A Week of Saying Good-byes

The last few days have definitely been filled with tears and heavy hearts as first we heard of Noddy's passing and then yesterday we had put our beloved Smokey Joe to sleep.  Is it not strange that at the same time as our vet made the decision for us on behalf of Smokey, my sister and niece were saying their last good-byes to companion, Shadow, and my sister-in-law, Mariana made the decision to put their dog, Jazza down after years of debate.

Laying Smokey to rest was a huge shock for us and when we all woke yesterday, would never have thought the day would turn out the way it did.  We were still without power and Johan decided to connect the generator to the fridge and freezers as, now going into the third day, foodstuff in the freezers was defrosting. He wheeled the generator to the front verandah, connected all the extension cords to both the house and the flat appliances and started it up.  My word but a generator is a noisy thing, especially when you are in the immediate vicinity, and to stop too much racket invading our space, NiQi decided to close both the lounge windows and the front door.  Knowing Smokey was still outside somewhere, we made a mental note to keep an eye open for him so we could bring him inside.  He wouldn't have come near the front verandah with all the noise and that was the only route he took coming in and going out again.  Having lost his sight some years ago after contracting a virus, he went where things were familiar to him.  It must have been about 9.30, when I noticed him sitting up in the driveway, looking towards the house, so I went out the back to pick him up and bring him in..  I put him down next to his food, but he just sniffed, didn't eat anything and then disappeared down the passage.  It wasn't long before he came back to the lounge and jumped onto the coffee table.  NiQi noticed how deeply he was breathing, pulling his diaphragm right in as if gasping to breathe.  That's was when we both looked at each other and knew he needed to go to the vet.  The only problem about our vet is that living in the country, he has consulting times from 6 to 10 in the morning and again from 4 to 7 in the evening.  The hours in between are spent operating and making 'house calls'.  I made a call anyway to his rooms as I hoped there was a vet available for us to take him in.  After explaining the situation the receptionist said I should take him in then.  NiQi still had to get dressed, which usually takes an hour plus and many outfits strewn all over the floor, but yesterday was an emergency and she managed in '5' ....  The vet was busy with someone else when we arrived but asked for Smokey to be put into one of the cages while we waited so he wouldn't get stressed.  Finally when she examined him she told us he didn't have a temperature, which was a good thing and she didn't think he was in pain but she couldn't hear his heart properly because he was purring...I thought that purring meant he was content, so I was pleased and said as much, but she said that purring also occurs when they are stressed.  She thought he had a pleura infusion, which excited NiQi because she knows all about them having gone through that herself, but worried us both because we know how serious it is.  She said she would give him a diuretic and start him on an antibiotic but he would have to stay overnight and then we would reassess the situation.  That's when we cried and cried and cried some more, but she reassured us and I believed he would probably be able to come home with us the next day.  An hour later Johan phoned.  Our regular vet was back in his rooms and had examined Smokey thoroughly including doing a blood test.  He told Johan Smokey had cancer and it was best to put him to sleep.  More tears and lots of sobbing, we made lunch all the while talking about Smokey and then made the drive back to the vets.  I was so hoping we would be able to hug him and kiss him and say good bye, but when we arrived our vet had already put him to sleep and performed an autopsy.  The cancer was he said, a very aggressive form that had metastasized within a few weeks throughout his little body.  He had a mass the size of the palm of my hand near his lung which finally caused the rapid and deep inhalations we saw yesterday.  If only we had known....but as our vet said to us, cats are really good at masking any ill health until it is too late.  As suddenly as Smokey walked in through our front door all those years ago and decided that this looked like a good place to stay, so too he was suddenly gone...beautiful, calm, quiet, a playmate for Rolo and a friend and companion to us, he will stay in our hearts for many a day...

As we left our vet I chatted to him about Trinity, our Great Dane, who at ten years old now is battling to stand and move around.  She still has a healthy appetite and as the matriarch of our doggy family, firmly disciplines the pups, but it is time.  We left it too long with Neo and I don't want to do the same to her.  Johan has the honour this afternoon after work, I've had enough for one week....Our family is getting smaller as they age, they are our children, and as a mother who has lost a child of her own, let me tell you, the heart-sore is the same, it's just easier and quicker to heal.

Beyond Ridiculous

I am fed up, so much so that I could spit....

