There is so much that has happened over the past three weeks and I don't intend to re-live it. I'm just going to touch on the key points:
- It was Eddie's 60th birthday today in Sydney, with Margrit holding a surprise lunch. I had planned to head down, but some other things happened during the week, which made it impossible to achieve. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ED!!
- The kids went back to school for third term. Gabi has a new classroom and teacher. She seems to be settling ok with the changes.
- Ben has started to get a little more physically involved in his AFL. He was very impressive, winning the team's Player of the Match Award on the weekend. The down-side was that his team were thrashed 120-7.
- One of my work colleagues built a skateboard for Ben and he and his son started to teach Ben to skate. Unfortunately Ben has sustained some injuries trying different tricks at skateparks (which I'm becoming accustomed hanging around - I may be making my own purchase soon to get involved), mostly on his scooter as he only has had a single lesson on the board. He has sustained some injuries (because he thinks he's too cool to wear his padding, which he is now seeing the value in). He is currently carrying a pretty banged up knee from an accident yesterday, which also led to a very bloody nose and mouth. He has bounced back and worked through the pain today, but seizes up when he cools down at home. The icepacks have been getting a good workout.
- Both kids have caught different viruses and infections, but both are well at present.
It was scary for me as it started to make me think about what would happen with the kids if I wasn't around. It also created fear in the kids and brought back a flood of memories of discussions we had had throughout Maria's illness. That is, they started asking all the hard questions such as what would happen if I needed an operation or died.
God had timed things well as a dear friend (who is a nurse) was coming over to collect some excess milk to pass on to another family so she was able to take my blood pressure and pulse. The BP was fine and I had an ectopic pulse, but as I don't normally take my pulse, it wasn't necessarily anything to worry about. I was able to follow up with the GP by SMS on Sunday and visit her on Monday. She felt even before we saw each other that there may be a few events occurring simultaneously, but didn't feel the heart was part of it. She sent me off for tests (ECG, bloods and a Helicobacter test) more to rule things out and as part of a thorough health check, which I haven't had for quite a while. My GP felt it could be more like Costochondritis with some unrelated indigestion or reflux. I was hoping for the results by the end of the week. Nothing came. Perhaps no news is good news???
I've had some massive lower back pain in the last few days and put it down to too much time in chairs at work or home (work on all fronts).
To add insult to injury, this morning while preparing breakfast I managed to pierce my finger to the bone with my sharpest knife. Although deep, fortunately it wasn't too wide so I was able to finally stemmed the bleeding and tape the wound shut to prevent a hospital visit. We then met up with dear friends and walked around the lake (while Ben, Gabi and their kids scootered/rode).
It's now over a week since the initial chest incident. I have some soreness in the chest around the sternum cartilage area, a bit of heartburn and a very tender finger, but nothing that has bothered me too much. I have felt quite stress-free (thanks to the very small group of people I consulted for prayer over this issue).
