Medical – The Vanninis' Manoeuvres

A busy last week

After all the excitement of the past week, Sunday I gave myself a well earned lie in before getting on with chores and shopping. But before that I must first say a huge thank you to Peter & Wendy who cooked us dinners and lunches over the past few days and generally made our lives so much easier whilst Roy was being sorted. We can’t thank you both enough for your hospitality, generosity and kindness, it is extremely humbling.

Monday, Roy had a visit to the ear clinic then Tuesday morning he was supposed to get grommets put in both ears. This will hopefully sort out the hassles he had on our last trip in 2022 which wasn’t resolved until we had returned. You can recap that adventure here. But in what seems to be the norm for us at the moment there was a change of plan. The specialist was unavailable so it was postponed until Wednesday, which meant we had a quick rethink and replan. Instead we decided to pack up and move over to Ardmore on the south side of Auckland for a night. We would be closer to the specialist, also around the corner from Antony and we could drop off our luggage, after packing it of course, and then deliver the van to the workshop on Wednesday afternoon.

We quickly packed up, said hooray to Peter & Wendy although we shall see them again when we deliver the van back in a few days, and headed off across Auckland.

Once at Ardmore we started packing our bags, there is so much to think about what to pack for five and a half months away. But we soon had most of it done and we delivered the bags to Antony’s.

Wednesday morning we were off again across the city to the ENT specialist. He was fitting Roy in between surgery and other appointments so we had a little wait. Roy was soon in the chair and discussing the options. Two different types of grommets (who knew) were finally decided upon, one type in one ear, the other in the other ear.

Then the other….you can see right through now 😜

We returned to Ardmore and packed up the last of the essentials plus we attended to the emptying out of the cupboards as well as the fridge and freezer. We delivered all of that to Antony’s then it was back to Ardmore to take the van to the mechanics workshop but not before emptying the waste tanks along the way.

With the van safely delivered we are now guests at Antony’s for the next few days, I’m sure he’s delighted! At least he gets his dinner cooked, his washing done and his house tidied. We are repacking the bags, taking out unnecessary items and trying to minimise what we take. Although one bag is full of goodies that have been requested for delivery so we shall have one empty bag soon after we arrive!!

The final countdown is on, as of now, just two more sleeps until we step on the plane. See you soon London and London family.

Birthday Celebrations

It’s not very often we get to have some of the family together, and so this opportunity to celebrate Antony’s 40th was too good to miss. Sarah had kindly offered to host a get together and dinner and with other family members invited we were all set to go for Saturday May the 4th. Very appropriate date seeing as though Antony is a Star Wars fan. However, as you would have read in the last blog entry, the week beforehand went a little awry with Roy’s angioplasty and stent procedure throwing a bit of a curve ball.

On Friday I went with Sarah to do the shopping and organise the menu, keep it simple yet delicious was our plan. Two legs of lamb to be slow roasted, a green olive salsa, a green salad, a chickpea miso & peanut salad, smashed roasted potatoes with garlic butter, and bread rolls. I said I would go round on Saturday afternoon to help with prep. However, those plans were to change.

Antony had no idea about any of our plans, he was under the impression that it was going to be dinner with Sarah, Shaun and family along with Roy & I. Little did he know!!!

Saturday morning we got a call from Antony, he was in utter agony with severe pain. As we were a good 45minutes away, we said for him to call an ambulance which apparently duly arrived within 15minutes. He knew what is was straight away. This is not the first time he has had kidney stones, he had them back in 2016 which you can read about here and here.

As Roy was still grounded from his recent angioplasty and wasn’t allowed to drive for 48hrs, I dropped him off at Sarah’s, made a few phone calls as I had to reorganise who was going to pick up Jason from the airport. Simon came to my rescue there thank goodness, and I then headed down to Middlemore Hospital. You would think being a Saturday the traffic would not be like it’s usual weekday mayhem, but indeed it was just as bad.

I arrived at Middlemore, found parking eventually, then found out where he was, I could hear him snoring long before I found his room!

He was pumped full of fluid and pain killers so wasn’t making much sense, I made myself comfortable in the chair beside his bed and proceeded to wait. After an hour or so he woke enough to tell me that the pain had now subsided, he’d had scans, blood tests, and was just waiting to see the Doctor. To cut a long story short, he was finally discharged at around 4:30pm, we then had to get his scripts, and find the car in one of the distant parking areas.

