Two funerals and a f disc...

I am so glad this week is over...We had Norm's funeral on Wednesday 19th July, it was held at Mulqueens in Bendigo. A catholic chaplain ran the service with a poem read by grand daughters Brooke, Stacey, Kate & Ashley. Flowers were put on Norm's coffin by Lauren. Dave gave a speech thanking everyone and highlighting some of Norm's life, which included a love of lawn bowls, darts, horse racing and travel with the occasional bet in between. The casket was carried out by sons Dave, Ron, Daryl and grandsons Matt & Jamie. Norm was buried at the Eaglehawk cemetery and a wake was held at the Botanical Hotel and was attended my a great many people.

I went home in the early evening leaving Dave to catch up with his relatives and friends.
Arriving home Elisa informs me the computer has crashed again...So Thursday was spent trying to fix it, an Acer technician who was in the area came and had a look and the bad news was it was more than likely we would not be able to salvage any files or photos. He said he could take it and there was no guarantee he could repair it the other option was to f disc the computer and reload windows, so due to the financial situation I made the decision to f disc it, so I've lost all my email contacts and all my emails that I wanted to keep.

Then on Friday we traveled to Melbourne (Altona) for Doss's funeral. (Norm's elder sister who died 25 hours after Norm), a catholic service was held by an incompetent priest who rattled on more about a banquet rather than about Doss. Tea and refreshments were served in the room next to the chapel and afterwards we went to the Westside hotel for drinks. We stayed until 6pm and drove to Peg's(Dave's mum) for a cup of tea and arriving home around 10pm.

So today I'm having a quiet day babysitting the kids whilst Melissa & Elisa go food shopping...yay for DVD's...
Oh yeah this is day 15 as a NON smoker.

Back to reality...

I have finally returned to the land of the living and its been another bumpy road, in fact potholes as large as craters appeared.
Looking back now I can see when it all started going pear shaped...

• It started with the marriage breakup of some friends who live close by, both parties would tell all their problems to me, and I was trying to stay neutral. I was even getting phone calls from the Mother of one of them.
• Babysitting a child from the marriage break up (after school until 7.30pm)
• attended a funeral of Lenny Doherty, he died from cancer and was only 40 years. ( Really gave me a mortality check)
• Got a speeding fine on the way home from the funeral.
• My dog Dufus first had a spider bite then ingested toxic material both requiring trips to the vet and quite a big bill.

So on the morning of my Psych appointment I snapped...I tried cutting my wrist using a kitchen knife so spent time on the phone to the mental health triage. I managed to keep it together until dh came home and drove me to my Psych appointment, Dave went and visited his father who was still in hospital. The Psych put my name in for the next available bed at the ABC unit, we waited for Dave to return as the psych wanted to discuss a few things with him but Dave didn't get back until 5.45pm by this time I was having a coffee at MacDonalds. When I got home I gave all my pills to my sister so I couldn't hurt myself.

Thursday went by in a blur I don't remember it at all...by Friday I was on the edge. I began packing a bag for admittance to the Psych hospital, Matthew was in bed asleep and Elisa went down to the post office. Whilst she was gone I came across an old toiletry bag with some pills inside so I took them. By the time Elisa got back I was sitting on the edge of the bed crying...She immediately rang the mental health triage number who advised her to take me to hospital. So she got Matthew and drove to Bendigo a trip of around 40-45 minutes, I have no recollection of the trip. Staggering up the path to emergency was hard enough (would have been funny to witness). I was seen almost immediately, when asked what I had taken I rattled off a cocktail of drugs, Panadine Forte, Valium, Temazapam & Solium. Out came the charcoal drink and I was placed on a heart monitor, to which I was to stay attatched to for 24 hours, an IV line was put in with fluid going through. The tablets had affected my heart rate and my potassium levels were all over the place, so they had to keep an eye on it. The ED psychiatrist visited and asked if I would admit myself to the ABC unit to which I agreed (otherwise it was involuntary which is a stay of 6 weeks). I spent the next 4 days in the ED as there were no beds at the Psych hospital and no beds in the wards. They moved me on Monday to the ABC and finally put me back on my meds, at the same time increasing my anti-psychotic drug and introducing another one, so I was a zombie again. I stayed in hospital till the 1st June. Arriving home was a blur as I was on 2 anti-psychotic drugs, I had to wean myself off my old ones. I was unable to drive a car and all I did all day was sleep. I was under instructions to reduce my stress, as that is one of my triggers, so my friend Sami was told we could no longer look after her daughter.

Then life took over and threw another curve ball, within days the following happened

• Power kept on surging and going out, causing the DVD & VCR to blow up
• Lost the phone line for 6 days
• Ran out of water, so had to buy in a tanker worth at $ 180
• Ran out of gas, so a bottle ordered from the store $ 88
• Car rego came due $250
• My local GP called me wanting to see me after routine blood tests. He informed me that my cholesterol level is the highest he has seen, and I need to go medication immediately, stop smoking, loose weight & exercise.
• The computer broke down and was in the repair shop for 12 days, so no internet. $ 77

So on the Friday 7/7/06 I QUIT smoking...went cold turkey! Day 3 was the worst I had the full body shakes, vomiting..all that lovely stuff.

Thinking that nothing else could possibly go wrong I set out on Friday to do my Avon orders, upon arriving home my sister informs me that my dh rushed to Bendigo as his dad(Norm) had taken a turn for the worse, I thought nothing of it as this happens all the time. Then the phone rang at 3pm and dh informs me his father passed away at 2pm. So I got changed and headed down to Bendigo to be with the family, I called both my girls and let them know, Melissa was going to meet me at Nans house. When we arrived we found out that Norm's sister Doss was also in hospital not expected to see the night out. When dh arrived home last night he told me that Doss passed away at 3 pm today exactly 25 hours after her brother, apparently the standing joke was that Doss had always said she'd outlive Norm. So Norms funeral will be on Wednesday in Bendigo and Doss's on Friday in Melbourne.

So that's where we are up to....Welcome back to reality Jen, what stress I hear you say...There's no stress in my life...LOL