I have a friend who was told three weeks before her wedding that she should cancel it because she wouldn't live another two weeks. That was 8 years ago. She didn't cancel her wedding, she still has the same medical condition, however, her mantra is now 'Doctors only make educated guesses'.
When my father was taken by ambulance to Gladstone Hospital after being bitten by a brown snake, the doctors told my mother 'Don't worry, we have never lost a brown snake bite victim yet'. He died two weeks later due to their negligence. They paid a high price for it, but of course that didn't bring my father back.
Twenty years ago, I received a phone call at 10pm from my doctor telling me that I had stage four cervical cancer and that he had made an urgent appointment with a Specialist for the very next morning that I MUST attend. That following afternoon I was told that my tests were clear and I was perfectly healthy.
Last year Adoring Husband and I were told by her doctor, that his mother had bone cancer and all they could do was try to make her comfortable for the few weeks that she had left. The following day she was miraculously cured and her doctor was too busy to see us.
Another friend was told the dark irritation on his neck was caused by his collar rubbing there. Two years later, a specialist took one look at it and performed urgent surgery to remove a melanoma with a deep root system and it required 24 stitches which has left a major scar on his neck/throat.
A man I know was told he had RSI and required surgery on his wrist. Somebody suggested that he try a chiropractor and it turns out that he had a pinched nerve that was affecting his arm and wrist. Three appointments with a chiropractor and he was cured.
A female friend was treated on and off for 18 months for what she was told was recurring thrush, when finally it was discovered that she had cancer of the vulva. Luckily, it wasn't too late for her.
These are just seven examples that I can think of - off the top of my head, where doctors have been very wrong. I'm sure that if I thought about it for a bit longer, I could come up with many more examples.
When I first went to a doctor in Sydney to have my Hyperthyroidism diagnosed, I sat in the chair watching the doctor study a computer screen for ten minutes, before I suggested to her that I might have an over active thyroid. She looked it up on the computer and then sent me for the appropriate tests.
I don't trust doctors, not just for the reasons above and it would take too long to explain all of the other reasons. I believe that doctors write prescriptions too quickly to treat our conditions and don't take the time to explain the short term or long term side effects.
I believe that most people don't understand their own medical conditions and trust that the doctor will give them the best treatment available. In this day and age, with all the information available to us, we should all be experts in our own health.
We should be aware of all the different types of treatment available and not just blindly take any medication that's prescribed. We should be more interested in curing our illness, rather than taking something to mask the symptoms.
I believe that fresh healthy food, clean water, regular light exercise, maintaining a healthy weight and a happy life is the best prevention for a lot of medical conditions.
I also believe that, at the very least, we should combine our doctor's advice with alternate methods like Naturopathy, Chinese Medicine, Herbal remedies etc., and always ask lots of questions of your doctor.
I absolutely believe, like my friend at the beginning of this post, that doctors only make educated guesses and I would NEVER put blind faith in those guesses.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Rainbow Connection
I love frogs.
Vegan Chickie fell in love with them in her childhood after her Nan placed a green tree frog in her hand one day. Through buying ornamental frogs as gifts for her, I developed a deeper appreciation of them, and now collect them myself.
Everybody in the family either collected something or obsessively supported a football team, so they were very easy to buy gifts for at Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries etc.,
My sister collected giraffes. My niece collected dalmatians. My youngest daughter was a Penrith supporter. Number one son supported Balmain NRL club (who later became Wests Tigers), Adoring Husband was a Cronulla Sharks supporter and Nan supported the Broncos.
It was my turn to choose something to collect. I wanted something that would be difficult to find. Something that people would really have to search to find. So I chose geckos.
From that moment on, geckos were EVERYWHERE! You just don't see things until you start looking!
Even though I have an impressive and lovely collection of geckos and I DO love them. My love for frogs is much stronger.
I have no idea how many I have, but they are scattered throughout the house and the garden and from where I sit right now, I can see 26 different ornamental frogs. I'm not obsessed, although it probably wouldn't take much for me to become that way!
Here are just a few of my frogs:
I obsessively hunt around my garden for green frogs and take photos at every opportunity:
One of my favourite songs is Rainbow Connection by Kermit The Frog, but that's enough sharing for today!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
BFF
I miss my friend.