I took him to his home where he had a shower and a change of clothes before he decided he would be ok to drive his car over to Sarah & Shaun’s for what he thought was just dinner with us. He said he could always stay at Sarahs for the evening, I wasn’t giving away the plans that we had already formulated that Jason would be staying with him for the night!

We got to Sarahs just before 7pm, where Antony was very much surprised to see not only us but his brothers, cousins, niece, and second cousins. After the initial surprise we set about putting out dinner. OMG, the lamb was just amazing, falling off the bone and deliciously caramelised with lots of yummy, sticky with reduced baking juices and carrots, shallots, garlic that had roasted underneath the lamb in the baking dish with stock.

I forgot to take any photos, how unusual, but suffice to say the meal went down extremely well.

Laurie and Antony….yes, that was a hastily found candle for his cake!!!

It was a great evening enjoyed by all, which I must admit that we were the first to leave later on in the evening, I was utterly exhausted and needed to collapse into bed. Apparently there were some sore heads the next morning, not looking at Shaun and Laurie in particular. Jason drove Antony home and stayed the night with him before catching up with a Simon again on Sunday morning. And no I don’t have a photo of the 3 of them together, I shall try and rectify that next time!

All in all the end of a very busy week where the two Vannini men kept me very busy but at least they are both now very well and healthy.

Heart stoppingly lucky!

Have I mentioned before that we are off to the UK shortly? Yes, we are on the countdown, making lists, packing necessities, sorting out all sorts of stuff as we won’t be back until mid October. The days are whizzing by with many things to sort out and it is keeping us very busy. But sometimes things happen that you aren’t expecting which result in a whole lot of changes in plans.

Monday 29 April: Roy had an email from his cardiologist reminding him that he’s due for a checkup. Hmm, shall we see if we can get in before we go away or wait until we get back? We ring to see if we can get an appointment before departure day, yes, tomorrow morning at 8am is the only available time! We will be there.

Tuesday 30th April: We join the throng on the Auckland motorway to get to Ascot in Greenlane. Roy has his checkup, but, oh no, things aren’t all that they are supposed to be, his heart is not working properly when he was on the treadmill. This needs to be checked out pronto. The upshot is that on Thursday morning he will be going in for an angioplasty/angiogram and if required stents will be put in. As you can imagine, that put us into a bit of a spin, with many things to organise and sort. Just as well we have medical insurance albeit just to 80% of the cost of procedures, the bank balance is taking a hammering but better than the alternative.

Things are having to be rescheduled, the first being that he was supposed to be having grommets put in his ears on Thursday morning so we had to cancel that appointment and try to reschedule. Meanwhile the audiology centre rang to say that they wouldn’t be able to take Roy this afternoon for earwax removal as their audiologist was unwell. Many phone calls to and fro, we have a new appointment for the ear wax removal for next Monday but the grommet procedure cannot be rescheduled as the surgeon is fully booked. We get back to the van and have a bit a regroup. It never rains but it pours!!

Wednesday 1 May: The ENT specialist rang to say they are going to squeeze him in on Friday 10th May as they knew the main reason for having the grommets put in was for flying, so phew, we can get that done. Meanwhile Garry called in on us to see if we could look after his ute for him for a couple of days and pick him up on Friday when he returns from delivering a truck to Rotorua for a family member, no problems with that, and yes Peter & Wendy kindly said it was OK to have his vehicle at their place.

Thursday 2 May: We arrive at Ascot Hospital ready for his 6:45am procedure. At least the traffic isn’t such a problem at that hour of the morning.

I am allowed to wait in his room for his return from the angiogram where they inject dye and follow it on the scan. The nurse comes tell me that yes, they are definitely putting in a stent, but he will be back to his room in a short while. He is soon returned with the procedure all done in under an hour. Isn’t it amazing what they can do and all through a small incision in his wrist?

There was major narrowing of an artery, down to 0.1mm we are told, with the stent in situ, the opening is now 4.1mm

Scan of the before and after procedure with the narrowing highlighted.

We cannot believe how incredibly fortunate we are that this is discovered and sorted now, he was a walking timebomb.

All done and dusted, colour back in his cheeks, coming round from the “happy meds”.

