Monday 17th February
Had a hydrotherapy session with the physiotherapist today. For some reason I could not find my costumes and thought I may have left them in a suitcase high up on a shelf in the garage. Climbing on a step stool and then stretching to lower the suitcase I felt my muscles complain. I was back in extreme pain again but managed to drive to the pool and shuffle in pain. The exercise helped enormously but proved I am in no condition to reach, stretch, lift, push or pull let alone bend or squat. Alas I could not find my costumes and had to wear normal shorts in the pool.
Tuesday 18th February
Today I visited the doctor and my Lyrica dose was increased to 225 Mg twice a day. I am approaching the maximum dosage of 300 Mg twice a day. The doctor also noticed sun cancers which needs further investigation so took a biopsy punch of one of them.
Sigh!
I expect that will mean some minor surgery and biopsies over the next several weeks.
Wednesday 19th February
I managed to do my 3 Klm walk along the Broadwater. I am now on a new Lyrica dosage regime since yesterday. My dose has been doubled to 225 Mg twice a day. Bear in mind the maximum is 300 Mg twice a day so I am not far off the maximum. Its early days to arrive at a decision but… pain does seem to be less especially getting in and out of the car and standing after sitting for awhile. We will review the dose and how I am progressing next week. I also discussed with the pharmacist and I do not seem to be having any side effects although a little half hour snooze mid- afternoon might be called a side effect.
Tonight I went to the clubhouse to play indoor bowls. Yes I can play if I use what is called a bowling arm which means I do not have to bend. It means learning all over again but we are not playing for sheep stations.
On the way I watched huge storm clouds and a magical lightning display. I used my phone to take photos but as usual I could not get any shots of the lightning.
Thursday 20th February
I drove to Caloundra on the Sunshine coast,
150 Klms each way, to have lunch with my granddaughter Shelby as she turned 19 on the weekend.
Along the way I heard on the radio that a scientific study of drinking coffee shows it has many benefits. This information came from none other than my favourite scientist, Dr Karl Kruszelniki. https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2019/05/17/dr-karl-drinking-coffee-can-be-good-you One which my mind latched onto is that it helps prevent mouth ulcers. Whaaaaattt!!! That got me thinking. I used to suffer painful mouth ulcers regularly. Just last week I wondered to myself that I have not had bad mouth ulcers for a long time. Years in fact. It seems to me the cessation of mouth ulcers is linked with me becoming a coffee snob some years ago when we were on the road in WWWGO. I like to think coffee may have been my saviour. Thanks Dr Karl.
Shelby and I met at Caloundra Surf Club which is confusingly called, The Metropolitan. https://metsonkings.com.au/
It is located at the beach, naturally, overlooking a very nice natural saltwater pool beside which is a very basic original style saltwater rock pool.
It was a lovely lunch with lovely company but I soon had to be on the road to avoid peak hour traffic south of Brisbane. As it turns out I caught the peak hour traffic on the northside but once on the M1 south, the traffic was fine.
Friday 21st February
Last week I got great back relief via massage carried out by the Physiotherapist on my back muscles. Often when I greet women and they give a hug they rub my back, not realising it feels comforting. A new found friend, Bill, suggested I get remedial massage and the best rfemedial masseuse is his wife Sueji, a Thai lady who works at Helensvale. It has been a long long time since I have had a massage from a commercial operator. In fact the last massage was also a long time ago by she who will not be named. After the massage I felt like I had legs of jelly and Sueji told me I would be sore overnight and the next day but my back felt good.
But not for long.
I was going to a wine and cheese night tonight and dress code was Black and White. I needed to iron a shirt. Getting the ironing board out of the cupboard and lifting its weight and unlocking it was more back stress than I realised. The simple motion of ironing and I could feel all the muscles in my lower back complaining. After ironing several shirts I then sat at the computer for too long and could not stand without searing pain.
The wine and cheese night was fun, it included some fake money and a gambling casino so those who won the most also won a bottle of wine. Graham made up a huge amount of Pina Colada and Wayne did a magnificent spread. All this for $5. As treasurer I can say everybody got great value for money.
Saturday 22nd February
Did I report that last week I got an iRobot Roomba Robotic vacuum cleaner from stepson Peter. The last time I had the Roomba was last year while Peter had his furniture in storage. I cleaned all the brushes and replaced the sweeper and filters and generally tidied it up to clean house. She who will not be named gave it back. Peter has not used it for some time and thought the batteries were stuffed but agreed to give it to me. Once again I cleaned all the hair and bits of string stuck in the brushes and emptied the dirt canister and yesterday put the new batteries I ordered on-line, on 24 hour charge. Or so I thought. Today I set the device to clean, which it did for awhile before stopping and announcing it needed a charge. Hmm I thought. Normally it would go back to base by itself. I manually put it on the base but realised it is not charging. I tried charging direct but got an error message. Err 03. I looked on line Err 03 means take it back to the manufacturer as it needs a new motherboard or buy a new one.
Grrre!
Sigh!
I did some research on iRobot Roomba, Samsung Powerbot and few lesser known makers. I also visited Godfreys Vacuum cleaner store and they had a several to choose from with the bare basic model from $300 to over $2,000. On-line prices of other brands and models are in the same price range.
Hmmm! I did not want to spend that much but realise I cannot use the normal Dyson (or any other brand) vacuum cleaner any more. I need a robotic device which will run around and clean the whole house unless the battery runs out before it is finished. In which case it goes to home base, recharges and then finishes. The first three or four times it cleans it maps out the house and remembers the pattern of rooms and changing floor material. That’s what I want.
Sunday 23rd February
I went to Harvey Norman to look at their range, iRobot Roomba, Samsung or Electrolux. There was a model of the Samsung available at a special price of $470. I checked elsewhere and they sell for $890 to over $1,000. I bought it, got home, put it on charge and it was fully charged in two hours and it spent another hour running around the house doing its mapping and cleaning before finding its way back to base and re-charging. I love it. It sometimes seems it is getting stuck but is in fact mapping and learning.
Happy days.
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