Gambling with my health, in a good way

Wow, I didn't intend for it to be so long between updates. I'm pleased to say I seem to be feeling a bit better - not so much physically, but mentally and spiritually.

When I last wrote, it was about the whole fiasco with getting some actual real treatment for the huge cavity in my back (11cm by 4cm by 6cm). My GP was not too pleased to that my problem in back wasn't really given much more than a shrug. He will be making contact with various people so I can perhaps get a 2nd opinion. He also faxed off a referral for me to the Lymphedema Clinic.

I've had a realisation about myself... sure I'm a procrastinator, but worse than that, I also put off enjoyable things I LIKE to do. For instance, I get a bunch of comics in Email everyday. These are filtered into a folder, and usually I hold off on reading these until I have done a bit of work. This is fine, but they tend to really grow in number (36 arrive each day) and I do love reading them so it's not like I'm willing to stop receiving them. They build up while I procrastinate reading them because somewhere along the line I've taken the 'Don't Play until your work is finished' ethos. Same with other small pleasures, such as updating this journal. I put it off till so late in the day that by time I start it, my eyes are glazing over and I fall asleep at the keyboard.

Here's something cool... Rod and I were both given Honorary Lifetime Memberships by our computer club, SDCUCI (Southern Districts Computer Users Club Inc) in recognition for services to the club. One of things we do for the club is their website, and keeping it updated each month with the latest newsletter. This apparently was a unanimous decision by the board, and we really feel quite honoured. We were each given a framed certificate, a permanent 'Lifetime Member' name badge, and a really nice plaque.

I didn't receive any phone calls or birthday cards (not even from Rod!) on my birthday, but I did receive a lovely gift from Rod that has already been used a LOT. He didn't have time to wrap it, so he hid it in the washing machine (dry, thankfully), which always has a blue gingham tea towel on it, so you could say he was being clever and wrapped it in a really big reusable box. (grin). It turned out to be something that really surprised me as it was something I'd sorta wanted, but figured I'd wait until the price came down to something reasonable, which apparently it did. It's a really neat 7inch digital photo frame. We both expected it would just sit and show pics, but it does more. It plays mp3 (music) files, can do random images while playing music, and is also an LCD AVI video player. It has no internal memory, but it can use every kind of memory card out there, as well as USB flash drives. The display on it is amazing. It's very sharp to view. Pam sent me some money for my birthday via PayPal, so I bought a 4gig flash drive to go with it. I've used it to watch some of my favourite shows while sitting on the patio. I love it!

My latest diabetes experiment is a real winner. You could say I'm "Gambling with my Health, in a Good Way". I can't do a lot of exercise, but one thing I can do is walk, so I've started walking up to the newsagents everyday I can and getting a scratchy lottery ticket. I even wrote out a whole synopsis on it's purpose and some rules to 'play' by ...

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The Scratchy Walk Exercise Plan

Concept:
Walking up to Newsagents to buy a $1 or $2 instant scratchy.
I need to walk more for exercise.
I prefer to have a purpose for taking a walk.
The Newsagents is just under 1/2 kilometre from home.
If I walk there and back, it makes for a nearly kilometre walk.

Goal:
Exercise by walking more.
Accumulate up to 7 scratchies in a week, purchased singly one walk at a time.
Even 'non-winning' scratchies are 'winners' in that I had some exercise.

Rewards:
Going for a walk / exercise.
Lower glucose readings.
Having a scratchy to play.
Randomly winning scratchy.
A kitty towards misc luxury items from any winnings over $10.
A bundle/bundles of scratchies that gives a visual view of the accumulation of walks.

