I am sorry to say that this project may have been overly optimistic. I have got no feedback so I am writing into a void. I began this back when blogs were new and it was a way to keep in touch with friends back in the State and give them an idea of how different this country was. My primary target was BFLB who was very important to me when I left Ohio. She has since passed away, as have several other important friends back there. 

My health and mental state make the effort difficult. I am depressed a great deal and putting on a false front for a nonexistent audience is frankly beyond me. Until and unless I get some feedback.from more than one of two people, the blog goes back into hibernation. 

 I just got an ad from USA Foods, the store in Melbourne that sells American delicacies. Unfortunately they remain out of stock of the things I really want (clam chowder, Crystal Lite drink mix) while I remain in stock here with things like Rice Chex, A & W cream soda. Since I don’t cook anymore, there’s no point in buying things that require use of the oven.  I know there are many Yank expats who crave good Mexican food but I’m not one of them. While I can get Turkish, Singapore, Indian, Greek and other luscious cuisines, Mexican is not high on my list. Mexican usually leads to intestinal upsets from my sensitive gut.  I would love to bake or make bbq but standing is a dangerous proposition. I once managed to fall and break my shoulder merely attempting to close the refrigerator door. 

My bouts of insomnia continue no matter what I try. Reading, doing jigsaw puzzles, watching my new YouTube favourite Baumgartner Fine Art Restoration where I can honestly say watching paint dry does not put me to sleep. One thing that does help is putting the works of Liquid Mind on shuffle. The person behind the name actually works with music therapists but it’s still not a certainty for me. 

Long ago in blog years I described my reading habits and I know I’ve picked up a few new readers, so I’ll recap. I largely alternate science fiction and mysteries. No fantasy, please, and I’m off military sf. I’m partial to first contact, time travel, exploration, and alien civilisations. I am a die-hard Star Trek fan of all series except Discovery. Mysteries are usually historical, from the Middle Ages to 1930’s Sri Lanka. I occasionally read something contemporary but that’s usually saved for TV. Every now and then I’ll add a Regency romance or a Japanese or Scottish romance. At night I have my Big Boring Bedtime Books, nonfiction, sometimes biography but mostly history or science. My first husband got me hooked on English history and I now know way more than is probably good for me. On the other hand, I rarely read about Aussie history. I feel like it’s forced down my throat and I read a lot when I was first was falling in love with the country.

Because everything happens on my iPad, my hands get very sore. Like they are right now so I will stop and pick up later with particulars of reading likes and dislikes. 

It’s been a while! If you read my blog in the past 4 days you are lucky because I managed to type over it with this post and all that juicy medical stuff is gone.  If there is somebody out there who wants a recap of the Tale of The Knee, please leave a comment and I’ll try to hold onto it this time. Suffice it to say after 4 years, threes infections and 6 surgeries, I am no longer the host to bacteria but I can’t walk. I live in bed and only get out to relieve myself, to shower, and to visit doctors as necessary. And add to that, my GP retired after about 20 years of service, so I’m starting all over. I have a nice female doctor who is doing well considering what I brought her. 

I am struggling to remember how Blogger worked and refuse to move to a different platform. I live attached to an iPad Pro, which is easy to use but a tad too heavy for my arthritic hands. After a day holding it for Kindle books, doing jigsaw puzzles with Magic Puzzle, colouring fine art in Happy Color, scrolling through Facebook, reading the news and watching any one of 5 or 6 streaming services, my hands are stiff and sore. Jim’s built me an easel thing that projects over the bed which is fine for watching Star Trek, Bridgerton, or Baumgartner Fine Art Restoration. Aside from the occasional doctor visit, such is my life. 

Regarding the Knee, it gets visits from the community nurses fortnightly. The opposite week we (I should say Jim) changes the bag here. Also fortnightly we get blood tests and they have been all positive. My inflammatory markers are low and I’ve been tested for everything anyone can think of. I take ciprofloxacin twice a day with all my other meds, and will for the rest of my life. Any bug that can get in will head directly to the knee. Why stray bacteria love knee hardware is one of those mysteries of life. 