My first husband dragged me, kicking and screaming, to a town in the middle of country NSW in 1984.
There were many reasons for me hating the idea of taking my family to this town and I was worried for their safety, but within a very short time, I fell in love with the people and the town and couldn't even consider the thought of leaving.
I eventually spent 21 years there.
In my second year there I met BGWLBH (You remember her! Beautiful Girl With the Long Blonde Hair).
Happy, vibrant, beautiful, tall, slender, blonde, full of energy, the life of the party, with a fabulous circle of partying friends, an amazing career and the most contagious positive attitude.
She was loving, supportive, generous and loyal and our friendship developed slowly, but strengthened over time.
We went through a lot together. Good stuff and bad stuff. We laughed a lot. We cried a bit. We danced. We sang. We flirted and teased. We were the Trivia Queens and the Pictionary Champions. Our road trips were epic. We shopped til we dropped. We laughed some more.
I miss us.
It's been six years since I left the town. After I moved to Sydney, I still flew back there every three months to spend a week and catch up. BGWLBH took three months long service leave and spent it in Sydney with us.
Now that I have moved so far away, we are lucky if we get to see each other once a year. We hardly ever speak to each other. A phone call every 6 months. An email once every couple of months. Nothing regular.
I like to think that our friendship is strong enough that we don't need that regular contact. We are there for the important times, when we are in need or to celebrate something big. My kids consider her part of our family.
I haven't seen her for almost a year.
When my little Chicklet was born, BGWLBH was the first person I wanted to share that with and I felt sad that we were so far apart and couldn't hug and squeal and have tears together.
We GET each other. We know what each other is thinking. We are brutally honest with each other. We love each other and we hate each other and everything in between.
I think it's time for a visit.
My first husband dragged me, kicking and screaming, to a town in the middle of country NSW in 1984.
There were many reasons for me hating the idea of taking my family to this town and I was worried for their safety, but within a very short time, I fell in love with the people and the town and couldn't even consider the thought of leaving.
I eventually spent 21 years there.
In my second year there I met BGWLBH (You remember her! Beautiful Girl With the Long Blonde Hair).
Happy, vibrant, beautiful, tall, slender, blonde, full of energy, the life of the party, with a fabulous circle of partying friends, an amazing career and the most contagious positive attitude.
She was loving, supportive, generous and loyal and our friendship developed slowly, but strengthened over time.
We went through a lot together. Good stuff and bad stuff. We laughed a lot. We cried a bit. We danced. We sang. We flirted and teased. We were the Trivia Queens and the Pictionary Champions. Our road trips were epic. We shopped til we dropped. We laughed some more.
I miss us.
It's been six years since I left the town. After I moved to Sydney, I still flew back there every three months to spend a week and catch up. BGWLBH took three months long service leave and spent it in Sydney with us.
Now that I have moved so far away, we are lucky if we get to see each other once a year. We hardly ever speak to each other. A phone call every 6 months. An email once every couple of months. Nothing regular.
I like to think that our friendship is strong enough that we don't need that regular contact. We are there for the important times, when we are in need or to celebrate something big. My kids consider her part of our family.
I haven't seen her for almost a year.
When my little Chicklet was born, BGWLBH was the first person I wanted to share that with and I felt sad that we were so far apart and couldn't hug and squeal and have tears together.
We GET each other. We know what each other is thinking. We are brutally honest with each other. We love each other and we hate each other and everything in between.
I think it's time for a visit.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
A brief note of sadness
I'm feeling a bit sad tonight so my post will be short.
One of my lovely boys from the boat ramp got some bad results from his medical tests on Monday and rather than end up being a burden on anyone in the near future, he attempted to take his own life.
Thank goodness he was unsuccessful and I'm hoping to see him at the hospital tomorrow.
Although he knows how much he means to me, and I remind him every so often, I hope to get the chance to tell him again, because I believe that his family may take him to live somewhere else and I won't get to see him every day, like I have for the last two and a half years.
My boys at the boat ramp bring me the greatest of joys, and I know that I am also going to feel the deepest of lows as the years roll on and I lose them one by one, but I don't want to lose any of them this way.
One of my lovely boys from the boat ramp got some bad results from his medical tests on Monday and rather than end up being a burden on anyone in the near future, he attempted to take his own life.
