The last two months

Hi everyone,

As usual please ignore any grammatical and spelling errors caused by voice to text.

I have been alternating between being extremely busy and extremely slack. Since my last blog I have watched all six seasons of breaking bad and have banned myself from downloading any more TV series until I have completed this blog! I have also racked up over 400 km on my wheelchair, over 1500km in the car and 4000km of frequent flyer points.

The Townsville scrabble tournament which was held way back in August was a great success, unfortunately my playing was not :-) We held the Saturday night's barbecue at my place at the Dalgety. It was lovely to have a drink with old friends and new although I still feel guilty that I can't help clean up after the wine is finished!

I took my first trip over to magnetic island for the magnetic island scrabble tournament which was held mid week at the picnic bay pub. The renovations are great and the food was excellent value for money. Sadly my slide down the scrabble rankings continued :-)

Two days later it was time to pack my bags and head off on the road trip to Cairns for yet another scrabble tournament. The car went well on the highway and I had no skin issues develop. So I really had nothing to blame my poor scrabble playing on :-) We stayed at Cairns Central Plaza, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to other wheelchair users. We caught up with Margie and Ralph and Ebby for dinner on Saturday night at Doninnis on the pier. I had to drink extra lemoncello that night as I was worried that Val would drink it instead of me! After another day of Scrabble on Sunday I managed to sleep almost all the way back home on Monday.

The following weekend we headed north again, this time to Mission Beach for Brett and Mandy's wedding. Casey and I drove up on Friday morning and Darrel followed later on Friday night. I attempted to eat a packet of chips in the back of the car while Casey was driving to save time, it was not a success. For every chip I ate there was a handful of chips that went on the floor and in my hair and in the chair. The wedding was held on Saturday down the beach, it was a beautiful ceremony followed by a picnic on the lawn and finger food and a desert bar later in the evening. An awesome wedding with awesome friends.

We drove back on Monday just in time for the "take my seat" event on Tuesday morning. Take my seat is a fundraising event for SIA designed to give public servants and business leaders an insight into some of the difficulties that disabled people encounter by getting them to spend a morning in a wheelchair.  I was paired with one of the town planners. I took the poor man up and down the worst pavements in town, he worked so hard at sitting in and pushing the manual wheelchair that by the time he got up out of the chair the entire back of his pants were wet with sweat. I felt very satisfied and a bit guilty :-) I will definitely volunteer again next year…

A week-and-a-half later and we were off to Sydney to attend the walk on program, I have posted some videos and photos to the JB movement movement Facebook group. The Wahkon program exposes participants to innovative physio techniques. My favourite activity was walking on the treadmill while suspended in the harness. I hope to do more of this when I return for nine days in November. The program is only run on weekdays so I had time to catch up with Andrew Mearns and Colin and Janet and cousin Tony and Emily and their son Otto for lunch on the Sunday.

Since returning from Sydney I have been slowly weaning myself off some of the drugs that I have been on. I have reduced my dosage of Lyrica to 1/4 of what it was and have eliminated another painkiller altogether. I feel a lot better and more optimistic than I have in months. To offset these positive steps I managed to give myself a pressure sore on my leg from some of the chair adjustments that were made in Sydney. I felt very stupid for not noticing it earlier and adjusting the chair back to the way it was. Fortunately it cleared up before the Cat Empire concert that was held at base backpackers on magnetic island - what an awesome night that was! thanks go out to Larissa Huxley for organising everything, basebackpackers, picnic Bay Hotel, and some cherries. (Sunferries, you stupid iPad! Not some cherries!)

A week later and Darrel and I were off to see Missy Higgins, another awesome but completely different gig. If you can get tickets to see her on her latest tour I highly recommend you do so.

Since the concert I have been trying to get back into a regular exercise regime. Hydrotherapy has recommenced at Kokoda pool on Fridays and I have been having some outpatient physiotherapy at the hospital on Thursdays. We have been practising sitting and standing in physio. Standing is very labour intensive as I require one person to control each leg/knee and a stronger person in front of me to stop me falling over :-) I think I am getting better at it but it is slow going.

I only have one new personal best to report: 10 km on the arm bike on resistance level three in 43 minutes and 22s.

An extra special thank you goes out to my sister Ky for arranging this new iPad for me when the old one died.

I think that is most of the news for now I promise not to leave if this long next time...

Hope you're all well and happy XXX

Where did the time go?

I can't believe nearly 3 months of gone by since my last blog, I am so sorry it has taken this long.

