Val’s Comments (group member since Aug 28, 2019)

Val’s comments from the Beyond Zon group.

It's a miracle! The cortisone injection, I'm talking about. I can't believe how good I'm feeling. I just hope it's not going to wear off. The doc said it would take between 2/3 days and 2 weeks to kick in but I came home, cooked some scrambled eggs, did a load of washing, washed the dishes, then went to bed (that's a first!) and had a great sleep for 2 hours. Still no pain so I'm hoping for a good night's sleep. I'm glad my daughter found the place at Olympic Park, part of Melbourne's main soccer stadium, across the road from Rod Laver Tennis Arena (where the Australian Open starts on Monday), rugby players (Melbourne Storm?) training in pouring rain, Collingwood (Aussie Rules 2023 champions) next door. I'm sure all the sports stars go there so they must be good. We arrived at 8.04 (says so on the admissions sheet) for my 8.30 appointment. I was called in straight away and Michael (technician explained what would happen in the CT scanner), followed by Doctor - Freddie, who said there would be 4 jabs - 2 for local anaesthetics and 2 for the cortisone itself. The latter could well be painful but, if so, this was a good thing as it would show they had got right to the trapped nerve. And it was indeed very painful, mainly because he encountered a blood vessel and had to manoeuvre around it. From the moment we entered the building to leaving, it was 1hr 40mins and parking was free! I haven't felt this good since before Christmas so I can only hope it continues. Thank heavens for modern medicine. I'm off to bed now - the big test!

Hi all and a very Happy New Year to everyone. I've been out of action since a nasty dose of sciatica came at me on Christmas Day. I saw the doc and he gave me a script for panadeine forte (made no difference to the pain levels) and sent me for a CT scan - miraculously got in on the same day - a 4.15 appointment, car park was only half full, no one in the Medical Imaging waiting room and we were out in time for the free parking limit (20 mins). I then had a tele-health appointment with the GP where he upped(??) the painkiller to Pregabalin. Google tells me this drug is mainly used for epilepsy. The possible side effects look very nasty. I'm to take one tiny capsule before bed and after three days it has done nothing. The GP also recommended a steroid injection. The hospital that did the CT scan could only fit me in on February 9 and I knew I couldn't wait that long. On Friday my daughter and I were ringing clinics all over town and it was like a frenzied bidding war. I've got Jan 29th! I've got the 16th. Can beat that with the 12th. This one offers the 9th. End of story I've got an appointment tomorrow (Monday 8th) at 8.30am. I'm wary of placing all my hopes for some relief on this one injection but I don't know how long I can tolerate this pain. The general consensus is that sciatica resolves itself by around 6 weeks. I can only say that after 2 weeks it just seems to be getting worse. Night time is the worst - I'm lucky to get 1-2 hours sleep in bed. After that it's sitting in a chair in the living room hoping that I can doze in short bursts. I'm doing ice packs and heat packs in between tearing my hair out - and I've always believed I have a high tolerance level for pain. Anyway, sorry to have my first post of the new year to be one long moan about my health issues. I'd much rather be gardening, sewing, knitting, doing some of the great jigsaws I've acquired (London underground map sitting top of the pile), even doing my new bills budget for 2024. I am managing to read (and enjoy) Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club in fits and starts. At least the weather has been clement. No higher than 26 degrees during the day. Warm nights (21 degrees) make sitting overnight in the living room a bit easier too. We are a real bunch of old crocks! I hope your health issues get attended to soon and that the time comes when our posts are much cheerier.

Happy New Year to you all!!

Thanks for the good wishes everyone. It's coming up 12.30am here so officially Christmas Day. I wish you all a relaxed and peaceful Christmas and a New Year that brings good health outcomes for all. Enjoy whatever you plan to do.

