Well, it's been an embarrassingly long time since Janette sent this to me, but I've FINALLY finished reading The Friday Night Book Club, and am happy to send / give it to the first person who comments who is in Australia. You need to have a blog to participate.
I have registered it on BookCrossing, too, so after you've read this book (ie this particular copy), you can leave a journal entry there (it's free, and you can remain anonymous if you like).
I don't normally read chick lit, so don't have a standard to judge it against, but I quite liked it - when I picked it up (obviously too infrequently in the past mumble months) I would always read more than I was intending.
27 July 2008
25 July 2008
Lara
Thank you everyone for such wonderful comments on my last post ... you are all so thoughtful and insightful! Where would I be without such friends?! I'll be printing them all out and keeping them close by!
I'm feeling better about things today. I had my hip x-rays yesterday (and they called me back after 2 hours to have more taken!), and while lying on the cold metal bed while the machine did its thing (an experience I've had all my life, at intervals), I felt totally calm, and could really embrace that this whole thing will only happen minute-by-minute, and I can cope with that (mostly, on good days).
It's when I look at the whole experience lying ahead of me in its unknown totality that I freak out. So I'll do my best not to dwell on it, and not talk about it unless I have to. I've already written about my PTSD on my Medical History form sent by the surgeon (the "list of surgeries" will be an attached sheet - there was only a piddling 3 lines to write in!). And as Honeygo said, I can choose this time, and have a say as an adult over what happens to me. It does make a difference.
Yesterday's Jejune Day was really nice (x-rays notwithstanding). A bit of shopping at the DiaperDome (our family's name for our local mall, the Hyperdome) - treated myself to a Cadfael DVD - Series 1. Back home I got a lot of knitting done on my top-down raglan making-it-up-as-I-go 12 ply Rustic jumper (piccies soon), sipped tea, got a taste for sugared tamarind from the Asian supermarket (took a while, but I got there! Very tart and salty and sweet all at once!), and enjoyed watching Derek Jacobi solve those mysteries. We have the full Cadfael book collection, and have reread them all many times.
Now for some long overdue pictures of my completed Lara - which I finished a few weeks ago. It's great, I wear it a lot, and it's SO warm. It doesn't really keep my front warm (hence the quick jumper I've just started), and while I can pin it together, it isn't a flattering look. The Bendigo Alpaca pills something terrible. But I really love it, and it's very very pretty and cosy.
I'm feeling better about things today. I had my hip x-rays yesterday (and they called me back after 2 hours to have more taken!), and while lying on the cold metal bed while the machine did its thing (an experience I've had all my life, at intervals), I felt totally calm, and could really embrace that this whole thing will only happen minute-by-minute, and I can cope with that (mostly, on good days).
It's when I look at the whole experience lying ahead of me in its unknown totality that I freak out. So I'll do my best not to dwell on it, and not talk about it unless I have to. I've already written about my PTSD on my Medical History form sent by the surgeon (the "list of surgeries" will be an attached sheet - there was only a piddling 3 lines to write in!). And as Honeygo said, I can choose this time, and have a say as an adult over what happens to me. It does make a difference.
Yesterday's Jejune Day was really nice (x-rays notwithstanding). A bit of shopping at the DiaperDome (our family's name for our local mall, the Hyperdome) - treated myself to a Cadfael DVD - Series 1. Back home I got a lot of knitting done on my top-down raglan making-it-up-as-I-go 12 ply Rustic jumper (piccies soon), sipped tea, got a taste for sugared tamarind from the Asian supermarket (took a while, but I got there! Very tart and salty and sweet all at once!), and enjoyed watching Derek Jacobi solve those mysteries. We have the full Cadfael book collection, and have reread them all many times.
Now for some long overdue pictures of my completed Lara - which I finished a few weeks ago. It's great, I wear it a lot, and it's SO warm. It doesn't really keep my front warm (hence the quick jumper I've just started), and while I can pin it together, it isn't a flattering look. The Bendigo Alpaca pills something terrible. But I really love it, and it's very very pretty and cosy.