As always please excuse the errors in this blog, iPad voice to text really needs improvement...

Things have been very much up and down over the last three months sometimes it feels like two steps forward and one step back and sometimes it feels like one step forward and two steps back!

Shortly after the last blog I managed to burn myself quite badly on a plate of Gozleme (Filled Turkish pancakes). I decided to be independent and go and get the Gozleme while Darrel ordered us some coffees. When I paid for them I asked the market stall holder to put them on my lap when they were done, straight off the grill on a paper plate. They started to slip off my lap on the way back to Coffee Dominion so I held them down with the back of my thumb - I could tell they were pretty hot! By the time I got back to the cafe even my leg was hot. Fortunately I found a table fairly quickly and got Darrel to put them on the table. 

I like finger food as I can feed it to myself which makes me feel not quite so gimpy. I polished off those pancakes in record time. When we left the markets a little later I realised my leg still felt like it was burning. As did my thumb. Which had a huge blister on it. By the time we made it back to my place the blister on my hand was even bigger and I was really worried about my legs. Given the size of the blister on my thumb it was pretty easy to make a decision to cut my pants off, I good thing as the blisters on my legs were also huge. Those of you on Facebook may have seen some photos. Darrel was absolutely fantastic getting me to ice the burns for 20 minutes on and off for the next six hours And then helping to get me into bed without using the hoist And then finally getting the paramedics to visit. The paramedics told me to see a doctor the next day. I was too scared to get out of bed using the sling as I thought it would pop the blisters on my leg so managed to convince Dr Tracy Simmons to visit me at home. She was fantastic and advised me to take it easy while they were healing.

My wonderful sister came around the next day with a magical healing light, a bottle of disgusting aloe Vera juice, Vitamin C and zinc tablets and some printouts from http://www.apparelyzed.com 

 to illustrate that I was not the only person to do this and therefore not the stupidest person that ever lived

I spent the next four weeks doing no exercise, reading lots and watching lots of TV series including all five seasons of damages. I sure did miss my exercise endorphins and became quite depressed and horrible to be around. My mood may have been exacerbated by a change to my drugs (Lyrica), And the fact that the stick in the arm was due to be changed, and increased pain levels due to lack of exercise.

I managed not to get the blisters infected But have had a few trips to the emergency department for other infections In the last three months.

Since the burn I have become almost addicted to http://www.apparelyzed.com/forums

It is my first point of reference for everything related to disability and sci even though I don't like some of the answers. I had been very hopeful when I read about the phase 3 trials that are being carried out by ChinaSCINet see 

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/hong-kong-stem-cell-trial-gives-spinal-patients-hope/story-fn5fsgyc-1226670516113

But it seems people have been saying for years that a "cure"Is just a few years away... So it turns out that while I am mostly good at managing day to day contemplating a much much longer term with this injury Is really tough And really confusing When you need to think about the best way to manage financially physically and mentally. It can turn you into a bit of a basket case some days.

Fortunately I got back into the exercise and even managed a few new personal bests - 10 km on the leg bike in 56 minutes and a new top speed of 45 RPM. And remember folks that's all me, no help from the bike at all! Now I just need to replicate that or better it... Hydrotherapy has stopped for winter so I have no new records - But I have been "air-swimming"On the edge of the yoga table So I don't forget what to do :-)

I have had some lovely visitors recently - Margie and Ralph from Cairns and Sam from Brisbane. We managed to continue the tradition of long lunches at a touch of salt restaurant.

I can't believe that August a.k.a. Scrabble month is already upon us, the Townsville tournaments are on the 17th and 18th, the Magnetic Island tournament is on the 21st and the Cairns tournaments are on the 24th and 25th. And I don't know enough words!!! And it will be my first trip away since arriving home!!! And it's a long drive!!! Do you think I'm nervous much?!

Mandy and Brett's wedding is on the weekend after Cairns In mission beach, I have managed to find some nice wheelchair friendly accommodation at Lillypad's cottages.

I have also finally booked to go to walk on Sydney in September for some more intensive physio. My entourage and I will be staying at the free SCIA Choices apartment at breakfast point. I have loads of questions to ask the staff about equipment that I am looking at purchasing (Thanks again JB movement movement). I will also be meeting with the manager of the program to try and entice one of the staff to come to Townsville for a week to help train my Physio and yoga Instructor.

