April 2015 – Edgar's Page

Heart and Heartbreak

23/04/2015 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I have been asked to come and talk to the Vet about the results of the blood tests – which came back very quickly. The immediate blood test ruled out Diabetes but the blood that was sent to the lab was not so good. It would appear that Chienne has a tumor and it cannot be operated on. It will grow very slowly so we may well have her for at least 9 – 12 months but she will need constant blood tests to monitor her condition and the tumor progress. I have not told the boys yet. Andrew is in Roxby Downs again and it’s not something I want to do over the phone. John was here last night so I sat down with him and told him. At the moment Chienne is fine and behaving fairly normally. I took her out last night and she walks quite happily, so in that regard she is still well. If she were lagging behind I would be concerned but she is not and generally walks ahead of me or at my side, stopping only to investigate an interesting smell.

Chienne is, of course, the most important issue, but as a secondary issue, I have been cleared by the Cardiologist. The Cardioversion was a great success and I am very pleased. The heart has gone back to a normal rhythm – the arterial fibrillation having been corrected – so the energy levels should start to go back to normal. However, no more running around the State like a crazy thing. I have a week away during the last week in May and then nothing for another three months. I should have been in Adelaide for the rescheduled West Terrace Trust meeting, but no word on that and we are now into the third week in April so I don’t see it happening this month. Probably just as well. I’m not the best of company right at the moment and these last ten days have been pretty rotten. The heart problem aside, to lose one dog and then to be told that I may only have a limited time with the other one makes it two weeks I would rather not have happened. I keep thinking that I had really neglected Chienne somehow. The Man was ill, blind and require a lot of attention and he got all that attention, even when it meant getting up at 2 and 3 am to attend to him. Chienne looked fine, she seemed fine and behaved as she always does, calm and placid. It was only afterwards that I began to notice that she was drinking a lot of water – and I mean a lot of water, that I suspected something might not be quite right. I thought perhaps diabetes and, really, I was prepared for that – but a tumor, that was never in my thoughts at any time.

As if to add insult to injury the weather has not been the best over the last couple of weeks. Summer is well and truly behind us and we head towards winter. It has been cold walking at night and I think it might be time to get Chienne’s coat out of storage. We have had only a limited amount of rain unlike New South Wales, parts of which are flooded and being battered by storms. I am never sure if backward South Australia is lucky or just plain boring. We are in the middle of Australia – sort of – and we are protected from the extremes of weather from the Indian Ocean by the bulk of Western Australia and from the Pacific by the bulk of New South Wales. We do get some weather coming in off the Great Australian Bight, but nothing remotely like the storms of NSW or Western Australia. Flooding here is a few very large puddles – nothing to be concerned about.I wouldn’t wish flood, fire or famine on anyone, but nothing ever really happens here, and I miss The Man.

Nearly back to “Normal” (??)

11/04/2015 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

PeekaBoo - I see you. — PeekaBoo – I see you.

I have removed myself from several on-line groups that I belonged to. I really had not a lot in common with them to begin with – indeed the only thing we really had in common was our collective use of ringed planners i.e. Filofax. I was also finding that the vast majority of the members were female and at times the posts tended to stray very much away from planners to babies, illness, relationships, anti-men rants and I sort of lost interest. It was like being an Android user in an iPhone community. I found myself thinking more and more of Charles de Gaulle – “The more people I meet , the more I love my dogs,”

So that’s the end of that. I am sorry because I have been a member for some time and it was interesting and enjoyable for a while – before it became more of a social gathering. I am still with one and I hope that will remain on task. We’ll see. This afternoon I am taking Chienne to see the Vet. She has been drinking a lot of water and peeing everywhere. She has even wet her bed in her sleep. We think she is diabetic but that’s really for the Vet. to determine. Chi. will be 14 this year but apart from the waterworks, she is seems healthy enough, still runs around

like a mad thing, is out walking with me most nights, so no problems about activity, eats well – so I really don’t foresee much in the way of problems with her in the immediate future. I miss the Man and I think Chi. does too.