The sounds of Christmas preparations in Australia : lawn mowers, whipper-snippers (strimmers), leaf blowers, pool cleaners, etc. Weather has been perfect last few days but BOM assures us there's 100% chance of rain tomorrow (16 - 23 degrees) but 9-40mm rain with the possibility of a severe thunderstorm. Two daughters & partners plus 4 grandchildren arriving late afternoon, My son, d-i-l and 2 grandchildren will join us on Boxing Day for our big Christmas dinner (turkey, pork, roast spuds and usual vegies) and gift giving. Forecast is 90% chance of rain (16 - 25 degrees) but only 1-10mm rain with chance of a thunderstorm. Fingers crossed it's fine - I'm hoping the grandchildren can play outside - makes for more room all round.

The weather here has been quite cool for December - plenty of cloud and lots of drizzle. I'm not complaining as I'm not a fan of heat and you don't want it when you're baking/cooking and generally faffing around (often up ladders) putting up lights and decorations. because our six grandchildren are aged between one and seven, I do tend to go overboard with decorations in an effort to keep the magic alive. The house usually looks like a tip in the lead up to the big day as I've got stuff everywhere until it's finally put in place. Today the skies are clear, beautiful blue sky and a top of 20 degrees - perfect. The main job today will be tidying up the back garden. Wallflowers and lavender need to be heavily cut back; all my potting stuff will be re-located down the side of the house while the gang are here; there's stuff to be rescued from the garage - air beds, sun umbrellas, etc; all the garden chairs need a good clean; and the potted plants that are at home on the back veranda will need to be moved as that's where we all sit down for our Christmas dinner, which will be on Boxing Day this year as we alternate years with the other sets of in-laws.

P - I hope you get some firm news soon about your op and in the meantime, take care. It's a fine balance between keeping active and overdoing things.

Isabella wrote: "Val, I tried the almond butter version. It needs a generous amount of vanilla and the almond butter is more oily to work with. When I flattened them, I made a dip with my thumb where you can add a dab of jam when they’re cooled. Also, I baked them in the air fryer at 160*c and they were ready in ten minutes, no preheating. They freeze before baking and don’t need defrosting, just a minute or so longer in the oven. ..."

Thanks for the tip Isabella. Did you mix them by hand or with a mixer? We are using our air fryer more and more - roasts, casseroles, pizza, cakes and pies - so it's great to be able to add another tried and tested recipe to our repertoire.

Isabella wrote: "Not exactly shortbread but gluten free: 200g peanut butter, 60g golden caster sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 large egg. Mix, break off cherry tomato size pieces, flatten, bake at 180*C for 10-12 mins. I'm going to try it with almond butter and vanilla next time...."

Thanks Isabella! Definitely worth trying and I like the almond butter suggestion.

Christmas cake done (thanks Phil & Kirsty! - recipe works a treat every year). I'm now experimenting with gluten-free shortbread for a Christmas get-together tomorrow. My normal go-to (thanks Ted Lasso! - 2 cups plain flour + 1 cup icing sugar/mixture + 250gm cold cubed butter and ½ teaspoon salt all together in the blender) is so easy and tasty but trying to substitute the flour has been tricky. I tried with 2 cups rice flour but it was pretty tasteless and too crumbly. Yesterday's effort substituted 1¼ cups almond flour, ½ cup glutinous rice flour and ¼ cup cornflour. Not bad but the blender almost seized up and the end product was more chewy. Final attempt later today will be 1 cup plain rice flour and 1 cup glutinous rice flour. We'll see! Mr H. is quite happy to be the guinea pig.

I should add it was 29 degrees C here yesterday with a threat of thunderstorms so those blokes really earned their pay. We kept up a supply of cold drinks. It started raining - most welcome - just as they finished at 4.30pm. Also, the tree has self-seeded and we now have a gallant little tree of about 3 feet tall. We don't really want another 60 footer so I may have to cut the top and see if it branches out.

