On my way home from visiting Louise at Nepean Hospital, some days I would call in and visit one of our senior ladies from church, Betty Anderson. She would often be sitting on her verandah with her rather tame Magpies (breed of wild birds here in Australia) hanging around for a morsel of food from her. One particular day I said to the Lord...
"If Betty is sitting on her veranda today, I will call in to visit."
So there she was sitting right in front of me. I stopped and unfortunately, began to climb through her garden and across to the steps. Worse thing I could have done as the garden was full of ants! It took the removal of all my upper clothing and assistance from Betty and her son, also visiting her at the time, to  remove all the "invaders!"  As you can guess, I never went by that stupid route on subsequent visits, again.

I had tried to organize a bus ride from Coreen Avenue, Penrith to Nepean Hospital, Kingswood for when I was to put our car in for rego inspection at Cheap Cheap Tyres in Coreen Ave., soon. All I could see was a very short bus ride in the middle of a LOT OF WALKING on both ends! Sigh! It looked like a taxi job that day on both ends! I needed to drop off the car in the morning and pick it up that afternoon. Visiting Louise in between those times.

Praise God, our dear pastor picked me up early to take me to the hospital, from our Mechanic where I dropped off our car for the previously mentioned rego check and a major service, seeing the dear old car is now 16 years old and approaching the 130,000km mark. Later in the day, pastor graciously picked me up in the afternoon from the hospital to collect our car. (I saw, that night why I was so cold, waiting for the pastor that morning...they said it had been THREE  Deg Celsius in Penrith that morning...I should have had another layer of warmth on, I forgot to add! Brrrr!!!)

At the hospital, in the Rehab area, where Louise now was, we had to be "let in and out" as they have "wanderers" in her Ward as well. I reckoned they could have arranged special "swipe" cards for regular visitors. The trouble is, something similar to the staff passes probably don't come set up for specific areas of the hospital. I guess they would not want visitors to the Rehab area to have "carte blanche" access to all the secure areas of the complete establishment!

Louise was being moved to Springwood Hospital on Wednesday. This, I thought back then, was going to bring an end to my daily visits to my darling. For my overseas friends, this would make it more than DOUBLE the distance for me to visit my darling. As the old Yellow Pages Business Phone Directory ad in Australia used to say - "NOT HAPPY JAN!!"

One of my special definitions; "Negligible Difference In Support#" for the wonderful #NDIS, a brand new scheme introduced by the previous Labor Government (very much like the Democrats in the USA gets the blame for this due to tightness in funding!  MInd you, when it was introduced, had it become law then, we would have had money hanging from the rafters for support of especially Louise.

Sadly though, the new Conservative Government... forever focused on reducing the country's international debt, created by their predecessors, was also guilty of the restriction of funding. Never mind them (The Bottom Line Admin of Nepean Hospital) wanting to move Louise out of the bed in Rehab and put someone else in there.)

It had to be an interesting coincidence that on the news the same night the Government was trumpeting their achievement in getting NDiS fully rolled out in NSW (our state on the East Coast of Australia) as of yesterday! A queer coincidence, that.

They are trying to make out that Louise's Right Rotator Cuff injury is not related to her disability. She has had Cerebral Palsy from birth. For more than 50 years (she did not walk until she was 4yrs old and she ceased getting around on her crutches in any small measure in later years...pretty much 7 years ago.) My figures are probably not really accurate. The point is, NDIS is trying to make out the Right Rotator Cuff Injury IS NOT RELATED TO HER DISABILITY! Excuse me! She has had to use her arms for her mobility for these 50 or more years! Tell me why the Right Rotator Cuff injury is NOT related TO HER CEREBRAL PALSY?

Louise and I between us contributed to the Nation’s economy as taxpayers for a total of 46 years. The accountants in her family have claimed we have probably used up any equity we had in that, in these 20 years, this year, on Disability Pensions. However, as one of the leading nations in the world in this 21st Century, Australia is behaving more like a third world country more and more as the years go by. Not to forget the politicians who got a huge pay rise recently...Again!


Louise is coming along. The head doctor spoke to her and I got the feeling, originally, they were going do some more "aggressive" stuff soon that may just see her out of there perhaps sooner than we think. As a follow up to above: Re the proposed "more aggressive" physio...They did try the Slide Board in the Gymn (physio etc) but it was unsuccessful, because of her locking right knee. More explanation on request. Hence the need to move to Springwood.

Prior to this second plan of a move to Springwood Hospital, we were to have a discussion with the Registrar assisting the main rehab Doctor Josh, as to our needs, when and if Louise returns home. As Louise, herself had said, there would be a lot of changes here at home when she returned. We were thankful for prayers for this and other issues we expected to deal with, down the road.

We were waiting to see if there was any reaction to a Cortisone injection they gave her a day or so, previously.  It was wonderful of Louise's brothers to organize a hair-cut for Louise from a lady coming all the way from Blacktown in the East. 

Ah well only possibly one more day at Nepean Hospital on Wednesday with Louise, and the parking machine ate my weekly ticket that afternoon. I was glad to know they would make good for Wednesday parking as I would not be there after that. I had had a great arrangement for the entire period of Louise's hospitalization at Nepean Hospital. Parking was at an enormous cost under normal circumstances. However, being a Pensioner, I was able to secure, with some mucking around, initially, a discount on weekly parking.  I would only pay $AUD21.00 per week for the nearly 10 weeks Louise was at the hospital.