Once he was settled back into his room, he was allowed breakfast. We could peruse the menu and order whatever he wanted, once it was ordered I took the opportunity to make a quick trip out to Beachlands to meet up with John’s partner Jude as she had brought some honey up from Opotiki for us to take to the UK. The weather was pretty rubbish but the drive wasn’t too bad and before long I was back at the hospital ready to play the waiting game.

We had to wait until the incision wound stopped bleeding, as Roy is on blood thinners, this took a little longer than usual. Then we had to wait for Mr Jaffe to come in and check on him, give him some new medications and instructions before we were allowed to leave. Meanwhile the ENT specialist rang again to reschedule his grommet procedure which will now take place next Tuesday, which then meant we had to cancel his appointment at the Skin Clinic. Why oh why are all these appointments happening in the last two weeks before we leave? Note to self, get all these appointments out of the way well before travel! By 4:30pm we were back on the road with most of Auckland for the slow drive home.

I don’t think it has really sunk in yet as to how fortunate we have been for this to have all fallen into place, I mean how canny that the email came thru and we decided to act on it straight away? But also that it was picked up and sorted before it caused a heart attack.

We are off to buy a lotto ticket now!

Never a dull moment

This last week a school was due into camp, they book out the whole camp for a week and usually set up on Sunday. So we made sure that campers who were in over the weekend were aware that they would have to vacate their sites on time rather than having the relaxed checkout times we allow at this time of the year.

We waited for the school to arrive, we waited and waited. I checked with Ranger Bruce and no, he hadn’t heard anything to the contrary and we were still expecting them. We didn’t mind, the peace and quiet was also most deafening

At 5pm Bruce turned up to tell us that he had just run into a colleague and whilst chatting Bruce mentioned the schools lack of arrival. Oh, did nobody tell you? they cancelled three weeks ago! Well, we are in for a very quiet week then as according to the online booking site, the camp is still booked out for the week. This anomaly was rectified late Monday morning so that others could now book in for the week. And Monday afternoon we did have one solitary camper book in, a man in his early 60’s. We passed pleasantries with him early in the evening and left him to do his own thing.

The evening passed quietly, we are enjoying this new found solitude and quietness, it feel a little bit like the first lockdown back in 2020 when we were on our own. But later that night things were to change.

At around 11pm we hear a knock at the door, Roy answered the door to find our solitary camper standing there. Can we have a look at the back of his head please, he thinks he’s cut himself. What happened? we asked. It transpired he had gone fishing off the rocks, stepped back and slipped hitting the back of his head on the rocks knocking himself out as well, he said he woke up and he was in the water! We got him inside and as I tended to his profusely bleeding head and seeing the large open gash atop an egg sized lump we decided to ring one of the Rangers. We first rang Bruce, but his phone went straight to messages, then Roy used my phone (his phone was flat, as was the phone issued to us for park use), so he called Emma, the duty ranger, except in his hurriedness, he called the first Emma on the phone list which just so happened to be a niece Emma in Dunedin!! That also went straight to messages. We would normally also use the Park issue phone to call the pager for a Ranger to call us but that phone was completely flat and not charging up quickly enough for us to use, and of course I don’t have the pager number saved to my phone (it is now) so we decided as he probably had concussion we would call 111, the emergency number.

Meanwhile I was trying to clean him up and stem the flow of bleeding so Roy dealt with the 111 call. After discussing it with the call taker they said they would get a nurse to call us back, and promptly hung up. By this time I had padded and bandaged the head wound as best I could and we waited. After an hour, the patient said he was feeling fine and he would return to his van for the night, and we would wait for the return phone call….which never came.

Next minute I hear a helicopter swooping around above us, circling around and disappearing for a few minutes before returning, surely it can’t be for us? we said. As we were debating wether we should call 111 again to make sure it wasn’t meant for us, we saw a stream of headlights coming into camp. One police car, followed by an ambulance followed by two more police cars and another ambulance!! Eeek, what on earth is going on?

Roy went to talk to them and to lead them to the patient, it transpired that the 111 call taker had neglected to take Roys phone number so they couldn’t contact us. Now, I was always under the impression that they would have had a call log or display to show the call number, but it seems in this case something had gone awry. So after another hour of the camp being lit up by spotlights, flashing lights and headlights, the patient was sorted and we were back to relative peace and quiet.

