Two Steps Forward One Step Back

I thought I had this beat. They changed my drugs, no more vomitting, I was walking a little and after almost a week I finally had a shower.

The nurse removed my dressing and I heard him say "oh f--k" under his breath. I wasn't supposed to hear. He called the head nurse and she basically told me the incision had opened up and they were calling my surgeon.

He will stop by this morning between surgeries. Meanwhile, I feel clean and scared...

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A Little Update

So it's Friday and I'm still alive, just barely mind you, but alive. After three days of retching, not being able to eat and trying to convince all and sundry that morphine was not a good drug for me someone finally listened. I've also had the misfortune of having the same nurse I had six years ago who I not affectionally called "Nurse Ratchett".

There was no love lost between us and I'm glad I don't have to see until Monday. Yes I will be here at least until then and if I am medically stable will go to rehab for two weeks. They need to get my electrolytes sorted out.

I have been up walking and it's not too bad considering all I'm taking now is Tylenol.

Internet service is spotty and I can't always send them. I hope I can post this.


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She Lives!

Greetings, all.

For those of you who are in the know, I would be Teddy. The Specified Offspring.

Reporting in to... um... er... report that the Maternal Parental Unit (Rositta) has survived her hip replacement, and is suitably harassing the nurses for more morphine.

More news when it becomes fit to print. But so far, all's well. I will talk to her tonight, and pass along warm feelings of morhpia induced peace and love to y'all.

Cheers!

|Teddy

Off To The Hospital I Go...

For what I truly is the last time for a long long while. Those of you who follow this blog will know that I've had my share of crap these last two years or so and I pretty much hope that this is the end.

By this time tomorrow I should have a brand spanking new hip. To say that I having been counting the hours recently is an understatement. The pain in the last 10 days or so has been excruciating to the point that I spend way to much time planted on the sofa in a horizontal position swallowing heavy duty painkillers. Tomorrow that will all end, I still have a mountain to climb after all...

I finished these little anklets just in time to take with me. I wonder if they will let me wear them in the O.R.?



I'll write when I can and let you all know how it's going. I have real hopes of getting into a rehab hospital for a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, later...

I've Been Meaning To Do This...

Send you over to visit Dr. Jim at StorytellERdoc. This has become one of my favourite blogs to read. Dr. Jim makes me laugh, cry, sad and happy and that says a lot. I have over 200 blogs on Bloglines and yet he is one of the first I check out. Of course knowing on which days he will post makes this easier. Go have a look, read a couple of his stories and I guarantee you'll be hooked.

Sorry Dr. Jim, I've been meaning to blogroll you for a while now but stuff just got in the way.

Six days to the hip replacement, I can hardly wait...

Round One - To The Neighbourhood

A couple of weeks ago when we returned from our sojourn in the wilds, we were greeted with a letter from the City of Toronto Planning Department informing us that someone had applied to demolish a house around the corner from us and build two detached houses its place.

So what's the big deal one would wonder? This is a very established neighbourhood of detached homes, some bungalows and some two storey. Every now and again a little bungalow will be sold and a new two storey monster house erected on the site. No one generally complains about it thinking that it would increase the property value of the neighbourhood and generally that is so. The only problem with that is it generally raises taxes for everyone else since we have market value assessment, but hey what the heck, unlike some other countries we actually don't mind paying taxes if we get services for them.

So what has mobilized this neighbourhood in this instance? It is the fact that this sleazy builder (we know him) is trying to reduce lot sizes and build two skinny houses. This is also a builder who has been known to not build exactly to his approved plans sometimes increasing window sizes or building height and then run to the city again for a minor variance. The neighbours of his last project are so angry with him but were not at today's meeting because they are out of the immediate area.

The normal lots sizes run somewhere between 39 feet to 45 feet with the occasional lot around 58 feet frontage. It is one of these that this builder/speculator is trying to divide into two lots around 28.5 feet each. It doesn't suit the neighbourhood. From what we know the official plan shows that you need a minimum lot size of 39 feet to build a house and he was looking for over 10 feet less frontage! He was calling this a "minor variance" on his application.

Generally when these types of notices arrive I toss them but something made me read more carefully. I saw a couple of the neighbours the next day and we knew we had to mobilize. I emailed my councillor (with whom I have had issues in the past) and was pleasantly surprised to discover she would be on our side, but hey...it's an election year. Do you think that had anything to do with it or am I being too cynical again?

