makes me feel like a hypocondriac, but I do need to note stuff in case I need to know when it started. And of lot stuff with me is only short lived nonsense that settles down without the need to do anything further about it.

So this afternoon, once home and getting settled in, I spilled a whole lotta tea. Here's what I wrote to the BC List as we've all been complaining about random clumsiness lately...

ARRRGG!!

I was making a pot of tea today and had just poured a cup of tea as well (half cold tea from the pot, half hot water - thank goodness. I'm pouring into the pot and have a sudden muscle spasm, reflex, whatever, and end up knocking over the full cup of tea which dropped to the floor and broke the handle. I burned my finger, got tea all over my clothes and thank goodness that cup wasn't full of just boiled water or I'd be burned in several different places.

Now, I haven't mopped in awhile - I have that hole in my side and mopping isn't something on the list of things I should do. Sigh. Well, part of the floor got mopped with paper towel as I wiped everything up, and I can't believe how dirty they came up either. On the bright side there's a few clean spots now and the cupboards and counter got a good wipe down. They really didn't need it though.

And I broke my favourite tea cup. Boohoo!

Rod kept typing away at the computer in the next room and I was really annoyed he didn't even come to have a look when I shouted out that no, I probably wasn't OK. So all while clearing up my mess I was brewing about his lack of helpfulness, or even just plain curiosity. Turns out he
didn't even hear the accident or my shout. GRUMBLE. How can I be grumpy when he didn't even hear me? Sigh. Anyway, maybe I'll get it out by just sharing with y'all.

Hugs, (Cuz I NEED one!)
Gaelyne

-----------------------------------

Later, after a few Emails from others sending love, I wrote back .....

Thanks! I am feeling much better now. Isn't it funny how sometimes the smallest things can make us fall apart when bigger things going on ( the infection and hole in my side, a cancer scare, etc etc) we seem to just weather somehow?

Today with the 'teapot episode', I was very near tears and angry way beyond the scale of the situation. Maybe I just needed a release. I later took a nap and slept very soundly without moving for a couple of hours. I feel much better for it.

------------------------------------

I find I'm still a bit unscrewed this evening, as my eyes keep leaking and I found myself really missing Mum. We used to have such nice complaint sessions together ... and I can even see/hear her doing a 'Tsk' with a nod of the head in understanding. A bit like my German friend's 'Aaachh!' but more the British version. :-)

When I copied my readings from the glucose monitor tonight, for the first time before checking things, I deleted what was on the monitor. DAMN, because what got saved to the computer doesn't make any sense, has different times from when I did my tests, and has tests missing. Like I had an 8.0 this afternoon (I tested because I was feeling funky at that time), and then it was 4.4 an hour or so later. Those readings aren't there. I tested at 7:10 this evening and it was a 4.1 as it was my before tea reading. It's not there but instead there's a 7:32 reading that's 6.2. And there's a 5am reading in there, and I don't even remember getting up last night. This makes no sense.

I really hate that Murphy's Law guy. This beyond a joke.

Anyone care to come help me get my floors vacuumed and mopped?? All the tea you can drink! LOL.

OK, I just recieved some work via Email so I better get it done while I'm thinking about it.

Am still waiting for the official Ubuntu 'Fiesty Fawn' release so I can upgrade my computer. Am really starting to look forward to that, but with Murphy hanging around, perhaps I should wait a bit.

17 April: This and That

My little boy's growing up! See: link


Nothing much new to report. I wrote an article last night and today. Am now letting it 'rest' so I can come back and edit it with fresh eyes. Last night our neighbour visited and posed a challenge to us. He had a bet with a friend and wanted to know how many languages there are in the world, and how many words are there, in all languages. The answer to the first one we could find - it's 6.912. But the second is an impossible question because so many languages are merges of other languages. So the answer is 'infinite'. Still interesting stuff. He's a real Aussie bloke and quite a character. A very nice distraction although sometimes the timing isn't all that great. Still, I'd do anything for our neighbours as they're exactly the same with us.

I had a good sleep last night and awoke to the doorbell - my nurse came earlier than usual today. It was good to get that over with for the day right away though. Yesterday and today she's used a 'barrier wipe' on my skin before putting the tape on and it really has helped me stop being itchy anywhere the adhesive meets my skin.

