Old places & new discoveries

This year I have decided to visit my aunty and grandmother on my mom's side for the Christmas holidays.

Thus began my journey of discovery.  Let me explain:  I recently read 2 of Francine Rivers' books called: "Her Mothers Hope" and "Her Daughter's Dream", also known as "Marta's Legacy".  These two books I read in 5 days' time after work, etc.  They were those typical can't-put-down-till-finished books! (For me at least.)  The books are about mothers and daughters stretching over 4 or 5 generations, see Marta's Legacy by Francine Rivers for more information and description on the books.

These books made me curious about my gran's life as she grew up and how she experienced things and such.  

She is an amazing 94 year old lady (born 1917) and is still going strong.  She has such a good memory and told me some of her growing up experiences and also of my mom's growing up years, etc.  It was really great to hear these kind of stories... to get to know her and my mom from her perspective on life.  What an amazing lady!

I am actually writing this with her sitting across from me reading a book and she has no idea (until I tell her anyway :-) ).

My sister, Lisi, wrote a blog piece about her as well - you can check it out:  Age Old Wisdom by Lisi Mallinson and it includes a lovely pic of my gran!

Knee recovery update

Today was my 6 week check up on my knee!  6 weeks ago today I had a knee surgery - it is crazy.. it did feel long, yet it went quite quick.

The doctor was very impressed with the recovery.  He said I am much further along in my recovery than expected (or most people with similar knee problem at 6 weeks post-op).

I had a physio check up the afternoon as well.  The physio told me the doctor said to her that I am at the stage in recovery he thought I would only get to at about 3 months.  Even one of the other physio's congratulated me.

The doctor seemed to think the reason for my excellent progress is that I have been really careful.  I think that the Lord is so amazing and that He is helping my recovery along with the effort I am putting into it (physio exercises) and being careful!

I had to walk with crutches since the surgery (actually before it already when I re-injured as per my previous post).  I have been walking on 1 crutch for a while and today I am finally OFF the crutch!  I have been in a state of euphoria all day! It is totally AWESOME!!!  :-)

Now you may ask why I am so excited to be off my crutch - especially since I was walking with 1 and not 2... the crutch is annoying, my wrist gets really very sore from using it (switch to other side and then that wrist also aches), it slows me down and is in the way and makes it difficult to carry things (like groceries) etc.  I could go on, but don't wanna bore you or start sounding negative - too happy for that!!!

I am not allowed to bend my knee very much (as in doing squats or stuff like that where my knee really bends hectically).  I have to still be very careful and all that.

Good exercises to do for knees:  swimming & cycling.  I will start out on a stationery bike at first...

When I started walking without my crutch it felt sooo weird... limping in my walking and such, but it will get better.

Thank you Lord!!!

Knee recovery

I have never before now had to have an emergency operation of any kind.  Operations, yes! Emergency, no!

On Monday, 11 July I went to work with crutches and then went to the doctor. At the doctors office (knee specialist) I was told to have an emergency surgery that day - after they sent me for a g-scan (new style MRI scan).

Ok, let me start at the beginning...

In April 2008 I fell from my scooter basically on my right knee in the street.  I went to the emergency unit and they did x-rays, but nothing was broken or fractured (yay for me).  I then went to see a physio as I could not bend or straighten my knee from the position it was in.  The physio was of great help and soon enough I could walk normally again.   

But I found that every now and again my knee sort of "popped" out of place - it would hurt bad for a few minutes and then be ok again mostly. 

Then one December (2010) I went to the beach (Clifton) with friends and was walking from the one beach to the other and at one point you have to climb over rocks to get to the next beach and at the end of that I jumped from the rock to the sand (not very high and sand looked nice & soft) and landed correctly on both my feet, my knee badly popped out of place and walking was excruciating.

I then went back to the physio who then informed me that I have movemement in my knee that should not be there. I could either have a surgery (that won't fully fix it and will be very expensive or I can do specific exercises he gives me).  So, as I did not have the money for an expensive surgery and did not want to have one if it could be fixed on its own, I opted for the exercises.

So, I tried to be careful with my knee - no running or jumping.  But every now and again it still popped out.  I must admit that I was battling to always do the exercises - my fault!

Then, on Sunday I went with some of my family to Kirstenbosch for a lovely picnic and then played with my nephew - throwing a tennis ball to each other.  One of my nephew's throws went a bit wide, but I caught it, but in order to have done that I had to step to the side.  That is when my knee popped out again - but BADLY this time.  I had such a mission to get back to the car.  I did not think of the fact that Kirstenbosch would offer a wheelchair so said to my sister I'll push the pram as that will help me to walk as well.  The most painful walk in my life - Ilse even took a video clip of it!

Then, when I got home I phoned my flatmate/friend and asked him to bring my crutches from upstairs (3rd floor flat - no lift in our building) down so that I can get up to the flat and such.  Yes, for those who didn't know - I do actually own crutches - the same pair I got when I origininally hurt my knee... and knowing me... I kept it.  It has been useful.

Anyway, then I got to work on Monday with my crutches and then my one boss suggested I go see a specific knee specialist and hey presto - here we are! 

So, that is the story about my knee injury.

Now, it seems I have a meniscal tear (right knee).  See http://www.ssoc.co.za/meniscal-tear.html or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tear_of_meniscus for more info on that.

