I can’t believe my last post was in February, so much has happened and time just seems to fly by. I drove back from my Christchurch excursion and the day after I got back I ended up in ED ( emergency department for the US guys) with a partial bowel blockage, well that was just the beginning of ED visits which have culminated in MRI scans and cat scans, ultrasounds and more. Bottom line they found a congenital condition and a mass – now trying to coordinate surgeons and find a way to get a gynaecologist and a general surgeon to operate at the same time. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. I head off tomorrow to Hamilton (about an hour and half from here) to hopefully take the next step.
In the mean time it’s finally the start of fungi season, way later than usual this year with a super dry summer, we finally got some big rain events and suddenly the fungi are coming up. Fungi hunting gets me out in absolutely breathtaking native forest and although the walks are only 3 -4 kilometres I take about 3 hours to do it as I spend most of my time lying on the ground. The places I go are off the grid with no cell service and often crazy pothole filled mud tracks to get in so I always got with fellow fungal fanatics. When you are out fungalling whole world is focussed on the 2mm tiny mushroom on the far side of a rotting log covered in spiderwebs and teetering on the edge of a ravine. I am so thankful to have the space away from all the world’s craziness.
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.
Ohh chocolate With SIL Kaye At Japanese restaurant rocking new sunnies
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 😎
A bug A fungi that eats bugs NZ Shitake Yes it is a fungi in an eggshell
It doesn’t feel like Christmas, it been wet and windy and suddenly hot then wet again. Looks like we will have some rain tomorrow for Christmas Day, it’s summer but nothing like the hot dry summer we have been threatened with. I have not been up to much at all, the ablation looked like it worked for about a week but now I have a whole different problem that has been getting worse and worse. I finally got some new meds that didn’t work so I doubled the dose today and finally had a whole day that I could move around without consequences. Fingers crossed I will be ok to drive to christchurch for mums birthday. 91 is another milestone not to be missed.
I made a fruit cake, my first ever Christmas cake and as anyone who knows me I am not much of a cake baker. This one tastes great but crumbles and is more like a pudding, but hey it is my homage to Christmas and will get nibbled away at over the next few weeks.
I am looking forward to heading down to chch, it’s a long drive but I love road trips. Mum misses her car and there is no spare cars for my two week visit so I get to drive. 2 days down and 2 days back. Only thing that could be better is if I could stretch it out to 3 or 4 days and stop at all the places I would like to on the way.
So it’s been a bit of a journey with this heart stuff and I didn’t realise how much I had just got used to it until I got some new meds and felt I had suddenly woken up, my brain was clear for the first time in a long time. I stopped the meds last week and had my heart ablation op on tuesday. Basically they told me they would 3d map my heart and identify which nerve bundles were firing that shouldn’t be and they would zap them. I think I was led to expect it was something that would take maybe 30 min and I would be awake but hardly notice. After 3 hours, painful and uncomfortable and listening to the surgeon being taught the new equipment with my pain helping him understand what didn’t work, I also found out that fentanyl does not work for me as pain relief. But it’s done and I survived. It’s day 3 afterwards and I am having a few side effects that are a bit challenging so the journey continues.
It’s not fungi season here but I was anxious to get out in the bush before the op as I knew that it would be a few weeks before I could manage the terrain again. We were so lucky, Whirinaki is such a special, old growth forest and we found mushies 👏👏 I am particularly lucky that my friend Lee has been coaching me on taking macro photos and invited me on the walk.
Then for the op we had to drive to Hamilton, about an hour and half from here. Being worried about getting caught with road works or an accident we ended up getting there over hour and half early. So had a lovely visit to the botanical gardens, I just had my phone but the roses were spectacular, covered in dew and fragrant. I couldn’t resist a couple of photos.
Well Stu has had his oncology appt and they have confirmed myeloma which is not curable but they have caught it early and feel that there are things they can do to prolong his life comfortably. Issue is only if he will actually do them as he is anti vaccine and the first step is a number of vaccines. We all get to make our own choices and I guess we will just see how things progress.
It’s definitely been a time to stop and look at life and choices and what’s next. Hard to accept I am almost as old as old people 😬 I had an eye exam and the good news is my presbyopia has improved 😁 because I have started getting cataracts 😫. I hear people around me bemoan the way of the world and everything that is wrong with it and there is plenty of that, but little time is spent appreciating what is wonderful about it. I think if we just started appreciating what we do have and taking care of it better and stop letting our brains get hijacked by media telling us what to focus on we would all be a little kinder to each other. It’s a slippery slope from here on in with body and mind vulnerable in a way it never has been before. I think I am going to enjoy every moment I can and just have fun…. And lots of snoozing in the sunshine.
The trip north was wonderful, nothing like a road trip in springtime. Lime green of the new grown and yellow of wattle and gorse all the way up the South Island and then what started as a nice fin day in Wellington turned into more of a wild wet day driving north .
Coming into Wellington Mt Ruapehu CC in her new home
I was tired when I arrived back and somehow managed to lose 3 weeks. I managed a couple of mushroom excursions, although always hopeful this is the wrong time of year to see much.
