jmgoyder

wings and things

Mar 6

Smiling, sighing and starting again!

by jmgoyder

Today, I started again with Husband.

I took Husband back to the nursing lodge and, after the usual teary farewell, I walked from his room down the long hallway and then thought that was getting to be a really stupid, repetitive ritual. So I ran back up the hallway, startling a couple of nurses, and yippeed back into Husband’s room, startling him even more, and pounced on him, wiped the tears away from his cheeks and yelled “One more hug for the road!” I left him laughing his head off. Yes!

Today, I started again with Son.

Me: (washing dishes with Son) Sigh

Son: You sighed again

Me: No I didn’t

Son: Yes you did – you just sighed as if you wanted me to go away

Me: I didn’t sigh and I don’t want you to go away. Sigh

Son: See – you did it again!

Me: (holding breath) Okay, so I’ll try not to sigh

Son: I don’t understand your sighs – you do it all the time.

Me: If I sigh, it usually just means I’m tired.

Son: Tired of me or of Dad?

Me: What answer would you prefer?

Son: The truth

Me: Okay, I’m a bit tired from the busy weekend with Dad and everything else

Son: I’m so sorry about the emus, Mum

Me: It’s okay – let’s not talk about it. Sigh

Son: Mum, can we have a talk later on about stuff?

Me: Why can’t we have a talk now?

Son: Because I’m busy resting – seeya. Oh, do you want more help with the dishes?

Me: No thanks, darling. Sigh

Son: Are you sure? You just sighed again.

Me: Sorry. Sigh

Son: I’m actually just watching the Harry Potter series because I missed most of it in my youth

Me: I think that’s great!

Son: Okay, love you, Mum

Me: Love you too. Sigh

Son: (from his room) I heard that sigh

Me: (thundering down the hallway into his room with a teatowel as a weapon) It was a happy sigh, okay!

Son: (terrified) Okay, okay! Sigh

He’ll be back!

Today, I started again with the dogs-versus-birds dilemma

And I was rewarded by a small miracle – Doc and one of the Bubbles together. I was utterly amazed because Doc has attacked cattle, sheep, other dogs, rabbits, and plenty of birds, over the years. He is a real little killer, literally! So to see these two guys simply curious about each other made all the starting overs today worth it!

Today, I started again with the vegetable garden

No I didn’t – hehe!

Animal Family Wings

23 Comments »
Mar 3

Frolicking, rollicking rage

by jmgoyder

Son is experiencing some predictable rage due to the frustration of not being able to do very much within the confines of his chest-to-hip surgical brace.

Nevertheless, and despite my fear and trembling, I just asked Son if I could take a picture of him with Husband. He reluctantly agreed after I gave him a hot meat pie, some mango yoghurt and his favourite chocolates.

Son: She only wants the picture for that bloody blog, Dad.

Husband: Well, that’s okay isn’t it?

Me: Will you guys shut up and smile? Please!

Mostly Son is very good at restraining his rage but every now and then it unleashes itself in the form of a fake smile. Or maybe it’s best described as a forced smile – a smile before the storm? If he discovers I have blogged these photos I will be in big trouble!

So I’m going outside to find Godfrey because he’s not so scary!

Maybe I’ll just camp out tonight. Wouldn’t you? I mean look at this beautiful angry face – yikes!

Family

16 Comments »
Mar 2

The friendly sunset

by jmgoyder

Some friends will leap oceans….

Some friends will break into jails….

Some friends understand the art of gentle battle….

Some friends will do whatever it takes….

…. to get a decent photo or two….

… of the sunset.

Sunset photos courtesy of Shaam Burley
He is some friend!

Uncategorized

6 Comments »
Feb 26

‘The look’

by jmgoyder

Here is ‘the look’:

‘The look’ represents many things and can be very difficult to interpret at times. For example, ‘the look’ can look like determination or courage, but it can also look like melancholy or resignation.

I didn’t take this photo of Son before his surgery; someone else did, however today I have been the lucky (ha!) recipient of just such a look, but this time ‘the look’ looked like rage or frustration. Fortunately I was ready for today’s fall from the great heights of elation, so our spat was relatively short-lived and bandaged with an awkward hug (it’s hard to hug a plastic corset), so all is well again.

Navigating the hills and valleys of our next few weeks is going to be tricky. Son’s corset thing is very restricting and he has to wear it all the time, except during the night when he sleeps. Today, full of energy, he wanted to do some of his usual outside jobs, but he couldn’t; he couldn’t even lift the bucket of water that he’d managed for fill for the dogs.

I think it might be awhile before we all see another ‘look’ from Son. The following photo was also taken before his surgery.

I will watch and wait for this other ‘look’ for as long as it takes….

 

Uncategorized

8 Comments »
Feb 24

Innocent until proven naive

by jmgoyder

I had intended to write a moving and poignant account of Son’s homecoming today.

Then, when my mum came over, I thought I’ll simply post a picture instead. Unfortunately it keeps going sideways no matter how many times I correct it!

Then, because his splint or jacket or whatever they call it, reminded us all of a corset (which, like shoulder pads, is apparently the latest ‘thing’), after Grandma left and Son was having a nap, I googled ‘women in corsets + pics’. Well, that was a bit of a shock! I am probably now on some police list of suspected pornography addicts – hell. So I quickly added ’18th century’ to my search phrase and, even though some of those websites were also a bit suss, I finally found this:

Then, I went outside to discover that one of the long lost hens had reappeared! I’m not quite sure where she has been or where the other hens are and I keep expecting to see multitudes of baby chickens but I can’t find any evidence of a nest. Later, when Son woke up I told him she’d returned and asked him where he thought she might have been.

