Cape Town Holiday...and Hand Therapy Project

It's been FOREVER since I last blogged, but with good reason.

Thinus and I got very busy with school and work, and then illness struck...and it struck HARD! This was after Thinus was surprised with a mountain bicycle from my brother Gielie and his wife, Brenda. Thinus was over the moon, straight into seventh heaven and onto cloud nine when he got the bicycle! We fixed my bicycle, bought some safety gear (helmet for him, reflective cycling shirt for me) and went cycling at 19H00 one night...and that was stupid!

That evening we both became ill, and by the next morning (Wednesday, 18 March), our throats were killing us. Thinus was actually so ill that he had to take two half days (Wednesday, Thursday 20 March). On Friday we had had enough and went to see the doctor, who booked us off. I went back to school the following Monday but still had a fever until the Wednesday (25 March)! Thinus was very ill...and still remains ill. The doctor figured out that Thinus has a super-allergy because of our irregular seasonal changes. He's now on a series of nose sprays to alleviate the allergy, but it's much better now!

Meanwhile we had Gielie and Brenda's children (Ivan, Zoe & Joel) visiting us on 28, 29, 30 March as well as on 1 & 2 April. They slept over and it was SUCH fun. We went to Potchefstroom to visit my parents, and then I took them synthetic Ice-skating on Monday...which had dire consequences. Joel refused to skate and just took pictures of his older siblings. Ivan and Zoe was coming on nicely, and I told them to hold hands so that they could move more flowingly... BIG mistake! At first it worked very well, but then Ivan sorta almost fell, and Zoe did INDEED fall.... and in that moment Ivan actually (very much by accident) skated OVER Zoe's hand...uhm...there was lots of blood!

We drove to the doctor SO fast after tighgly bandaging Zoe's hand, with my niece really screaming very loudly, and I just put on the car's hazard lights and drove as fast and safely as I could. We got to the doctor whilst she was in consultation with Thinus, as he had to go and see her about his continuous illness. She then called in Zoe (after checking with Thinus that she could quickly see Zoe first), and I just stood there with Zoe in my arms, crying almost just as much as Zoe. I felt SO bad that this happened under my care of the kids! But when Brenda came (Zoe's mom), she sat between Zoe and myself and gave us each a tight hug, whilst the doctor saw to Zoe. 5 stitches and some sedatives later, Zoe was a happier and sleepier little girl.

After the doctor, we took Zoe to her first ever clothing shopping trip (the way women do it...trying out a gazillion outfits and only buying a few), as it is my birthday gift to her (we're in Cape Town whilst Zoe's turning 9 in Jo'burg). It was a lot of fun, and after that Ivan and Zoe decided they will return to the Ice Rink, as they had all-day passes. Joel said he will most definitely NOT skate, since Zoe ended up with five stitches! But they had such a jol!

We came to Cape Town on Friday (3 April) together with my brother Heinrich and a friend of us, Carlien. It's been such a wonderful time. Yesterday it would have been Thinus' mom's 54th birthday, so we (Father-in-law, Thinus, myself & Thinus' brother) took off at 06H20 AM and drove to Langebaan to scatter some of her ashes at her most favoured beach / place in the whole world. That gave us all closure, and it was a beautiful day spent with just us.

My mother's best friend's granddaughter (12 years) was also diagnosed with Brain Cancer last week, and our family immediately started praying. It is rather aggressive, and went inbetween her brain's lobes, into her skull and behind one of her eyes. The doctor will be operating on Thursday to do a biopsy and remove some of the tumour from behind her eye to relieve pressure. But we will only know the full outcome then. We went to visit Winé in hospital yesterday, and she was so quiet, not really like the bouncy and energetic kid that I remember from a year ago. Ivan, Zoe and Joel even made her cards to tell her that she should not be afraid, they are praying with her and for her. HOW AWESOME?!?!? We took her a teddy from the entire family, as Linda (my oldest sister-in-law) said that you can't be in hospital without a nice teddy to hug.

PLEASE pray for Winé and her parents and family! They all need the prayers, and we believe in THE Miracle Maker! God can heal, in which ever way He chooses to, and we can only pray!

On a lighter note. I've got this Hand Therapy project that is due very soon...and I have to make a model of a human finger minus the flesh and arteries, nerves and veins. So it's basically gonna be one finger's phalanges (proximal, middle and distal) with its cruciate ligaments, volar plates and attached tendons. It has to be fully functional as well as anatomically correct. I went on search for a skeleton whose phalanges I could impress into potter's clay (mould) and the make a replica of these phalanges. My dad was awesome in helping, as well as my father-in-law! I met up with quite a few people today, including a medical doctor, Dr. Wim de Klerk from Medis (CPT), as well as Paul Hepburn and Attie Bester (Orthotists and Prosthetists) and one of their assistants, Steven Davidson. WOW!!!! Theses guys were all SO awesome in helping me to make a replica of the finger's phalanges. I owe them BIG time! Thinus and I decided we might just leave OT and IT and become orthotists, it seems highly stimulating and satisfying!

