Sam, Archery, Motorcyles

Because of her Friday night fall and hospital attendance at Sutherland hospital emergency department to dress her wounded leg and hand, and although she was fine on her arrival home and following morning breakfast I was still a little concerned so had been visually checking on her regularly as she napped from about 10:30am for a couple of hours after which she woke and sat up to take a drink of water, I talked to her then, her conversation was okay as we discussed bringing her a light chicken salad lunch.

When I brought her lunch around 1:15pm Saturday I noticed a sudden onset of very concerning signs during conversation that were not in keeping with her usual sparkling demeanour. Because of this the ambulance was called through the 000 emergency response. The first two ambulance officers actually attended within fifteen minutes, followed by the ICU ambulance officer who directed taking her to St George Public after his first quick examination of Beryl. The selection of hospital reason was that location was where the most appropriate unit amenities were for her condition. They transported her with extreme urgency with lights and sirens.

Beryl was in the emergency department acute assessment unit when I arrived a little later, as I approached I saw her enter what was to be her first seizure, immediate response medicos ran from everywhere, other seizures followed while she was prepared and moved to the acute resuscitation unit where she was treated and readied for scanning. I saw her bed pass where I was waiting as she went for CT scanning, then returned shortly later to the acute resuscitation unit again where her monitoring and treatment continued. Soon after her return I was allowed in to see her, followed closely by Cristina who had been held up getting to the hospital. To me that was a blessing for Cristina to not witness her Mum’s earlier seizures, I had never seen someone I loved in seizure and do not ever wish to again.

With constant treatment and close monitoring Beryl’s condition gradually stabilised over the following hours of Saturday evening until about 8:30pm when she was moved to the hospital’s specialist stroke unit on the sixth floor of St George public Hospital Kogarah NSW.

What is a Stroke?
Stroke (also known as cerebrovascular disease) occurs when the supply of blood to the brain is suddenly disrupted. Blood is carried to the brain by blood vessels called arteries. Blood may stop moving through an artery because the artery is blocked by a blood clot or plaque, or because the artery breaks or bursts.

A stroke can occur in two main ways:
1. Ischaemic stroke (blocked artery)
OR
2. Haemorrhagic stroke (bleed in the brain)

When blood is stopped, the brain cannot get the oxygen it needs, brain cells in the area die and the brain can become permanently damaged. Brain cells usually die within an hour from the beginning of the stroke but can survive, at times, up to a few hours after the stroke starts. Areas of brain where the blood supply is reduced but not completely cut off are areas that can survive for some hours. These cells are in a state of shock and can either recover or die depending on what happens in the minutes and hours that follow. Without prompt medical treatment, this area of brain cells will also die.

What is an infarct?
When a stroke occurs, it kills brain cells in the immediate area. Doctors call this area of dead cells an infarct. Brain cells in the infarct die because they are no longer receiving the oxygen and nutrients they need to function. These cells usually die within minutes to a few hours after the stroke starts.

Effects of stroke
The brain controls the way we move, think, speak, and eat. Everything we do is controlled by different parts of the brain. When a stroke happens, we lose the ability to do things that, that part of the brain controls. We may not be able to move one side of the body or have trouble thinking or speaking.

The way in which people are affected by stroke depends on where in the brain the stroke occurs, and on the size of the stroke. For example, someone who has a small stroke may experience only minor effects. On the other hand, someone who has a larger stroke may be left totally paralysed on one side, in a coma or may die due to the extent of the damage.

Stroke is always a medical emergency. It is important to recognise the early signs of a stroke or TIA.

If you experience any signs of stroke call 000 even if the symptoms last for only a short time.

A late night bathroom trip ended with an ambulance trip to Sutherland Hospital Emergency where Beryl was fully checked over and the newly wounded right leg was attended and dressed before returning home to recuperate with community nursing assistance Beryl had been exiting the bathroom with her four wheel walker, as she opened the door inwards and moved backwards she fell backwards into the shower recess pulling the walker with her ending on her back with the walker on top of her legs.

Well, the health system now seems to be as efficient as the rest of the Govt systems here in NSW. After consulting the orthopaedic surgeon recently he kindly wrote a letter to the hospital to try and expedite knee surgery for me in order to be able to arrange lumbar spine decompression afterwards as the neurosurgeon wants the knee stabilised first.

