Respite!

The cavalry arrived today in the form of Shirley!It is so nice to have another family member on hand. Shirley is here until the 2nd June.We are staying around until Wednesday to ease her into routines and then hopefully will head up to Frogknot for a few days.Today Dave the tiler returned to remove some of the tiles that Sergio had damaged grinding down a metal strip that was sticking up between them.We had another OT visit to check the height of the shower bars that Bob the Builder is going to fit and then Jess the Dietician arrived and talked non-stop for over an hour.Dulcie was tired this afternoon but perked up tonight and we saw flashes of her sense of humour.Fingers crossed that the worst of this cold is over. It has laid her low and practically fighting for breath constantly for three days.Last night I rang the HMRC about my tax rebate on their dedicated overseas line.....it was dreadful....I coud hardly hear them and had to get them to repeat things over and over again whilst standing in the garden in the dark trying to improve the signal and being feasted upon by mosquitoes. I discovered that it had been approved and should be with me before the 31st and if not I was to ring them back.I checked my account straight away and I had been credited £955.......hurrah!I checked the price of flights home with Emirates and worked out with my tax rebate and my back dated carers allowance I would only be about £300 short.My brother James is getting married in July and with my Dad being in hospital recently I really want to come back for a little while.I was hoping to come from July 1st until July 15th but found it was cheaper to come back on the 18th....a few extra days. We cannot afford for both of us to come. Will will be on holiday for much of that time so will be able to look after Dulcie but I needed to check with Shirley that she would be able to cover the three days at the end when Will would be back at work. She could so I set about going ahead with the booking.The price of the flights had gone up $200 from last night! Last night the flight was $2750  today it was $2950. I chose the one that came back on the 18th and got all the way through the process to pressing 'Proceed with Payment' when I got a message saying that the seat was no longer available and I should ring Emirates customer services.I did. They said the only seats now available would cost me an extra $600.I tried other dates and could find nothing that did not have a 19 hour wait in Dubai. It was so frustrating and my blood pressure was definitely rising . I checked another site and it found me a ticket for the same  flight I was told would now cost me $600 more for $2950 so I booked. I was expecting it not to work....but it did.I am heading 'Up Over' on the 1st July and return 'Down Under' on the 18th July...I will be £500 short but, fingers crossed,....if my carers pension is granted and back dated I will not be in debt.....I don't care anyway....I just have to go......and now I am!

A Hard Day's Night.

I suppose I should be grateful that after 10 pm the blood pressure monitor stopped beeping before it inflated but I was aware of it at quarter past the hour throughout the night.It was not only that that kept us awake. Dulcie had a bad night. This cold that she has picked up is affecting her already poor oxygen intake and her trips to the loo wore her out. Will and I both sat with her separately, twice through out the night to try and calm her down.Earlier in the evening we called upon the doctor again and he has prescribed a course of anti-biotics and 3 days of statins to open up her airway.I remembered at 2.45 am that we had not put the bins out and so crept out into the dark to move it to the kerbside, treading upon a cane toad in the process, in my bare feet!At 6.00 am the beeping re-started and we were back to 20 minute inflations.I asked Will to take the day off work. I feel I am failing in my carer role by asking him but under the circumstances I needed him here particularly with his mum being so weak at this time...I feel any decisions that need making are made by a family member.It was not an easy day. Dulcie struggled all day to get her breath even though she was sat in her reclining chair. This afternoon we bought a vaporizer and thankfully it seems to be helping her and her breathing has calmed and quietened.Will was working for the next two days at another Kindergarten but has backed out of that too to stay home...we could have done with the money...but I am glad he will be here just until we get Dulcie back on an even keel.I had a phone call this afternoon from Centrelink....they are approving my application for carers allowance and it will be back dated to when Dulcie first went into hospital. It will be $118  fortnight. A decision is still to be made on my application for a carers pension which would add another $700 a fortnight. Fingers crossed....it would double our income.

Return to Sunnybank Cardiopulmonary Clinic.