The next morning Bruce came to see us to see what had happened, it transpired that Emma did get a page from the police , Emma returned the the Police and they said no it wasn’t showing on their logs so she then rang the Council Park call centre to see who had initiated the page, but they couldn’t tell her (it transpired it was a newly employed call taker who forgot to alert supervisors of what had gone on). Of course the Police were looking for someone to give them the codes to get into the park through the locked gates, hence the number of police cars as they do have codes and keys to get in (they are held locally at the police station for emergency use). It was a case of left hand/right hand.

The excitement for the night was over and we got a couple of hours sleep. Thefisherman is fine after being attended to and fixed up, by ambulance staff but he will be a lot more cautious as well as being better prepared in case anything happens again. I did suggest that he wear a water activated inflatable life jacket when he goes fishing off the rocks, especially at night and when he is on his own, wether he heeds that advice is another matter.

What’s next?

Here we go again, another b*#*#y lockdown, topped off with earthquakes and tsunami warnings, so what’s next? Locusts?

Lockdown. How is it that a couple of persons actions can bring a whole nation to a pause? Easy, ignore all Covid advice and recommendations, be selfish and go inconvenience whole heap of innocent people.

When the news broke of the shift in levels, we quickly raced around the camp informing campers of the change in levels and the news that the park would be closing as the shift to level 3 came into effect. Everyone was packed up and gone by late on Sunday morning which left us on our own to enjoy the solitude.

We were a bit concerned that the changed Covid levels would scupper our plans for the week, our last week at Shakespear. We had a few appointments scheduled for the week ahead with a bit of uncertainty whether they would still go ahead but we were sent texts to say that they would indeed proceed. Roy had a checkup scan and a follow up appointment with the urologist as it’s been three years since he had surgery and radiation. Both of the appointments went ahead as planned, the scan on Monday and Tuesday at the specialist. We can report the good news that all is well. Then he just had his final eye specialist appointment scheduled for Friday as a follow up to his second successful cataract surgery a month ago. He has already had his new drivers licence issued which removed the requirement for the need for glasses to be worn whilst driving. The checkup went ahead and all is great there too so we will be free to move on once the Covid levels change on Sunday (today).

Next throw into the mix a few earthquakes which resulted in tsunami warnings to put us all on edge. The first we knew of the earthquake was when Alex (in London) messaged to asked if we had felt it? Uh, no, we were asleep at 2.30am when the first one happened. However, interestingly our smoke alarm went off three times during the early hours, which when looking at the times of the subsequent earthquakes, the timings coincided?! The alarm has not gone off since, apart from when I burnt the toast, and it’s a relatively new alarm with a 10year warranty and it’s a sealed unit that does not require you to change batteries.

The screeching warnings that came in on our phones later in the morning certainly give the old heart a jump start. We were packed up and ready to drive to higher ground as we were put on a Maritime/Beach watch but it wasn’t necessary to move in the end.

Before we leave a few chores need to be attended to. We’ve washed the van, polished the windows and done a few of the usual maintenance jobs including a couple of jobs I’ve been putting off. One being putting new mesh in the fly screen door. As it requires the removal of the door from the van, it seemed a good opportunity to give the door a clean and coat of paint as well.

A good job well done, and it’s now back in situ looking good.

We have emptied out all the lockers and cleaned them out as well as getting rid of some of those “cumzins”, you know, those things that may come in handy one of these days. It’s amazing the stuff you accumulate over time so we have ditched some of the stuff that we have been carrying around for years and never had a use for, so you can guess what will happen now don’t you? Yes, there will come an occasion shortly that we will be able to say…oh, we shouldn’t have thrown/given that away.

As we reflect upon this season of camp hosting, we can only say what a weird year it has been. Unfortunately people’s appalling behaviour or lack thereof is what immediately springs to mind as a summary of this year. The entitled, confrontational, aggressive attitude of a few people have tainted what otherwise has been a lovely summer. Instead of dwelling on the negative though we shall focus on the positive.

There were all the wonderful family and friends groups that came to stay and enjoyed camping, swimming and generally having fun in the sun.

Like this group who set their tables together for a banquet one evening. And yes, that is our van in the background in the top right hand corner

There are the families that come back every year and greet us like long lost friends. The huge number of positive people we meet every year certainly make up for the few idiots.

So what are our plans? Well, the plan is to not make too many plans so we don’t have to change them should the need arise but the general plan is to head south, as in to the South Island for a few months. Yes, we know it’s going to be a bit chilly as we move into autumn and winter, but we shall just have to dress appropriately! We are really looking forward to spending some time reconnecting with lots of friends as well as places again.