Yesterday I had a few postcards arrive, and then later in the day I had a book arrive in the mail too. It was a book I've read that was on my Wishlist, as its one I'd like to keep. The title is "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom. The really amazing thing about this particular book is that it was first purchased in Tehran, Iran. The person who bought it registered it on bookcrossing.com and then sent it over here to someone in Australia, eventually winding it's way to me. What an amazing journey!

Today I had a few more postcards and a lovely card from my daughter (which she designed the artwork for) as well as a photo of her and her fiance. You can view the postcards as well as the card and photo on Flickr.

For the last two weeks in the paper there's been a voucher for a free 9in pizza at a new pizza place that's just opened in Woodcroft. It was one free pizza per person per voucher, so Rod and I each got a pizza for tea tonight. We had to stand in a long line for it, but the owner brought around soft drinks and we even had a free slice of pizza while waiting in line. It was excellent pizza too. What a very successful opening they've had today.

Well, I need to get back to work so I'll mosey on out of here.

14 April: Readings & Comments

5.4  /  98  Fasting         09:42:00  
6.2  / 112  Pre-Bfast       10:18:08  
6.1  / 110  Post-Bfast      12:28:44  
5.2  /  93  Pre-Lunch       14:54:18  
5.7  / 103  Post-Lunch      17:09:54  salad, sausage roll
5.3  /  95  Pre-Tea         18:08:48  
5.7  / 103  Post-Tea        20:40:53  4 Tacos. Yum.

Wow, really pleased with tonight's results. Mind, aside from the shells, there's very little carbs in a taco. It's mostly protien and veggies.

Had a good day in. Did 4 loads of laundry. Had my dressing changed, made tea. And finally finished setting up a new web client. They were all set, but I had to set up their stats and such. Meanwhile some directories had been moved so along the way I needed to update my little menu program that lets me step through all the things that need to be done so it could find all the files that I update.

My next project is to write an article on finger picking for the ADI mailing list. I'm off to get a start on that now.

12 April: Good News

Apologies if you've read parts of this in Email that I sent out.

My results finally came back, and the blood test showed it was a bit abnormal but NOT in a bad way... ie, no cancer. No Myeloma.

I also had an appt at Flinders today, and we have 'abandoned' Boris, my 2kg VAC pack as he wasn't helping me. In fact one doctor who last saw my wound before the VAC was put on said aside from not looking infected the size of the wound hadn't changed at all in the 3 weeks I've had the VAC pack attached. And it isn't infected at all. Just taking it's sweet time
to heal.

Instead of Boris, I'll have regular dressing changes at least every two days (once a day if necessary) and I don't have to see anyone at Flinders for two whole weeks!

Regarding surgery, the current doctor looking after me conferred with Dr. Dean, who had been a registrar and looked after me when I had thereconstruction surgery (which also turned into a nightmare of wound infection(s)). The general consensus was that surgery for me wouldn't
be a good idea. As I'm susceptible to infection, we could end up with a much larger area... infected, which wouldn't be helpful at all. Additionally with my current health - being quite anemic and having diabetes they really feel strongly that anesthesia wouldn't be the best
for me either.

It feels funny not to be carrying Boris around with me. Tonight we came home from being out for a bit and I forgot all about the fact my purse was on my shoulder because I've been so used to dragging Boris around with me for the last 3 weeks.

So, good news all around. I've got iron tablets for the anemia and have had a couple more tests regarding that, but my GP is going away until the 30th, so we'll deal more with that when he comes back.

We went to the fireworks tonight -- the ones rescheduled from 2 weeks ago. They were great - all 5 minutes of them before they cancelled the event due to NON-EXISTING 'high winds'! The place was packed with families and kiddies in Pajamas too. I came home and looked up the weather and it said:

IDS10034
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
South Australia

Adelaide Forecast
Issued at 4:00 pm CST on Thursday 12 April 2007

Warning Summary
Nil.

Forecast for Thursday evening
A fine warm and clear evening. Light to moderate east to northeast winds. Early
evening sea breeze.

So what a crock. What there were of the fireworks were great and hopefully I'll be able to upload to youtube the bit I took with my camera. It even has the announcement that they'd been cancelled in it.