23 July 2008
Hip Stuff
So - as you may know, I had a severe congenital dislocated hip, that was picked up really late (I was 20 months old). Between the ages of 2 and 7 I had an osteotomy and 3 open reductions on it, the final one (ie the only one that worked) was experimental surgery by Dr Southwick (a pioneer in the field) at Yale University Hospital.
That last sentence in no way sums up the utter horror of what I experienced as a small child, mostly while in hospital. True physical torture, carried out by strangers who - while they were helping me - were terrifying to a young child. In the late 60s your parents weren't allowed to stay with you overnight. When I refused to eat (as one way I could control what was happening to me when I was 3 or so), the nurses pinned me on the floor and force fed me. Suffocating black rubber oxygen masks were forcibly held down over my face on the various operating tables (they didn't give pre-op meds to kids in those bad old days). I nearly bled to death. I won't go on.
I have PTSD as a result; I can't watch medical shows, the smell of black rubber makes me ill, and I can barely talk about this stuff without crying.
I developed arthiritis in the joint about 15 years ago, as was expected; the repaired joint has lasted longer than anyone thought possible... after I'd had my 2 kids, my Mum remembered that the surgeon had said he thought the joint might collapse during pregnancy (and yup, it was painful enough both times!). My leg is also twisted and short.
So to the present day. My physio thinks I should have the joint replaced while I'm still young (for this type of surgery). Just back from seeing my specialist sports physician this morning, and he agrees. I now need yet more hip x-rays, and need to see an orthopedic surgeon to get 'an opinion' on hip replacement. Next Wednesday.
While I intellectually know that the whole thing - once I have it done, whenever that may be - will go smoothly, and it's a very successful surgery, and I won't be tortured, and hospitals are much nicer places than they were 40 years ago, and they can even fix my leg length difference, and the pain won't be too bad (and it's not the pain I'm worried about, really), and I should get a huge improvement in my quality of life .. despite all this, on a deep emotional level I am still a petrified 2 year old.
Not quite sure how I'm going to cope with it all ... one hour at a time, or even one minute at a time if needs be, I suppose, and with my Jon Kabat-Zinn Mindfulness sessions on my iPod, and all my dear friends and family, and yarn ... but MAN I wish they could just knock me out at home, and I could wake up in hospital with the whole damn thing done.
That last sentence in no way sums up the utter horror of what I experienced as a small child, mostly while in hospital. True physical torture, carried out by strangers who - while they were helping me - were terrifying to a young child. In the late 60s your parents weren't allowed to stay with you overnight. When I refused to eat (as one way I could control what was happening to me when I was 3 or so), the nurses pinned me on the floor and force fed me. Suffocating black rubber oxygen masks were forcibly held down over my face on the various operating tables (they didn't give pre-op meds to kids in those bad old days). I nearly bled to death. I won't go on.
I have PTSD as a result; I can't watch medical shows, the smell of black rubber makes me ill, and I can barely talk about this stuff without crying.
I developed arthiritis in the joint about 15 years ago, as was expected; the repaired joint has lasted longer than anyone thought possible... after I'd had my 2 kids, my Mum remembered that the surgeon had said he thought the joint might collapse during pregnancy (and yup, it was painful enough both times!). My leg is also twisted and short.
So to the present day. My physio thinks I should have the joint replaced while I'm still young (for this type of surgery). Just back from seeing my specialist sports physician this morning, and he agrees. I now need yet more hip x-rays, and need to see an orthopedic surgeon to get 'an opinion' on hip replacement. Next Wednesday.
While I intellectually know that the whole thing - once I have it done, whenever that may be - will go smoothly, and it's a very successful surgery, and I won't be tortured, and hospitals are much nicer places than they were 40 years ago, and they can even fix my leg length difference, and the pain won't be too bad (and it's not the pain I'm worried about, really), and I should get a huge improvement in my quality of life .. despite all this, on a deep emotional level I am still a petrified 2 year old.
Not quite sure how I'm going to cope with it all ... one hour at a time, or even one minute at a time if needs be, I suppose, and with my Jon Kabat-Zinn Mindfulness sessions on my iPod, and all my dear friends and family, and yarn ... but MAN I wish they could just knock me out at home, and I could wake up in hospital with the whole damn thing done.
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