Thank goodness he was unsuccessful and I'm hoping to see him at the hospital tomorrow.
Although he knows how much he means to me, and I remind him every so often, I hope to get the chance to tell him again, because I believe that his family may take him to live somewhere else and I won't get to see him every day, like I have for the last two and a half years.
My boys at the boat ramp bring me the greatest of joys, and I know that I am also going to feel the deepest of lows as the years roll on and I lose them one by one, but I don't want to lose any of them this way.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Beauty in Nature
To remind you that Mother Nature isn't always so angry, these are my photos, all taken locally, of a few wonderful gifts that she has to offer.
Sometimes life gets in the way and can become a little overwhelming. We can easily forget the wonders that are 'out there', so I just wanted to share some of the beauty of nature with you.
Monday, March 14, 2011
It's Official!
Today, I was having a lovely time with Adoring Husband in The Bay, which is a thirty minute drive from our town. We had a number of errands to run and a 'to do' list a mile long, so we worked out which order to do our errands to be time efficient and not have to be in there longer than necessary.
The area has had a lot of rain in the last 24 hours. We had two inches of rain overnight in our town, but on the drive into The Bay, it was obvious that there had been a lot more rain there. The golf course at the halfway mark was completely underwater (so Adoring Husband won't be golfing this week!) and there was some minor localised flooding in other areas.
Adoring Husband and I are not a good shopping team. We always spend more time and money than we plan to and we do a lot of window shopping.
Put us in a furniture shop and we can be there for hours testing lounge and dining suites, beds, recliner rockers, outdoor furniture, big screen televisions and sound systems, office chairs, stove tops, refrigerators, you name it, we check it out!
We don't NEED any of these things, but our eyes glaze over and all our common sense goes out the window. Once inside the shop, we convince ourselves that it might be time for a new bed or other piece of furniture. We test everything out, compare prices and talk the salesperson down to a better price. Then we walk away saying that we need to discuss it further.
Luckily, once we are out in the fresh air and our minds are cleared, within about 30 minutes, we remember that we don't need ANYTHING!
Today, we tested beds. We actually WILL need a new bed soon as ours is seven years old and will need replacing inside the next two years. We both have dodgy backs, so a good mattress is high on our priority list.
We sat on a couple of beds to test the firmness, and were promptly told by the salesperson, that we MUST lie down to get a real feel for comfort. I was happy to obey these orders!
As I lay down on the most perfectly divine mattress that made me feel like I was floating on a cloud (not that I have ever floated on a cloud, but it's how I imagine it would be!), the heavens opened up outside and it was impossible for us to leave the store.
There I lay, listening to the rain on the roof and feeling the bed give me a big snuggly hug. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment. **sigh** Suddenly, Adoring Husband was asking for a 'best price' and the salesperson was madly tapping away at his computer keyboard!
JUST WALK AWAY!! We walked away, agreeing to discuss it further and the salesperson gave us til 5pm to decide on that particular price. It only took five minutes for the fresh air to clear our heads and common sense prevailed once again!
Our final chore for the day was grocery shopping in the supermarket. We hadn't done a good shop since before I went to New Zealand, so there was a lot to get, especially now that I am on a vegetarian diet.
As we walked down the condiments aisle, there in front of me was a young woman, probably in her mid twenties, carrying a brand new little baby. Appearing beside her, was her mother, who bent towards the baby and touched it's face with an obviously 'proud' gleam in her grandmotherly eyes.
In an instant, my eyes welled up with tears and I felt this sob get stuck in my throat! I could see in my mind, my lovely little Chicklet, and it suddenly hit me how much I was missing her and my Vegan Chickie and Bare-chested Chef.
JUST WALK AWAY! I moved as quickly as I could to the end of the aisle and around the corner so that I couldn't see them anymore and blocked them out of my thoughts almost in an instant. Whew!
I was not prepared for this! There should be a handbook available for new grandparents with warnings about this sort of thing!
It's official! Becoming a grandmother turns you into a big soft lump of jelly with no emotional self control! God help me!
The area has had a lot of rain in the last 24 hours. We had two inches of rain overnight in our town, but on the drive into The Bay, it was obvious that there had been a lot more rain there. The golf course at the halfway mark was completely underwater (so Adoring Husband won't be golfing this week!) and there was some minor localised flooding in other areas.