Anyway, Rod's packed it in, so I shall be following. I bought myself some marked down Easter eggs tonight and have been good so I can enjoy them. I think we'll be watching Heroes tonight.

My plans for tomorrow are to finish up some work and otherwise take it easy.

OH, what I didn't mention in my Email to people is that on Monday with the ride we took (in the car, not the bike), my side/wound started really hurting, and when the changed the dressing on Tuesday it was the most painful I'd had to date. I had to cover my mouth so I wouldn't scream. Well today was much worse - I did yelp and I actually cried. It REALLY HURT. And I apologised because I'm not a yeller or screamer, but it was very painful. And that was on pain pills too. The re-packing was OK though, as it wasn't trying to push the foam into me, and by then the 2nd Panadiene Forte I'd taken was in effect. So that's another reason I'm happy to be free of Boris. The nurse felt really bad about 'making me' cry (it wasn't her fault), and gave my back a good rub down with Alpha Keri cream. It really helped stop the itching and my back is still feeling like it's been well creamed, and it's now hours later. I might have to get some of that for myself.

Oh and for the Geeks ... my computer is now telling me it's up time is 99 Days, 9 hours. In a few days, when the new version of Ubuntu comes out, I'll be upgrading to it. My first upgrade in over a year. I'm looking forward to it. And I'll have my son to help guide me since it's the system he uses. :-) Funny, I used to help him, but now he's the one I ask silly questions of. What a nice change.

Anyway, G'night Y'all

11 April: Quick Notes

It's late and I'm in a bit of a rush to get to bed so this will be brief.

I rec'd 12 postcards today! Most were from Finland, and one was from Michigan!! I've uploaded these to Flickr - see link in the post 2 down from this one to see the new ones. They don't have descriptions yet, sorry.

Rod's brother stopped in for a visit tonight.

I have had no news from my GP, but tomorrow I see the team at Flinders so we might know more about the decision on surgery by tomorrow.

That's all I know. Sorry! Off to bed now. G'night!

10 April: Still No Test Results

The blood test was still not done, so GP says he'll be ringing them and finding out what the deal is and will ring me back. I did read online this weekend the test can take 2-3 days to get the
results, so have decided to try not to sweat it too much.

This morning at 9am, I had an appt with the Diabetes Education Nurse. She absolutely loved my website print outs of my averages and details pages. I also interviewed her for an article I'm working on. I did something highly unusual for me - I went and bought myself a new purse. I've had the same one for the last 5yrs and although it's not falling apart yet (which is amazing, really), it was definitely time for a new one. And it goes with Boris quite well. Yes, I'm still plugged into the VAC. Which reminds me. When the nurse asked if I was exercising lately I lifted up Boris, all 2Kgs of him, and said well, no matter where I walk or how far, I'm carrying this extra 2kgs with me. Does that count? (giggle). Yes it does count. :-)

While standing in line waiting to put my fortnightly form in, I rang the RDNS callcentre to leave a message for my nurse so she would know that I was away this morning and would be home in the afternoon. I even gave my mobile number so she could reach me while I was out. Well that was a waste of time. First they told me I wasn't rostered on to see anyone today. NO, THE AGREEMENT WITH FLINDERS WAS THAT I WAS TO BE SEEN SATURDAY BY HOSPITAL@HOME, AND TUESDAY BY RDNS. The thing is, my dressings are supposed to be changed every 48 hours, and this weekend we compromised and made it a bit longer to accomodate the RDNS nurses as they didn't have anyone on the weekend skilled at doing VAC dressings. Well, the lady on the phone just sent someone to my house instead of taking in that I was OUT, and I came home to find a note that more or less said 'We were here, you weren't, ring us if you have a problem, we'll see you tomorrow.' So I rang and again they sent someone out without 1) finding out if she could do a VAC dressing and 2) taking in that I need to have Boris clamped and off for 30 minutes before they start. The nurse that came was quite nice, but had never done a VAC and so I said straight out that she wasn't going to change my dressing. She arranged for another woman to come - fortunately someone I'd met earlier who came to help my first RDNS day when the person that was to be my regular nurse had just crossed me off the list without telling anyone and didn't bother seeing me -- I'm pretty sure that nurse got her butt fired for that action, or should I say in-action. Anyway, it was Maria, and she's a card. I quite like her, and she did know what she was doing, and brought another nurse who will be doing me for the next two weeks, and trained her in how to do the change. It was a bit like having a pajama party in my bedroom. But Boris was happy with the change and only freaked Maria out a little as he has a nasty habit of looking like his battery is empty when you first turn him on - really he should be exchanged I suppose, but now I know his quirks, I'd hate to get used to another Boris.