Yesterday we had to say farewell to the lemon-scented gum tree that has graced our back garden for years. We've been in this house for 44 years and the tree was huge when we moved in. Originally the trunk was forked and when units (2 rows of 3 single story dwellings joined by their garages) were built next door they cut down the one trunk that overhung two of the units). It must have been 50-60 feet high but suddenly, this year, I could see the foliage was dead or dying. Mr H suspects foul play but whatever the cause, it was a potential hazard. Cutting it down was always going to be cheaper than a law suit. Luckily we know the arborist and got it at mates' rates for about £1300. It took four men in full safety gear, a scissor-lift tower and nine hours of labour to cut it down. They had a wood chipper to get rid of most of the branches and have left logs of the main trunk on our front nature strip (verge) where I am sure they will be taken by folk who have wood heater or open fires (if they can lift them, that is! - they weigh a ton). I'll post some photos.

31 degrees forecast here for today. I got up early to put the watering system on. Out for coffee with friends later - our regular Friday catch-up. Tomorrow it's the birthday party for grandsons aged 7 and 5. We've already handed over the presents so looking forward to catching up with family and friends and maybe having a good meal. Hope you are all keeping well.

Isabella wrote: "Sounds as if you’ll have good weather for the race, Val. Do you ever go?"

We went the first year we were in Melbourne (1976). All dressed up in a dress I had made myself, we took a fabulous picnic meal with bottle of wine (in the days when you could take your own alcohol) and then this happened......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKdAq...

We left immediately after the race like two drowned rats but very happy ones as we had backed the first and third placegetters at very good odds.

It seems that summer may be peeping its head in - today should be 28 degrees according to BOM. We've been using the heating and electric blankets in recent weeks. It's a bit of a long weekend here. Tuesday is a public holiday for the Melbourne Cup (are we the only place in the world that has a public holiday for a horse race??). It's always the first Tuesday in November so many people (and businesses) take the opportunity of not working Monday. Technically today is a working day so I'm going to pop out to the shops - I've got to go to the bank, the supermarket and pick up some Christmas wrapping paper. Three (of the six) grandchildren have November birthdays but I've got those all sorted and wrapped (presents, not grandchildren) but I'll need to start wrapping the Christmas presents soon as time starts to fly and the diary starts to fill up.

The Melbourne Cup - Slim Dusty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzHKS...

P, I really feel for you with your lad's problems. There are some people who just don't seem to want to understand how serious diabetes is. Loss of eyesight or amputated limbs is just too far in the future for them to contemplate. And then to add to the problem by self-medicating with alcohol, well there's just no arguing with them. You and Mrs P must be at your wit's end and it just adds to your stress levels - something you really don't need right now with your own health issues. None of us can help you or him but we will always be hear to listen and understand. Good luck with your own battles.

Hi all, talking about good news stories, I have three recent ones (pardon me if I've regaled you previously).

1) My younger daughter goes through a stressful period at work every two years when they get audited (the organisation receives government funding to provide social services to remote communities so it's only natural the government wants to know how their money is being spent). She has to seek out and collate a variety of information from a number of outposts spread over thousands of miles. For the final month she was working till 5.00am every day and was close to cracking up. When it was finally done, I sent her a gift hamper containing a number of pampering products including wine and chocolate - came to about £100.00. It was delivered promptly and she loved it but when she sent me a photo, it didn't really match up with what I'd ordered. Fewer feminine items, more snack type products (tho the wine and chocolate were there). I thought maybe the small print said the company could vary items if they were the same value but I hadn't read that. As I said, she was very happy but I thought I'd let the company know (they're over a thousand miles away) in case it was a fault with quality control. They replied immediately, full of apologies, keep the hamper and a full refund deposited in my PayPal account immediately. Very happy with the outcome.

2) We have private health insurance to supplement our free health service. As we've got older, we like the ability to choose a specialist and a hospital and to avoid long waiting lists when necessary. It isn't cheap but our health fund has sent us 2 cheques totalling £200.00 as people weren't using elective surgery as much during the Covid years. All donations gratefully accepted.