Rules:
Any winnings under $10 are to be recycled into funds for the Scratchies Walk.
Winnings over $10 are to be set aside for luxury items: new clothes, home decor items, movie or concert tickets, etc.
Each non-winning scratchy should have the date and if I've worn a pedometer, the number of steps for that walk.
These are to be placed in bundles of 1 week, 1 month etc so I can visually see how many times
I've been out for a walk.
For winning scratchies, a separate piece of paper should include the date, number of steps and
the winning amount to be placed in the same stack with the other scratchy bundles.
Running errands such as picking up groceries, prescriptions etc is allowed.
I can walk anywhere before or after scratchy purchase, as long as scratchy is purchased during my walk.
No buying a scratchy if not out for a walk.
Buying contraband (IE anything that's not helpful/healthful to eat) is not allowed.
If Rod wants to join in, he can walk at his own pace and buy his own scratchy.
Rod's scratchy and any winnings are his for whatever purpose he chooses.
Gaelyne does not have to keep up with Rod's pace.

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Oh yea, and as of last Thursday, I've qualified for disability. This wasn't really a surprise, though.

Happy 7th Anniversary to Us

www.flickr.com FlitterG's 7th Anniversary photoset

Today is our 7th wedding anniversary, and to celebrate we went out and visited a couple of places we'd heard about in the Adelaide hills but had never been to - Morialta Conservation Park to see the Morialta Falls (apparently there are several, but we only went to the first one) and Waterfall Gully. We had reservations at Kublai Khan Mongolian BBQ Restaurant and the places we visited weren't too far (15 minutes or so) away so it worked out really well. Click on the above image to see the photos we took yesterday.

Spluttering

Well I've no idea where to begin tonight. As covered previously, my RDNS nurse and my GP have been increasingly concerned about the large swelling on my back, which is a cavity left over from the abscess that I developed back in March (now 7 months ago). My GP faxed off a letter to the plastics treatment team asking that I been seen sooner than my scheduled appointment on the 22nd, and the nurse has been coaching me to ask about what they're expectations are about this. I had the appointment today, and you know what? The doctor more or less sentenced me to life with this cavity with shrug of her shoulders. As to expectations, she said they have none as they already gave up all their guesses on how long this would take to heal. She thinks the main track will probably eventually heal and I'll just have the cavity left permanently and it will be susceptible to infection. And then she shrugged.

The instructions for RDNS are to continue dressing it as they have been but to pack it lighter, and that light massage (Lymphedema massage) is OK. We did talk about the lymphedema and she feels light massage for it would be OK. As she also implied that this hole and cavity shouldn't impact at all on my daily life - as in I can resume work and normal activities, I'm not all that confident, as she obviously doesn't really have have a clue as to what life with this is like. She measured and got the same results as the RDNS nurse, but I'm still in pain from the probing. She didn't even seem too concerned that the depth of the track is now deeper than it was start with.

I was left alone for a little while and was really missing Rod for moral support (and indignation!) - the treatment rooms are quite small so relatives aren't allowed in, so I had him drop me off today. I did, however, have 'Mom' with me. In the package my sister recently sent me, was a watch my Mom always wore, and I now wear it whenever I go out. It brought me a lot of comfort that Mom was with me when I had my recent mammogram, and today I just felt her reminding me that I had to stand up for myself and be my own advocate. So when the nurse came in to do up my dressing, I explained to her about the conversation I'd just had had with the doctor and asked if she could arrange for me to have another chat with her as things just weren't sitting right. Without actually saying so, by her other comments and quiet actions, I felt like the nurse actually agreed with me, and she did have the the doctor come back and I sat up and showed her the back with me in sitting position in case she couldn't quite see it when I was on my side, and told her every time I try to live normally - shopping, doing housework like vacuuming, etc it'd take a week to recover from it because the wound would have much more exudate for the next week, not to mention the pain I deal with. I didn't get any further with her beyond a recommendation that I get a referral to the Lymphedema clinic. She seemed to think that the excess fluid was mainly lymph fluid as opposed to exudate and it's both. Honest, she really didn't seem to care a bit. Considering the concern both my GP and the RDNS nurse have had, I know I'm not just being over sensitive and silly.