I have quite a bit of rehab time ahead of me as I am not allowed to drive for at least 2 weeks (to be determined if I may drive when I go for my next check up).  I am also going to go for regular physio for a while at least.  I did damage some of the bone in my knee, which nothing can be done about.  My knee was not in the greatest state unfortunately.

Here's for hoping for a speedy (and painless as possible) recovery!

Till next time!

Holidays

Isn't it crazy how we sometimes wish our lives away?  Living from one weekend to the next... come Monday, wishing it was Friday already?  That's how it has been for me as of late (mostly)... and no real reason it should be.  Maybe I need a holiday?! 

Well, luckily Easter and all the extra holidays is just around the corner.  I am taking the 3 working days off in between and going to the Garden Route area to just get away from the routine... 

Ok, so that is also a kind of routine, to go there for my holidays, but when you miss your friends and family from that area it is nice to go there (and it helps if you don't really have much money to do anything that you don't have to pay for accommodation). 

To my family & friends - please don't think I come there for only free accommodation!  I come to see you and spend time with you.  I love you and I love to spend time with all of you!

So, for those taking time off, relax, kick of the shoes and just chill!
For those that will be working, good on you!

Enjoy the holidays!  Safe travels!

Moving

As most of you probably know by now, I have moved! No, not countries or even cities, only from one neighbourhood to another in the same city.

This was one of the most frustrating moving experiences I have ever had. Let me explain:

We (my friend Alastair (Al) and myself) have given 2 months notice at the end of October (as our contract at the place I was at expired at the end of December 2010). So, since then we have been looking for a place in the CBD area of Cape Town (Oranjezicht, Gardens, Vredehoek, Tamboerskloof, etc.). Each place we looked at and liked were 3-bedroom and via agents and each tenant had to apply... so those basically fell through due to the 3rd person issue (we did not have someone confirmed, and when someone did want to share, things took long and it just did not work out).

Then, at long last we found another place, this one in Tamboerskloof that was quite sizable. Once again we had a 3rd tenant issue, but that kind of got sorted out as we found someone and all applications were in as such. Then, we had to wait for approval. By this time it was my last week at work in December (week of 13 Dec 2010) and I was planning to go to George for the December part of my holiday and I did not want to go before I had the flat sorted out. By the end of the week we have not had a confirmation yet and I decided to go to George after all (hoping and praying we get the flat). While I was away in George (left the Sat 18/Dec/10) I got word on the Monday from the agent that we have the place as long as we adhere to the rules (email from owner with rules included attached to the email). We were taken aback by the tone of the owner's email (very bossy-like). We discussed and agreed to accept the rules as we needed the place.

Something else about the place - the previous tenants' contract ended only at the end of January and we needed it from the beginning of January. However, the tenants wanted to move out early, so it was not going to be a problem. So, once we informed the agent that we accepted the rules, I asked which day we can start moving in. She then checked with the tenants and then confirmed that it will only be the end of January as the current tenants decided to stay till the end of their contract as their other flat option fell through! What a sinking feeling I had!

Immediately upon finding the latter info out, I contacted Al to let him know and ask him to let the 3rd person know. He then had a chat to his boss about it and his boss generously offered for us to possibly stay in a place he had that were not far from Tamboerskloof for the January month (interim period). This was not ideal (as moving twice in a short time is HECTIC), but at least we will have somewhere to put our things and also to stay without inconveniencing family and friends.

We decided we will look for another flat in the meantime that was hopefully available sooner and possibly nicer than the Tamboerskloof flat.

At the end of December we returned to Cape Town (Al went to George as well for a few days). Then, we started looking at other flats in earnest, but there were not many that suited our needs (price, size, area, etc.). Then, we found out that we cannot stay at Al's boss' place anymore as his daughter needed the place urgently. So, now we really had to scramble to find a place!

On Wednesday, 5 Jan 2011 we went to see a few flats at Skyways in Zonnebloem area. We eventually decided on 1 of the options (a 3 bedroom). We gave our details to the agent and then later the same day we got confirmation that we can have the place! This was excellent news as we can move in on that Friday already (we got extention from our landlady from the Newlands flat that we can stay till Sunday, 9 Jan 2011 at the Newlands flat, but had to be out by then - after explaining to her the situation of not having a place till Feb).

Then on Thursday we had to sign the contracts and pay deposits before we can get our keys for the flat to start moving in. Needless to say, we did all of that and started moving in on the Friday. We were moving up until Monday morning at 1:30'ish. I only had 4½ hours sleep before I had to go to work on the Monday 10 Jan 2011. It was NOT good as I do not function well on little sleep. It had to be done though and I survived!

Before we started to move in, we asked the ladies that cleans and also used to clean our flat to come in and help to get the new flat clean (it had a basic clean, but lots of things still needed a proper clean). This flat also has a cockroach problem that we need to get sorted out (we had the same problem at the Newlands flat before we moved in, but quickly got rid of the cockroach issue there and were rid of bugs at that place - now we had to do it all over again).

In the meantime I had to buy myself a bed as I did not own my own bed. We also had to buy a fridge and washing machine for the same reason. All this has been done!

As I said - this was the most frustrating moving experience in my life and I hope I never battle to find and secure a place again! Hopefully the next place will be cockroach free before we even move in!!!

That's all folks!