Week 126 – Day 8 ” How much water do you drink?”

Not to bad a night, we had watched a DVD ” The scent of a Woman” with Al Pacino , it had Chinese subtitles – Jill slept on and off but she still feels a bit low this morning and missing our children and usually sheds a few tears after they talk to us on Skype. She still has a bit of diarrhoea so hope we get that under control during the day. She is not to keen on eating at the moment. I have been pushing the fluids into her with a few complaints. It is cold outside but the room has the sun on it all day and is quite warm so I have a pedestal fan operating to move some air around the room and it certainly is much better.

I listened to Macca “Australia all Over” on the ABC via the net. I only heard the last hour as Jill was asleep and I did not want to wake her. Next Sunday I will have a go at ringing him if I can get up at 5am. Remember we are three hours behind Eastern Australia. We have continued to listen to the ABC all day. I met another Australian (Phillip) who arrived Friday. He sufferers from MS and is from Melbourne, here alone and has a Chinese carer Mr Wong.

Even though it is Sunday the construction workers are over the road at the development, they arrive on mass about 7 am wearing their yellow and orange hard hats and finished at 5pm. Although it seems that late in the evening there are some workers still there. The large crane had a couple of bright lights on it last night. At lunch time a throng of motor bike wagons appear, I guess selling various types of food to the workers, they reappear in the evening. This morning a chap wearing an orange safety suit was sweeping the walkway across the road between the blue accommodation buildings and the entrance to the development. A large semi – bit older than you see on our highway delivered insulation. You can see while I was waiting for Jill to wake I watched the site – I could probable be a good work care inspector. There is a huge dome being constructed in the centre out of a steel lattice and a structure that looks like a small version of the Sydney harbour bridge. They are continuously welding on both.

Lunch time – we have ordered braised ribs with vegetables and rice. We both enjoyed the meal and it will be a reorder item on our menu. While I heated some left over mini rolls in the kitchen oven I found amongst the community products a Lipton’s Cup of soup – Tomato and a box of flexible straws. Jill enjoyed the cup of soup. I took a few straws as we found when Jill had the stem cells back in 2006 she needed to sip some cold water while laying flat on your back ( only allowed 50mls of water after the operation and you are not allowed to raise your head), and a flexible straw was ideal. As I mentioned earlier we have a water bottle in the room. Ice Dew a product of Coke Cola. It holds 18.9 litres of water. I think I expected that to last a couple of weeks but we have used it in 7 days. We use it for drinking – fill empty drink bottles and cool in the fridge, wash our tooth brush and rinse out our mouths. One of the staff, a girl a bit smaller than Jill has just arrived to change the bottle, on her shoulder and would not accept my help.

We have just had a knock on the door, Jack and a nurse arrived to confirm Jill’s stem cell treatment for Monday. An another IV at 2pm followed by a BMT (bone marrow harvest) at 4 pm. They informed us that Jill could not eat for 6 hours before and not drink for 4 hours before and no food or drink for 2 hours after the BMT. She was also to rest on bed for 24 hours after the BMT and not shower for 3 days. I am not certain how this will be managed but tomorrow will tell. We had expected a Spinal Stem Cell and Jack brought back the doctor to explain the change to the sequence of stem cells and that it was in Jill’s interest and comfort to do it this way. I asked about the UTI etc, but they were more worried about the temperature (fever). If we had any further questions to come and talk to him.

We have just walked to the end of the passage and I found Jill was certainly better than the last couple of days, but not sure what 24 hours off her feet will bring.. I have decided to take another walk outside and to go in the opposite direction. Lucy just arrived with the evening menu and we have ordered dumplings, pork and wild vegetables, chicken and what ever (surprise us). I have been for my walk, out the entrance there was a Jeep in the car park and two water tankers watering the trees in the garden. I walked round the corner, now I don’t know which the main entrance is. The roads are lined with manicured hedges and there were several shops on the opposite side of the road. I crossed a channel and the footpath turned and followed it. Unfortunately the water was full of rubbish with some great gardens along each side.

When I arrived back at number 11 a Chinese girl followed me in with our dumplings. We had 20 dumplings, 10 pork and 10 chicken, much like steamed dimsims. We ate about half and they were quite good. Allison rang and told us she was sending a first aide parcel for her parents – vegemite, cup of soup etc. If it arrives before we leave.

Well I have certainly rambled today – I just kept coming back to it.

See you tomorrow on the net.