This last few weeks we have had so many power failures that it is no longer acceptable as far as I am concerned.  ESKOM threaten to load shed because they can't supply us with enough electricity and here we sit in rural lands, just outside the hub of the country, where the municipality doesn't seem to be able to keep us connected anyway.  It's not like it's even an hour here or an hour there, but it's anything from 12 hours and longer at a time.  Last night we were without power from about half past four in the afternoon, right through to just before seven this morning.  As I've mentioned before, we are geared up for outages to a degree but my biggest bugbear is that ultimately it affects NiQi's health.

She has been home for a week today and as it is she didn't come back feeling as chipper as she was hoping to so she really needs to keep up with her treatment as best she can.  So last night with no power, it meant firstly that she couldn't run her feed through her PEG, and secondly she couldn't use her oxygen machine.  It's a good thing she had a full cylinder to use, which managed to carry her through the night...but guess what??????  Currently we are again with no electricity and if it doesn't come on before tonight then she is going to have to go through the night without oxygen and miss another feed.  At least she is able to do her nebulizers as the inverter is gives enough to be able to run her machine to do them.....GRRRRR I've had enough now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Tribute to a Dear Friend

Noddy, as we have always known him, has been a part of our family since 1982...the year we married and the year Johan decided to join the Budgerigar Society.  Noddy was one of the members of the Pietermaritzburg club and when we met him he was already getting on in years.  At that stage he must have been in his early sixties I think as it wasn't too many years later that he retired from working at the municipality.  The early years I didn't know him so well and only really saw him at the annual budgie club Christmas braai, but Johan met him on a regular basis at the monthly club meetings.

After our son Mark was born and later diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, he and his wife, Ann showed a genuine interest in him and his well being.  It was then that I started to get to know him and see him for the kind, caring and compassionate man that he was.  He and his wife went weekly to Greys Hospital to visit patients and whenever Mark was in hospital they were there to find out how he was and to pray for him.

Being a member of our congregation in PMB, he kept everyone at the Friday morning Men for the Master group updated on Mark, and later NiQi's health, resulting in much prayer for them both.  It was through Noddy and Ann that we met other congregants that we may not necessarily have met, through his speaking of Mark so fondly.

He was a sincere person, a gentleman to the core, who loved God first then his wife and children.  I don't remember him speaking badly of anyone, even if they were difficult people to get on with, he would find something nice to say.

The tales he would tell us of his childhood, how he met and later married Ann, life on the farm, his children, kept us in stitches many a time...not necessarily because they were all funny, it was just the way he told them.  I remember him telling us of the time he walked down Sweetwaters road in front of the car, shining a torch while his wife drove, because the lights were not working.  the tears poured down our faces as he told us in detail how many hours it took them to get home.  Then there was the time he told us about driving in reverse all the way home because the gear of the car was stuck and he couldn't move it...we laughed so hard trying to imagine him getting out of the way of  'oncoming' traffic and wondering what side of the road he drove on.  Then the stories he had about his birds and the things he used to give them to make them breed better.  He was a little man with a big booming voice and I remember him heckling Matthew as he tried to give his speech at he and Jess's wedding.  This same voice would get the attention of everyone in the bird hall as they walked around looking at the birds.  "Roll up, roll up" he would say "buy a ticket, win a bird in a cage"  everyone would smile at him, he was just so funny, without meaning to be so....these are the things I will remember about him.

I am really sad today thinking about not seeing him again when we visit in PMB, which we always did when we were there, even if it was for just an hour.  I will miss his phone calls, asking how we are, telling me how much they miss us.  I feel guilty for making empty promises to him in not writing as often as I could have done, yet I know he will forgive me because that is the person he was.

R.I.P Noddy...until we meet again, because of that I am sure...

Winter is on it's way - Firebreaks and Cut Grass

The same happens every year with us all celebrating the end of summer with it's excruciatingly hot days and the beginning of winter with autumn days bringing cooler temperatures, leaves changing colour and falling and the grass growing at a much slower rate.  Poor Johan has had quite a tough time this year trying to get the cutting of our grass under control, especially with the rains we had in the last month.  With so much falling for days and then weeks on end, which as I've said before is most unusual for us here, the ground stayed wet, too wet to get the mower out, which left the grass to grow...and grow...and grow.

