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Something’s not right

Former-Member
Not applicable

Re: D.I.D....

Safe travels @Smc  and trust trip goes well (and that you have a few extra hands to help you out).

Re: D.I.D....

Ditto here @Smc 

Thinking of you while you are away. 

Smc
Senior Contributor

Re: D.I.D....

Ta @Determined, @Former-Member.
We're hoping to leave early tomorrow, so that we can make it an easy drive with a few stops en route. Still need to ring my cousin to see if she and her husband are available. There's been so many things to organise, I haven't been able to get my head around it  yet.
Thursday of course was the unexpected fire alert... a friend who does RFB support and whose hubby was out on the trucks in one of the serious NSW firezones reckons we did very well at co-ordinating our "dry run" evacuation. She's seen and heard from people who have packed the oddest things in a panic, and left behind the things they really would have wanted to save. Weirdly, I wonder if our experience with having to be able to respond in other "emergency situarions" helped us keep focus. Oooh, that's helpful and hard at the same time?
Friday was a mix of recovery day and organising for the trip up to Mum and Dad's place. Animal care all sorted.
Saturday was a couple of events we've been looking forward to all year down in the "big city", coupled with visiting Hubby's parents in between. He doesn't see them often enough, and they're getting older too. His Mum in particular is pretty frail. I'm getting more insistent that, even if it's hard to get the whole family down for visits, he should head down and stay overnight sometimes.
Got home from those things about 2 a.m.... we ain't a young as we used to be, don't handle "night owl" events too well. 😛
Sunday morning church, then some last bits of shopping before taking Younger Daughter to her school to leave on a fun week long end of year camp.
Today... have delivered pregnant (?) bunny to friends to care for. (?) because the baby buns haven't arrived yet and should have??? Bit puzzled there, time will tell. Also slashed sister's long grass for her and had lunch together afterwards.
Rest of today will be yard cleanup here, Hubby doing some minor pre-travel car maintenance, and packing. And phoning my cousin. Mustn't forget that!

Smc
Senior Contributor

Re: D.I.D....

In other news... Older Daughter has been offered a place at the boarding house in the city. We'll be heading down with her next Monday to look at it, partially so that she can see how much space she'll have for her furniture and craft stuff. We're encouraging her that even if it's less room than she'd like, to "make it work". She's unlikely to find anything more suitable, and one way or another she's pretty determined to move...
Lots of big unknowns in all of this, but need to let her give it a try. The three month trial period the house has will be helpful. If it really won't work for her, at least she has a planned-in-advance opt out procedure.

Former-Member
Not applicable

Re: D.I.D....

Checking in @Smc 

Smc
Senior Contributor

Re: D.I.D....

Arrived home yesterday @Former-Member.

Mum and Dad's garden, particulary the front yard, is now cleared, and should count as firesafe. Oooh it was hard to do though, both physically and emotionally.


Temperatures there were around 30+, so despite giving ourselves frequent rest breaks and drinking like fish, both Hubby and I were getting warning signs of dehydration and overheating. But since we weren't likely to get another chance to do the work, we needed to keep going.

I grew up with a front yard so lushly planted, mostly with natives plus some roses and cactii, you could sit near the house and people going past a few metres away wouldn't have known you were there. It looks so bare now. I only completely removed one plant (an overgrown wormwood- common, and did look messy). But everything else got cut back drastically, and because a few of the plants had really overgrown and nothing's been watered for years, what's left isn't much. Smaller plants and anything not "dry tolerant" had already taken themselves out of the equation. The buddleia, coreas, thryptomene and roses will all regrow into smaller but much bushier shrubs (as long as they survive!) but it'll never look "full" again, which is sad. Since we need to sell the place, there's no point replanting.

We took four loads of our small trailer to the tip, and left a massive pile in the driveway for a gardening service to pick up on Monday. We raked out years worth of leaf litter, disturbed some lovely little geckoes that I'm hoping still find enough hidey holes and food in what's left there, and found a number of deserted birds nests. That yard was a habitat, not just a garden... if we were living nearby, I would have treated it much more gently to try and keep it as a wildlife retreat while making it "safe and tidy enough", but without anyone in attendance, I needed to cut it hard enough that it won't have to happen again. 😞

I suppose since, whenever the place sells, the yard will probably be bulldozed to nothing, maybe it's best to make the wildlife "rehome" itself at a time of year when there's no little hatchling birds involved. And I'm realising that this is a biggish step in my own "letting go" process. It will all be gone one day, and that one day needs to be sooner rather than later.

And also part of the "letting go" is knowing that every visit to Mum and Dad could be last chance. The infection in Mum's leg is slowly but surely getting worse. Dad doesn't seem to change much, but who knows... this day, that day... someday, but certainly not never.

Smc
Senior Contributor

Re: D.I.D....

Running on empty at the moment.

 

Mum is in hospital. Thursday night, staff at the home found she had a fever, due to the infected leg ulcer. I got a call from them the next morning. Rang the hospital. She wasn't well enough to talk at that time, when I got on to her Friday evening she was a bit incoherent and distractable. She's sometimes a bit of both on the phone, but this was to the point that she couldn't thread together a conversation.


Saturday she was on antibiotics and sounding much better. They'd transferred her to a nearby and somewhat larger hospital... disconcertingly, to a surgical ward. That may just be because they're set up for wound treatment, or it may be a bit more ominous than that? Don't know.

 

Both my sister and I are unnerved. A Christmastime funeral would be very hard going, and we don't know if it will come to that. ("This day, that day... someday... but certainly not never.") We're making sure we know where family photos and vital paperwork are just in case, and in the meantime trying to go on with life as normal. I'm not sure either of us feels like we can drop everything and travel up there right now, but if things suddenly went downhill, we may not get there soon enough. Aaargh?

Former-Member
Not applicable

Re: D.I.D....

@Smc  do you have permission to speak to the docs to ask about the reason for the hospital transfer or to get a little more information that will help you better assess the situation. 

Former-Member
Not applicable

Re: D.I.D....

How are things with older daughter @Smc ?

Smc
Senior Contributor

Re: D.I.D....

@Former-Member, have POA and am listed as next of kin, both jointly with my sister. The question is more having the energy to chase up a nameless doctor who we don't know. And like most wards, the staff are busy and hard to pin down.

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