A birthday and some good news

Roy celebrated a milestone birthday the other day, I say celebrated, but in our bubble of two it was a sort of a celebration.

I made him a cake, his favourite cake that my Mum used to make for him, a chocolate orange drizzle cake.

Yes, I even found a couple of candles to go on the top

The day passed with lots of messages, phone calls, texts and video calls before we had his birthday dinner, finishing it off with a slice of cake of course. Although Roy could partake of a tipple, I am still under an alcohol ban, but perhaps one of these days we will be able to raise a glass or two together.

Celebrations this year were to have taken place in London however we all know now that that wasn’t going to happen this year what with one thing or another. We are forever hopeful that we may be able to postpone those celebrations, however long it takes.

Today was a momentous day, I had to travel 60kms each way to Greenlane Hospital to have my knee checkup and also to have my PICC line removed. We were there in plenty of time, and with only 5 other people on the huge waiting area I thought that I would be out of there pretty swiftly. But oh no, they were running late with appointments, so instead of my scheduled 10.15am appointment, I finally went in at 12 midday. Meanwhile, Roy was waiting in the car but I had to send him off as we had made appointments with our GP not too far away from Greenlane, to have our flu shots. Never mind, I’ll get mine another day. Anyway, the news was good, everything is looking good, apparently the blood tests are all looking fantastic and in particular the test that measures infection and inflammation went from 422 (when I was first admitted to hospital) down to 13 now. Normal range is under 5 apparently, so a little way to go but as I have arthritis that may account for a slightly higher reading.

Now I am on oral antibiotics for the next 6 weeks which will be reviewed in a months time when I go for my next checkup.

So it was a quick checkup, and then I was to wait to have my PICC line removed. Nurses in the orthopaedic department are not allowed to remove the line so I had to wait for the specialist nurse to come and do it. I will not go into detail, except to say that the removal of the external clip with the hook shaped wires embedded in my arm to keep it in place hurt one helluva lot. The line itself was totally painless and didn’t feel a thing as it was removed.

So the positives that I take out of having this line removed today are;

No more wrapping my arm in plastic and taping the plastic in place to have a shower

No more remembering to pick up the bottle and line in the middle of the night when I want to go to the loo

No more waking up to be able to turn over in bed and shift everything to the right position, then try and get comfortable again

Being able to lift my arm up above my head….think washing hair, hanging out washing, etc etc

Don’t get me wrong though, I am forever grateful that there are such amazing things as PICC lines and infusor bottles otherwise I would have had to spend the last 5 1/2 weeks in hospital having the antibiotics being injected through a lure every 4 hours. Not my idea of fun.

In fact looking at the overall picture, the timing really couldn’t have been better for this whole episode, as my recovery at home has lined up with the lockdown for Covid-19. I have managed to rest as much as possible and we have been happily locked away on our bubble of two. And Roy too was very fortunate to have had his colonoscopy done the same day as my surgery, as all those procedures were subsequently cancelled due to the pandemic.

Onwards and upwards now, we just have to hope that a vaccination will be forthcoming and we can return to some semblance of a new normality and we can get to go and play with this gorgeous young man.

Hubble, bubble, toil & trouble

No, I’m not cooking up spells or witchcraft, however boredom may set in and witchcraft could well be my new skill set. However I wish I could magic up a Hairdresser……………will pay in flour and toilet paper!

Luckily for us, life is relatively the same as usual except we are now living in a bubble. I mean we are used to living together in close quarters and have done so for quite some time, it’s just now we call it our bubble. Ok, we can’t go out whenever we want nor go shopping, but as one who has never been much of a shopper this is not something I find difficult to go without. We don’t even mind not seeing too many other people, although video calls make life so much more interesting and we are quite content in our bubble of two.

There is not much toil going on in this bubble, Roy is busy with his work plus he is catching up with genealogy stuff. I think I am going to have to start writing job lists again as I can see that this lockdown will pass before we’ve done anything. I have been meaning to clean out my wardrobe, especially sort out winter clothes as it’s been a couple of years since we experienced a winter. However, as I’m not allowed to raise my left arm above my head, it makes it a little more difficult to sort out high cupboards and drawers. I’m sure I could improvise if I though about it, that may take a day or two of thinking first.