What would we do in life without friends???  Just when you think you are sinking and not able to get on top of things, along comes a knight in shining armour to help out and our knight came in the guise of a neighbouring friend who one afternoon phoned to ask if I was at home....he was on his way with his tractor to help with cutting the grass!!!!  What took him just two hours to do with the tractor would have taken Johan weeks of spare time trying to get it done.  Thankfully we are now set for winter with just the immediate area around the house to finish mowing. The horses are loving it and with it being so much shorter there are less ticks hanging around.  The dogs too can go further afield than the fenced area around the house, as they just nip between the strands of fencing and run off, chasing each other, teasing the horses and sniffing new smells that they are unfamiliar with.  We too can see much further in the distance which is good for keeping anyone who shouldn't be hanging around out of our way.

Tis good, good, good all round at the moment...

Growing Sugar Cane

For some time I looked at these 'grasses' growing in the vegetable garden and kept meaning to ask Johan what they were and why he was cultivating them.  They did not look familiar to me at all and as the weeks turned into months, I one day remembered to ask him what they were. By this time they had become huge...much taller than the shade cloth covering them as they bend over from being suppressed.  It is in fact sugar cane, planted from pieces given by a friend for the budgies.  Never before have I heard or seen anyone giving their budgies sugar cane, but I have now seen with my own eyes how much they enjoy it and within a day devour a piece to shreds of 'string'.  You live and learn so it seems and what works for one can more than likely work for another....sugar cane has now become part of our birds weekly diet which they have shown to enjoy immensely...

Rains over...Time to Paint our Roof

Well with the awesome rains we had late summer I believe that we may well be set for the winter months with plenty of water surely having filled the earth beneath and filling our boreholes.  Temperatures in the last couple of weeks have been bearable, mid to high twenties, which I can cope with, and I hope that is the beginning of a trend towards even cooler weather.

This winter we have to paint the roof of our house, as now with the excess water having fallen in heavy abundance, sometimes with such a thunderous roar, it produced a constant drip, drip, drip to be heard above the ceiling when sitting in the lounge.  It does seem that a leak has appeared not in the lounge, but just outside the front over the verandah, where we have noted a very large damp and mildew patch has appeared.  This does mean that we are going to have to repair it, which is a pain, but hopefully we will be able to get away with cutting out just that piece and not have to do the full ceiling.  Seeing this made Johan decide it was high time he went up onto the roof to assess the damage if any at all.  He ended up cleaning out the valleys which had become blocked with dead and composting leaves from the nearby trees, and this may just be the reason that we developed a leak.

The rest of the roof seems to be in a good enough condition other than needing a thorough cleaning with a wire brush before painting, so that will be a job for Johan to do through the dry winter months, ready for next summer.

NiQi - Home From Hospital

NiQi was in hospital for just over two weeks again this month and we missed her so much whilst she was gone....more so than usual.  There have been so many great milestones in her life the past two years for which we are ever grateful and I think that now we kind of expect more improvement each time she goes in for IV treatment...as well as all the times in between.

There are moments when we want to believe that because she is doing so well by comparison that she will be able to go for years and years, continuing to do well.  Then reality sinks in and we know that isn't the case.
Knowing that each time she goes to hospital, she has to start with a three day course of  Ranatidine, Cortisone and Texa to de-sensitize her system before she starts with her antibiotics is just the beginning.
Knowing that this is the only way the antibiotics will be effective, is a reminder to us of how the disease has progressed.
Knowing that it takes more than a week of being on IV's for her to start feeling any kind of effect and Knowing that even having these antibiotics doesn't stop her picking something up while she is in hospital before she has finished the course, is all to be expected.

On the other hand, years of taking medication has is benefits too...Having a sonar on her liver this time gave a 'Westaby' score of 3 which is considered normal.  This is good news and shows that her liver has healed...it is now smooth with no cirrhosis.  This means that she is able to stop the medication she has been taking...three tablets less to take, two times a day.

NiQi is so blessed that her cystic fibrosis seems to have reached a plateau and is presently stable.  There are many in her position that continue to spiral downwards and lose their battle quicker than they should.  Maybe it is because her attitude is good, her determination to survive is high and she tries her best to look after herself....we will never know.  What we do know is NiQi is stronger than most her age, she has been through more in her life than many can even dream or imagine and she has more to think about and fight for than her peers.  Whatever it is, we know that all the above is part of God's plan for her life.

For now, she is home and looking forward to our holiday in a few weeks time and we are happy to have her amongst us again...not only that but I can exploit her for child labour and have her help me with my chores...lol