I was released from my charge to visit the clinic to get my 24 hour blood pressure monitor.Wendi came over to sit with her Mum.The waiting room at Sunnybank Cardiopulmonary Clinic was empty. The woman sitting behind the reception desk for the doctor with the double barrelled name was still there...She was the one that had waved me onto the other reception desk the last time...I walked straight past her and handed my referral letter to Ros. Ros could have been a contender for Real Housewives of Brisbane, or perhaps the female lead in a 1950’s film.She tapped a keyboard and peered at a computer screen.“ Are you still at Celtis St?”‘No. I’m standing here in front of you’ I thought.... but nodded.“Take a seat.”The same cane furniture was still there, the same modern art...even the ‘Gourmet Traveller’ magazines.A very thin doctor in loud pinstripe trousers kept sliding past backwards and forwards behind the desk as if he was on a conveyer belt.I didn’t have to wait long.“Mr Allen?”I got up and followed the young chap into a room.“Take a seat on the bed,” he said.“The bed?” I hadn’t anticipated a bed being involved in the procedure.It was a high bed...there were two steps up to it.I sat down.“I’m Job,” said the young chap, “ so we are fitting you with a blood pressure monitor?”I was expecting something discrete...not so...it is just like the one they use at the doctors or in hospital, the thing that wraps around your arm which is attached to the monitor by a long orange coloured rubber tube.“It will take your blood pressure every 20 minutes during the day and every hour at night. I want you to record every 2 hours on this sheet what you are doing, but don’t worry about doing it through the night. A very short description will do, even just two words. If you get up during the night you don’t have to record it.”“So I don’t have to put, ‘having a pee?’ I said.“No,” he said. “You would be surprised what some people put,” he said.“Eye opening, I bet,” I said.“Just things you can’t unread,” he frowned.He did a trial run and was pleased with how it all went. He slipped the monitor into a mini shoulder bag.“You are free to go.”“Thanks,” I said, “ See you tomorrow.”I went back to reception and Ros took $110 out of our account.I called at Woolies on the way home...we needed milk.I didn’t want to wander around the supermarket with my bright orange tube fully visible so got the monitor  out of its shoulder bag and slipped it into the arm of my t shirt, down under my t shirt and popped it in my pocket. There was a lot of orange tubing to hide so tucked some of it into my pants.I still had the big blue thing wrapped around my arm but it didn’t look too bad.Walking into Woolies I became more concerned that I had now opened myself up to the possibility of bright orange tubing popping out of my trousers and under my t shirt.....and looking like I had a colostomy bag.I made it around the store and back out to the car without any tubing popping out and just as I sat in the car it inflated on my arm.It beeps three times before inflating, then noisily inflates and beeps once when it is finished.Am I going to get any sleep tonight?

The Days of our Lives.

“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”I underestimated my new role. I foolishly imagined it to be very similar to the days Dulcie and I had spent together before the hospital.It has not been an easy week but the last two days have been an improvement upon the ones before.Will is working all this week. He has three days at his Chelmer Kindergarten but is working Thursday and Friday at another Kindergarten covering for an absence.I was a little daunted at facing the week alone but....and I am touching wood...all has been fairly plain sailing.Last week was a big learning curve...for the both of us.Dulcie has learned that even though she expected to, she cannot do what she used to do. Being the very independent soul she is it has also been hard to swallow the constant reminders of her ‘hip precautions’. There was some rebellion, particularly when I was the one reminding, but we seem to have got past that. It is not helped in that her short term memory is not as it was and even the smallest effort is tiring, so when she finally reached a chair all she wants to do is flop down and not think of ‘brakes, arms first.’I have learned that things are not going to be as they were. I am sure that things will settle down but at the moment I am her shadow and she is rarely out of my sight.The TCP (Transition Care Programme) has been very good. I told you that on the day I asked about a wheel chair...we got it that day. (We have not used it yet but it is still early days.) Since then Dulcie is now wearing a personal alarm necklace around her neck. When she needs to she presses the red button upon it and it calls the Vitalcall centre who ring and over a loud speaker ask if there is an emergency. So sensitive is the microphone that they will pick up Dulcie’s reply even if she is at the other end of the house. They then will contact Will, I and the emergency services. Bob the Builder...(a real one!) came on Monday and has fitted a key safe that will allow emergency services access if the door is locked. He is also going to fit extra rails to the stairs front and back and bars in the bathroom.Dulcie has had daily shower help. There have been three different helpers and they have all been lovely. We had a podiatrist coming tomorrow to tend her feet and still await a visit from a dietician re meal supplements. She has had regular physio and yesterday it took the form of a trip down the stairs and a walk down the road a little way. It tired her out.She has since the end of last week developed a nasty cold. We could so do without it.She has a cough which sounds very loose so on Saturday I went to the chemist to get some cough medicine to help her get rid of it. On Sunday we called the doctor worried that it would settle on her chest. S he had no fever and her chest sounded clear so he was happy that we just continue as we were. She is still struggling with it and is finding it slightly harder to breathe but is not constantly coughing and still has no fever.We were woken this morning by the phone at 7.30 am. Annette was coming at 8.00 am to do the shower! In the end we sent her away. Dulcie did not feel up to it as the rush to get up and ready tired her out and the morning was chilly We have not been for a walk today....again she is not up to it. She needs to conserve her energy to fight this cold. This afternoon she has dozed on and off in her chair....She does not normally do that...she must need it.I get her medication when she needs it, bring her drinks and heat the wheat bag that alleviates the arthritic pain in her arm. Today I have hovered and washed her bedding, wiped the kitchen shelves and cleaned the curtain rails.“I used to do that,” she said.“Well, now you’ve retired....and you can watch me do it,” I said.“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.”

Corned meat!

I only ever thought that corned beef came out of a tin....I had never seen anyone make it themselves until I came here.Since October there has always been some in the fridge....unless we had pickled pork for a change.....but not for the last 8 weeks.Will bought a silverside joint yesterday and today I made my first corned meat.Luckily I had Dulcie on hand to talk me through it.I washed the joint and then placed it in a large saucepan and covered it with water. I added a cup of vinegar, a tablespoon of sugar, a little ground nutmeg and a small peeled onion (whole).I slowly brought the water to the boil and then simmered the meat for an hour before turning it and simmering again for another 20 minutes.Job done.Place in the fridge when cool and you have meat for sandwiches for days galore!