Adoring Husband and I are not a good shopping team. We always spend more time and money than we plan to and we do a lot of window shopping.
Put us in a furniture shop and we can be there for hours testing lounge and dining suites, beds, recliner rockers, outdoor furniture, big screen televisions and sound systems, office chairs, stove tops, refrigerators, you name it, we check it out!
We don't NEED any of these things, but our eyes glaze over and all our common sense goes out the window. Once inside the shop, we convince ourselves that it might be time for a new bed or other piece of furniture. We test everything out, compare prices and talk the salesperson down to a better price. Then we walk away saying that we need to discuss it further.
Luckily, once we are out in the fresh air and our minds are cleared, within about 30 minutes, we remember that we don't need ANYTHING!
Today, we tested beds. We actually WILL need a new bed soon as ours is seven years old and will need replacing inside the next two years. We both have dodgy backs, so a good mattress is high on our priority list.
We sat on a couple of beds to test the firmness, and were promptly told by the salesperson, that we MUST lie down to get a real feel for comfort. I was happy to obey these orders!
As I lay down on the most perfectly divine mattress that made me feel like I was floating on a cloud (not that I have ever floated on a cloud, but it's how I imagine it would be!), the heavens opened up outside and it was impossible for us to leave the store.
There I lay, listening to the rain on the roof and feeling the bed give me a big snuggly hug. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment. **sigh** Suddenly, Adoring Husband was asking for a 'best price' and the salesperson was madly tapping away at his computer keyboard!
JUST WALK AWAY!! We walked away, agreeing to discuss it further and the salesperson gave us til 5pm to decide on that particular price. It only took five minutes for the fresh air to clear our heads and common sense prevailed once again!
Our final chore for the day was grocery shopping in the supermarket. We hadn't done a good shop since before I went to New Zealand, so there was a lot to get, especially now that I am on a vegetarian diet.
As we walked down the condiments aisle, there in front of me was a young woman, probably in her mid twenties, carrying a brand new little baby. Appearing beside her, was her mother, who bent towards the baby and touched it's face with an obviously 'proud' gleam in her grandmotherly eyes.
In an instant, my eyes welled up with tears and I felt this sob get stuck in my throat! I could see in my mind, my lovely little Chicklet, and it suddenly hit me how much I was missing her and my Vegan Chickie and Bare-chested Chef.
JUST WALK AWAY! I moved as quickly as I could to the end of the aisle and around the corner so that I couldn't see them anymore and blocked them out of my thoughts almost in an instant. Whew!
I was not prepared for this! There should be a handbook available for new grandparents with warnings about this sort of thing!
It's official! Becoming a grandmother turns you into a big soft lump of jelly with no emotional self control! God help me!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Adoring Husband blogs on
I think Adoring Husband has decided that 'if you can't beat em, join em!'
He sits patiently beside me on the couch every evening while I update my blog. He talks constantly, asks a million questions about everything and anything not related to my blog, and about nothing in particular. He is forever blurting out "Did you see that!?" about something on the television (while quite obviously, my eyes are on my computer screen, not the TV screen), and is generally like a small child trying to get his mother's attention.
Sometimes, I turn my head and stare at him blankly, hoping that he will read my look as a "can't you see that I am updating my blog and am not listening to your babble?" look. Alas, he never does, so I am teaching myself to fake a look of genuine interest. So far, it seems to be working.
Last night, while I was typing away on my keyboard, I looked up to see Adoring Husband sitting at the dining room table with his laptop. I asked "What are you doing?". He replied "Never you mind!"
I desperately tried to think of some questions to ask him, to give him a taste of his own medicine, but my mind went blank.
Try this one.
"Are you writing a blog?" Answer - "Never you mind."
"What happens if the computer shuts down and you lose everything that you wrote?"
Answer - "Don't even joke about it"
"What happens if I ask a lot of questions and you lose your train of thought?"
Answer - "Whatever"
"What happens ..." Answer - "Very funny! Stop it."
Twenty minutes later, he shuts down his computer and comes back to sit beside me.
"Are you finished?" Answer - "Yep"
"Did you email me the link" Answer - "Of course I did!"