And as for trouble, it’s hard to get into trouble when I’m attached to antibiotics 24/7 and hobble, plus we are in lockdown. I guess we could try and be naughty and travel outside our immediate neighbourhood but that goes completely against the grain and I just cannot do it. Although I will have to next Monday, as I have to travel 40kms each way to get blood tests. The lab that I have been going to is closed on Monday as it is Easter, which necessitates the long drive out of my “home zone”. Luckily I have paperwork which shows I have permission to do so.

The only trouble I have had is an allergic reaction to my latest PICC line dressing, the itching drove me nuts so I went to get that changed. And I did get it changed, my poor arm is in a right state, red, itchy, and bleeding in places, but the lovely District Nurse sorted me out and already it is feeling so much better. I guess these things happen when you get stuff stuck to delicate skin and then removed to have more stuff stuck on, and repeated week after week. Only 2 weeks to go, not that I’m counting down the days or anything!!

I’m walking pretty well without crutches now, although I do use one crutch if I am going to walk any distance, just for safety’s sake of course. I am pretty pleased with how I am going even though my leg is still pretty swollen but it is getting much much better than it was. I feel as though I’ve done my thing as far as surgeries go, 4 major joint replacement surgeries in less than 20months is more than enough for this body to deal with, no more says I.

Stay safe in your bubble folks and happy Easter. PS Happy birthday for Easter Monday Antony, birthday celebrations are to be held at a later date!

And cuteness personified….Callum playing in the garden.

It was all going so well

My surgery and subsequent recovery had been going so well, I’m well ahead of expectations of range of motion and activity and all was great. The physio came out to see me on Monday, she was also impressed at where I was up to but she did say that she thought I should pop back to the hospital to get the dressing changed as it appeared the wound was oozing somewhat.

Instead I rang my surgeon and talked to his receptionist about what to do. She suggested I come in and let Hugh have a look but also to start the antibiotics I was given for a just-in-case situation like this. By late that afternoon I was at his office getting it looked at. It turns out that the wound itself was fine, but I had reacted to the glue on the dressing and it had formed blisters all around the wound. Ouch.

So he cleaned it up and put on a different dressing. This was Tuesday afternoon. Thursday the dressing was again soaked but also bit of an ugly shade of green.. so I again rang Nicki who suggested I send Hugh a photo of what it looked like. So I did. I mean how many surgeons give you their cell phone number?? He rang almost immediately and said remove the dressing clean it with the special wash I had been given and send him another picture.

Which we duly did. He rang back again, saying he thought the wound looked fine, it was just this allergic reaction, so sit in the sun with it exposed for a while, and then put on the Manuka Wound Gel he had told me about, redress and come and see him in the morning. Which we did on Friday for a dressing dressing change and some ointment for the blistery, itchy, hot, annoying rash that circumnavigates the long thin scar of the surgery.

I go back to him on Tuesday for another check up, I hope to goodness that the rash and blisters have cleared up by then otherwise I may be very annoyed!

There will be no pictures in this blog entry, I do not need to share the ugly side of my wound, it’s bad enough having it out in the sunshine for people to see.

Apart from that and a very swollen ankle and foot, all is well and I am well on the road to recovery..

Roy also has a post op checkup on Tuesday, let’s hope that it is also a good result.

Medical matters

We made our way down to Auckland as far as Whakapirau where we were staying with Jacky & Chris for the night. It’s a 5hr drive from Rarawa to Whakapirau, including a couple of comfort stops, and then a further 2 hrs to get to Auckland so it’s a good break point for us.

Roy was due at Ascot at midday ready for surgery at around 2pm. Antony came in to take me out to lunch whilst Roy was under the ~~knife~~ laser. Roy was having some remedial surgery of the prostate as some tissue had atrophied as a result of the hormone and radiation treatments and was causing a bit of an issue. Meanwhile Antony and I went out for a nice lunch and a bit of retail therapy returning to the hospital just as the surgeon rang to say all had gone well and he would be in his room within the next hour.

I was happy to wait for him in his room enjoying the view.

the view from his room overlooking Ellerslie Race course.

He was back pretty soon, wide awake and feeling ok after having an epidural and a sedative rather than a full anaesthetic, so good in fact that he was keen to have something to eat. I left him in the good care of the staff at Ascot in the early evening to retire to Antony’s place for the night.

The following day Roy had not had the best night, so the surgeon was checking in on him a couple of times and sorting out his pain relief before he would allow him out later in the day. Meanwhile Antony and I headed over to Southern Cross Hospital on the North Shore where I was to have an MRI done on my hip replacement due to an anomaly showing up on previous X-rays.