When Rod picked me up, we went to pick up groceries and I was still feeling grumpy and angry about today, so I bought myself a large chocolate bar and ate half of it after lunch ... while reading the diabetes magazine. This, for me, was a temper tantrum. Sure it was a quiet little rebellion, but it felt satisfying and got some of the agro out of my system. And it also felt NAUGHTY, and I felt like being naughty. Like it doesn't matter what I do because nothing is working anyway. I let Rod have the other half of the Mars bar later in the afternoon.

Tomorrow my RDNS nurse comes, and I just know she's going to be incredulous. If I could sum up my entire appointment this morning, I'd say it left me spluttering. When I next see my GP I'll see if he can refer me to another hospital treatment centre such as one of the Adelaide city hospitals. I know it's a bit more travel time, but I would feel better if I had a second opinion, and I suspect that he'll agree with me. I think at this point, I'd also be willing to pay for a consult with a private doctor for a second opinion as so many things just don't add up.

I have to be out again in the afternoon for another appointment tomorrow morning. This will be the 3rd day this week I've been out, and it's definitely wearing on me, especially as I'm not sleeping all that well at the moment either.


Anyway, on some brighter topics, Rod's birthday was yesterday. I was able to find him some cute prezzies to surprise him with during the day yesterday, starting at midnight with a card and a new torch (flashlight). This one is cool - it doesn't use batteries or need a bulb as it's an LED light and the power for it is based on Michael Faraday's "electro-magnetic induction" principle - all you have to do is shake it for 20 seconds and you're supposed to get 5 minutes of bright light. Well, Rod gave it a shake and set it down and more than 24 hours later (nearly 48 now), it's still light. Given he has a habit of setting down flashlights and leaving them on, this thing is perfect for him. I also left a box wrapped up right where we make coffee/tea everyday. Most people would guess it would be a coffee mug and open it before making a cuppa, but not Rod. Then once he had it opened, it was inside a box, and he couldn't figure out how to get it out of the box. Well I knew it had chocolates inside the mug, so I said (half a dozen times even), before you open the flap on the box, make sure the cup is upright. Did he listen? Noooo.... so little foil wrapped chocolates spilled out everywhere like he'd just cracked open a pinata. Actually it was quite funny. I wish I'd of taped it! Later in the day I have him his last set of gifts, explaining I couldn't get him the cool ready made ones but that he'd probably have more fun making his own.... the first was a set of small white plastic disposable bowls. This was mainly to confuse him, as I knew the next item would be the clincher, and he'd know. The second thing was a small plunger, like you'd use for unclogging a sink. WELL, any fan of Dr Who would know what to do with that -- make you're own Dalek! Heehee! We have a bird house in the back garden that has been overgrown with ivy and every time we uncover the bird house portion we comment on how much like a big green Dalek it looks like. So I've given him a project. The bowls are the little silver circles that go down the 'skirting' on the Dalek. How/If he can attach them is up to him. Meanwhile, he's had a ton of fun 'playing' with the little $1 plunger. What a kid. :-)

I've also found the most darling little Geek tshirts for the little guy (my grandson who's still being "compiled" and will have his big release in January) . Here's a few links:

Newbie
TCP/IP
For Jennifer
v2.0 (there's also a v1.0 for parents)

Friday: Out with Vicki

Vicki & Gaelyne,
originally uploaded by Mundoo.

Last Friday Vicki and I went to see her sister Jennifer take part in the 2007 Australasian Masters Games for Judo. We took a few snaps while there, and Jennifer took this one of Vicki and I.

Jennifer and Vicki,
originally uploaded by Mundoo.

Jennifer and Vicki at the Judo masters event.

Jennifer and Gaelyne,
originally uploaded by Mundoo.

Vicki's sister Jennifer and I at the Judo masters event.

Gold medal,
originally uploaded by Mundoo.

Gold Medal won by Vicki's sister Jennifer and her Judo partner Janet at the 2007 Australasian Masters Games for Judo