Week 6 – Sat and Sun – Socialising

This weekend was uneventful in terms of my health.  The HITH nurse turned up each morning  and changed over my IV drugs (Ambisome for the treatment of my lung infection), completed the observations and mountains of paperwork and continued on.  My coughing has virtually disappeared and my sore chest appears to be improving – slowly.

Over the past few weeks Jan and I have given some thought to how one might reshape the hospital system – which currently seems to be based more on what has happened in the past than what could be achieved today with modern technology.

For example the observations that have to be taken such as blood pressure, temperatures and oxygen levels.  Why couldn’t a clever young bio-medical engineer design a body worn or perhaps ear mounted sensor that collects this information at whatever interval required and automatically transmit this information to the nurses’ laptop or tablet?

And the endless pieces of paper for observations and records of drugs, etc.   Why can’t this information be captured and stored electronically?  This would save lots of time and improve accuracy.

As I spend more and more time thinking about the hospital system I keep on designing in my mind ways of improvement – from a patient or client perspective.  stay tuned.

Back on track the weekend ended up being quite a social one.

Good friend John Preddy (who originally advocated in Tassie to shift me to Melbourne) flew down for the weekend for a catch up.  He arrived in Docklands at about 9.30am on Saturday and flew out Sunday 3.00pm back to Wagga.  Unfortunately John had left his mobile phone behind but managed to borrow his daughter’s phone when she put him on the plane.  This caused a bit of confusion but we all managed.  I’m not sure John kept up with all Al’s Facebook and Insta messages over the weekend!  John is pretty easy going and it was great to see him.

John Preddy flew down from Wagga for the Weekend for a good catch up.

Graham Lean – ag consultant from Hamilton called in Sat arvo for a cup of tea and quick catch up.  We last saw Graham in Tassie a few days before we took off to Hamilton Island for the sailing and all was quite normal back then – how the world can change – and quickly!

And then Saturday night we had a lovely dinner at a snappy Italian Restaurant, top end of Collins Street with Geoff and Karen Daniel, and their daughter Kate, Lachy and John Preddy.  The Daniels were down for business but also to see the “Book of Morman” so the early dinner suited everyone well.  Not long after we sat down who should we spy but Anne and Bernard Hart from Junee coming in for dinner – small world indeed.

I think my friends were all surprised that I looked so well and was able to leave home for a dinner out!

Sunday was another social one as we drove John out to East Malvern to catch up with a friend but stopped in at Eden Expresso Café for a coffee (well chocolate thickshake for me – no coffee or alcohol for over 6 weeks now).  Jed (the owner) and Tessa Hawkins his sister were there as well as Wagga local Imogen Scott and all were on for a good chat.

After that we motored down to Sandringham yacht club to catch up with Jan’s brother Dreamy, his partner Heather their kids, Maggie and Jack, and Heather’s father Geoff and step mother Anne .  They were there to watch Ned in the sailing races.  Not bad for Ned as a 7 yr old to be competing with a neighbour’s son of 15.  They seemed to be doing well but it was difficult to pick one boat from the other on the bay unless their spinnakers were up.

After a nice lunch at the yacht club we drove back to Docklands for a well earned snooze (hard work this socialising!) and then a lovely Sunday afternoon walk around the Yarra river.

This week leads up to a CT Scan to check on my Lung infection and then back into hospital by Friday for more Chemo – Round 2 – Consolidation.