Friends leaving and quiz nights.

Another couple of weeks, another post.

Not a whole lot has been going on. It's still winter, it's still cold, it's still wet, and I still complain like a little biatch. Although last weekend I actually ventured out into the cold and had a bit of a social life.

Friday night we went to a quiz night that was raising money for CFSA. Quiz nights are always fun, even if it's just an excuse to eat lots of yummy food and drinks lots of alcohol. We had a great table with lots of different friends from all circles. However, the questions just didn't suit us. Not that we are dumb, but they were all science and maths questions.

Long story short, we won the wooden spoon prize. What's even more depressing (or awesome, I can't tell yet) is that we weren't trying to get that prize - we actually tried our hardest throughout the whole night to answer as many questions correctly as we could. Great.

Saturday night we went out for drinks with Pete and Truds, since they are being total twunts and moving back to London. How lame. It was good to catch up with everyone again, but being out in a smoky pub just made me more and more excited about November when the non-smoking laws will be put into place. To be able to go out somewhere and breathe without feeling like I'm sucking on an exhaust pipe will be amazing. Just like it was in Canada...

They (Pete & Truds) left this morning a little after 9, so it was a bit melancholy to think that we won't be seeing them again for at least 2 years by the time we get our poor arses over there. Meh, such is life.

Since I've been working lots of shifts, I haven't really had the time to go swimming, however I have been walking to work and back, which is a decent half an hour effort each way. At least I'm doing something. And I still feel aweosme in my chest. Althogh I really should get my arse into gear and get to the clinic to have my flu vax. Before I know it, spring will be here. Although that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing... Unless I caught the flu in the meantime. That wouldn't be cool.

Holly has a gig this Sunday night at the Grace supporting Old Man River, which I think I'll be participating on a few songs, so if you aren't doing anything, come on down and see some fine music.

Rating: 8.3

What I'm listening to: East 17 - The Platinum Collection


Oh, and on one last note - that ultra awesome ultra slim phone I had, well, the very feature that I bought it for (the slimness) has been the cause of it's demise. It fell out of my pocket into the toilet. AFTER I had used it. Yeah...

Still going strong

Yeah, I know - I said I was going to try to be more vigilant with this, but meh, what ya gonna do? I'll try and do my regular recap of what's been going on, no doubt missing some vital pieces of information. Anyhoo...

So my first weekend out of hospital was spent seeing The Audreys at The Gov. Fricken awesome. These guys really are something, and they're only getting bigger and better. They showcased a couple new tunes, which down really well. I can't wait for the new cd.

The weekend after was The Vasco Era (again at The Gov). Alice, Pete and I arrived a couple hours earlier to get some dinner, which was delish, before wandering inside and grabbing ourselves a nice booth near the stage. I think I'm turning into an old man - no more do I want to go into the crowd and be pushed around and get all sweaty and having disgusting sweaty people rub up against me. It's just not fun anymore... I'd rather sit in a nice comfortable couch, with a drink, a table to put it on, and a nice vantage point to watch an awesome band play. For a more detailed picture of the night, check out my friend Suzi's awesome review here.

After the gig we went back to the Battery Kids bassist's house for a bit of a shindig. There was lots of dancing, strobe lights, people on acid and freezing temperatures. Quite a night really. Didn't get to bed until around 4:30am, which was interesting as Alice and I had to be at a breakfast at 10 the next morning. Ah well... such is life when you want to be cool.

That's about the end of the fun and exciting things that have been going on. Last Friday I received some bad news - a cf friend of mine had passed away. She had been in hospital during the whole of my admission, and things didn't look too good then. In fact, she had been in for around 4 weeks before I went in, so all up she would have been in there for at least 2 months. She had told me that up until the end of last year, her lung function was in the 80% region, and in the space of 6 months, that had gone down to around 20%, so much so that she was told she would need a transplant. She was to fly to Melbourne to meet the transplant team, but told she was too sick to fly. Luckily, the transplant team were actually in Adelaide for some meeting or something, so they were able to see her and get her on the list anyway. But obviously too much damage had already been done... A day or two after I was discharged, I got word that she had been moved into the ICU. I had sporadic reports that she was doing well, until I got the last message on Friday.

Usually with cf, things don't happen suddenly (well, not that I've experienced or seen personally anyway). The state she was in when I saw her in hospital, I would have expected her to last maybe 6 months. So the fact that passed away in that short space of time that I was out of hospital was shock enough, letalone the fact that she was healthier than me at the end of last year. But apparantly it can happen, more likely to girls than boys. I guess I've just been lucky enough so far to have not experienced it.

Her funeral was on Friday just gone, which is never a fun thing to go to. But it does give you some closure, which was definitely needed as I think everyone was still in disbelief due to the suddenness of the whole thing. There were heaps of people, ranging from family, friends, cf people, and hospital staff from both the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Children's Hospital.

Alice is doing well, although still busy as anything. She is still doing 6am starts, which doesn't give her much energy past 5pm. She is managing to get quite a bit of jewellery done still, which is a VERY good thing, both for her mind as well as her clients.

One last thing which I think you'll all be very happy to hear - I've started swimming again. It's so good to finally be doing something again, and hopefully this will keep me good for the rest of winter. I'm hoping it will also get my fitness up so I don't die in the snow. My lungs are still feeling quite strong and clear, and I'm not coughing up much at all. I'm very happy about that. :)

That's it I'm pretty sure... hopefully everyone's doing well.

