A new home for holtieshouse.

Seems like ages since I have written anything on F/B (or the blog) and it certainly isn’t because nothing has been happening in my world… the very opposite in fact I have been on a whirlwind ride which was going much to fast for me to jump off.

In something like chronological order, since Christmas 2012 which I spent in Victoria with most of my family, the decision to move back to Victoria became a reality so some lifestyle investigations began, after much to-ing and fro-ing I decided to buy another house and live independently while I was still able to.

There was a pretty good range of homes available in my price range so I made an offer on one of them then headed for home to sell my Queensland house, Vicki rang me a couple of days later to tell me that the offer had been accepted so the game was on in earnest, I listed my house with a local agent and we agreed on a selling price, after one open house which was very well attended the agent rang me to say the house was sold… so in a two week period I bought and sold houses in two different states.

My dear sister passed away at the same time I was booked into hospital to have the reversal of my colostomy done, the surgery all went well and I have since received a clean bill of health report. 

Marcus and Alan came up for a week to organize a garage sale and pack up my stuff, as an added bonus the people who bought my house bought my furniture too so the move became much easier. Thanks to the boys efforts the garage sale was a success, we gave the surplus to charity and I set sail for my new home and life.

I am at this moment, 1.00pm Wed March 19^th, sitting on my new front porch typing this post while I wait for my mew Refrigerator, Washing Machine, Bedroom Suite and Lounge Suite to be delivered, The carpets were all cleaned yesterday and my stuff from Gympie arrives tomorrow so I’ll probably move into my new home on the week end…. WooHoo.

Its now 10 pm and all the expected things have happened, so I’m off to bed… a big day unpacking tomorrow!!!!

Have you ever had "one of those weeks"???

Here is a description of my last medical adventure for anyone that might be interseted, and no there are no photos to go with it breathe easy!!!!

Have you ever had "one of those weeks"???

On Thursday 17th I had a 10am  appointment to book into Nambour General Hospital for prep treatment for a colonoscopy.

For once in my life I decided that today I would get a 6am start and have an organized day, the best laid plans......, Showered, dressed, packed, no breakfast because of the dreaded "Prep" treatment, I had arranged to drop my computer into its second home, the computer repair shop, at 8.30am so all was ready and done by 8.15am I had achieved the impossible... an early start instead of a rushed panic.

The leisurely drive to Nambour was just that, leisurely,  I got to Reed House, an accommodation facility run by the Red Cross where I had arranged to leave my car and then stay overnight on Friday while the effects of my anesthetic wore off, all this was done and I was in the designated area of the hospital by 9.45am!!!!!!  

I was directed to take a seat in chair 10 while they found my records.... this took an hour or so, but who cares I'm early, about an hour later a doctor arrived and I went to an examination room where we chatted for a while, he left to get some information, a little later an orderly came and put me into a wheelchair, we almost got out the door but were stopped by the doctor who said I had to wait in the waiting lounge........

Chair 10 was no longer available, there were only 3 numbered chairs 10, 11, 12, who knows what happened to the first 9 ???? there were some unnumbered chairs at the other end of the room so I took one of them and there I stagnated for another 3 hours, I heard my name mentioned at least a dozen times during this time so this group clearly wanted to get rid of me but were having trouble finding someone who wanted to take me.

Eventually  a stoma nurse, whom I knew and trusted, arrived to explain the day from hell, The plan was to get me into a ward where they would do a "stoma flush" this takes about 2 hours and was the reason for the early start and the overnight stay in hospital..... as it was now about 3.30pm it was too late to start now as all the stoma nurses knocked of at 5.00pm.....

At about 5.00pm an orderly arrived and took me to a 2nd floor ward where I was welcomed and settled in, unpacked my overnight bag and waited for the "Prep" to begin, at 5.30pm an orderly arrived to take me to ward 1b... so I clearly wasn't wanted here either.

Ward 1b was my old stomping ground so I wasn't too upset to be back here, I had been on the go since 6am, sitting around in various uncomfortable chairs all day and hadn't had the treatment I'd come in for... Not Happy Jane!!!

To make matters worse I'd missed out on Dinner by a matter of minutes, mind you "clear fluids" only doesn't get very exciting, finally the "Prep" mixture arrived 2 litres tonight and another litre in the morning, Oh the joy of it all, without getting to far into the details, because I have a stoma with a colostomy bag the output from the "Prep" goes through the bag so they put one with a drain to a large bag below it, this meant I didn't have to get up for the usual dashes to the toilet, this is the first plus in a day of minus'.

Two different nurses tried unsuccessfully 4 times (2 tries each) to get a needle into my hand/arm for a canula to administer the anesthetic, so that's a job for the doctor tomorrow.

There is a male nurse on night duty who wears an LED headlight while making rounds after lights out, in my mind he is Florence Nightingales brother Frank, you know, the guy with the lamp, I was disappointed to learn that his name is Rex oh well you can't win 'em all.

Another litre of "Prep" mixture, with not much result, they could have spared me that joy, my colonoscopy procedure began at 2.00pm with the anesthetist insert the canula needle almost painlessly, about now I drifted off into  noddy land while they did what they had to do.

Later in the recovery room I awakened to find I had no pain or discomfort so I was allowed to leave at about 6.00pm for my overnight stay at Reed House, this proved to be a night best forgotten... I emptied 4 bags full (approx 1 litre) of what appeared to be just blood, lets face it there wasn't anything else left in my insides.

So back to the hospital emergency ward I toddled next morning, as a patient  from yesterday I got good treatment and was sent back to good old ward 1b after a couple of hours.

The blood loss, which was from 5 or 6 polyps that had been removed for analysis during the procedure, had stopped but my blood count was down quite low so I had a blood transfusion to help bolster it up.

