Eddie Bluelight's Hip Replacement

Yesterday, Friday, 12th, Harry and I went to lunch with my brother, Eddie Bluelights and sister in law Maria. It was good to be able to catch up on all our news and as usual, Maria put a lovely meal on the table that we really enjoyed.

Actually, when I come to think of it, none of us are in particularly good health right now but Eddie is the only one who is having problems getting out of a chair or walking across the room and it is awful to see him struggling like this, in pain, as he is normally such an active person.

He was due to have his operation today.

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I have just heard from Maria, that Ed had his operation this morning and was the second on the list.

He is apparently sitting out of bed eating a light supper! Hows that for the path to recovery? Marvellous I think.

If there is any different news, then I will add bits onto this post. I will leave it on for a few days.

My daughter and grandsons are on their way, so I have been informed by phone.

Have a good weekend everyone, mine will be busy!

Gas Fire

Photo copyright: Maggie May

I am writing this on Monday, after my pre assessment for treatment tomorrow.

I have been declared fighting fit and will be all set for chemo 3 in the morning.

The doctor is very pleased with me and says that after my CT scan, on the 10th, I might need a small amount of surgery before they go on with the treatment 4. (As a preventative thing to stop spread) I suppose they mean to take tissue away from surrounding areas. I have complete faith in these doctors and I believe I have the very best, so will definitely do whatever is recommended.

Anyway..... you all know the ropes now. I will be too ill to post or comment for a few days & my mind will get more confused than normal. Bear with me. I will be back. In the mean time, I will flake out in front of a cosy fire. It has gone cold again and the treatment makes me feel the cold more anyway.

'Bye for now!

Everything went well today, (Tuesday) and I have been infused with Chemo 3. Just got home and needing to chill out!

Is there anyone out there who did not know that my brother, Eddie Bluelights, has interviewed David Mcmahon on his Sunday Roast. David is a Melbourne journalist, author of best selling books and a professional photographer. Why not pop over and see what you might have missed.

Maggie Munster

Photo copyright: Sam May

Those naughty granddaughters dressed me up on Halloween. Something to chuckle about while I am indisposed.

I think I will hang on to the wig!

Hope to be back soon.

Footnote: I am back at home now gathering myself up together and will catch up with everyone's blog.

Had excellent care in our wonderful hospital. I cannot fault the Nation Health Service.

I will have to wait for the results of the biopsies.

What you have to do to get an extra week off though!

Roses From America

I am at a loss as to what to say really. Behind the scenes I have been really worried because a couple of months ago I discovered a lump in my groin and after leaving it a few weeks hoping it would go away (as you do), I went to the doctor who thought it was a hernia and that I would need an operation.

Before that happened I was to have an ultra scan and see a Consultant in our local hospital. That happened last Saturday and I was told then that it definitely wasn't a hernia, so I was worried.

Today I was summoned to the hospital quite urgently and was told that they think I have a lymphoma (cancer) and they have booked me in for surgery on Monday. This is in order that they might look at the gland in order to see what they are dealing with.

I have told one or two people before this post and Jackie from Teacher's Pet, sent me these lovely cyber flowers from America which I thought was very kind of her. (I feel quite pleased that I managed to get them into this post unaided and everyone knows that I am a technophobe.)

Anyway........ I am very grateful for prayers from everyone who can spare them and please all of you keep on praying that something can be done for me.

I am not sure when the results of the operation will get back to me or when my treatment will start.

We already have enough to worry about in the family as my husband has been battling cancer for seven years and my sister in law too.

I have always had to be the strong one and help my family out and now this has come along and messed up everything. My lovely son, Sam has promised to help me through it for a few days while I have the operation and he has promised to get the decorations finished in my kitchen.

I am going to find it very hard telling my daughter the news, as she lost her husband last year and my grandsons lost their father. They are just beginning to get their lives back together again and now they have to cope with this too. Please pray for them too.

Sorry to be a damper but I am quite bowled over with the grief that my family are going to feel. Yes...... it is a kind of grief even though no one has died. You see I have been there before....... when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and my husband with his cancer. It is not the patient who suffers the most. It is their family. Somehow it seems to be worse for them.

This is not the post I was going to send out today.

I have several in my drafts folder but they can wait until next week.

The Hospital Visit (Memory Lane)

I had been warned that we would not be allowed to see Godfrey for two weeks while he was in the hospital. Hard as it seemed to us, it was considered best to sever all links with home. It was 1948 and by today's standards it seemed to be a very cruel hospital rule.

I was just six years old by then and Godfrey was two and a half years younger than me.

The hospital was a tall building with lots of identical windows.

Godfrey was handed over to a "no stuff or nonsense" sister, and off she went with my screaming, struggling brother. We were told to wait outside the building so that we might wave goodbye to him through the window.

He was on the third floor, I think and when he appeared at the window, he looked as though he was putting up a pretty good fight, as the sister's hat was hanging from the side of her head.

The poor child must have thought we were abandoning him for ever.

With heavy hearts we turned and went towards the bus for home. I don't think anyone spoke and we were all fighting back the tears.

Dad went straight into the wash house, when we got home, and started to make Godfrey a steam roller out of empty syrup cans. That was the way that he coped with the situation. 

Mum was upset to think that Godfrey would have to go to sleep without his favourite green eiderdown with the frill around it. He used to stroke the frill and make comfort noises as he went to sleep. He had not been allowed to take any reminder of home with him to the hospital, not even  a toy or any kind of comforter. Those were the strict rules of a hospital in that era.

Years later Godfrey told me that he deliberately pooed the cot that he had been put in, as a punishment to the sister who had taken him away. Apparently she was very cross with him. I also learnt years later, that Godfrey's double hernia operation was one of the first to be done free, when the National Health Scheme first started in that year. He was very lucky as the year before, my parents would have been charged for it.

We all got on with our regular routine while he was away. Dad at work, Mum at home & I was at school. We had no phone so I don't know whether my parents ever got any news of my brother.

As the time came nearer for him to return home, we started to be in brighter spirits. I drew pictures for him and the steam roller made from syrup cans was now finished.

I was at school on the day he was due to return and I knew he would be there when I got back. The day seemed to really drag on for ever and I told everyone who would be bothered to listen to me that my brother was coming home! No one seemed to be really interested and even the teacher just politely said, "Oh that's nice," without as much enthusiasm as I would have liked to hear.

School eventually finished and I ran all the way down the road as fast as I could. I burst in through the door and there he was! Godfrey was home! I was surprised to find him in tears. Indeed he was having a tantrum.

Mum had been told he couldn't pedal his beloved blue car for three months until his scars had fully healed up. My parents had completely forgotten to hide the thing from sight and had quickly stuffed it between the settee and the wall. It had taken Godfrey just a few seconds to find!

The home made steam roller did nothing to appease the anger he felt and displayed. No one could console him and he eventually calmed down and fell asleep. He never was interested in the frilly eiderdown again and had totally forgotten the pleasure that it had given him before.

The pedal car was hidden from sight for the next few months and life went on as normal.