Thought I’d phone the hospital with an enquiry regarding any possible earlier date than the previously arranged ‘within the next twelve months’. Seems as if there will be no expediting of the surgery until after February 2011. Not the news I wanted to hear, but not surprised. So, it’s just suck it up and get on with life and keep the pain killers constantly topped up.

It’s only when you get towards the later years of life that this lesson can become very serious, and dangerous. Work for 45 years of your life, pay the highest tax rates for the majority of that time, one would expect to be able to retire from the workforce without hassle. Not so, if your partner is a little younger, for when the partner reaches the prescribed age for pension eligibility the choice of continuing to work for that partner becomes a disadvantage for the other as the Gods of pensions simply rearrange the partners individual assets to become joint assets for future pension assessments.

Conversely, the Gods of your partners superannuation funds do not allow your partner access to those funds while you’re partner’s still working, effectively forcing retirement upon the partner regardless of their wish to continue in employment. No ifs, no buts.

Asset Rich - Income Poor, and it sucks!

Beryl and Cristina were visiting the Sans Souci Public School as part of the schools 125 year celebrations when Beryl had a fall with her walker over a dip in the bitumen playground. She was ambulanced to St George Hospital, checked for broken bones, scans of her head as she fell backwards lightly onto it. All proved to be okay, no breaks, but a lot of bruising.
This was Beryl’s first school as a child while living at Dolls Point. She had to wait a long while for that fall.

Established 21st April 1885 Sans Souci School has a strong educational tradition. Many parents, indeed grandparents, of present students attended the school. This tradition is the foundation for strong community involvement in many school activities. This year marks the 125th Anniversary of our school. As part of the celebrations we have many school and community events planned.

These events will be held over the 12th and 13th November 2010 and include concerts in our new hall, a Decade Costume Parade, Picnic Lunch BBQ, an Anniversary Party on Friday night and a School Fair on Saturday. We will continue to update you on the events throughout the year.

As part of the celebrations you are invited to participate in an unique opportunity to have your name as a permanent part of our school. For as little as $30.00 your name or message will be engraved into a paver which will then be laid permanently around our new school hall.

Beryl started her birthday very fittingly today. First, with a much deserved sleep-in, a refreshing breakfast in bed surrounded by vases of her favourite home grown roses, with her mate Sam beside her bed, family greetings and phone calls.

She later enjoyed her favourite sea-food lunching at a local restaurant with her family, then home mid afternoon for the traditional birthday cake celebrations with Sam in attendance. He thoroughly enjoys the happiness and excitement of the family singing ‘Happy Birthday’ by doing little leaps and dancing around before finally doing a stand up and leaning his paws on the nearest person.

Finally consulted with the neurosurgeon regarding my current over-riding pain in the lumbar area of my back that the MRI report shows as being caused by the full compression of the L5 nerve root. It will require a surgical solution. Exactly which of a few different procedures is still to be determined, sensibly, the lumbar decompression, laminectomy surgery will not get underway until my right knee surgery is completed and my knee is pain free and stable. I’m hopeful this will be soon after the first arthroscopic surgery to remove the minial miniscus that is causing the knee pain and not much later after the full knee is replaced. I’ll talk with the surgeon regarding the knee surgery timing to se if it can be moved forward to get it done as soon as possible, it would be just too good for me if my knee was pain free before 2010 Christmas and the lumbar surgery was arranged for early 2011.

In the meantime pain management needs to be addressed correctly, at the moment it’s at a very high level daily dose with some undesirable side effects. I do have the option of returning to facet joint injections under CT guidance, I only need to psyche myself over the pain level fear caused by my last experience with it in 2007. I will try and minimise the dosage soon in a bid to see if I can overcome the back pain through other means without high level stuff.

So we went down the Android path with our new mobiles. Finally fed up waiting for Apple to address their very poor and much overstretched supply chain and we looked elsewhere. Very glad now that we did, I’ve found the advantages of the Samsung Galaxy S i9000 to be huge, capability to plug in up to 32GB of an external Micro SD card is brilliant, not to mention a massive financial saving in the cost of hardware. We took advantage of the major leap in technology that’s happening in the mobile marketplace currently and now both of us have a new phone with larger call and data value with good monthly savings for smaller cap plans than we were on previously plus free calls to each other or any one else with the same provider. Bargain.