So here follows a few photo's of our past week's adventures:

Zoe and Ivan trying to master the guitar.

Thinus&I @ Langebaan to celebrate his mom's life, and to scatter some of her ashes.

Thinus & Heinrich catching a sleep...

Carlien & I @ yet another road-works stop.

Mr. Bones & I, with his finger busy being moulded to make a replica of his middle finger's phalanges. (You can see Thinus in the mirror behind Mr. Bones' head, taking the picture).

Goodbye for myself and Mr. Bones!!!

Going back to Varsity...

This week was VERY busy! I started my Diploma in Hand Therapy at the University of Pretoria (aka "Tukkies"), and BOY did they make us work hard! Postgrad is tiring and we are chopping down lots of trees with all the gazillions of photocopies we had to make.

But seriously, this was info-overload in its highest grade! I am amazed that I survived varsity at all. I have no clue as to how I survived hour-long lectures and sat in class from 8 - 4pm with only VERY short lunch breaks in-between. I am now really in the mood to join a gym and start exercising, cause that's the only way I can think of that my body won't conk in on me this year! That maybe also explains why I had such a good-looking body back in my 2nd year. What, with all the classes I had to attend, I went to gym EVERY day of the week! So I'm motivated to once again look and feel great. Thinus tends to agree with me on this one, except he's one ahead in that he's already going to the gym at his work. Lucky man!

I stayed in Pretoria the entire week, except for Monday night as I had to go for an interview pertaining my current job. My word, so after a very LONG and BUSY first day at varsity on Monday, I still had to drive back to Johannesburg (70km to our house from Pretoria University), pick up my husband and go for this interview at 19H30 PM! I was SO tired and overworked by the time I got to the interview, that I became extremely stressed and could not eat. I made the mistake of having a bite of a cheese-muffin Thinus was eating, and I was IMMEDIATELY nauseous. After the interview I was exhausted (it was not a very long interview), and Thinus bought us McDonalds. Yeah for an awesome husband! It's been about 1 - 2 months since we last had any take-outs.

Thinus and I missed each other a lot this week, him more than me. I was just so busy at varsity, but in those very rare quiet, uninterrupted moments I would catch myself missing him. He had a hard week at work, but he came home to an empty house every night, poor thing! I, on the other hand, went to stay with my mother's youngest sister and her husband and it was like having parents there while I studied. AWESOME! So I worked hard during the day, drove back to my aunt's place, study, eat, study and sleep.

I better be off now, as I still have to make Sunday lunch, and it's already 14H35 PM!!!

Ciao!

My life is almost back on track..or not ;-)

I've been really busy around school and at home. Since starting my new job, I've actually had time to help my sister-in-law out with driving the kids around for extra-mural activities. And not only that, I've been able to visit that same sister-in-law (Brenda) way more often. Keeps both of us sane, I suspect!

This week was an exciting week, as the new 4th year OT students came from WITS (University) for their Cerebral Palsy Practical. Not only that, but it turned out that one of the OT students is my Varsity - Residence 1st Year, meaning that I made sure they were alright in first year in Residence, plus they kept me sane at that stage. We were SO happy to see each other that Leigh-Ann (my 1st year, now 4th year, OT student) and I actually ran towards each other then she picked me up and we whirled around whilst screeching with happiness! She was the 4th person to know the night that Thinus and I got engaged – I told her and her roommate about 5 or 10 minutes after we got engaged.

Then, just for the HECK of it, there was a Solar Eclipse (Tuesday 27 Jan, I think?) this week! We got to see it at school when my dad called me to remind me of the eclipse. I think we got something like 35% coverage of the sun in Gauteng. Cape Town actually got about 62% coverage! And then I had my camera at school and got to take photos! (Look at the end of this post, there you will find the photos I took of the solar eclipse.)

Another happy event that happened 3 weeks ago was my dad’s birthday party to celebrate his 64th birthday. ALL of us were there, and I’m also including a family picture at the end of this post. Just to orientate you, here follows the names (and relations) of the people in the photo.

Back row: Brenda (sister-in-law, Gideon’s wife), Dad, Gideon (3rd brother), Heinrich (5th brother), Reinholdt (Oldest grandchild, Otto’s Oldest), Otto (Oldest Brother), Petrus (4th brother), Chantelle(Petrus’ wife), Jesse (sister-in-law, Marthinus’ wife, & pregnant with their second daugther), Marthinus (2nd brother).

Middle row: Joël (with his face turned away; Gideon’s youngest child), Aunty Ina (my father’s sister-in-law), Ivan (Gideon’s oldest child), Mom, Yochanan (Otto’s 2nd child), Eliyahuh (Otto’s 3rd child).

Front row: Thinus (my husband), Myself, Zoé (on my lap, Gideon’s middle child), Linda (sister-in-law, Otto’s wife), Ada (Marthinus’ 1st child), Amy (Petrus’ 1st child) & Netanyah (Otto’s youngest child). The last three girls are all the same age!
















































Hope you all have a great coming week. I will hopefully write a more informative post in the next week. Ciao!

