I turned 50 a few weeks ago and was like a little kid looking forward to it – it’s a big milestone and I really wanted to do something to make it memorable. My 40th was memorable, but for all the wrong reasons – I was recovering from a mastectomy and had chemo and radiation therapy on the near horizon. I wasn’t even sure I’d make it to see my 50th.

I kicked around a few ideas of things to do such as swim with the dolphins or go up in a hot air balloon. Then in August we reached a court agreement that would let us own our home. As we’ll be paying a mortgage I mentally set aside thoughts on doing something big for my birthday and was quite happy to be content that we’d soon be owning our own home. That’s a pretty huge thing for us. So a couple weeks before my birthday I told Rod I wanted to have a lunch with friends to celebrate, and we thought doing it on the weekend before would make sense. While having lunch with ‘The Lunch Group’ (we get together once a month and have lunch at a pub), I brought the subject up. Calendars were checked and we were all set for the Sunday before.  Later in the same week while chatting with Dave, he told us not to make any plans for after lunch as he and Pat were treating us to brownies and ice cream at the Aldinga airfield. Aside from thinking ‘Yum’ as the brownies there are really nice, I didn’t give it much thought. They know I like brownies and David’s main interest besides web development is anything to do with airplanes (seriously – check out his website at 5dme.net) and that’s how they discovered the incredible brownies at the airfield museum. We’ve gone there before just for brownies and coffee.

Unbeknownst to me, Rod, Dave & Pat had quietly organised a flight in a light Cessna for me. If you visited Dave’s website, you’ll know he does a lot of airplane photography.  So when he pulled out his camera and had a chat with one of the pilots I didn’t think much of it. It’s pretty normal behaviour for him. He talked me into coming out on the tarmac and having a look at the plane, got us all to pose by it and then suggested I have a seat in the passenger side for piccies. Oh sure why not (by this time I was fairly sure what was up but wasn’t completely sure).  Once the pilot hopped in and suggested we take a trip down to the Murray mouth, the jig was up.  So away we went on an hour long joy flight. We flew down to Victor Harbor then over to Hindmarsh Island and the mouth of the Murray, which is where the Murray River meets the sea.  It was an absolutely perfect day for it. Sunny, comfortably warm and we had great views. The funny thing is – my best friend lives on Hindmarsh Island near the Murray Mouth and she was up at Aldinga enjoying brownies with our friends while we were flying by her house!

It was a real surprise and the first I’ve ever been in a light aircraft. It was great fun!  Here are some photos of our adventures.  Rod was able to ride along too in the back seat so some of the pics are from his camera. He took some videos as well.  I sure don’t think I’ll forget this birthday!

This video includes a view of the Murray Mouth (where the Murray River meets the sea) in South Australia, the locks where the fresh water and sea water are separated, the bridge between Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island, Goolwa and a bit at the end that shows me trying to take pics with my phone.

This video includes a view of South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula as we came in to land at the Aldinga airfield. The pilot and I have a laugh after we land.

 

Tuesday I saw this exercise physiology guy as part of my diabetes care plan. I think I get ilke four visits with him. I had no idea what to expect but knew he did exercise (obviously), physio, and also nuitrition. So we’ve decided to work on flexibility first for me and then move on to weight loss. His big goal of course is to assist with making my diabetes better by lowering my (already pretty good) glucose levels and getting more movement back into my life. He’s big on interval training which is where you do something at a regular slow, easy pace and then kick ass for 30 seconds, and repeat several times. He wants me to use my elliptical bike for this since it pretty much gets all of my body a work out rather than just one aspect. The elliptical bike has two bars that move back and forth so the arms get a work out too. Going flat out on it for 30 seconds seemed like a reasonable thing. Funny how 30 seconds can seem like forever though! He also gave me some quite different (to me) stretching exercises and one of them is already a favourite with me as it really helped with the lyphoedema in my right side in back. That area gets really stiff and full of fluid and then is difficult and painful. The stretching exercise really really helped that a lot.

So I plan to do the stretching exercises twice a day – he didn’t tell me to do that, but it seems like it makes sense to me. In the morning to un-stiff myself and in the evening after tea for the same reason. I’ll be doing the intervals in the mornings after doing the stretching exercises. My reasoning is that even though it’s awful to do, Once done and recovered I feel like a million bucks and have better concentration. No point in having that at night after tea when I really actually need that in the morning / afternoon. So that’s the plan at the moment. I see him again in a month.