The final bit of news for today is that my gorgeous niece Cali has to give a speech on a person that they find inspiring and that she has chosen me, which is very touching and over whelming. I cried a bit when I first heard! as I have been dictating and typing this blog for three hours now I will bid you goodnight I hope you are all happy and well

xx

Latest PBs

A few new personal bests to start you off.  Ten kms on the leg bike in 90 minutes (resistance level zero); ten kms on the arm bike (resistance level three) in 45 minutes; tax return submitted (with one day to spare!); and I finally finished Ken Follett's book "Winter of the World".

There are no new hydrotherapy achievements as last week's session was cancelled.

I have been disciplined enough to do this blog before embarking on Book 14 of "The Wheel of Time" series, which Robert Jordan started writing in 1984.  He died in 2007 but left instructions that enabled another author to complete the work - thank goodness!  At 918 pages it should keep me occupied for quite a while :-)

I have an appointment scheduled to try the Easy Stand Glider on Thursday morning.  Hopefully, my tax refund will be in my bank account by then :-)

I have another appointment at the Hospital with local Spinal Specialist Dr Tracey Simmons to discuss some changes to my drugs, HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen treatment), Botox (to try to help straighten my fingers on my left hand) and something that I can't remember in this point time: mental note: "Must make lists".

Hypermed.com.au (site recommended to me by Walter Starck) has piqued my interest into HBOT.  Unfortunately, I have also found websites detailing a fraud case against the owner and practitioner.  I have not had any strong feedback from previous clients as yet.  My investigations will continue........  

Darrel's Mum, Stepdad, Aunts and Uncles paid me a visit for afternoon tea which was enjoyed by all.  Col (Stepdad) remarked that Darrel had made the best cup of coffee in Townsville, which is high praise for Darrel and for my brother-in-law Ron Buschgens' coffee roasting skills.  Fortunately the roasting machine is working again, so Ron kindly gave me some beans to give to them for the long journey home.  They left this morning and hopefully are taking it easy and driving safely.

We caught up with our friend Gavin of matesrateswines.com.au for Friday night only, but he will be back next Sunday for another visit.  He has left Tasmania to enjoy two weeks of sunshine in North Queensland before winter sets in properly.  He sent a case of wine ahead of him and hopefully will have some left next Sunday ;-)

We had a great ladies' long lunch at Larissa's on Lockheed on Saturday.  We did not resolve Helen's wedding dress dilemmas.  Larissa made Long Island iced teas as a welcoming cocktail.  I had three which may explain my need for a little snooze in the sun after our magnificent lunch.  It was a great day.  

We had a lovely Mother's Day lunch at GYO on Sunday, followed by two games of scrabble.  After Val whipped my butt in the first one, I felt the need for some revenge, and got it!

I had a lovely catch-up with Mark Bogiatzis today - thanks for the coffees, Mark, and thanks to your Mum for a wonderful jar of home made Greek shortbread.

I spent the rest of the afternoon refreshing myself on the Wheel of Time Series, through Wikipedia; thank God for Wikipedia as it is difficult to remember the plotlines from the previous 13 books and prequel which total around 11,000 pages!

I love fantasy series but they are terrible for my scrabble as I keep thinking the made up worlds and words are real.  I shall probably play a lot of phonies tomorrow night at Scrabble Club.

There are some photos up on Facebook illustrating my incremental gains in yoga.  I can now get my fingers past my feet in a forward bend!  

I hope you all are well, and thank you again for taking the time to keep up with my progress via this blog (and a special thank you to Val for typing the last three).   Val accepts any error as her own in typing this.  Julie disagrees with Val on this.

That's enough - we deserve a glass of red wine now - BYE.  

Monster truck

Hydrotherapy news first:  I am currently up to 21 laps of the 25 metre pool in my hydrotherapy sessions.  We have a make-shift arrangement to try and get my legs and flippers working.  Because I am so floaty we need ankle weights to keep my feet under water.  We also need a way  to make sure the flippers don't cross as I have a tendency to go pigeon-toed.  We do this with some foam floats which also offset some of the effect of the weights.  It is very difficult to get the balance right so I am still investigating alternatives.  

I am finding standing up in the pool a lot easier but still need a nice young man under each arm.  Then again, who doesn't?  :-)

We have also started teaching me to roll over.  This could be re-phrased as trying to teach me not to snort the chlorinated water......  I don't remember this rolling over business being so difficult when I was five!  The next time a proud parent tells me of their child's great achievements I will believe them!

