Celebrations

OK, so this is a test.

I took this photo of Alex on Tuesday afternoon, 11th December 2012.

Can you see what's different?

Well, if you answered that his appetite must be back in full swing after Friday's "Tiger in the Tank" day, you would be close.  Yes, he does have a pie and a half in front of him.  Yes, the pies were absolutely delicious. 

What's missing?  Yes, half the pie on the right.  I am sure that you have also noticed that you haven't seen his neck brace.

Woohoo!!!!!

That morning, we had been to see Dr. Jeffrey Brennan at his rooms just up the road from RPA hospital.  Dr. Brennan is the Neurosurgeon who saw Alex in hospital after he'd fractured his neck.  Unbelievably that was almost 3 months ago.

The good news was obviously that Alex can now be free of his brace.  The scans Alex had on 15th November proved to be good news for Dr. Brennan.  At this stage, Alex's neck is healing very well, and that was fantastic news.

After having his neck supported in a brace for so long, Alex will naturally have to be extremely careful - he will need to do some very gentle movement exercises each day.  We had been extremely optomistic and had taken a BMW neck brace and full face helmet with us to the appointment.  Ian from Worthington BMW - where we have bought all our bikes - had bought a neck brace on the off chance that Alex would be able to purchase it, and he had loaned it to us to take to the appointment.  I am sure that deep down, we were both hoping that the doctor would agree that this neck brace and full face helmet would work well enough to allow Alex to be back on his bike, but sadly this was not so.    Alex was advised that he should avoid all activities that would present a high risk of further damage to his neck, regardless of whether he was wearing any brace or not, and this included both motor bike riding and surf swimming.

Although we both realised that this was very sensible advice, and hardly surprising, it is still a huge adjustment.  But the silver lining - and there always is one - is that Alex is now free of his neck brace and we just have to readjust to a lifestyle change.  Our domestic trips now will be in the comfort of his van or my car - or later maybe even a motorhome - where we can dress very casually and not worry about the weather or limiting our packing to the barest essentials.

Our celebration lunch was at The Pie Tin, a relatively new cafe in Newtown. Of course they do a decent coffee as well, and I know that lately a blog entry without photos relating to coffee or cafes isn't up to scratch, so this is Tuesday's offering:

and of course, if you have one of these above, you will also have ...

 Their Christmas decorations were very under-stated but they did extend to the tree outside the cafe, and this view from one of the windows was lovely, especially as the light was changing so much, and each time the sun came out, they really shone

The cushions inside were in keeping with the rustic styling of the cafe

and another view of our Celebration

On Thursday we were back a the hospital for another appointment, this time with Dr. Corey Lau who is our Palliative Care doctor.  After Friday's chemo, Alex's body had not settled down very well this week at all, and so Dr. Lau tweaked our very colourful spreadsheet we've called "Alex's Lollies in December".  We're on to a slightly different tablet regime, and although some of the doses have been increased, overall it means that the daily number of tablets has reduced - another silver lining!  We're hoping that his pain levels will reduce, and quickly.



This week we have also had more work done on the house - yes, the renovations are still not complete.  We splurged and had George and Duncan in to do our driveway - they were lovely guys and did an excellent job.

On Monday our drive looked much the same as it has for the past few years (viewed from the back)

(yes, we do plan to have the house painted ...  soonish) but first, the driveway.  Over this week it has undergone a major transformation

We will be able to walk on it late tomorrow, and towards the end of January we will have it stencilled.  Then all we need to do for the drive is to build the carport, and we can move on to the next job on our still extensive list.

So, all up, a very exciting week!