This morning I have an appointment with the gastroenterolist and get the results of my iron blood test I had last week. I know it’s back to sub-normal so I think he may suggest another iron transfusion and possibly having them on a regular basis. We’ll see what happens.

 

There are a lot of things to catch up on, but first let me get this little bit out of the way first as it’s my reason for writing today.

A week or so before the court case (explained below), I saw an offer for a clearance priced MacBook Air because it was last year’s stock. I hemmed and hawed about it as I’ve wanted a mac for a long time for writing. One of the compelling reasons for wanting it is an app named ‘TextExpander’ that I use on my iPhone. The full Mac version works anywhere on the computer. It lets me define ‘snippets’ for common words, sentences, etc so when I’m writing I just type a couple of characters and whole words pop out. It also works for longer things like addresses or often used web links. The last time I had anything similar was on my Commodore 128, using Rod’s QWKRR offline reader. I’m the one who suggested typing macros to him and with my input it was added to the software. I loved it for writing as it lets me concentrate on composing rather than typing.  I’ve missed it for many years.  I’d also recently traveled to Tasmania and had to leave my old laptop at home as it was too heavy to lug around.  I took an older netbook from Rod’s TAFE study days but found it too small to be of much use. The MacBook Air is very very light and thin. I’d be able to take it more places and actually use it away from home.  While I was in Tassie, I’d talked to my friends about the fact that now I’m feeling better and my brain seems to be working I’m enjoying writing again.  All these elements went into my decision and I only had a day to make up my mind since it was on a site that offers deals for 24 hours. Another thought that went into it was ‘get it now before the lawyers have all our money’. If nothing else, I might be able to write for publication again and maybe recoup the cost. So I went for it.

Some of the time I spent sitting outside the court room during the case was spent researching the new computer. I’ve never owned a Mac before so wanted to learn as much as I could before it arrived. It gave me something to look forward to that had nothing to do with the current events of that week.

I’ve had the new computer for a little over a week now and it’s slotted itself into life rather well. I’ve been able to do quite a bit with it and can take it outside or into the bedroom to do stuff, although I’ve found I prefer to have it on the slide-out table built into my desk. I can then turn to use it and it’s out of the way but available and makes a good place for it to be while it charges. And yes I love being able to use the TextExpander everywhere. It’s amazing.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had this vision of myself writing, facing a window and being able to gaze the scenery while composing my words. Yesterday I was writing a letter using the Mac and found myself gazing out the window trying to think of just the right word I wanted. It hit me. THIS is what I always saw for myself ever since I was a teen. It was such an odd and powerful feeling, it’s hard to describe. When I located the Mac here I didn’t do it because of the window. It just seemed to be the right place for it to be.  So that’s the dream that’s been realised. It really blew me away.

OK, now the other stuff.  I had an Iron transfusion in July. This was done just like a blood transfusion and took a couple hours. Rod’s been amazed at the get up and go I have and has been shocked when we’ve been out that I’m actually walking faster than him.  To say it’s helped a lot would really be an understatement. I hope this lasts.  Sometimes it was hard to tell how much was depression and how much was the lack of iron causing me to feel exhausted all the time.

In August, my friend Vicki and I visited our dear friend Snuva (not her real name) in Tasmania for four days. We were supposed to arrive before the baby did, but little Eskil had other ideas. We landed the same day he and his mum came home from hospital. We’d planned to help with organising the baby’s room and stuff, but found it was better if we were out of the way so we rented a car and did some amazing things. We took a tour of the Cascade Brewery, took a tour at Cadbury’s chocolate factory, saw some tesselated pavement which I’d never heard of before, and visited Port Arthur, doing both the boat and walking tour. And we got lost on the way back and ended up going 140k out of our way.  I’ve got pictures from our trip on Flickr.