“You don’t know much do you, Mum,” he said, looking down at me from his new height. “She is one hen and we have three roosters; wouldn’t you have a hiding place? You are so naive!”

We are back to normal!

Uncategorized

17 Comments »
Feb 23

Tomorrow just became today!

by jmgoyder

I think there might be a funny story within this situation, but I haven’t quite found it yet.

This afternoon I found out, almost by accident (during a phonecall with Son), that he could be discharged from the hospital today. I immediately rang the hospital to confirm this and said I’d be there first thing tomorrow morning, explaining that I lived 200 kms away. But the woman on the phone said it had to be today because they needed the bed.

Okay….

In the meantime I’d received a phonecall from our local hospital to say that they would be delivering a special chair and other equipment for Son this afternoon and would I be home … okay

Long story short, I then rather frantically had to arrange for relatives in Perth to pick Son up and have him overnight, cancel my planned visit to Husband, confirm delivery of Son’s equipment (which, as it turns out, can’t be delivered until tomorrow anyway).

Okay….

So, our wonderful relatives are now bringing Son home tomorrow morning. As he can only tolerate sitting for about 15 minutes without pain, I think this may be a long journey.

Previously I’d been told Son would probably be in the rehabilitation unit until next Monday, maybe this Friday at a pinch, but only if he made a quick recovery.

Well, he made a quick recovery all right – it’s only Thursday!

I feel a little sped up!

So home tomorrow … the beginning of a new adventure – hehe!

It’ll be Son and me and a bunch of birds; wish us luck as we let the funny story unfold!

Animal Wings

12 Comments »
Feb 23

Flexibility

by jmgoyder

Geese, with their long necks, have incredible flexibility. In the photo below, Pearl (on the left), appears to be giving herself a little hug!

The biggest drawback after scoliosis surgery is loss of flexibility. Son has had 12 of his 24 vertebrae fused, so this area of his back is now ramrod solid. The good news is that this middle area of the spine doesn’t require much flexibility anyway and Son still has the top and bottom of his spine to flex, dance, bend, lift, so he still has his shoulders and hips. If he wanted to, he could even preen himself the way Seli does in the following photo.

I love watching the geese preen themselves. This is Godfrey and Seli below. As you can see, Seli does actually have a head!

Okay, so Son is not a goose, but he will still be dancing, preening and spreading his wings again!

Okay, so he might not have as much flexibility as Pearl (picture below again) but you never know!

Animal Uncategorized Wings

14 Comments »
Feb 22

‘While my guitar gently weeps’

by jmgoyder

There’s a line in the following beautiful song about the floor needing to be swept. I didn’t understand that line until now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3RYvO2X0Oo

On a more literal note, I’m about to sweep the kitchen and veranda floors in preparation for Son’s home-coming on Friday. He was very upbeat on the phone today and said, “Mum, I hope the house is up to standard.” Yes – that’s my neat and tidy boy – just like his dad!

Uncategorized

8 Comments »
Feb 15

Recovery

by jmgoyder

This is Son in ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Since then he has been moved to a ward but is in a single room where he will stay for three days due to some infection risk or something. He is starving, having eaten nothing for over 48 hours but he can’t eat yet because he keeps vomiting from the morphine. I stayed for a few hours and he had a couple of visitors but after they left he started to cry and my maternal presence just made it worse so he asked me to go, so here I am back at the hotel hoping he has gone to sleep for the night, hoping that the nurses will adore him, hoping that we have done the right thing, hoping that tomorrow will come quickly and I can see him again.

I subscribe to a blog by a beautiful woman who had the same operation and her description below says it all:

http://thecurvyspine.wordpress.com/

I don’t think Son and I were quite prepared for this! So far, I have restrained myself from crying but I have made an appointment with my tears for exactly 8.15pm with a 15-minute limit, then I’ll watch another hotel movie….

Uncategorized

47 Comments »
Feb 15

Waiting

by jmgoyder

Son, Husband and I have spent a lot of time in various doctors’ waiting rooms over the last year or so, waiting and waiting and WAITING.

I can’t stand waiting. If I am meeting someone for lunch or something and they are late, I get cross; if I am heading for traffic lights and they turn from green to orange, I race ahead because red lights make me see red, especially when the red takes a century to turn green; if I ask Son to do a chore and he says, “just give me a minute”, I want to strangle him; if I am on the freeway and I get stuck behind one of those morons drivers who is in the passing lane but doesn’t pass the the driver in the slow lane, grrrrr  … well, you get the picture.

So yesterday, while I waited for Son’s operation to be over with and for the hospital to ring me, the waiting nearly killed me. All of the seconds became minutes and all of the minutes became hours and all of the hours became days. I watched two videos in my hotel room (but I can’t remember what they were about); I went for walks around the city with my mobile phone clutched in my shirt pocket against my heart; I came back to the hotel and ate and drank everything from the minibar; I made a million phonecalls to tell people I was still waiting; I had three showers and two naps; I blogged; I read all of the magazines in the hotel room, so now I am an expert in Perth fashion; I rang the hospital five times; I rang Husband five times … well, you get the picture.

Since Son is still in ICU, I am staying in Perth for one more night and good friends are checking on animals for me. I’m sure Godfrey will be waiting too, with great anticipation, for my return. After all, it’s been nearly three days since he’s been able to do his favourite thing which is to bite me. Wait away, Godfrey!

And now I’m off to the hospital again (hotel is only two blocks away) to see Son and wait for his transfer from ICU to a ward. I have been told that this will happen some time after 4pm so I anticipate some more waiting – mmmmmmm!

Uncategorized Wings

12 Comments »
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