Hats Required

Last weekend Eric and I got to go to our very first bush dance. It was an absolutely awesome event to celebrate the 50th birthday of a dear man of God from our church. Our invitation said "hat required" so we knew it was going to be special. We got Eric a true Aussie hat - an Akubra - as an early Father's Day present. He looks pretty smashing in it to be sure. I got a cheap variety as I'm not one for hats. Armed with our gear (or should I say headed?), we took off for this new adventure.

For appetizers we had barramundi which is a favored fish found here in Australia and crocodile kebabs. We were thinking this was pretty special to us Americans until we found out that many of the Aussies had never had crocodile either. Maybe it isn't often eaten because it doesn't go well with Vegemite?

Cool appetizers aside, the meal was wonderful and we got to sit back and enjoy the presentation of Dave's first 50 years. It was lovely and we appreciated seeing his journey to the present.

Sadly, it was at the end of the presentation that I realized I was completely out of oomph and needed to get to a horizontal surface sooner rather than later. I was terribly bummed because I was dying to do some bush dancing, but knew it would have been something more like "bushed dancing" if I'd pushed myself any farther.

The last few weeks have been an interesting odyssey that, frankly, I really could have done without. In addition to the horrible pain attack, I've been on the wrong side of normal - the way wrong side. I have been to the doctor, had tests done, and enough blood drawn to keep a vampire in fine fettle. It has finally settled into four things. If you don't like listening to people carry on about their medical issues, you won't like reading about them either, so please stop reading now. Otherwise, sorry to bore you, but it is a bit cathartic (for me, not you!).

To my credit, I had realized one thing was not right and had already been to the doctor the week before the attack. While investigating that one, they found a contributing factor that needed to come out so I got to have a day surgery on June 20th. This was the second event where a hat was required. The nurse called it a "party hat", but it sure looked like hospital netting to me. Anyway, the uterine polyp is history - good riddance I say.

While that was all going on, they determined that my thyroid was really on the fritz - no wonder I was so dang tired. That one is a "better living through pharmacology" solution so I now get to start my day with a pill (and no I don't mean Eric!). After a week and a half of the pills I am definitely starting to see the improvement and am realizing this has been going on for some time to a lesser degree.

One of the things they discovered at the emergency room was my liver numbers were quite high. The doctor looked at me with a bit of a smirk and said, "you like your red wine, do you?" and when I said I didn't drink, well, pardon the pun, but that sobered him right up. Armed with that new information he said those numbers are "off the planet for someone who doesn't drink". So, he referred me to an gastroenterologist and I finally got in to see him on Friday.

After a very interesting education on the liver, pancreas, and bile ducts, his conjecture is the pain was probably due to a piece of bile grit that can't get out and in this instance, temporarily blocked the duct exit which really, really got my attention. So, another procedure to verify this and fix if it is the case is coming up in a week and a half.

I'm beginning to think my great visions of touring Australia have somehow been subverted into touring every doggone medical facility they have. All I can say at this point is if that's what gets me well again, then I'll put it on my list of "things to see and do" and count my blessings.

I'm full of blessings - a great husband who has cared for me so diligently (although I'm still wondering what he meant when he implied the sicker me was less feisty!), a wonderful church family here, and a family back home that I will very soon get to see again. We have our tickets for 3 1/2 weeks of glorious family time beginning July 13th with some time in Indiana so we can see everyone. Just got to hold onto my hat for 2 1/2 weeks and we'll see y'all. Yeeha!

The Return of Keith and Laurie

There are times in life when you really need a lift. Thursday morning was one of those days. Wednesday found me checking out another facet of the Aussie health care system - emergency rooms. The attack of excruciating pain that sent me there was, thankfully, something that has thus far not come back. While that is a good thing, I was left feeling like I had been beat up from the inside and no answers as to cause which was the state I found myself on Thursday.

Thursday morning was sunny and quite pleasant for winter. The good Lord knew just what He was doing when he dispatched a few of our winged friends to our doorstep - what a day brightener! We suddenly heard loud chirping from the deck and, what do you know, it's Keith and Laurie sitting on the chair trying to get our attention. We obliged them quickly and greatly enjoyed feeding them. We learned from our Aussie friends that they love wet bread so our "special of the night" was just what they were looking for.

Eric and I discovered over the next few days that we are very trainable and they can be quite demanding. They and their would-be friends have come back every day and we have been fascinated by the social (or not so social) world of lorikeets. Our pair Keith and Laurie do not like to share their restaurant at all. The two of them would take turns eating while the other was chasing everyone else away. They nearly drove themselves crazy trying to run back and forth when Eric and I decided to stand at opposite ends of the deck to see what would happen.

The interesting thing is a few days into this and Keith and Laurie are not nearly so rigid in their selfishness and there was much more group dining today. We also had a couple scaly-breasted lorikeets come. They are almost completely green. We captured some of our fun times and they're here - June 2nd, June 4th (scaly-breasted lorikeets), and June 5th.

I am finally starting to get some answers on what's been messing with me, but no firm leads on the cause of the killer pain. We are truly fearfully and wonderfully made and even though we think we're pretty smart, we still don't really understand the human body. It sure can be a mystery, that's for sure.