MRI’s are not my favourite thing, they can be very claustrophobic, especially as they tighten a special cage device over the hip area to make sure you stay still and also tie my feet together and onto the bed so nothing moves….eeeek……but I told myself it was just for an hour so just suck it up and deal with it. It was completed in around 45minutes, but then they said I had to have more done but this time with a dye injected. Breathe in…….and out……..relax, think of your happy place Bernice, all these thoughts were racing through my mind as I went back into the scanner. But it was soon over with, next came the wait to see the surgeon in a few hours time.

Again, Antony & I went out for a bite to eat and to do a few chores. I must say it was great to have him with me and we had a good chat about everything and anything. We were back at the surgeons office 45minutes early, fortunately he could see me early. And the upshot?

At the top of the trochanter (femur) has some stress fractures that appear to be healing, no wonder it’s been a bit sore! and there maybe very small bone fragments that have come away and irritating matters. As well it looks like there is a pocket of fluid which he was unsure what it was exactly.

What’s next? They want to do a biopsy on the fluid via a needle inserted into the hip area….eeeek! this is to be done under a general anaesthetic and what about having it done next week? Oh and we will also check for infection with some blood tests as well. After a bit of discussion, we agreed that I would have the blood tests straight away and see what they say and put off the needle biopsy and do it next month when I am having my knee replaced negating the need for two anaesthetics in a short period of time. That is presuming everything comes back clear with the blood tests, fingers crossed.

I did ask if I was being a wuss with regards to the pain I have but I was assured that I am not, so with new prescription in hand we were soon on our way.

Meanwhile Roy was being discharged so we could pick him up on the way home and head to Antony’s for the night. We were both feeling pretty good so we thought we would head back north, just as far as Whakapirau initially, just to be close enough to Auckland if we had to return for any reason. After a restful nights sleep, we were ready to head back home.

We were back at the van the following day, ready to take things easy for a bit as Roy is on strict light duties, and I am to rest as much as practicable. That being said, we are both feeling pretty good so hope to get back to some good fishing stories soon.

Never a dull moment

The fishing was going great guns, every time the blokes went out they came home with lots of fish so we were eating it, giving it away and freezing some. Just as well as both couples were heading away for a couple of days, us a quick trip to Auckland for medical appointments and Keith & Debbie were off to Tauranga the day after we left for a family matter.

But not before a last minute fish off Tokerau Beach.

Keith with control in hand ready to send the drone out with the baits and longline.

We have lift off.

Wait for 45 minutes then press the button on the reel to bring in the line….

Enough fish to share around with family and friends.

We were very fortunate as we were going to break our journey to Auckland by staying with Jacky & Chris at Whakapirau as it is a non stop 5 1/2 hour drive from Tokerau to Auckland, and who does that sort of distance without a couple of stops at least? It’s 3 1/2 hrs to Whakapirau, but add another hour on to that for stops, road works and the like so it’s still a decent drive.

Roy had a checkup with the Urologist, the upshot being he is having some surgery to clean up the prostate on Monday 8th October. He will be in Ascot Hospital overnight or possibly two nights. Meanwhile I had my 3month checkup with my surgeon, and we made a date for knee surgery, 19th November it is scheduled for the first knee replacement, a great birthday present to myself!!

After another great stay with Jacky and Chris on our return journey home, we headed home Wednesday morning, calling in to the Jewellers in Whangarei to pick up my repaired rings and necklace.

my rings, all beautifully repaired and polished, and now all joined together so that they don’t rub against each other.

I also had my necklace repaired with a new chain put on,

This necklace is one that Roy gave to me for my 21st birthday, just a couple of years ago!

Back at the van on Thursday I received a call from my surgeon, on reviewing the latest X-ray of my hip, they’ve noticed an anomaly on the trochanter (top of the femur) which doesn’t look quite right and could I go back for an MRI scan to further investigate things? Oh no, what could it possibly be? Stress fractures possibly, but they will see once they do the scan. No wonder I still have pain!! I’ve scheduled the MRI and consult for the 9th October so we shall have to wait and see what eventuates. Bugger!

Never mind, we can hopefully get another week of fishing in, whip down to Auckland in the car for a couple of days and get everything over had done with and still be on track for knee surgery in November. Fingers crossed.