A day out to Mangatautri ( Sanctuary Mountain) was a highlight. About an hour and half from here, I had never been before. It’s a mountain with old growth forest and 47 km of predator proof fence that has been put around the whole mountain to allow native birds, especially endangered ones like the takahe, to flourish. An incredible outdoor classroom and an inspiration when you can see what the forest looks like without the possums, wallaby’s, rats and stoats. Bird life was noisy and delightful and I can’t wait to go back in mushy season.
Greeted by a tui On the right you can see the fence
Mum has not been able to drive for over 18 months and finally was unable to renew her license in January. The plan was for me to take the car back with me but every time I came to take it she couldn’t remember that she couldn’t drive so she couldn’t let it go. Finally we realised that seeing it every day wasn’t as much a comfort as a trigger to want to drive it. We had taken away the key but she would find other keys and try and open it, breaking a random key off in the lock. So I packed it up yesterday and drove off into the sunshine. Very tough for her to finally let it go and we know it will take many reminders over months for her to remember where it’s gone if she ever does. Our biggest concern is that she will go look for it and call the police cos she thinks it’s stolen. I have photos on the fridge and doors to remind her but she is also good at taking them off. I am sending photos of CC ( Carole’s Car) to her photo frame with notes of the journey and CC will send her postcards weekly over the next month or two, she loves getting mail and hopefully it will slowly sink in that the car is gone. On my part it’s a trip I love and one I haven’t driven in a long time. I don’t have a car of my own so it’s going to give me a whole lot of freedom to have CC come live with me.
KaikoraNgāi Tahu chief Picton waterfront
This is the first day of the journey north. Picton overnight and the ferry to Wellington tomorrow.
It’s been so busy I haven’t had any time to myself to write and somehow the week ended up being 9 days, it would have been longer but no matter how long I stay it will never be long enough to get through the ever increasing list of things to do and people who need help. I caught up with my Aunt Kaye who has just had a melanoma removed and now they have found 4 tumours in her lymph nodes. Getting older sucks!
I have been cooking, cleaning, fixing stuff, making dolls clothes and costumes, clearing and decluttering, making runs to the dump and second hand stores, taking mum to dementia activities, doing surgery on Elves and managing sibling crisis’s. I did get one evening that Beaulah took me for gelato and to visit the new library which I hadn’t seen in the center of the city.
Love that New Regent street still looks like it always did.Yifei and her doll in its new outfit
Terina explaining exactly what she wants me to sew for her 😁
Crisis on the southern border, well on the southern island anyway. So I hightailed it down to Chirstchurch last night to spend some time with mum and catch up with Stu. Stu has just come out of hospital, he has what he thought was a lung infection after a week of the flu, they found fluid on his lungs so they popped him on IV antibiotics and did a chest x ray. The antibiotics worked and his lungs cleared but they found a shoulder fracture on the X-ray. So they sent him for an MRI and the have done a lumbar puncture and biopsy – upshot is that he has bone cancer and they are trying to find how far advanced and make a treatment plan. It’s Stu’s birthday on sept 1st so I decided to come down now while I can support him through the shock and figuring out how to plan for the inevitable chemo and radiation and manage the 5 kids and working. I will be down for at least a week and then come back again every few weeks. Ian picked me up at the airport and gingerly got out of the car and hobbled to the back for me to put my suitcase in. He has damaged c4 and c5 on his spine helping Stu with the ride on lawn mowers since Stu can’t do it. He is about to go to Ireland for 3 weeks on Friday and can hardly walk let alone sit for hours. 😳wondering what the heck is going on down here. This morning I noticed that the gate into the patio at mums was wide open. Easy I think I will just go lock that up, must have blown open in the storms they have been having down here in between the heavy frosts.
Then I noticed a rather important part is not only missing but looks like it’s never been here – wtf. It’s going to be a long week.
So bear with me, this adventure is going to be more like a saga. Mum has a Dr appt this morning for her foot. I read the message and don’t recognise the Dr name but it’s at Ilam medical which is the place I took her to last time for her podiatrist appt. So bright and early ( after trickle charging the car overnight for a flat battery) I take her to the podiatrist, who is rather puzzled because she can’t find the appointment, but as she has a no show she takes us and it’s all good. Then my sister calls in a panic as she’s just been told mum is a no show at her appointment with the Dr – same Medical Center. Apparently she had made an appt with the Dr who would then refer mum to the podiatrist and I had messed up and taken her straight to the podiatrist. Communication breakdown but fortunately with an efficient result. This is less than 24hrs here, you know there is more to come…. It’s going to get more and more convoluted – stay tuned for the intricate dance steps of southern family drama.
Hibernation is finally over and I am finally starting to show signs of life. I baked this morning, I am not a good baker as I use graduated eyeballs and guesstimates which works fine cooking meals but apparently is not the best approach to recipes that require exact amounts. Anyway, after acquiring an old fashioned gem iron I decided to make ginger gems. I modified the recipe with more ginger and more golden syrup and swapped out white sugar for less brown sugar so I knew it was touch and go. Surprise surprise I got the best ginger gems I have ever had. My new 20 min go to.. move over muffins.
Ginger gems are an old fashioned kiwi treat that needs heavy cast iron gem irons to make. Who knew these things are a collectors item and outrageously expensive but after you taste them you know why.
The Traveling Kiwi 