So my next hurdle is Thursday when I see the plastics team. I'm only seeing them because they were the ones that did the original surgery. But it will Thursday when the decision is made on whether they'll open my back up further. One thing - Maria had seen my back when I was still having the ribbon packing, and she was really impressed with how well it looked. So that's good. I just wish it didn't hurt so much as it does lately.

OH, apparently they found an extra bit of foam that the previous nurse had put in, and that was pressing right up against the underside of my skin against the vacuum seal, so that's where the pain is from. Still hurts though. Little things like moving, bending, etc really is nasty.

Yesterday, not realising it was going to cause me agony, we went for a long ride in the hills - in the car. We checked out the dams and reservoirs - and seeing the damage from a fire they had at Mt Bold. But the car ride -- man, every little bump I could feel in my wound, and I did my best not to let on that it hurt, a lot. I really wanted and needed to be out a bit and I knew Rod did too. I will have to remember to get a pillow to put behind me, so the wound isn't right against the seat. I'm sure that will help a bit. I lean forward if we go over a speed hump, but a lot of bumps, you just don't see coming (hey that describes this whole 'infection/abscess episode, doesn't it? - It was a bump I sure as heck didn't see coming). We stopped at a clients tea house and had a chat, then went to the local pub and had a beer. They weren't serving dinner until 6 and it was only 5:15 so I talked Rod into taking me to the Emu which is another pub closer to home. We had a nice counter meal there - Rod had fish and I had a great ravioli dish. And we were home in time to watch Neighbours. Neighbours is an Aussie TV soapie I like to watch - it teaches me more about Australian culture than a lot of other shows, and I find it often quite amusing.

Tomorrow I'm doing some laundry, maybe some housework - but not if my side is still hurting a lot, and enjoying a day of not having to be anywhere.

I'm not posting any BGL results today because there's nothing new I'm experimenting with today since I was out all morning.

More news as it comes to hand.

10 April: Postcards from Strangers!

My friend Vicki wanted to cheer me up since I've been going through so much lately, and had a lovely devious plan too. She belongs Postcrossing.com and in a forum mentioned that I needed cheering up and gave my details and explained a little of what I've been through lately. Now, her plan was that I would just start receiving postcards from around the world and not know why. Well... I'm such a geek. I get my stats for my website Emailed to me daily and sometimes I even read them. One day last week (? Actually, it may have been longer, I'm not sure), I noticed some traffic on my site coming from a Postcrossing forum. Knowing Vicki was involved with this site, I fired off an Email and asked her if she knew anything about it then went back to reading the stats. Well, further down in my reading I found the actual forum link and discovered her request to send me postcards and was amazed, truly blown away, by all the messages saying they'd send me a card. Wow!

Well the first few have arrived, so I put them on Flickr (another place where Vicki has some very outstanding photos), so that I could share them with people. My link for the postcards is http://www.flickr.com/photos/flitterg/sets/72157600061246151/, but I'll be putting the scans here to be viewed too.

The first one I received, from Aoraki, Mt Cook, New Zealand:



This one came from Cannes, France:



This one came from Ensisheim, which is a town in Alsace, France. It also included a butterfly stamp inside the card (this was a greeting card) from Korea:



This last one for today was from Vicki, and in a parcel. It actually didn't arrive with the rest of the mail, and was slightly opened, so I think it may have been delivered to another address by mistake. She sent me a lovely card, some refreshers we'd talked about some time ago, a newspaper clipping of something her daughter and granddaughters are involved with, and a cute pink Avon Breast Cancer Teddy Bear. (I'll try to put a photo below of the newest teddy in the family).