 

This is one of the delights of life at the moment. Her name is Sophie and she’s a very small 3 year old Burmese cat.  She is slowly getting to like cuddling with me and frequently sleeps all evening on my lap. She is very energetic, loves to climb to the highest point in every room, loves wrestling with Max and washing him thoroughly. 

This will give you an idea of the difference in size. Max is 10 and is a total greedy guts; he complains loud and long if he thinks he deserves more. Sophie we tempt with special treats and have to find her when it’s mealtime. She will sit at my elbow if I’m eating something she likes (chicken) hoping I will be soft-hearted. (The thing behind Max in the photo is the easel with power cable). When she sleeps she goes solidly out and poking her or calling her name gets you nowhere. One has to pick her up while she’s totally limp and eventually she blinks awake. They both sleep a lot and make up for it with zoomies, wrestling, and patrolling the surroundings. Her coat is like velvet and almost black; his is like silk fluff. They both like belly rubs. 

Two updates that I’ll address later.  I am still a Swans fan and am thrilled that they are at the top of the ladder halfway through the season. I have revived my Yankees fandom but the games are rarely broadcast on ESPN.  They too are doing well. Knitting and fibre stuff has fallen by the wayside. I’d like to do more but the logistics of doing any of it in bed is beyond me. 

It’s quite obvious that there’s been a gap in posting. I’m on smoother paths now but not cured. In March of that year we’d like to forget, I developed an abscess in my lower right leg. Very quickly, it popped and I was raced off to to hospital. Once it was examined by my medical team, the decision was taken immediately to do the dreaded revision. What followed was 7 weeks on one leg with stronger antibiotics. Then a brief wait without antibiotics to see if the infection rushed back in.  It didn’t. Then a new knee with some not very rigorous physical therapy and then home. The infection is under control but I am on long term antibiotics.

Moving around is extremely difficult. I’ve been home about a year by now and I’m still having trouble moving because of the lack of balance  I can stand and pivot to get into my commode chair or into the motorised wheelchair but it’s not graceful.  Shoes are difficult (lympheodema) and I have heaps of shoes that fall into various categories of what I can get my fat feet into, and what I can walk (even 3 steps) in.

I also developed a right shoulder pain that developed from using the stand-up support frame while I had no knee. It’s left me with pain from neck to fingers. With careful daily nursing, it’s decreased but a single mistaken reach and it’s back. I still get headaches but if I manage my reading time, it’s bearable. I acquired a viral infection in my left eye that threatened my graft. I’m on long term anti-viral medication. My ophthalmologist won’t operate on my right cataract because of fear of damaging the graft there. My vision is crap.

Jim is here mostly permanently now. We applied for a residence visa last April, and, after filing masses of documentation (all digitally), we were approved. Jim is being a live-in nurse and he does everything for me.  I cannot express my gratitude for his help. He shops, does laundry, feeds the cats, goes to the chemist, drives me to doctors, you name it. We watch baseball and talk to each other a lot, which is what I really missed. We have our differences but nothing too serious. At least we can talk them out face to face now.

Believe it or not, I still do fibre stuff. I have almost completed a blanket made of squares of pin loom weaving of my own handspun. The debate currently is how much it will shrink when it get fulled. It is very light but also very warm. I hope the cats don’t rip holes in it. It’s grey with a blue halo of wool and mohair.

My concern, aside from COVID-19 and the fate of the planet (what’s to worry about?), is my beloved Imp. She’s 17 now and it shows. Her coat is no longer glossy and her rear legs are stiff. She has kidney disease and has lost weight dramatically. But she’s on my lap as long as we can manage with lots of petting and baby talk. Max is no longer a kitten but he still wants to play at 4AM whether I’m awake or not. He’s so lovable and still squeaky. We wonder how he’ll handle the loss of his sister.

