Listening to the Voices in My Head

First off, Happy 1st Day of Spring (in the southern hemisphere)

I, for one, am not sorry to see the month of August is over. It's not been a good month. I caught the worst case of the flu I have had in more years than I can count. The cough was so hard and harsh, I ended up stretching/tearing a bit of cartilage that connects ribs to sternum. The cough is still lingering, but not rib cracking any more.

Keito, our 12 yr old cat was sick, and because cats can hide illness until they're almost on death's door, we almost lost him. Acute bladder blockage. He spent 9 days in vet hospital, 7 of those days in ICU, as he needed round the clock care. Problem resolved with surgery, and luckily, no kidney damage. Best way to describe the surgery: Keito is genetically male, but architecturally female when it comes to peeing.

Next on this list (which I am listing in order of their occurrence) was my son, Alan, being brought to the ER due to abdominal pain. It was thought to be a blockage of a different sort, so when there was no good resolution, he was admitted to the hospital. He called me and said the doctor on call wanted to do a laparoscopic exam. I told him to go for it.

He was knocked out, and had the procedure... and it was a damned good thing he did, because it showed that he had a perforated appendix, and he was immediately wheeled into the O.R. and had it removed. He's home, recovering. Had to be on high dose of extremely strong antibiotics, which led to other issues. He saw his GP and has some pro-biotics and other intestinal health items.

So, yes, I give the month of August a fare thee well wave, and hope that September is a better one.

Turns out the seller of the Inverter Board listed wrong model compatibility. In home tech spent hours taking my computer down to its parts and there is no, I repeat, no inverter or inverter board located anywhere in the machine.

I have informed the seller of inverter board of this, and the out of pocket cost for having a tech work in my home ($110 ph labor. Luckily for me he didn't charge me for all 4 hours, just 2. )

The goodish news is it. Everything is set up again as it was, using two external monitors. Also, whoever designed this computer had oatmeal for brains. There is an hdmi out cable that goes no where. So, after bank account recovers from this expense, since the computer itself is in great condition, I am going to get an HDMI out compatible monitor, and an HDMI extension and just rock two monitors.

Problems solved!

Mega kudos to Alan for helping me get everything set up again. Worth his weight in gold, he is.

Scrubbed hands, got normal saline, Bactine, a thick towel, and first aid kit. ( first aid descriptions )

And other good news, he didn't break his toe. It just hurts like hell.

While doing something for me, Alan stubbed his toe hard, tripped and sliced the ball of his left foot, like paring an orange peel, about 2cms long, 1cm wide about 1/4 cm deep.

He came in, I immediately got clean wet cloth, Bactine, normal sailine, and the first aid kit. Cleaned around the wound with the wet cloth, flushed the wound with the saline, making sure to get any and all particulates and dirt out of it. The came the Bactine to disinfect and relieve pain. Then put a sterile dressing on it, pressing the section of skin back into the divit. Then wrapped the foot with sterile gauze wrap, pinned it into place, then placed a dirt proof/water proof dressing over the area of the wound only to prevent dirt from working its way through the gauze.

It took me less than 3 minutes to get everything done. Fed him a few ibuprofen, because I know it's going to start throbbing pretty soon. Will keep an eye on it for any swelling or redness not associated with the wounding aka red lines or infection.

Yes, I have made first aid skillz. And I need a new bottle of Bactine

I know it's coming. I checked the tracking and it's 'at the Perth Courier', and has been since 8am this morning. But I have things that need to be done, so Alan manned the waiting room (living room) while I got some errands done.

Hopped on my bike, first stop, Kardinya shops. Got new battery for my pendant watch, and repaired the broken chain. Then went into store and picked up a few needed items. Went to the pharmacy to see if I could wrangle up another wrist splint that didn't have the velcro digging into my arm. No joy. So got back on the bike, and headed to the South Street Pharmacy. The only one that was empty in the display was the one I was looking for. I discussed it with the pharmacist and she said that there's a good chance the reason I can't find the one I've been looking for for the past 2 weeks is that it was discontinued. So, I got it's replacement. Supposedly it's 'breathable'. What I want it for is when one splint is all sweaty from bike trip or other reason, I can take it off, put on another and wash it.

Came home to a slightly worried Alan. Because I decided to head to South Street Pharmacy, I was out longer than he expected. You have to remember, he has anxiety issues concerning bike riding. So, I've promised him that the next time I head to one place, and decide to go somewhere else, I will send him text message so there will be no panic involved. :)