I was getting tired from my daily visits to Louise. I thought I would be better off when she moved to Springwood and I cut back on daily visits. As it worked out, I did not cut back and only had the one day a week off on Tuesdays, still. I guess I have survived these almost 10 weeks so at least we are on the final bend in the road. Just pray the hoist gets approved in plenty of time. It is a must for her to come home. 

It, at first, seemed Springwood would not be that much further for me. Checking the Odometer revealed it WAS 33 Kms each way which is more than twice the distance from home to Nepean.

Well, folks at officially 12:30pm....or about NOW, (looking back to then)…Louise was supposed to be transferred to Springwood Hospital for 3-4 weeks and if all goes well, back home after that! Just as well I did not wait around for them to do the transfer to Springwood. I left her at about 1:40 pm after we were told she would be picked up at 12:30 PM. Ho hum. She was NOT happy! She hates waiting around! I dropped all her stuff off at Springwood and came home. 

She arrived up in Springwood three hours after they said she would be picked up.

I understood if all goes well there would not be the need for her to return to Nepean before she comes home after 3-4 weeks at Springwood. We originally hoped, in the meantime, we would get funding for the hoist to be built next to her bed here at home and we would have got into learning how to use it with help from carers. As it turned out we are still using the portable hoist and may still be for some time yet. Once we get the permanent hoist, I will learn how to use it and that will save funding for one carer as you need two carers at all times with the mobile hoist. 

Ok folks! It was official! 33kms one way from home to Springwood Hospital. Certainly a lot further than 14kms to Penrith. However, with motorway and great highway all the way, it was not so bad. I thought I might change my tune when schools resumed, from their break, having to deal with School Zones and so on. Praise the Lord, the physio at Springwood we had spoken to,  did some extra massage on Louise's back that she has been waiting on, for nearly 10 weeks. Prior to the Right Rotator Cuff injury which put her into the hospital back in May, she was getting fortnightly attention to her aching back. When she was admitted to Nepean Hospital they would only confine physio to her injury. Now, this was a real relief. Her back had been worse from sitting up in bed for all this time and not being able to get out often enough. Not to mention discomforting positions in bed. 

Yet another day at Springwood Hospital. Driving up was a tad different with weekend drivers. Not too bad, I heard a hilarious story today about a Nurse preparing a patient's toothbrush for cleaning his teeth, with Metsal, a kind of mentholated cream for muscle relief.

His comment was:
"This is a bit warm!"

I met the other three ladies in Louise's Ward at Springwood Hospital. An elderly retired Dutch music teacher and I had a good talk seeing we had that in common. Another lady whose name was not the regular title she used had Shingles and was a rare bird. Towards the end of Louise's sojourn there I made the mistake of offering "Fanny" not her real name...some Singapore Orchids Louise's Mother had given her.

It was fortunate “Fanny” had a bad memory as we changed our minds and decided Louise would rather bring the Orchids home, being a gift from her Mum. 

Louise was coming home on Monday There was, at first, a bit of a problem with carers. The Hoist had arrived at our home, my having been certified on the hoist operation at Springwood Hospital, that morning, not that I would be doing it alone anyway. I think watching them using it for more than 10 weeks I probably learned a lot too.

The difference in this one to the one I learned on at Springwood is the lever for opening and closing the legs. They talked about her being in Springwood for in 3-4 weeks, thankfully, it was less than 2 weeks in the end.

24 July 2017: Louise was being loaded into the Patient Transport from Springwood a few minutes ago! Praise God! Thanks for the prayers!

It became a bit of a culture shock for her, having been in the various hospitals for more than 2 months, altogether.
My Soul Mate, Help Meet, came home today!  Well, a bit of a dramatic day. I was glad they did not end up as late as we might have thought they would be getting Louise home here. The guys were terrific getting her in on the "gurney" or whatever and transferring her to her very own bed. A little bit of emotion, being her first time back at home and disorientation and so on. One of our regular carers turned up in the morning after we had originally been informed we were NOT getting any carers, sadly Michelle was a bit early for Louise. Bonnie came in the afternoon and was a great help in various ways. 

I did (I think so, anyway, hehe) a Spartan job on a large wash up early that morning. The day before, we had a drama with some of Louise's Meds. The Doctor at Springwood Hospital messed up badly which meant I had to go over to our GP quickly, to get more scripts written up, do a bit of a shop and get back here before Bonnie came in the arvo. Traffic was awful, due to schools coming out for the day. Last night, I got really tired and conked out as soon as my head hit the pillow, at around 8:30 pm. I woke up a couple of times during the night and finally arose at around 5:15 am. Louise had a pretty good sleep. She was still a little disorientated after 11 weeks away from home. Initially, having the sensation, on waking, of still being in the hospital.

We were not encouraging too many visits in the beginning. Louise has missed church over all these weeks, so much that as the Patient Transport passed under Northern Road overpass, down from the church she had a little cry, she told me having missed all the new friends at church all this time. However, we have greatly appreciated all the visitors and all the lovely caring cards and letters she has received, and all our church folks' prayers, over this long period away. Thanks, everyone. I have probably missed something and I may come back and add it later. We thought we would have to manage without a carer till tomorrow morning, early! So glad that was wrong. It will be a bit hard here for a while. I have been practising though, doing the washing up and washing clothes and stuff more hehe.

It is hard work with this change of life.  I am definitely earning my Carer’s subsidy as I never have before. I am also getting a handle on the Hoist. We look forward to having the fixed one installed eventually.

Lastly, we are so pleased to be finally getting the Carers to come earlier in the morning for Louise’s rising and much later in the afternoon, getting her settled for the night. We had been putting up with most of the awful schedules, having just about got our favourite Carers sorted out.