Urgh! We went back to Hamilton last weekend to help my partner's elderly mother settle back in after her week in hospital. It went really well - for all of three hours. Then she went down with a really bad case of diarrhoea. So we were up all night helping her to the bathroom and back to bed - sometimes as often as every five minutes! This carried ( Read more... )

I had my second driving lesson today. First time using the pedals and steering, which was quite exciting! Although I did OK, I can see I'm going to need a fair amount of practice. My overall body coordination has never been that great, but that just means I have to work a bit harder to learn skills which depend on it ( Read more... )

Spent the weekend visiting my partner's mother in hospital in Hamilton. She is being very well looked after there and she brightened up considerably while we were visiting. She's very shaky still and somewhat forgetful but there's been no recurrence of the delirium, thank God ( Read more... )

Just heard from my partner that his mother has been found in a delusional state and taken to hospital. Her house is unlocked, her dog is unattended and we now have to drop everything and rush back up to Hamilton to sort out the mess. My work knows the story, but it is the worst possible time for me ( Read more... )

I want this week to end. I want next week to end, too!

Well, I managed to drive all the way from the Western suburbs of Auckland back to my workplace (steering only) without killing anyone. Not bad for a first lesson ( Read more... )

We had to dash back up to Hamilton the day before yesterday, because the doctor of my partner's mother invoked the NZ Mental Health Act, meaning that the hospital would send assessors around to take her to hospital with a view to placing her in care (phew, long sentence ( Read more... )

We had a fairly stressful time over Easter visiting my partner's 80 year old mother ( Read more... )

My knee has recovered to the point where I'm able to walk to work once more. It's not easy - some of my leg and back muscles have not been used in ages and are now complaining loudly about having to work hard. Get with the program guys ( Read more... )

It's over four weeks since my last knee operation and things are looking good. The surgeon removed a significant amount of scar tissue from inside my knee, but said that the reconstructed ligament was very healthy (there was a chance he would have to remove it and start all over again ( Read more... )