I have not written lately as I have been very sick but now I am not so bad. Soon after I arrived back in Australia I booked myself into a hospital where they found my heart condition had become much worse. The doctors would not let me go home for nine days, until they had my blood pressure, heart rate, sugar levels, and the level of a substance called warfarin into the normal range. They looked at my heart through a high tech machine and measured its action then told me my heart is operating at one fifth normal efficiency. That’s scary guys! I am going to be the most co-operative patient in the world from here on and take all of my pills every day, eat only healthy food, drink only healthy drinks (even water!) and walk and walk until my heart begins to function more normally and even after that take really good care of myself for the rest of my life.
The main effect on my life is tiredness. I am always at least a little tired. I have found myself a place to live and will move in but I have to ask family members to carry everything for me. I’m just not capable of doing it. If I lift something that would have been no trouble a couple of years back I find myself puffing and panting and having to sit down to get my breath back. There is no way I can take part in carrying furniture up stairs.
Fortunately I have an excellent family who are not only going to help me set up my new place and bring utilities (trucks) and trailers (no not caravans to live in, you Americans, box thingies towed behind a car to carry stuff), but they are giving me so much stuff I wonder where I am going to put it all. What a great new start I will have as I settle in to Australia again.
Australia has a great though often criticised Social Security system and I am eligible for disability support. It is basic but can sustain a person. My hope is to pick up work through the internet and earn as much as I can from home. I am not able to do full-time work but as my health improves through my new lifestyle I should be able to take on more, in stages as I become capable of maintaining the effort.
This blog might make some of you feel a little sad as I have been having a difficult time, however, I am on track for a better future. I will continue to blog and let all my friends who drop in here how I am going. Also I will blog for fun, giving comments and observations of what I see around me and what concerns me or gives me joy in the world.