First Rains and Clinic Day...

Well we were 11 days away from 10th October and guess what...it decided to rain!!!!  Johan actually spent much of the weekend sweeping off all the roofs and cleaning out the gutters, as he had a feeling that rain wasn't too far away.  He wasn't wrong and indeed it must have been around 7 pm last evening, when we looked at each other and all had the same thought - 'It's raining'. I have imagined the first rain for so long and I must say that hearing the thunderous fall of heavy drops on the corrugated roof was both therapeutic and disappointing.  Therapeutic, because it is something we have waited for, for so long and disappointing, because I was so hoping we would make it to October before the first rains fell. It didn't last for long...maybe 20 minutes, but in that short period of time, we heard how heavily it was falling, which can only mean one thing - the dust was being given a chance to settle.  Isn't it amazing how having even a little bit of rain can change a person's mood, and that smell...ooooh that smell is so refreshing and clean.  I wish they could bottle the smell of  fallen rain on mother earth and give it out as 'freebies' to anyone craving a little bit of 'clean' and 'fresh' in their lives.  Now we will see how mother nature will burst into life with a vigour that has been hibernating for so many barren months.  Saturday morning I noticed blossoms from the Jacaranda trees lying on the ground in our garden.  My thoughts went back to my own years of school and later our childrens' where we knew that if we hadn't finished learning for our year end exams by the time the Jacaranda trees dropped their first blooms, then we weren't ready.  Life can only get brighter now as it brings new expectations, and though I don't look forward to the heat and the exhaustion associated with it, I do look forward to many more African thunder storms and maybe,  just maybe, days of cool, wet rain.


So today was 'clinic' day...NiQi's appointment had been scheduled for last week, Wednesday, however with the bakkie broken, she phoned to make a new one....
The bakkie is still not fixed and at the moment we are in a bit of a quandary about what to do about it, but that is indeed a whole other story.  It just meant that we had to make a plan to get Johan to work before NiQi and I drove through to Johannesburg.  As always our day started before the crack of dawn, but at least now it is becoming light earlier.  We left home at 5.45am and dropped Johan  before making our way back to the highway.  I don't enjoy Monday appointments as I am sure more people travel on a Monday than any other day of the week and as predicted the journey was long and stressful.  The temperature gauge of the car was rising with the standing in traffic and the short bursts given to the engine as we crept slowly along the highway.  Finally we arrived at 8.30am....sadly, just too late for NiQi to have a lung function test.  She was last to arrive to see the doctor so sat in the waiting area until her turn.  Not much change in her overall health, but one good thing is she seems to be sensitive again to the use of Ciprobay, so her doctor has given her two weeks supply to take.  This will hopefully give her the boost she needs and will finally rid her of whatever bugs have been plaguing her for the last couple of months.  Daily routines continue, oxygen, nebs, physio, exercise, eating and more eating, PEG feeds, meds and insulin testing...every day the same.