As you can tell from all of this, my hydrotherapy sessions are a bit longer than they used to be.  This is because I have purchased the beach wheelchair aka monster truck.  The wheels are enormous.  Darrel pumped the tyres up quite high, not realising the implications this would have for me getting the chair in the water.  At one stage I thought it would be a paddle boat that took five of the students to sink the sucker!  This week I am letting the tyres down!  There are still a few things to sort out with the beach wheelchair - it has no brakes, which will be easily fixed by a chock of wood; it has no chest strap, so I am currently using a belt; it has no foot rests; AND, we managed to cause a little bit of damage when we accidentally ran the chair into a wall (Darrel is getting the tyre fixed for me, god bless him.  There are some photos on Facebook if you wish to see me in the monster truck chair!

I have found a few yoga instructors who are happy to come to the apartment to help me with my physiyoga.  Leah does Thai yoga massage so we have based her sessions more around that.  Meredith practises more traditional yoga and I have been loving the meditation and relaxation at the end of her sessions.  I may have a third instructor in the near future as well.

Yesterday I managed eight kilometres in one hour on the leg bike and ten kilometres on the arm bike.  I would like to do this every day but often run out of time and steam :-)

I have also been busy with my Accountant arranging last year's tax return and discussing various new business ideas.  The sales rep for EasyStand.com delayed his visit so I haven't yet tried the glider machine, but I am guessing my tax return refund will go towards it.  

It hasn't been all work and no play.  Scrabble Club continues to meet at my place every Wednesday and we try to make it to Touch of Salt for their Friday afternoon drinks whenever the weather and our schedules permit.  Their last minute decisions to cancel if it is raining have resulted in a few impromptu parties at The Dalgety.  Thank god Darrel loves to fish and cook, although I think we have finally finished the 86cm Coral Trout (yum yum).  It was great to catch up with the Junkies (Peter and Vicki) and have Jamie back from Gympie for a weekend and Yoga Tracy back in between field trips at one such impromptu gathering.

A big thank you to Mary Vernon for the free range eggs and to the Cyclone Testing Station for some beautiful native flowers.  Also to Darrel's Mum for the lovely jam.  

It is now time for Val and me to watch "The Voice" and "The Biggest Loser" and have a glass of wine.  I hope you all have such an enjoyable evening as we will.   

XXXX

Blonde

Darrel's Mum Joan and her husband Col are in town.  They have made the long trek from Port August in South Australia with their caravan.  Darrel, Joan and Col came over for lunch last Thursday. 

 

As we were going out later that afternoon, I suggested Darrel move my car to the Disabled spot on the ground floor.  I had a call from him shortly after to tell me that a van was illegally parked in the spot.  He checked with the Building Manager to make sure it was nothing to do with them.  As it wasn't, I told him to park the car in.  About half an hour later he had a call from the Building Manager advising that the man owning the van would like to get it out, and was very sorry to have parked there.  

I decided to go and meet him.  As Darrel was walking in front of me, he came over saying how sorry he was, to which Darrel replied "It's not me you have to apologise to, Mate.  He reiterated his apologies to me and handed me three $1 scratchies, saying he hoped I would win $25,000.  I said "Well, if I do and the local paper wants to know who you are, do you want me to tell them or would you prefer to remain anonymous?"  He was very keen on remaining anonymous :-)

I didn't scratch the scratchies until Saturday morning.  The top one had three symbols that were the same with an amount of $25,000 at the bottom of the panel!  After the initial shock had worn off, Darrel and I started phoning our families to tell them the good news.  Darrel even took a photo of the ticket and MMS'd it to Val and Kylie as proof.

Imagine my disappointment when they explained to me that the three $2 symbols meant that I had won $2, not the $25,000 at the bottom of the panel.  :-(

Thank god we didn't take it to the Newsagent before the truth reared its ugly head.

Oh, well, it makes for a good blonde joke :-)

Procrastination

Sorry it has been so long since my last blog, I have been procrastinating. And very very busy!

I had a lovely Easter with Colin and Russell, lots of great food great company and great wine. We tucked into fresh mud crab on Good Friday courtesy of Darrel and spent Easter Saturday at Larissa's house celebrating Colin's birthday and admiring her new outdoor entertainment area. Larissa, together with helpers Ross and Val, cooked up 11 different tapas dishes and a fantastic chocolate birthday cake! I thought I would be too full to eat anything on Sunday but managed to scoff down Yum cha at Benny's. After that we retreated to the lounge room and the TV, I think I managed to get Colin and Russell hooked on Justified:-)

I had a great yoga session with Tracy on Easter Monday and got back up on the bike on the Tuesday. Unfortunately I woke up in the early hours of Wednesday morning feeling off colour. So off-colour that I woke Val to check on me. 