I’m tired and typing is a chore. I’m still reading scifi and mysteries not to mention books about baseball and history. Good night for now

‘

Here’s the thing about my insomnia. I go to bed around 11, take my sleeping pills and then try to get drowsy. I’m trying to turn off the active verbal parts of my brain, so I do jigsaw puzzle, adult colouring apps on my iPad, or play mahjong. Things that are repetitive but not to extent that I’m simply bored, but of enough interest so I keep at it. If I’m lucky I’ll feel drowsy by 1AM, sometimes later. I turn the light out settle down and go to sleep and wake up an hour or two later, wide awake. I used to (and do on occasion) just not sleep at all. I’d finally fall asleep at 5AM or later or not at all. Sometimes it’s my brain chasing its tail, sometimes I’m just wide awake but progressively more tired.  I can try keeping the light off and toss and turn, I can read my BBBB, I can go back to the puzzles, but I’m just not sleepy. I pay a penalty for this the next day by sleeping past the sociably acceptable time (like noon). But I feel like I’m losing half my day.

Medical report: I haven’t seen a doctor since I was discharged from hospital. I should call my infectious disease doctor next week to see if he’s back from holidays and wants to see me. The knee is very slightly better. It is still red, hot, and swollen but bit less of all of that. It’s still weak and quite painful if I twist it, like trying to put on shoes. I really can’t tell from my angle whether there are changes. I will need to have blood work done to find out whether my inflammatory markers are up or down, and to check on my very slight anemia. I still am mentally prepared for knee revision (taking out the existing knee and replacing it). I’m still on 2 different antibiotics every day.

J is back in the states but he’ll be back next week. It’s been a struggle keeping going without him but I do manage to take care of myself. I sleep a lot, not just because of insomnia but my body seems to demand a lot of sleep when I’m fighting any illness. I read, I watch TV. I’m busy making woven squares on my pin loom for the ultimate blanket. The loom is 4” square and I’m using the handspun derived from a gift. It will no doubt take a million squares and I also need to find out how much they will shrink when washed. I endure the attention of the cats. The Imp wants to sit on me, practically 24/7. Max roams around the house and jumps up on the arm of my chair and screeches in my ear. He subsides with petting but then goes off again and comes back and does it again. He’ll rarely sit down. Sometimes he brings me a toy to play with. Feeding them is chore because of bending down which is a very dangerous manoeuvre for me. I have a mountain of laundry to do, again because of the bending and standing required.

To all foreign readers (all two of you), I was not anywhere near Australia’s recent bushfires. The closest ones to me were about 50 miles away and unfortunately burnt out all the wonderful forests along the NSW south coast, which is Canberra’s vacation spot. We have been in drought for several years and it doesn’t take much to get it going. People died, millions of native animals and birds died. Here we had so much smoke in the air that the air quality was the worst in the entire world. Many places shut down and I just stayed indoors but it was very oppressive and frightening. We finally got some rain which has dampened everything down but it will take years to regenerate.

For once I have no exciting news regarding the infection. Just plugging along with antibiotics. I think they will be extended for an additional few weeks but we’ll see. I worry that they’ll decide to operate just when J leaves. Banish that thought!

We had a simulated Thanksgiving dinner tonight, one day late. J got a frozen rolled turkey breast, and we opened a bottle of bubbly. We had roast sweet potatoes, asparagus, turkey, and not very nice supposed Spanish rice. I was hoping for yellow rice like I was used to in Florida, but it wasn’t. I wanted to make corn muffins, but I’m still not up to cooking. But it was nice even though we forgot the cranberry sauce.