My immediate neighbour got a petition going and managed to get a fair number of signatures and letters of opposition and today there was a meeting at what's called the Committee of Adjustment where you can apply for minor variances. Because of my hip pain I was unable to go but I got the good news as soon as it happened.

He lost, we won round one. Considering that this man paid almost half a million dollars for this property we know he will go the next step and appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board where he may or may not win. At least we tried...

Uncelebrated Events

With all the stuff happening in my life these days we completely forgot about our wedding anniversary last weekend and Mother's day was pretty much ignored in this household. Steve's Mom died a year ago and my own Mother died one day before Mother's day three years ago. I suppose there will come a time when we will again celebrate these events, they just didn't seem terribly important this year.

Yesterday I had to go for pre op at the hospital that is doing the surgery. I spent seven hours and still didn't resolve the most important issue... rehab, seems the social worker left for a meeting just around the time when I was done with all the other tests. Convenient I'd say. What did I spend seven hours doing you wonder, me too. Most of those hours were spent waiting. Steve dropped me off at 8 am and I waited half hour for the nurse. We went through my medical history and I tried to address some of my concerns with being sent home four days after surgery. She insisted these concerns would be addressed by the (disappearing) social worker later. She kept insisting that I needed to appoint a "coach", someone to help me at home after surgery, drive me around to physio (at my expense), and someone to make me meals. I kept insisting that nope, don't have a coach nor can I get one. All my friends work and I'm not about to ask neighbours to take care of me. This is the busiest time of year for my contractor husband who is generally gone by seven and not back before five and my offspring lives in a different province. What are they thinking...

Then I saw a anesthesiologist who explained the latest technique of spinal freezing instead of general anesthetic. The next step was a neck x-ray, blood work and EKG. Each of these required traipsing to different parts of the hospital. Trying to get a coffee or something to eat was near impossible with the strange hours of the cafeteria and I finally did end up with a sandwich at 2 o'clock. By that time I needed Tylenol 3 just to be able to walk.

My last stop was with the on site doctor who checked me over head to toe and pronounced me fit for surgery. By the time I called Steve to come and get me seven hours had passed and I was beat.

Last night I Googled hip replacements in Germany and if I had 10,000 Euros I'd go there. I'm embarrassed to be a Canadian citizen in the Province of Ontario. With all the extra tax money they have taken from us in the last four years specifically for health care we have gotten nothing back, in fact they have cut services across the board, sadly...

Update

The cataract surgery is over and I survived. I currently have no close up vision and can't see the computer screen with any of the half dozen or so "cheaters" that I have but I can see the screen on the IPod Touch, go figure. Must be the way it's backlit.

All will be well...


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Finally - The Wait Is Over

Monday morning after waiting three months, I will have the cataract in my left eye removed. It has been a long wait fraught with second guessing and second opinions. I was told that the first eye is probably not going to get much better which depresses me. I don't have a single pair of reading glasses that works for that eye. Nevertheless the second eye has to be done. It is my hope that by the time I go for my hip replacement the doc will have set me up with some type of reading glasses. They don't like to prescribe them until at least six weeks post surgery but I don't have the luxury of time on my side. I need to be able to see when I'm in hospital.

Meanwhile, some pictures in my garden that make me smile. The Japanese Maple survived the winter brilliantly...

I'm not too crazy about bleeding hearts but I have one anyway...

This is only a small patch of raspberries...there are a few more scattered around the garden. It will be a bumper crop. These bushes yield twice a year, once in July and again in September. Of course I'm never here for the September crop but the woman that takes care of our garden sure loves them...

We were not planning on doing a vegetable garden this year. We had originally planned on going to Greece in July and leaving the garden dormant for a year. Things change, best laid plans and all that, with the hip replacement in May I will not be traveling to Greece before September. So, there will be a garden...

Our friend Pasquale, contributed the tomatoes. The seeds for everything will go in before the end of the month...

And last but not least, I have been doing some knitting. I have 5 projects on the go right now. Two pairs of socks, one blanket and two sweaters but when I got the pattern for this wonderful shrug I simply put everything else away and started knitting. After today though I suspect all projects will be on hold for a while. That will probably include blogging and even reading which really sucks... As my friend in Germany said to me, "what's the alternative".