Some mother-daughter bonding experiences are great, others are not so great. Sharing a bucket falls into the not so great category. Don't know if it was food poisoning or a bug that is going round but as my temperature got higher than 38°C we decided to call the doctor to your door service. Dr Dominic was great, he gave us some Maxolon for the vomiting and diagnosed me with a UTI and gave me a script for right antibiotics after consulting with the registrar at the hospital. So much better than waiting out at the emergency department for hours on end. The rest of the week was kind of a write-off, I didn't start feeling better until Saturday night when I managed a few of Darrels crab spring rolls:-) 

During those couple of days when I was ill I managed to get hooked on "the walking dead" and watch the rest of series 4 of "justified" and download a season pass for series 3 of "game of thrones". Yes I have been very slack;-) I will however justify my slackness with my latest results on the motomed. My latest personal-bests for my legs are 6 km in 50 minutes and 5 km in 40 minutes with a top speed of 35 RPM! I'm very happy but hope to improve further next week.

I have only been to one hydrotherapy session since Easter. They cancelled one due to rain can you believe it?!! The cancellation did give me time to go shopping and out to lunch so I shouldn't complain too much :-) I have found a pair of jeans that fit and that is a wonderful thing, we also found a second hand beach wheelchair that I am going to make an offer on provided it fits in the car. The wheels are very wide and may not fit up the ramp.

 I tried out my new flippers at hydrotherapy yesterday but it was not a success. My feet float too much on their own but my regular ankle weights are too heavy. We are going to try again next week with little weights. I still managed to "swim"10 laps and did some standing - with the help of a young man under each arm :-) I was tempted to make some smart arse comments about this but my breasts were threatening escape from my new top so I thought I'd better not :-)

I have finally had a follow-up call from Easystand.com, they have a rep coming up at the end of the month to demonstrate the Glider machine - $11k but it looks great. I have also finally committed to the yoga table which is being custom-made by Meridian Massage In Sydney and should be here in two weeks. Tracy has had a job offer in her chosen field (geology) which is great but I already miss my sessions with her. I have arranged for some yoga sessions with Meredith next week which hopefully will be an ongoing thing. In 2° of separation Townsville it turns out that Merediths daughter is friends with my niece Cali!

I had a lovely visit from Margie and Ralph this week. We got thai takeaway on Sunday night and went to Watermark on Monday for lunch. Watermark is really good at the moment particularly the desserts (I can say this with confidence as I have now tried all of them¡). It has also been a week of catch ups - with my mum and my sister on Tuesday, Scrabble club on Wednesday, my hairdresser friend Shaun and my dad on Thursday, and my lovely Darrel, Shaun and Ronnie at "a touch of salt” last night. Special thanks go out to Shaun for the great haircut and Ronnie for the lovely scrabble rings. Darrel has gone fishing so I am catching up with Helen tonight and Larissa tomorrow. Wine and Scrabble are on the agenda and hopefully fresh fish on the menu tomorrow:-)

I am still planning a visit to walk on in Brisbane in July and need to look at organising a home swap which I will hopefully get onto next week. Other plans include a visit to my accountant to finalise last years tax return, checking out the beach wheelchair and as much exercise as I can possibly fit in!

Thanks to everyone for reading the blog I hope you enjoy this and again apologise for leaving it so long between entries xxx

Happy Easter

I was seeking inspiration in a glass of red wine while posting this blog but unfortunately Val threw it on the floor. Ironically this makes her the first person to still red light on the carpet in the new Apartment. Whatever, you know what I mean :-)

The last few weeks have been ridiculously busy and I have been exhausted at the end of most days and sometimes in the middle of them.  I am now regularly (i.e. more than once) putting in more than three kms active peddling with my legs and ten kms (on resistance level 3) with my arms on the Motomed.  I also do modified yoga with Tracy for two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays and an hour plus of hydrotherapy on Fridays.  Pretty good for a quadriplegic, I reckon :-)

We have recently found a number of other wonderful looking rehab machines online at Hocoma.com and easystand.com .  I want all of them, and have requested prices for some.  Pricey little bits of equipment!  This, in conjunction with the great results I am getting from my current exercise regime, has got me thinking that maybe I should start a new and innovative "PhysiYoga" clinic.  I am sure there should be some government grants available in addition to research and development tax deductions.  Hopefully these will include business class airfares to the USA and Switzerland to check the equipment out :-).  I've even looked at properties that may be suitable for such a venture.  What do you think, Folks?  Townsville could be the new SCI Rehab Centre in Australia.  :Perhaps I should approach Mayor Jenny Hill and see what she thinks........