After more blood tests and as there was no longer any bleeding I was put back on a light diet for Sunday nights dinner, remember my last meal was on Wednesday night, so that was GOOD news.

I was finally discharged at midday on Monday 21st, so I'm home again and settled back into my routine and feeling good, I got a letter making an interview appointment with my surgeon on November 21st so i'm guessing that everything was clear or there would probably have been a bit quicker response triggered ???? I'll find out more about the stoma reversal then I hope.

If I knew a screen printer I would have a T Shirt printed with...

"WHAT A F#####G WEEK" on it.

G'day Ya'll

Just a minute while I wipe the cobwebs of this page.....
That's better I can see to type now, how have you all been going over the past few months while my life revolved around ME and CANCER?? don't worry we're not here to talk about them things today.
After a longish hibernation I'm back on the internet again... not so much here as on the dreaded Facebook and Pinterest for any of you who are not familiar with Pinterest I recommend you have a look at it, I'm starting to really enjoy creating and adding to my boards, I guess the reason for opting to go to FB as so many of my friends have done is its so much easier to type in a two line description of a picture or something than to write a two page blog post, especially if you want to try and make it interesting as well.
By and large I haven't changed my mind about FB I still don't like it much and at times I HATE it, its not a user friendly program, well not to this user anyway, and the inane posts like... (Its Sunday morning and the sun is shining.) amaze me... who's interested in that sort of post?????
But as I said before its quick and easy (if you don't strike any glitches) and that suits the modern day world, so I'm trying to join in instead of fighting against it.
I'm in the process of changing my car at the moment (another thing I had decided not to do!!!) I'm buying a Hyundai iMax, an 8 seater people mover... for one person I hear you say... the plan is to convert it into a very basic o/n camper, just a bed, fridge, stove and comfortable chair, so that I can break up my long trips with a stop-over at a pretty shady spot or a nice river with the added bonus that I might even catch my evening meal while I enjoy the outdoors... Sounds good to me.
While I realize I'm making a big assumption by expecting anyone to read this if I am so blessed, thank you for being here and please leave a comment so that I can maintain contact.

All the best.   Peter.

Some house-keeping.

I was NOT lucky enough to sit next to this young lady during my recent flights.


Some house-keeping.

During the week that I was away several things happened that I will try to tidy up with this house-keeping post.

The Commercial Hotel that used to have all the lady’s adorning the outer walls, while not yet opened as the restaurant I mentioned, is getting very close to finished and is looking very smart too.

The Royal Hotel down on the next corner has reopened, the renovations here were quite extensive, it has been closed down for about six months but chose the week I was away to reopen.

The new Hungry Jacks (Burger King in the States) store sprang up from a vacant lot also while I was away, looks to be only weeks away from opening, I prefer their burgers to MacDonalds but I like Macca’s breakfast menu when I’m traveling.

Before leaving Brisbane to return to Gympie I arranged to have lunch with a fellow blogger, Robyn, we caught up with the news of the last six months or so since we met before, Robyn tempted me to stay over another night as she was having a wine tasting at her home today (Friday) I reluctantly turned down the offer as I was anxious to get home…. Next Time Robyn.

Just to keep everyone happy here is Robyn sans sun-glasses.

I must take this chance to thank all the folk who wished Alan a Happy Birthday via this blog, and also to thank all the family for accommodating me, running me around, giving me food and liquid refreshments and generally being a lot of fun to be with, a special thanks to Paula for taking me to the airport at Perth…. above and beyond the call of duty!!!

I must not forget to mention Wazza, who delivered me to and picked me up at the Brisbane Airport and gave me a bed as well, it is a blessing to have good friends.

The trip to Perth was mainly about helping Alan celebrate his 50^th but of course it also provided the opportunity for the whole family to get together, we did a fair bit of this getting together on the Sunday after the party, seems nobody wanted to break the spell by leaving so we soldiered on until quite late before Marcus and Carolyn, who still had a three and a half hour trip in front of them had to leave.

I can’t remember an occasion when there has been so much laughter and so many stories (mainly funny) told in our family, and we are not a family who hold back on the fun at other times.

On the Monday, Walter, Jacqui, Vicki and I drove about 150 klm to inspect a tractor that Vicki’s son Daniel wants to buy, during the trip there and back we tormented Walter mercilessly about his Toyota twin cab ute, which was both noisy and rough riding but it got us there and back.

The tractor turned out to be a beauty, the farmer who owns it has a model farm…. absolutely everything in spotless condition, a man you could confidently buy anything from as it would have been maintained perfectly, it’s a John Deere 8220 and destined to be the second tractor, doing weed spraying with a 100 foot boom spray, light cultivation and hauling the chaser bin around during harvest to allow the header to keep working.

Sorry about all the detail for those of the non-farming fraternity, but I figured that Cliff and a few others would be interested, it has auto steer a special independent front suspension and a seat that is a dream to sit on… the cabin moves around but the seat stays constantly where it is, I offered to drive it home for him (2000 klm) just for the comfort of the ride, but it seems he wants to use it before February 2008.

No definite decision has been made yet but it seems likely Daniel will buy this tractor, not a decision to be made lightly as we are talking about $90,000 by the time it is delivered to him.

On Tuesday Jacqui and Walter returned to Bridgetown where they live, we delivered Vicki to the airport for her return flight to Adelaide and then quietly dispersed, I flew back to Brisbane the next day, and so another chapter was written in the book of Holt’s.

I almost forgot to show you my latest toy, Marcus found this
slightly bent about little John Wayne for me in a secondhand shop
in Geelong, a bit like the Duke in many of his best movies not
always in immaculate condition... just a few rough edges.

I am hoping to get around to visit with everyone over the weekend and start the week all caught up…. that’s the plan anyway, thanks for being patient.