Time for an update

Hard to belief it’s almost march, time passes so quickly, I intend to do an update then it’s two weeks later and I have not even given it another thought. Things have been interesting 🤔 I think that’s the best way to put it.

January I headed down to Christchurch in the wee car for mums 91st. Hard to believe it was not that long ago we were not sure she would make it to 90, now she is probably in the best health she has been in the last 10+ years. The trip down was fun, stayed the night in Raetihi near Ohakune in a tiny house, I think it was only minimally larger than the car. The bed was up a ladder and you crawled over the floor to get in as the ceiling height was less than a meter. But taking a break meant I could take my time heading down to Wellington. It was also going to be Yifei’s 9th birthday while I was in christchurch and I was bringing her a special mouse and documenting miss mousse’s trip to see her.

For mums birthday we all got together and had a picnic at Kaituna Valley which was where would come as kids for family picnic’s what feels like 100 years ago. As a gift for mum each of us took a piece of her black and white artwork and coloured it for her. She loved it and had a wonderful day out. It was the day before her actual birthday which was the Monday. On Monday she kept noticing the date and happily telling me it was her birthday every few minutes. She didn’t remember anything of the day before so was hopefully looking for presents. Luckily I had saved a present for her and by cutting all the chocolate up in very small pieces I was able to give her birthday chocolate ever time she would look at the date on the huge display we have in the kitchen and suddenly discover it was her birthday. She is a chocoholic and forgets she has had one and demands another one. Then of course she couldn’t remember how old she was. I eventually started telling her she was 103 and she would stare at me and say No I Am Not! So she did know she wasn’t 103, then I would give her some paper and pencil so she could work it out, she still does remember what year she was born. This was done to lots of laughs and giggles and she thoroughly enjoyed her day.

Getting ready for the trip back to Rotorua I thought maybe I could try and fix the broken window motor on the passenger side. First a trip to the wreckers who listed the same model car but a year older. The yard was like stepping onto a movie set, a couple of hard case characters at the entrance were just the beginning. Found the car, eventually, found the motor and $30 later I was feeling like this might just work. An hour later covered in black sticky stuff, dirt, grease and assorted stains I found I had learned two things, don’t wear light coloured clothing to a wrecking yard and a 2011 window motor is never going to fit a 2012 car.

I stuffed the wee car full of lots of mums project stuff, more to clear a space at her place so I can eventually graduate from the couch to an actual bed than knowing what I will do with all the stuff and I hit the road. I love road trips and the drive to Picton is always a pleasure. I had been unwell most of my time in chch so I was pretty tired and I decided for the first time ever to book a cabin on the ferry since it was going to be an early start. It was perfect, I got a nap and didn’t have to keep taking my stuff with me and losing my seat every time I got up and as the weather was so bad we had a longer than usual trip, rock and rolling all the way. Now I have had a cabin I can never go back!

Finally back, started to relax and suddenly in the middle of the night got a free ride in one of the nice new ambulances up to ED. I would say that I was a 10/10 pain and more than a little concerned at this point. Bowel blockage – eek! A few days later they decide I could go home but wasn’t out of the woods, it was over a week with another trip to ED before things were functioning normally. Luckily for me I had spent way too much time with one of the surgeons who had worked with Barney and he agreed to follow up with me. Normally with a resolved blockage they basically do nothing, just wait and see if it happens again. Thats hard as you don’t know what to eat, what not to eat, what to do, there is no way you ever want to have it happen again and you feel helpless. Dr Griffith has arranged an MRI in two weeks which I think is as much to put my mind at rest as it is to find out if there are any physical issues that would put me at risk of further blocks. I am very grateful, it’s like if I have the data I can accept the plan, but if it’s just a … well yeah it could happen again next week or in another 25 years …that’s hard to deal with. So I then trot back to the cardiologist who did the ablation and he says he thinks it’s a success in that it has resolved the atrial tachycardia which was the electrical issue. But the fact I am still getting heart rates over 190 with mild exercise apparently that’s a plumbing issue and I have to go back to the beginning and find another cardiologist that specialises in that and that I need to wait till at least 6 month from my ablation. I probably don’t need to mention that these last couple of months have been a trifle stressful. And as always the solution to stress is walks in the forest and of course mushrooms. This has been the driest worst start to a mushroom season that anyone can remember. Normally right now it’s full on colour, what’s out there is sparse but there are a few gems and I will keep hunting them down 😎