It has also been a busy time socially, with outings for Tracy Armstrong and Dave Shorten graduations, St Patricks Day and Friday afternoon drinks at the wonderful Touch of Salt.  I also had a lovely visit from Margie and Ralph, they must have enjoyed it as they are coming back again in April.  Russell and Colin are coming to visit this weekend (Easter), so I can have a slightly early celebration with them for Colin's milestone birthday.  We hope to do this at Larissa's on Saturday afternoon in her new outdoor entertaining area.  Last time I visited the outdoor entertainment area a very cut lizard stuck its head up to say 'hello' to me.  A moment later I realised that it was a lizard without legs - ie, a snake.  Hopefully he will not join the party on Saturday.

While I am here I may as well confess to a few less worthy practices: yes, that's right, I have bitten ALL of the nails off of my left hand.  AND watched all of "Justified" and ALL of Season One of the  Walking Dead.  Seriously, though, "Justified" is completely justified and the best TV series I have seen in quite a while.  Equally as good as "Game of Thrones" and "True Blood" in my book.  And will you all please hurry up and watch it so we can discuss what happens in Season Four??

I think one of the truths for people in wheelchairs is that you can never have enough velcro.  Last week I managed to throw my phone on the floor in the bathroom.  Val kindly came to the unit to pick the phone up and give it back to me as there was a high risk that I would drive over it if she didn't.  Shortly after she left, I scratched my eyebrow and somehow threw my glasses on the floor - right next to the wheel!  I immediately rang Val only to discover her phone ringing on my kitchen table.   I have since obtained velcro for the phone but I am reluctant to stick any on my head to keep the glasses there.

Scrabble Club is going well and will be held at my apartment this week.  I hope my luck from the weekend holds out as Val gave me two 500 plus games and the lovely "outgazes" for 126 points (not on a triple triple :-( ).  I wish I could be playing in the Nationals this year, but it is a little too early.  It won't stop me obsessively checking the results on line and cheering on my friends.  Good luck in particular to Helen Maurus, Ryan Anderson and Naween Fernando: may the blanks be with you!  I would wish this for Alastair Richards but he is too good to need it ;-)

Darrel has been outdoing himself lately with delicious meals.  My latest favourite is the crab, coriander and cashew spring rolls.  We have also had some lovely meals out together most recently at Longboards (the mini fish tacos rock) and Yum Cha at Benny's.  We still haven't used our gift voucher to Watermark so there is more to look forward to in dining in the near future.

I would like to close this blog by wishing you all a happy and chocolate-filled Easter.  

xxx







Sent from my iPad

A year or so later

A year and three days ago my life and I changed dramatically. I should probably have reflected and written a serious post on this but chose to exercise instead :-) I will do a serious reflective post one-day - getting stronger is top priority at the moment (Yes, I have watched all of Justified).

On Monday I achieved a new personal-best on the leg bike – 2.3 km! After that it was time to switch to the arms, so I got Katelyn to set me up on resistance level III before she headed off to the shops. I thought it would take her about half an hour. Once you're strapped in you just have to keep pedalling or let the bike pedal for you, so I just kept on pedalling until she got back nearly 45 minutes later. Result - another new personal-best 7 km!

After that I had little nap :-)

Fortunately the nap and Tracy's enthusiasm got me through two hours of yoga/physio that afternoon. We have managed three afternoons this week which in addition to the bike most days is lot! There is a photo up on Facebook if anyone is interested in seeing what we have got up to.

If you are on Facebook you should also check out the short video of a spider that I have shared, it still makes me laugh and I have watched it at least a dozen times! 

It was Cali's 15th birthday on Tuesday but we celebrated a little early (Monday night) at my place.
Cali looked lovely and a good night was had by all.

I will be finishing off the weeks exercise with hydrotherapy tomorrow, hopefully it will be enough to work off Norms seafood lasagne - yum!

Julie Brice, Chip Hunter

On the weekends my carers work from 730 - 11 AM and then 7 PM to 9:30 PM, so unless I have organised something with friends I have eight hours by myself during the days. On Saturday I hadn't  organised anything. I had a snack before Miriam left and thought that it would tide me over till Larissa arrived at 6 PM. When Larissa arrived she was surprised at the amount of crumbs on the floor until she saw the Twisties packet on my lap. Then she was surprised at the furniture arrangement.