I put the Teddy with Alice, another BC bear, and you know, I just knew that Alice and 'Wally', another bear, were doing an awful lot of paw-holding and smiling. Well now I know why! You know what paw holding can lead to with Teddys!! :-)



Stay tuned for more Postcards from Strangers! :-)

And yes, these definitely put a smile on my face, and I really did need it. :-)

5 April: No News

I rang my GP at about 4:30 this afternoon, and the results of the culture were in. Apparently the culture found ordinary skin germs, but they shouldn't be in my wound. There's nothing I need to do, just continue taking the antibiotic I'm already on.

When I asked about the other test he hemmed and hawed and said he was looking for it and finally that it wasn't in. So, either that's true, or he didn't want to end the day telling me bad news. His usual method for bad news is to tell me to come in, and makes sure I have the very last appt for the day. So that leaves me hanging with the big question over the weekend, but you know, that's probably kinder the alternative. So I just have to convince myself to believe that the results really aren't in and that worrying about it is futile. Easy to say, a lot harder to do.

We have no major plans for the Easter weekend -- here in Oz we get a four day weekend. On Good Friday even the pubs close -- ALL DAY. And Monday is Easter Monday so it's also a holiday. Rod has finished this term of school as of today so no school for him until the end of the month. We might go for a drive in the car on Monday through the hills in hopes there's some Autumn colours to see. I almost talked him into how I could ride on the motorcycle if we put Boris in my backpack, but then I realised if we did get into an accident (heaven forbid), there'd be like a zillion people telling us what idiots we were taking me out on the bike with a wound. So the car it is. Damn. I really miss riding on the bike and having the wind rushing past my face, and being able to just sit there, ride and think whatever thoughts float along. I could really use that at the moment too, but first I have to heal.

My brother sent news today that his sister-in-law passed away yesterday. She had had breast cancer and had it before I did. She developed a new primary last year and had other problems as well. I'm so saddened at the loss of not just another BC sister, but also of someone I knew and respected. She will be missed. I feel for my sister-in-law too as she was very close to her sister and as she and my brother are separated I know this is an especially hard time for her.

On the brighter side, the Commodore computing community was worried today about a beloved fellow member who does so much for all the various communities by keeping everyone informed of what's happening in the world of get togethers, conventions and other news. Fortunately he is OK and was only in hospital for 14hours. Another member of the community we were worried about, a minister, we've at least heard word that he and his family are OK. There were 3 tornados that ripped through his small town of 1000 people recently. His house is damaged but OK, but most of the town has had major damage. So while the news about his town wasn't good, it was good to know he and his family are OK and we all understand that he has been extremely busy tending to both his house and no doubt to all of his congregation and town. I posted a note in the mailing list that we have for Commodore users about his situation and suggested we send him cards and letters to know that we are thinking of him and to let him know of all of our support. I hope it results in a lot of love & support for him. He's a great person.

I also wrote a short article today for a Commodore newsletter today. The program I was writing about was shareware (meaning to register it you need to send the author money and he sends you the registration details), but the author, a friend of mine, died about 10yrs ago. As this is a great program, and deserves to be used, after many years of considering it, I gave the details for my own personal registration. It will mean that anyone who uses these details will see my name on their screen along with the time when the screen saver activates, but I think that could be forgiven. And as the author can't be paid, but spent the last years of his life caring for both his parents who had alzhiemers, I strongly suggested sending a donation to any Alzhiemer charity in the authors name. So I hope the program gets used by more people and appreciated, and that people will respond and send a few Alzhiemer charities some money.

So I think karma-wise, I've done some good today, rather than spending all of my time brooding and worrying.

4 April: Readings & Comments & Good/Bad

7.3  / 131  Random          13:31:04  Better from 9.4 - after 2 cups grn tea
3.6  /  65  Random          17:18:51  Missed lunch. Needed snack.
5.8  / 104  Pre-Tea         18:30:12  Better from low of 3.6
12.5  / 225  Post-Tea        20:48:59  Wow, & is after green tea. Hmm.
4.3  /  78  Bedtime         23:29:25  Was feeling off.
5.0  /  90  Fasting         08:43:57  Woke up after a fever.
7.3  / 132  Post-Breakfast  12:01:55  Crumpet toast & PB as usual
5.4  /  97  Pre-Lunch       13:29:39  
6.9  / 124  Post-Lunch      15:16:03  
9.3  / 168  Post-Tea        21:14:31  KFC. Probably too many chips or mashed
                                      potatoes. 2x Chai Green tea

Where to begin? The day started off with work for me to do and so I stayed in my PJs and worked on the project until it was finished -- just a little update for a client.