A New Government Department, A New Beginning...

Hi to all!

It's been a while since I last blogged. What I can say is that I am doing somewhat better! I went to have a sonar done, and I was treated like a piece of meat being man-handled by a butcher. I still have to go and complain on www.hellopeter.com / .co.za to ensure others that follow will not get the treatment that I got.

I'm not going to go into detail, except to say that

• both health care practitioners who saw me remained nameless to me,
  
• did not wear a name tag,
  
• did not introduce themselves (nor greet me properly),
• did not say what profession they were in (e.g. radiologist, doctor --> although I knew the last one was a doctor as the previous person who saw me told me to wait for the doctor),
• what they were about to do to me (e.g. the gel we are using are gonna be a bit cold, but don't worry)
  
• WHY they were doing what they did (e.g. telling me to move onto my left side and just telling me to breath and hold the breath and not when to expel my breath!)
• they did not close the door of the consulting room properly, as the doorhandle was broken.

ALL THIS IN A PRIVATE HOSPITAL!!! It amazes me that people can be treated in this manner, and then it will be said that the person treating them was professional. But there is a HUGE difference between being professional and just plain un-ethical, as I see these health care "professionals" to have been. I've been working in the health care sector for 2 years now (1 year student, 1 year community service OT), and you

• GREET someone,
  
• then INTRODUCE yourself,
  
• and then make them FEEL AT EASE,
  
• as well as EXPLAINING ANYTHING you will be doing to them (what you will do and WHY you are doing it)!
  

I could not believe the way I was treated, and as I related the story and my mal-treatment by the health care "professionals" to Thinus, he kept on asking why I didn't say something. I think it is because I was in such SHOCK that someone could treat you in this manner. I will not EVER go back there again!

The good news is that nothing was found out-of-place(e.g. pregnancy) / wrong (gallstones) from the ultra-sound / sonar, and that it turns out my constant nausea is caused by reflux. But instead of me having heartburn, I only present with extreme nausea. So I'm now on medication to ease the reflux, and it appears to be working most of the time! Yesterday I had a nausea-spell again, and my blood pressure just dropped (with me still having to drive home in the rain!), so that when I got home I fell on my bed and went to sleep immediately!

As for the New Beginnings... I started at Muriel Brand School as an OT on Monday (12 Jan 2009) and could not be happier! I am also VERY happy to state that I have gotten through and have been accepted to study the Diploma in Hand Therapy at the University of Pretoria during this year! Since April 2007 I've been dreaming about studying hand therapy, and now I will finally have the chance to do so! It's gonna be a bit pricy, but that's fine as it all pays in the end. I can barely wait to start my course in 3 weeks' time, but first I have to get my finances in place to actually pay for registration ;-).

The school is awesome, and I love to be surrounded by other therapists. They are helpful and understanding, and I just love that I am once again in a structured and routined setting. We have not yet started treating kids, but on Monday we are starting to screen babies / kiddies. I'm very excited, and slightly nervous about that! Athletic trials are also tomorrow, and then next week we will have to start picking and processing vegetables found in the vegetable garden project together with the older children. Just at a time when I feel that I finally can say I have "green fingers".

Last but not least, today is both my father's 64th Birthday (Lekker Verjaar, Pappa!) and Muriel Brand School's 40th Birthday!

I'm praying that this will be a positive year full of surprises, and some routine, and happy days!

Ciao!

My moaning session

Right now I am a rather miserable person. I have to go for an (expensive) ultra-sound tomorrow to figure out if I have gallstones / stones in my gallbladder... In turn my faulty gallbladder is causing me to be a very awful person to be with, as I am CONSTANTLY nauseous. NOT NICE.

Our home computer has got a virus on it, with anti-virus software and all. Thinus says he will literally have to rebuild the computer to fix the problem! I can't even get to Mozille Firefox or Windows Internet Explorer due to the virus. Just comes to show you that it's better to pay up money for a good anti-virus than to download freeware / open software.

Now my tax return is also giving me trouble, as the SARS e-filing says I am not typing in the correct info, whatever that may be?! So tomorrow I have to go sort that out... Plus I have to go and pay a speeding fine, renew the car's license and my own driver's license. And inbetween ALL of this I have to clean our house. I forgot to mention the admin / filing that has to be done to sort out all our paperwork before we start with a new year's paperwork (which is already piling up on the kitchen breakfast-nook).

Thus I have turned into a rather depressed little heap, who snaps at the most sincere person (i.e. my husband) and dislikes doing housework. There are heaps of laundry to be done, and yet I can't find the strength in me to just even load the washing machine. So this is me, being all sorry for myself and really struggling to not be so negative about life.

One last thing, the past 2 days I've realised that something smells like it might be decomposing in my spare bedroom/store room. And to get to the smell, I first have to clean the entire spare bedroom to be able to move around in that tiny space. This makes me even more upset, I don't want to clean up all this mess! Even though I am mostly to blame for this mess :-/

May everyone else have a good week, and I really hope my week gets better - SOON!

Keep well. Ciao...