So I go searching for the email.
I'm thinking to myself (with an obvious guilty conscience) ... has he written a blog complaining that he can't get my attention when I am sitting right beside him on the couch? That I spend too much time on my laptop? Perhaps he's asking me a question in the blog, because he thinks it's the best way to get my attention, instead of just speaking!
I find it both hilarious and sad that I had these thoughts!
I found his blog and hesitantly began reading. I began giggling at the first paragraph and almost had tears of laughter by the end. I'm adding the link here, but I am warning you that you may not find it as funny as I do.
It's a private joke that I have with Adoring Husband about his bad energy flow that causes things to go wrong. Electrical and electronic gadgets break. He buys something in a box and there'll be a part missing. He orders something online and it goes missing. He buys clothes and the buttons fall off. He buys a top of the range phone and the function that he most wants to use won't work. He'll book us into a restaurant and then take us to the wrong one.
If something can go wrong it will ... or as I say ... "If it's going to happen, it's going to happen to Adoring Husband".
Here is his take on it:
http://basa-lifeslittletests.blogspot.com/
I'm hoping that this is not a one-off and that he will continue with his blog. I find his written words hilarious and entertaining. We met in an internet chat room and that's how he caught my attention ... by making me laugh hysterically every time we chatted. (Although his profile photo showed him wearing speedos ... that was almost a deal breaker!).
Now Adoring Husband blogs on ... maybe it will give me 20 minutes of peace every night??!
He sits patiently beside me on the couch every evening while I update my blog. He talks constantly, asks a million questions about everything and anything not related to my blog, and about nothing in particular. He is forever blurting out "Did you see that!?" about something on the television (while quite obviously, my eyes are on my computer screen, not the TV screen), and is generally like a small child trying to get his mother's attention.
Sometimes, I turn my head and stare at him blankly, hoping that he will read my look as a "can't you see that I am updating my blog and am not listening to your babble?" look. Alas, he never does, so I am teaching myself to fake a look of genuine interest. So far, it seems to be working.
Last night, while I was typing away on my keyboard, I looked up to see Adoring Husband sitting at the dining room table with his laptop. I asked "What are you doing?". He replied "Never you mind!"
I desperately tried to think of some questions to ask him, to give him a taste of his own medicine, but my mind went blank.
Try this one.
"Are you writing a blog?" Answer - "Never you mind."
"What happens if the computer shuts down and you lose everything that you wrote?"
Answer - "Don't even joke about it"
"What happens if I ask a lot of questions and you lose your train of thought?"
Answer - "Whatever"
"What happens ..." Answer - "Very funny! Stop it."
Twenty minutes later, he shuts down his computer and comes back to sit beside me.
"Are you finished?" Answer - "Yep"
"Did you email me the link" Answer - "Of course I did!"
So I go searching for the email.
I'm thinking to myself (with an obvious guilty conscience) ... has he written a blog complaining that he can't get my attention when I am sitting right beside him on the couch? That I spend too much time on my laptop? Perhaps he's asking me a question in the blog, because he thinks it's the best way to get my attention, instead of just speaking!
I find it both hilarious and sad that I had these thoughts!
I found his blog and hesitantly began reading. I began giggling at the first paragraph and almost had tears of laughter by the end. I'm adding the link here, but I am warning you that you may not find it as funny as I do.
It's a private joke that I have with Adoring Husband about his bad energy flow that causes things to go wrong. Electrical and electronic gadgets break. He buys something in a box and there'll be a part missing. He orders something online and it goes missing. He buys clothes and the buttons fall off. He buys a top of the range phone and the function that he most wants to use won't work. He'll book us into a restaurant and then take us to the wrong one.
If something can go wrong it will ... or as I say ... "If it's going to happen, it's going to happen to Adoring Husband".
Here is his take on it:
http://basa-lifeslittletests.blogspot.com/
I'm hoping that this is not a one-off and that he will continue with his blog. I find his written words hilarious and entertaining. We met in an internet chat room and that's how he caught my attention ... by making me laugh hysterically every time we chatted. (Although his profile photo showed him wearing speedos ... that was almost a deal breaker!).
Now Adoring Husband blogs on ... maybe it will give me 20 minutes of peace every night??!
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