A week or so after returning from Tassie, was the court case we were dreading. It had to come sometime, and we’d been living in limbo for the last 5yrs waiting for things to be settled. This was all about Rod’s Mum’s house and two wills.  It was also about a promise Mum and Rod had agreed upon in the 80′s that he would live with her and be company (as well as paying bills, rent and for house upgrades). In exchange she made out her will so that he would receive the house in the event of her death. What he didn’t know was shortly after I’d arrived that will was changed. Had we known at that time, we could have bought our own home but several years down the track that wasn’t possible. Lots of family stuff happened around that time and I probably missed some of it as I was in hospital for a week after my breast reconstruction (this was a major surgery – much more major than the original mastectomy).  Many more things happened than I could possibly write here, and really, I’d rather not write about these things. So there was a court case. We thought it would be a day but it turned out by Wednesday they were all looking at it going on into the next week.  The judge kept urging everyone to settle.  We thought our lawyer told us about an offer the other side made and decided it was a good one and to accept it. Turns out we misheard, but that’s OK. While waiting for the courtroom to be opened after a lunch break, Rod’s brother came up the stairs and so Rod told him we’d accept and of course since it wasn’t an offer from the other side, Rod told him what we’d agree to and thankfully, his brother(s) accepted the offer.  The gist of the results is that we pay Rod’s siblings a sum of money each, we pay all court costs, they get what’s in the bank, and we have the choice of taking ownership of the house (Rod’s dream) or selling the house, paying for the court costs from it and keeping the balance from the sale.  We need to get a loan to pay for the court costs, but we’ll be able to get a loan to cover this so it won’t be long and we’ll be homeowners with a mortgage.  Our five year plan is to have that paid off and from the looks of things we should be able to do that.

Up until now, we were limbo. We really couldn’t make any long range plans because we had no idea where or how we’d be.  The quote ‘Come grow old with me, the best is yet to be’ seems so apt.  My husband is smiling these days. That’s something I’ve not seen in too many years.

There’s plenty of other things for me to write about but I shall leave it for another day.  As I type this the trees are gently swaying in the light wind and the sun is shining on our lawn. It is so good to have my little ‘writing spot’.  I’ve waited most of my life for this little nook!

 

Today I had my 10yr mammogram. It’s a bit early due to false alarms a few times in the past – my actual anniversary of when I was diagnosed was in mid August 2001.  A few days ago I’d decided to go to IKEA and thought doing that afterwards would be a real treat. I asked my friend Vicki if she’d like to come with me and lucky me – she was able. They let her come into the secret women’s waiting room where we sit with our fancy (cough) frocks on (what they give us to wear while being tested and poked and prodded), which was really nice. And this time, I really needed a friend with me.

One of the worst parts of having a mammogram for those of us who’ve had breast cancer isn’t really the mammogram itself. It’s when they call you back in to take more films because the mind automatically goes to the worst and we’ve already dealt with that in the past. It never gets easier. And this time they called me back in for more films a total of four times. I lost count of the number of different views and positions they used. They were trying to see something way back near my ribs near my under arm. Finally she got a good view of it and I was able to see what they were trying to see. Two tiny little white things on the screen, about the size of a period in a line of text. And it was nothing more than calcification. I’m so glad they didn’t have to do an ultrasound as they put me through that last year and that scared the bejeesus out of me too.

Each time I returned to the waiting area Vicki reminded me we were going to IKEA. So that became my mantra for a little while. Finally I saw the registrar and then the specialist who couldn’t believe it’d been 10 years, and they released me to freedom again. Yay.

We started off with lunch at IKEA (meatballs of course) and then moved on to some serious shopping. My feet are sore. My wallet is empty. We had fun. I found the doona cover (bedspread) I’d fallen in love with last time we were there (about a year ago) and this time I bought it. Not a bad price, really. $24.95 and it includes 4 pillow cases too. Can’t wait to put it on my bed, but I have to wash it first and I’ll need to wait until the weather cooperates so it’ll get dry.  I also picked up a couple pillows (you can never have enough pillows), a magnetic knife holder that goes on the wall, a metal milk frothing pitcher, a rug for in front of my kitchen sink, some chocolates to share with a friend of ours (you know who you are!), and a toy mouse for Noble.  I was looking for an air drying rack as mine was getting old but really wanted something a bit higher than what I’ve had so I can hang shirts from it. What I found as an over the door rack with four or five rows of bars which will be perfect for drying clothes when it’s wet out. And much cheaper than a whole air dryer thing.  I think that’s it. Certainly seemed enough to fill the cart!  Speaking of which, the red pillow in the picture is one of Vicki’s purchases. She bought a footstool and the pillows were only $5. She bought a red and a green one. The fabric for the foot stool is brown so the two pillows will really complement it. My doona cover is the rectangular thing with the small flowers, and the rug is what I bought for my kitchen.