Rod came home and his mock interview had been a success. We caught up a bit, then I went to take a shower to get ready for todays appts - one at Flinders for a dressing change and one with my GP for Mondays test results. Well that's where things started to go a bit wrong. I have a new bright red rash, this time on my front, and includes all of the area of my 'good' breast - including the scar areas where I had the reduction done. It extends down onto the middle of my stomach and is warmish to me. So figuring I'd end up staying at Flinders, I packed a bag to put in the boot (car trunk). As you can tell by this journal entry, I didn't end up staying luckily.

The wound care team were just as mystified as me about the rash. My wound is looking OK, still draining good, but no real progress in healing. They will keep Boris with me through to next Thursday when I have an appointment with the plastics team, and Marg is quite stressing to them she feels it will heal better opened. I don't want that, but I do respect her knowledge on the subject. And she's really good to me as well. The other drama there was I had to tell them that RDNS wouldn't have anyone qualified to change my VAC dressing on the holiday weekend. Marg again went to bat for me and I even heard her tell someone on the phone that 'that's all fine and dandy but my concern is for the well being of my patient.' When I left, things were still up in the air but she left me a voice mail later to let me know a compromise had been reached. I would be seen on Saturday by a nurse from Flinders Hospital at Home unit, and then my regular RDNS nurse, Michelle on Tuesday (Monday is also a public holiday here). Then my next change would be on Thursday at Flinders. Michelle, my RDNS nurse had said I might have Boris removed today but as it turns out, that's all for NEXT week, and if he's removed it will be for me to have surgery and then have him reattached with different dressings on the larger open wound.

After leaving Flinders, we did our weekly grocery shopping and then from the shopping centre I walked over to the doctors office - just across the road. I actually got there faster than what Rod driving to the parking lot exit! So the good news is that my HBA1C is a lovely fantastic 6.2! How wonderful, and better than my predictions! This was because my old monitor actually was reading too high.

But there are other things to deal with. My cholesterol didn't come down as much as I'd like and I've been given pills for that as I had two high tests so it's drugs for me.

Next there's two worrying aspects of my general blood tests. First I'm still anemic, and second there was another blood test that requires further testing which he ordered done on the blood samples they still have.

They didn't have the results of the culture taken on my wound, so I will have to ring him back after 3 tommorow for the results of both the culture and the further blood test. They did find a bug/germ in the culture which is why it's taking longer.

So I asked what they were testing for with the further blood test and geez, I wish I hadn't. It's to rule out myeloma, which is a cancer of the bone marrow. And some of it's symptoms include anemia and frequent infections because of how it affects the immune system. However, he did tell me he's had this test done on many patients over the years and only two have ever come back positive. It won't sit right with me till the results come in though.

On the rash, he is certain it's an allergic reaction. I find that hard to fanthom - I'm taking 2 Telfast (Fexofenadine) 180mg a day. This is a high dose of antihistamine. We'll see what pans out, but Marg from Flinders has put it in the records and the Hospital at Home team will also check on it on Saturday. And Marg said if I had any problems with it at all over the weekend to go straight to the ER at Flinders to get it taken care of. So at least it's been seen, and if it is cellulitus I know I'll get it taken care of. Being that the worst of the rash is right on the nipple (which was moved and reattached when I had the reduction, and I'm VERY HAPPY with it, I sure don't want to end up with an abscess on the front as well as on the back!

Oh, I also have a stool sample kit to check for iron there and have to return it to the office when it's relatively 'fresh'. Ewwww! Not sure what that check is for exactly, but he prescribed iron tablets that I'm not to start on until after I have the test done. Fun. Not.

So after I left there, I walked back to the shopping centre and put my prescription in and sat on the bench outside taking in some of the things discussed. Geez like I needed more to worry about!

I had Rod pick me up (mobile phones are so great for that), and we went to KFC where we both used coupons for a free piece of boneless chicken (which were very unimpressive) and 2pc Feed meal. He substituted his drink for a cheesecake, and I did the same only for a salad instead. KFC's here don't have the nice yummy buttered biscuits (scones in Australia) and just have a dinner roll instead. It's so not the same, but dipped in the gravy its not too bad. Oh well though, we have Hot Cross Buns at Easter time and we picked some up so I'm looking forward to that as a bedtime snack. :-)

So some things have been sorted out and others are looking to be sorted soon, one way or another. Hopefully all with the least scary options.