3) I was able to get in touch with Microsoft! Do you know how hard it is to make contact with these huge companies? I pay about £50 a year for the privilege of using their 365 suite of programs (mainly Word, Excel). Yes, I know their are free equivalents but I'm a tech luddite and I've just got used to using Office. When I worked for a government department I was entitled to a free version of MS Ofice for home use but that ceased when I retired. I was able to get through to them a few years ago when they managed to bill me twice each year - I wasn't standing for that! I think it was because I had two different email addresses registered. Anyway, despite having this Microsoft subscription for about 5 years, every time I used it, it would tell me it wasn't registered and would be deactivated. And every 2 months I would be given a date and told if I hadn't registered by then, it would cease altogether. I found a work around by using the Support and Recovery Assistant and then I could press on for another 2 months. It was tiresome but I could live with it. But this time the Support and Recovery Assistant said there was a problem collecting Office logs and it couldn't do anything. I was faced with losing access on November 6th so I girded up my loins and worked my way through the Microsoft site until I finally found the live chat widget and an angel named Russel spent an hour online with me investigating all possible solutions. Turns out my digital licence wasn't being read properly at their end but by dint of uninstalling and reinstalling we finally got there and I learned a few new tricks along the way. I always get a glow of satisfaction when I am able to solve a tech problem by myself without having to ask one of my children.

Good luck with all the procedures P. They sound rather serious and rather unpleasant but at least they're in train and better to get these things identified and treated sooner rather than later. You're just a youngster so hopefully this will make life easier for decades to come.

The weather has really picked up here - 28 degrees today. Because I was not needed for kindergarten pick-up I had planned the day to include driving to the next suburb where I would do a week's grocery shopping and collect our prescriptions (i order them via an app and they notify me when they are ready). However an early morning phone call from the pharmacist scuppered that. 1) one drug is on order and will come tomorrow 2) they have no record of the e-script for another drug (even though I have forwarded it to them and therefore can't forward it again and the app says there are 3 repeats left and 3) because of 1) and 2) they can't charge my credit card even though there is no charge! The wonders of technology! So I think those plans will need to be put off until tomorrow.

The show yesterday was the hoot I expected it to be - great fun from some very talented musicians and three well-known (to us) guest artists. Lots of Billy Joel songs interlaced with bits of Bee Gees, Temptations and more and very, very funny. Two hours of mayhem! And we all enjoyed our meals - two went the traditional fish and chips with salad, three lamb souvlakis and one bangers and mash. We were home by 5.30 and so full I didn't need an evening meal, just some fruit.

Off to ponder what to do today. Dinner is taken care of - a friend brought round a huge bunch of rainbow chard so I made a curry with sweet potato. Looks like it's the garden for me too. I want to take down all my hanging baskets, give them a prune and a good soak. Hope you're all champion!

Morning all and I hope this finds you all in good (or at least reasonable) health and spirits. Our clocks went forward overnight so it's now 10 hours between me and thee. Yesterday reached just over 29 degrees for our big AFL Grand Final (think F.A. Cup in its hey day). I mean - this is big! A public holiday the day before (Friday) so crowds can attend the big street parade of both teams and an official attendance of 100,024 people in the Melbourne Cricket Ground to witness the game on Saturday. I'm back to watering the garden. Today is sunny with some cloud about but tonight's temperature is going to be 7 (electric blanket on) and tomorrow's top 28 (hat and sunscreen). But next weekend we're due 9-13 with showers. Never a dull moment in Melbourne.

I'm off to a show this afternoon. It's a comedic duo (well-known to us) doing a musical turn called The Billy Joels - I think it's going to be great fun. And how civilised - mid-day meal is included in the price (choice of chicken schnitzel, pepper steak, fish & chips, bangers & mash, gnocchi or lamb souvlaki) - I've eaten there before and the food is great; meal is from 1.00-2.00pm and show at 2.00. There's six of us going and I'm determined we're going to have a ball!

Diabetes is a horrible affliction and not always easy to manage. I hope both sufferers are back to equilibrium and send all best wishes to you, the carers, - it's not an easy job always being on alert.