Samsung GALAXY S i9000

Ultimate hardware
Samsung Galaxy S provides a powerful mix of advanced hardware for a mobile experience that simply outperforms the competitors. The slim 9.9mm Samsung Galaxy S is packed with an over-sized 4.0” Super AMOLED display, 1GHz processor, ultra-fast data transfer, and generous 8 or 16GB memory plus Micro SD supported application.

Immersive experience
> Thanks to the 4.0” Super AMOLED screen you will be able to enjoy watching and recording videos, playing games and reading e-books as never before. Samsung Galaxy S will always display vibrant and vivid colours. Even in bright sunlight the screen is perfectly clear so filming outdoors is a breeze!

Daily Briefing
Daily Briefing on Samsung Galaxy S allows you to select the widgets you want, transforming your phone into your personal secretary through organising and updating your information daily.

Google Maps™
The Google Maps Navigation application allows you to find your destination easily and quickly even through the most complex streets. It provides three different views - real street view, traffic view and satellite view, so you can find locations along the way, like gas stations, businesses and parking lots.
™ Google, the Google logo and Google Maps are trademarks of Google, Inc. TeleAtlas® Map Data ©2009.

Swype + Write & Go
With the ‘Text at Hyperspeed’ by Swype Technology you can type your text 1.5 times faster than standard texting. And the ‘Write&Go’ feature allows you to select a pre - written text and choose to send it later by SNS, SMS, MMS, email, calendar or memo!

Social Hub
Phonebook seamlessly integrates all of your SNS, IM, email, and calendar accounts, so you no longer need to spend time checking separate sites. Samsung Galaxy S lets you easily keep in touch with family and friends. With Samsung Galaxy S’s integrated messaging you can automatically sync and manage the history of all of your SNS and IM accounts, from just one screen.

Layar Reality Browser
After activating the Layar Reality Browser on your Samsung Galaxy S, you just need to capture your surroundings with your Mobile phone camera and you will have an instant POI view of the street. By selecting the spot you require, you will be able to access the address, phone number, price listings and more detailed information. Thanks to teaming up with Tele Atlas, Samsung Galaxy S has the greatest number of POIs.

Document Editor - ThinkFree
ThinkFree office allows you to access documents saved online via your Samsung Galaxy S. So you can add an image or photo and amend texts then save them straight away.

AllShare via DLNA
Samsung Galaxy S comes with Allshare (via DLNA), which means you can wirelessly connect and share videos, photos, music and more between your phone, your TV and PC.

Wireless Tethering
The Wireless Tethering application is way cool - it allows you to connect up to the web via 3G in places where they don’t normally support online connection like cafes, parks or even inside of a car!

Wednesday afternoon 20th October, Sam appeared very listless, disinterested in normal events, flat without obvious energy, tail down, always just laying down on his stomach. I noticed that he became a little restless and almost confused during the night, he was breathing very short and sharply by early morning, had vomited his last nights dinner at 4am and his 5.30am breakfast was vomited up at about 7am, so I booked an early appointment for his vet Finlay Burrows at the local Engadine Vet Hospital.

Thursday morning 21st October. The vet checked Sam over thoroughly and suspecting either pancreatitis or gastro-enteritits he took some blood for pathology and injected anti-biotics. Sam was still breathing very short and sharply and his heartbeat was elevated to around 120 bpm. He was to be given no food and keep the water to a little and often rather than Sam’s usual gulp, gulp, gulping. After talking with the vet around 5pm about the first of the blood results, which were fairly good, we returned for a follow up visit at 7pm as Sam’s condition hadn’t changed. We had to continue fasting him and controlling the water.

Friday morning 22nd October. Sam had another visit to the vet about 11.15am where he seemed just a bit brighter, and the vets checkover found less hardness in his stomach and his heartbeat had dropped to almost normal, the vet supplied a course of anti-biotics for two, twice a day for five days. Sam was still listless but up for a walk in the park again. He maintained his walks each day although he was off, always on lead with either Cristina or myself. Friday evening tCristina phoned the vet, the second report had come back in and everything was almost perfect so we started the course of antibiotics.

Saturday morning 23rd October, and Sam had obviously passed some stools over the last day or so in the yard, he was far more energetic and heading back to his usual self, so off for a walk with Cristina. Later he and I walked the Heathcote track and he was back to his usual self. We had another walk in the local park on lead and he was sniffing out to scavenge whatever he could smell. back to normal almost.