Darrel had left an open packet of chips on the middle of the coffee table, to get to them I had to push the couch out of the way up against the windows and manoeuvre the chair close enough to the table that I could grab them. This took a few attempts and I moved the coffee table in the process. The next test was getting the chips to my mouth. I had about 50% success rate so there were quite a few on the floor for me to drive over...

Fortunately there was no lasting damage to the furniture or the carpet:-)

I am Julie Brice, Chip Hunter.

And now I'm tired…

This morning I got back on the Motomed bike and cranked up the saints "know your product". During my half hour on the leg bike I managed to pedal 2 km. All by myself. Without any help from the machine or any breaks :-) So I will attribute this new personal-best in part to the saints awesome album.

I also managed 6 km on the arm bike while listening to rancid "Life won’t wait", an apt title.

This comes on top of a day with no hillbilly heroin (endone) yesterday - the first of such days I've had in quite a while as my shoulder pain has been bad.

I have a feeling it's going to be a good week :-)

Drainage systems

This blog contains stories about wee and catheters and maybe somewhat distasteful. Read at your own risk...

Unfortunately I cannot transfer in and out of my chair, nor can I self catheterise as I do not have enough hand function which resulted in my agreeing to a SPC (Suprapubic catheter - Basically a tube stuck through my abdominal wall into my bladder).
I use a valve at the end of the catheter when I need to pee and have a system setup in my chair that it drains through the footplate. The chair also allows me to elevate my feet so that wee can discharge straight into a toilet bowl. So yes boys I now prefer toilet seats to be left up!
The system works really well provided there is enough room for me to manoeuvre the wheelchair. It doesn't work for standard sized toilets as I can't get through the door, nor will it work if there are steps on the way to the bathroom.
So, if I am out and about and need to use the facilities and there is no wheelchair friendly bathroom then I shall retaliate by peeing in the car park or on the lawn. If I come to visit and you don't like your neighbours I can irrigate their nature strip:-)
You have been warned…

Are we there yet?

Any errors or spelling mistakes in this blog are the fault of voice to text :-)
I promised myself last night that I was not allowed to start watching Justified season three until I had done a blog, so this may be short and sweet as I need to see what happens next! The blog ends suddenly again as there is a flaw in this site or more probably a flaw in my understanding of it.
The apartment is starting to look a lot more like home. Kylie and Ron have hung up most of my pictures, Shaun and Ron's outdoor setting has been delivered, I have a TV in my bedroom, and a working fridge for wine on the balcony. A pantry has been organised and should be delivered in a few weeks and the sound system has been installed. There is only one area that still needs to be tidied up and then I have to get onto a dreaded task – organising my tax from last year.
It was lovely to catch up with Margie and Ralph last week but we didn't bother to try my pool experiment. We wouldn't have had time in between long lunches anyway :-) I've realised there is no way to avoid a fixed hoist so that is another task to add to the list...
I've been playing a fair bit of Scrabble lately including a tournament that was held at the aeroclub on 10 February. I came third but still managed to lose 16 points from my rating. Surely the Scrabble study should pay off soon… Another tournament was organised for this weekend but has been cancelled due to lack of interest.
I've rearranged some of my carer hours to give me more time for exercise and have been back on the motomed bike this week. I achieved a new personal-best today – 1.05 km of active leg exercise (ie me actually riding the equivalent of this distance rather than the machine just pedalling it for me). I think I can thank the new sound system and ”Rage against the machine" for extra motivation to pedal the machine:-) Tracey Armstrong will be helping me with the project walk at home program 3 times a week as of next week. I will also be starting hydrotherapy with NQ Community health in a few weeks.
I met up with a local boy who had attended project walk in the states last week. He had a great deal of praise for that program but thought that the Sydney branch was worth a try as well so I am no further along in the decision-making process.

Moving

As usual this blog is brought to you by voice to text...

My apologies for the lack of news lately I have been busy moving and unpacking. That's right, I have finally moved into the Dalgety!!! We moved out of Clark Street over the Australia day weekend ~ by we I mean that Kylie and Val did an amazing job organising removalists and furniture deliveries as well as unpacking and helping to organise the kitchen etc. Shaun and Ron were also fantastic helping with the unpacking and organising and Shaun helped Darrel assemble the bed. Ironically we all get to do more of this in the near future as Shaun and Ron are moving into my Flinders Street apartment and I am becoming caretaker of their outdoor setting:-)