Speaking of bottles of wine, we have been drinking wine I have ordered from Naked Wines. This is not a plug and I have not linked to it. I started off mostly as a way to explore little known and independent winemakers. The scheme collects money from you monthly and you order what you want when you want. But the way, I can only drink whites, since reds give me migraines and I’m nervous about rose. I tend to wait till I have a decent balance and/or J is coming, because I don’t drink much when he’s not here. So far the results have been mixed. Many of these wines are not ones you would find in your neighbourhood bottle shop, and are newly established, or with limited distribution. Living in Canberra and being disabled, I can either order wines I know from previous experience or advertising, or rely on the retailer to point me at what he wants to sell. The wines from Naked have been an exploration. All are Australian, of course, but range from the Hunter to Margaret River. Some just neutral (“that’s a glass of white wine, all right”) to pretty damn good. I wanted to try Pinot Grigio but J doesn’t really like it. A good Riesling or Chardonnay is his taste, and mine too although I am a bit more adventurous. I have to watch my consumption because I will happily keep drinking as long as the bottle is open, but I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t probably drink at all with my health issues, but life is pretty boring otherwise. Food and drink are my only luxuries so I buy top shelf brands of liquor and sometimes indulge my palate otherwise. J and I did a lot of wine tourism in California and had our favourites which of course you can’t buy here. Mostly these wines cost me in the $12-20 range. I think if you’re going to drink it and then it’s gone, don’t spend a lot. We did limited experiments with high priced vs pedestrian wines and decided out palates were not sufficiently fine-tuned to notice a large difference to justify the price. Dom Perignon is very nice but worth five times of a more typical bubbly, no. And I’m not comparing to the $3.99 bargain bin.

I also indulged myself with online browsing of real estate. I looked at property in Yass, which is a little way north, to see if house prices were any lower. They’re not. But I found this absolutely over the top mansion on quite a few acres which captured my imagination. No price, up for auction. It’s a nineteenth century (I think) two story, simply huge house. I’m sure it needs expensive work, putting in a new kitchen and bathrooms but the rooms are huge. Grand reception rooms, each bedroom has an attached sitting room, all with fireplaces. I’m sure that means there’s no other heat but it’s so romantic and brings up visions of balls with ladies in lovely gowns and your fleet of servants serving grand dinners. Sitting on the verandah, overlooking the rolling hills. Romantic, but completely impractical. Sigh. Good night while I think of thundering cats running around that huge house.

Apologies to all. I promised more regular posts and then fell off the edge of the world. In mid September my knee became very much swollen, painful, red, and hot. It was almost as bade as it was before surgery. When I saw my infectious disease doctor at the beginning on October, he hustled me into hospital again. I had another needle aspiration that removed a lot of fluid and had a pic line inserted. I started getting very large doses of penicillin every four hours. After a week I asked if I could receive the treatment at home because all I was doing in hospital was lying in bed all day. I was given permission, came home, and am on the same regime I was on before, but this time I’ll be getting antibiotics for at least 6 weeks. I’m going through the Canberra Hospital instead of Calvary. It’s farther away but it has the better medical facilities, I think. That’s where I had my knee removed and replaced 8 years ago. At this stage I’m still due three more weeks of antibiotics, and I go in tomorrow to have a second ultrasound of my knee with possible needle aspiration. My knee overall is looking better. It is no longer red and hot, but is still swollen on the inside of my leg. To add to the mix, a cyst I have had on the top of my head for over a year with no pain or other activity, suddenly decided to burst open, leaving my hair full of gunk and a hole where it had been. It’s been seen to as well and I have a bandage on the top of my head.

Once again J has gotten more than he has bargained for, and has provided taxi service across Canberra weekly, if not more frequently. Most of my healing is due to his care, and his bringing me goodies like fresh figs and takeaway Indian food. I was hoping to put up my Christmas tree this year but there’s no way I could get it down by myself. In fact, summer has arrived suddenly and it’s in the 30’sC this week and continues windy. This is fire weather and so far we are the only corner of Australia not to be enduring bush fires. I was hoping when J was scheduled for a visit that we could go down to the coast for a couple of days but I am on the hospital’s schedule which means daily nurse visits.

I cannot promise to post as frequently as I had planned. I hope I can do better at least, now that I’m no longer in such pain. I hope you are all getting prepared for holiday festivities but it will be a quiet one here I expect. I still sleep a lot. I missed the World Series in hospital but I’m glad Washington won.