3 April: Readings & Comments

6.2  / 111  Fasting         10:45:09  Forgot to test. This is after cuppa reg tea
9.4  / 170  High-BS         12:44:56  Was feeling sleepy. Very odd.
7.3  / 131  Random          13:31:04  Better from 9.4 - after 2 cups grn tea
3.6  /  65  Random          17:18:51  Missed lunch. Needed snack.
5.8  / 104  Pre-Tea         18:30:12  Better from low of 3.6
12.5  / 225  Post-Tea        20:48:59  Wow, & is after green tea. Hmm.

Well you can say I was out of control today, but aside from missing lunch, I don't know why my reading at 12:45 this afternoon was 9.4, or why it was 12.5 after tea. I even had green tea. And I can understand dropping to 3.6 as I missed lunch - I was sleepy and took a long afternoon nap. I feel like I've been a Yo-Yo today - up, and down. Not good.

This is disappointing, and I feel pretty crap at the moment. We'll need to see what tomorrow brings though. Anyway, it's after 11 and we're needing to get to bed early. Rod has an interview at school tomorrow (a mock one), and I have those appts tomorrow.

Just did another blood test as I'm really feeling off... 4.3! Shesh. Let me off this yoyo.

2 April: Readings & Comments

5.8  / 105  Fasting         09:03:42  Done at Drs Office.  Had HBA1C blood test.
6.2  / 111  Pre-Lunch       13:26:38  
5.4  /  97  Pre-Tea         17:54:07  Decided to start having tea an hour earlier
6.7  / 120  Post-Tea        20:20:51  2 skinless grilled sausages & pasta. Green tea.

We both missed our alarms this morning and woke up 8:30! Rod normally leaves at that time, and my doctors appointment was at 8:40. It wasn't too bad for me - I couldn't have a cuppa tea or breakfast anyway since I was fasting, but Rod ended going without breakfast or lunch till he got home around 1:30 today.

I had my tests done, and was weighed. Before he looked at my nice print out of the stats from my website he commented that being sick and feverish helped me to loose 3kilos. AHEM, those 3 kilos came off from eating a proper diet as evidenced by my excellent readings... but I let it go.

I will hopefully get the tests Wednesday afternoon. If I'm unable to go (will cover that in a bit) Rod will go for me for the results.

There's a small coffee shop near the Drs office that 2 of my brother in laws have commented on how nice it is, so I stopped there and had a mocachino and an apple muffin before walking home. Wow, was there a lot of caffiene in that mocachino! And to think I only had 1 shot of coffee in it instead of two!! I was buzzing around for hours after that. I got home just in time for Michelle's phone call and she'd come in the next half hour to change my dressing. I got towels in the wash and other mundane things going before she came.

There's some uncertainty about what will happen on Wednesday. Michelle said they might not reattach Boris to me if they plan to do surgery. The other thing is that this is Easter weekend coming up and there won't be any RDNS staff trained to do the VAC dressing. So I'm a bit concerned I could end up having surgery before the weekend. Talk about feeling in limbo!!! So its possible I might not even come home from the Wednesday appointment at Flinders - they might just admit me and get things started. I sure wish I had a crystal ball right now.

And Boris is quiet today and now I'm worried he's not working right after having been a noisy hog all weekend. Maybe he doesn't like Mondays either.

Tonight we're having left over pizza tonight & watching Family Guy and Stargate Atlantis so we better hop to it.

1 April: Quick Comments

Rod's tired early again tonight so going to shower and go to bed early. It's just as well as I have a fasting blood test tomorrow (HBA1C and cholesterol) so may as well go to bed at an early hour.

Appt is for 8:40 am and will have Rod drop me off. Will try to remember to see if he can do a culture of the wound stuff to make sure I'm on the right antibiotic.

In the afternoon or late morning Michelle will be coming to do another dressing change.

I did laundry today while Rod was home to help me. Ahh, nice clean clothes again!

That's about it for now. Cheers.