My physio plans have fallen by the wayside over the last two weeks. The first obstacle was a blister on my leg the size of a 50 cent piece that became infected. It has cleared up now but looks like it will leave a lovely scar. The second obstacle has been unpacking and trying to understand some of the new technology that Ron has installed for me:-) The new voice controlled TV is communicating with the washing machine, I think they are planning to elope. The OT is coming back tomorrow to try and get things to talk to my phone, the door installer is also coming back so that we can enter new pins to open the door. I love what you can do with the new technology but it sure can drive you crazy until you are used to it:-) Still on the to do list are TVs for the bedrooms and Sonos Music system

I finally got stuck into one of the hardest unpacking jobs Yesterday - The culling of the clothes and shoes:-(On the plus side if I achieve my goal of walking again in five years I get to buy new stuff :-) there are 2 1/2 packing boxes of clothes and shoes in various states of repair that will go to the salvos in a fortnight so if you think I've thrown out anything you might like you should come and have a look :-)

Last weekend I achieved some more firsts - rolling to the motor boat club to listen to Jeff Johnson and band and wearing a pair of jeans for the first time since the accident. The first achievement was fun  (even more so when you count buying a new shirt on the way). The second not so much so as the jeans were decidedly tight when sitting up which was exacerbated by a lovely lunch at Gyo. All this while poor Darrel was slaving away over a hot fishing line to catch me some Sashimi grade tuna:-) And Spanish mackerel and Trevalley and Cobia...

I have still managed to find time to play scrabble amongst all of this :-) Our club is having a tournament this Sunday so I have stuck the three letter words list up in the bathroom with good intentions but I keep getting distracted by series one of Justified:-) That show is seriously addictive.

I am expecting my first visitors next week, Margie and Ralph are flying down from Cairns. I am secretly planning to enlist them in an experiment involving the mobile hoist and the swimming pool:-) If it works it should save me about eight grand(The cost of a fixed hoist) - Fingers crossed!

I am pleased to report that the wax pot which is located one block away did a great job on my fingernails, toenails, eyebrows and eyelashes. I think I have found my new beautician :)

Val is here for a game of Scrabble so I will sign off now. There will be a housewarming once I have my paintings up, will keep you all posted,

love from me

The JB movement movement

as always please excuse any typos all grammatical errors as this blog is being dictated to voice to text

Last Wednesday evening I went to scrabble club with Val and Larissa. When we got there I was very surprised to see Sean and Ron and then… It turned out they were around 50 to 60 people there and they were not there to play scrabble! I was very surprised touch and overwhelmed to learn of the movement and face book group called the JB movement movement and its fundraising activities. I understand the group is no longer secret so you can join it if you would like to see the wonderful PowerPoint presentation put together by Jen and a video of my reaction. The group was run by Larissa Huxley with the help of Helen and Tamara. they manage to raise an astonishing $42,000 via donations and auction of donating items at a cheese and wine night. I cried quite a lot that night and the next day and the day after. I can't thank you all enough. the money will be used on physio and physio equipment. I have downloaded the home support program from project walk and am looking into spending time at their facility in California. The Australian version, walk on, is another option. Possibly in the Brisbane or Sydney centres...

One visitor deserving a special mention is Fiona Richards who was in Townsville for one night only specifically for the occasion it was great to see her after 10 years and catch up

I am still at the temporary accommodation in Garbutt. The apartment at the Dalgety http://www.thedalgety.com.au/. should be ready next Friday the 25th of January, I am really looking forward to moving getting settled. having said that I have already registered the apartment on a disabled home exchange website http://www.matchinghouses.com/ perhaps there will be something suitable new project walk all walk on Sydney all walk on Brisbane

I finished reading my first book at home the other day a zombie romance call warm bodies:-) I'm looking forward to seeing the movie, any takers?

I have been using the Motomed every second day or thereabouts :-) I am doing 6 km with my arms on resistance level II
I am having mixed success with the motom

Home sweet home

Belated Merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone. I am sure 2013 will be a much better year than 2012 :-)

I flew back to Townsville on 16 December as planned, going business class was a good decision. the Qantas staff were very helpful and loaded me on and off the plane without any problems. The chair was delivered undamaged, phew!!!
Unfortunately the apartment at Dalgety isn't complete yet so I am in our plan B accommodation which is about 4 Blocks from Larissa's place.
I have been very busy catching up with family and friends and play scrabble:-) it is great to be back in Townsville.
The big news is that I now have transport that goes faster than 8 km an hour. I will try and attach a photo of the car.
We used the stair climber mostly successfully on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so that I could get into Kylie and Ron's house.
Larissa and I are going to the movies today to see the hobbit so it's five bye for now I promise I will add more news soon XOXO