Rating: 8.3

What I'm listening to: Sia - Lady Croissant

Hospital, gorgeous hospital

G'day everyone! Well, it's been a while hasn't it?? As you all know, I had to go into hospital for a routine tune-up, but it ended up being longer than originally planned. I was all good and well to get out after two weeks, but on the last day, I awoke to my throat burning and feeling bone dry. Hospital isn't the healthiest place to be, so I guess my luck ran out and I caught some bug of someone. But karma was good to me - I gave it to one of the nurses who was looking after me. :)

So that throat bug thing resulted in me having to stay in for another week and a half. By the end of the admission I was well and truly ready to come home. So why don't I do home IV's I hear you ask? Well, I used do them at home, but now when I get sick, it's debilitates me much more than it used to. Here's what I mean - a few years ago, being sick meant my lung function would drop around 10%, and I would feel a bit out of breath. I'd get my drip put in, take all the antibiotics home, and within a few days I would be feeling tip-top again, but would have to run the full 10 day course of antibiotics. However, when I get sick now, I'm usually at the stage where I wake up out of breath, and I can't really do a helluva lot. Having a shower will put me in a coughing fit. So the last thing I'm going to be able to do is cook for myself, clean, let alone administrating the drugs 3 times a day. Basically, I just don't get the rest I now need when I get an infection.

The hospital on the other hand not only let's me have a good rest from everything, but it is so detached from society that it's actually an effort to try and keep updated on the goings-on of the outside world, which is just what I need to let my body shutdown and then recuperate back to good health. That's why I choose to risk catching more bugs while staying in hospital rather than do home IV's.

This admission was exceptionally good as well for a few reasons. There were another 4 cf friends that were in, which always makes time pass alot quicker. Reminiscing about old memories in the kids hospital and the camps were a regular occurrence. I also had an awesome registrar (ward doctor) who not only knew what she was doing, but actually cared for her patients. Even when her time in Ward S2 had come to an end, she would still pop back in to check up on us to see how we were doing. It was a good change from the regular idiots that have no clue what to do with you.

So my life the past month has been staying up till 4am watching Foxtel, sleeping in till lunch (no point getting up any earlier - not alot to do. In fact, when you DO get up before 11, the nurses ask what you're doing up), getting all my meals delivered to my door, having friends pop in to keep me company, all the while not paying a cent and having fun with other cf's and nurses. Not the most exciting life, but just what I needed. However by the 3rd week, I had had enough and was ready to go back home to my lovely Alice, Muffin and queen size bed (quite a combo eh??). The poor girl (Alice) has been an absolute treasure during this last admission... She's started a new job which requires her to be up at 5am, she's still working at her other job, doing as much jewellery stuff as she can, and she still managed to come in regularly to keep me company and listen to me whinge. Just awesome. :)

At the end of my second week, I had my lung function, but it wasn't that great at all - 53%, which is actually 3% less than my last one I had at clinic, when I was feeling crap. Not the best... but I imagine I would have gone down quite a few more percent from that first lung function to when I was in hospital. But since then, I haven't had another one, so I don't actually know how 'healthy' I am. I feel great though. My lungs have pretty much cleared up, and I've got alot more energy than I had before. The challenge now is to make sure I do all I can to stay this healthy. Physio can only do so much... so this week I'm going to get myself a pass to the local pool to do some laps. It's the easiest way I've found to get your fitness up from nothing, without damaging anything. Plus it's fun, not to mention how good it is for the lungs.

Enough health talk. How friggen cold is it??? Don't get me wrong, I'm loving it (to a certain extent) but since it started to get really cold when I was in hospital, I didn't get to adjust to it, so when I finally got out, I was dumbstruck just how cold it's getting at night. Even during the day for that matter! The other morning when Alice left for work at quart to 6 she found the front window of the car completely covered in ice. Awesome...

Also, the other piece of exciting news to hit the Fortress, I signed us up for Foxtel on Friday!! That's another good thing about hospital - they have a few Foxtel channels on the tv, so it makes lying in bed all day that little bit more entertaining. So now during those cold winter nights I'll have something to do while Alice is at the studio making her lovely pieces of jewellery. Which, by the way, she'll hopefully be getting her brand spankin new website up soon, so keep on the watch for that!

Things with Cookie Baker are a bit quiet at the moment since she's getting her bag of musical ingredients together for her up and coming cd. I will be making an appearance on a few tracks, so that should be something to look forward to. :)

I think that's about it... Thanks to everyone who sent me messages and stuff. It put a smile on my face.

Rating: 8.5

What I've been listening to: Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals

Hospital admission

Hey all

Just a quick one today - I'm getting admitted into hospital for a routine two week stay, during which I'll be pumped full of drugs that will hopefully get me feeling a bit better than I have been the last few weeks. When I was at clinic last time, my sputum showed that the bugs that are residing in my lungs are sensitive to just about every type of drug, which is great compared to the time before where they were resistant to quite a few. So I'm hoping that they'll (drugs) work really well and I'll be feeling my best in no time.

Since the hospital doesn't have internet, which I'm well pissed about, I won't be coming on here much. If I get the strength I may wander down to Rundle St to have a coffee at Cafe Buongiorno and get some free net action there. We'll see...

So yes, that's about all from me. Due to not feeling that crash hot, I haven't really been doing a whole lot since last time. Holly and I went up the hill last night to record a few more tracks for the demos we are doing at the moment, which are sounding aweosme. I can't wait till we get to record the actual album. Should be sa-weet!

Oh, I got a new phone as well. It's super slim. I like it. Alot.
Message or ring me on it so I get a nice little tingle of pleasure (from the vibrate settings of course...).

So yes - hospital for two weeks, drugs in my system, feeling good, back to my normal self. Sound like a good plan? Me thinks so...

Rating: 5.4

What I'm listening to: The Vasco Era - Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside (Stil! - it's awesome though)