Vicki dropped me off and headed home – she lives an hour away from me and IKEA is an hour from my place so she’s put in some serious driving today. I’m so glad she was able to come with me today. We don’t often get to spend time together just the two of us so was really nice to catch up. Last time we’d been to IKEA we’d just picked Snuva up at the airport and we really missed Snuva a lot today.  We did send her some pics of our lunch and our shopping cart but it just wasn’t the same as having her there with us though!

 

G’day.  It’s 10pm on a Thursday night and I thought I might do a bit of a blog entry.  The image on the left is from the pedometer on my iPod Touch.  It shows the change in my steps, distance and general activity level over the last 6 months. Of particular interest is the ‘Active Time’.  The flat line on the left shows my inactivity and the section on the right shows how this has changed over the last couple months. Taking iron has really improved my ability to get up and do stuff, and on my son’s suggestion I also added B Complex vitamins. That combination seems to have done wonders for me. And of course I can’t discount the fact that now I can drive the car without needing Rod to take me places. All these things have added up into a much more active me. It’s been a long long road.

I saw the Gastro doctor last week. He’s still not happy with my iron levels so I’m to double the amount of iron I’m taking and they’ll test me again in two months. If it’s still low they’ll consider doing an iron transfusion.  (This is like a blood transfusion but just with iron).

So I have a few new routines these days. I’ve been slowly sorting through old clothes, shoes, the linen closet etc and packaging up stuff for the thrift stores (we call them ‘Op Shops’ here).  Once a week I target an area and create about 3 or 4 bags of stuff to ‘recycle’. The next day, I put these in the boot of my car and drop them off at the charity shops and have a good shop as well. Then I stop in and visit my friends Erik & Anne, visit for an hour or so and then back home again. It’s nice. It gets me out of the house, I finally have some ‘new’ clothes, and having coffee with friends is always nice.

Last week I picked up some jeans, a couple tops, a book, photo frame & laptop case. This week I had a ball at a really huge op shop named ‘Savers’ that the nurse at the doctors office told me about. The place is absolutely huge. All clothes are sorted by size, type and colour, there are about 10 changing rooms and 5 checkouts – yes it’s that big.  I only came home with a metal pitcher and some spoons, but not for lack of selection. I actually ran out of time. I’ll be back to that place again, for sure. I also scoped out a furniture op shop that takes in electrical goods in hopes of booking a pick up for an old TV we have. No luck there, but they gave me the number of someone else that will pick it up so that was a score. They had a lot of really nice stuff (which in my case means WOOD furniture) at very reasonable prices. I saw hutches that I’d love to have and if I had a place for one, I’d of bought it then and there. $20 for a lovely wood hutch with shelves, drawers and cabinets? Heck yeah.

I did something else today that I haven’t done in possibly over a year. I went to the local pool and attended aqua aerobics class.  The last time I went, I was using a cane – it’s been that long.  Barb (the instructor) remembered me and gave me a big hug and caught me up on all the news of her mother, whom I enjoyed chatting with before, during and after class until she moved. I’m so pleased to hear her mum is doing well and was stoked to learn that because I kept mentioning / suggesting it, her 80yr old mum is now travelling everywhere these days on the buses. She’d been worried about being housebound if she moved to this place but it had a bus stop out front and I did my best to convince her to at least try to take a bus to the shopping centre to see how it all works. She was outspoken and not afraid to tell me she was afraid because it was something new. I just kept telling her to give it a try.  Heh, so that was months ago (and something I’d forgot all about).  So to hear that she’s now taking the bus everywhere these days and rarely home just tickles me. To be thanked for suggesting it was just a real honour.  Hey an outspoken women actually listened to me and took my advice!

So I’ve had a very busy day and I’m out the next two days as well.  It’s nice to finally have a life again. I’m doing stuff. I’m going places. I’m out of bed. The charts above really show that too.