I have been back working out in the garden – mainly cleaning up the neglect that has taken place over the last few months. We also had a little bit of rain – not a lot – which was enough to send the weeds into overdrive. I pour on weed killer – they laugh at me and grow even faster and more prolific. But then again, I hit them with weed killer – Chienne pees on them :o) Helpful…

Although we have only had a miniscule amount of rain – we have had wind – lots of wind. Indeed many people have commented on the number of really windy days this year. What this has done is lay down dust everywhere – everything outside is covered in fine dust. Having constructions going on, ( new houses) the land is cleared and the bare earth throws up considerable dust in the wind. A couple of times I have turned back from walking Chienne that direction. Now that I am (almost) back to full activity again I can start to do a cleaning up, although, short of a flame thrower, I don’t know what to do about these persistent weeds.

The visit to the Vet yesterday was not as good as I hoped it would be. The blood sugar level was around 4.3, which sort of rules out diabetes, but it also brings other things into play that I don’t want to think about – liver and kidney problems I really should stop making any kind of prediction. I said the same about me on my first visit to the cardiologist and look how that turned out. Now about Chienne. However, Mustapha has taken blood samples and sent them off to the lab so we should know sometime next week. Her and me both – she waits on Lab results, I wait on Cardiologist final results, post cardioversion. I am feeling good and spending the day out in the garden. In about an hour or so I have to go and collect John and we take a trailer load of rubbish to the dump. This evening, now that Andrew is back from Roxby, we are all getting together for a family dinner at Andrew’s place.

Next Stop – All change! Move right along please!!

07/04/201507/04/2015 by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I guess it will take me some time to get used to the fact that The Man is no longer here. I still wake up in the early hours of the morning expecting to hear him, but I have no doubt that will slowly fade in time. He was such a big part of my life, more so this past year and I miss him. I keep thinking about little things – sometimes I smile, sometimes I don’t. I am fine and taking things fairly easy I will continue on the heart medication for a few weeks after the Cardioversion and then slowly come off this and be pretty much back to normal. I expect to be down in Adelaide during this month but I will not be traveling nearly as much as I have done this last year or so. I think the chaos of the last 18 months is over and things will settle down. After the Easter Function I intend to cut back on a lot of things with the RFDS on the theory that I wish to assist, I do not intend to be a reluctant passenger on one of the aircraft making use of the services.

In mid-April I have to be in Adelaide for the West Terrace Trust meeting and then relax until the end of May. I will most probably drive down and stay overnight in my regular hotel. It is comfortable and I have ample room for my laptop and in the morning it is quiet enough

to allow me to get away and on the road home fairly early before there is much traffic through the city.

Sometimes parents just have to accept second place. No. 1 son came over early this evening. They have a big project on and he has been working all sorts of odd hour, so we have not seen much of him. Anyway, he came in, said hello to his mum, said hello to me then asked the question that indicated his “real” reason for the visit – “Where’s the Man”? I told him and he went outside. He stayed for a little while then came back inside. John Jnr was very fond of the Man and he misses him. Andrew is still up North and wont be back until sometime on Sunday. He was supposed to be back yesterday but he has had to stay on to supervise the commission of a new plant and he wont finish that until Saturday – all being well he should be home Sunday afternoon. I think his partner and the girls will be glad to see him. However, from what I can gather this will be his pattern until late June – a few days home then back up to Roxby Downs again.

20130723_114229 — Guard Duty is hard work.

Since my medical and health concerns – which seem to be sorted out – I have given a lot of thought to where I go from here, and what I do with this site. I have enjoyed all of this up to a point but it has concerned me that of all the people who purport to be followers only one commented on line on the The Man and one in a private email ( Thank you) – so two, out of how many? I also found that there are others – blogs by the page load from them – but not even so much as a “like” for me, which was somewhat disconcerting. I don’t intend to be a “stat” making up one of a nice set of numbers. The the departure of The Man has been a sort of catalyst: that and my “involvement” with local and Adelaide hospitals and the curtailing of much of my traveling, will mean that things change – they have to.

How do you think things should change? I would be interested in your comments.

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