Back in the Northern Territory.

In a literary sense; after all I am a Lit/Eng teacher, this past week should be called ‘the hounds of hell nipping at our feet while we bravely laugh in their faces’.

Friday 25^th October Nick and I along with George left Adelaide for Darwin at 8.40am; well we attempted to do so and finally succeeded. I dropped Nick off at The Memorial Hospital and drove to Adelaide airport, booked in our bags, picked up seat tickets etc. and waited for a wheel chair assisted taxi, a son and husband. None turned up with my loved ones; I paced the airport car park in 9 C weather with wind chill factor way below my comfort zone. I wore jeans, walking shoes, a cotton long sleeved shirt and light weight jerkin – I was going to Darwin heat 35C no breeze humidity 100%!!!!!. A missed phone call from the hospital alerted me to catastrophe, to be told they had left already, more pacing inside and out, it kept me warm, another missed call – stupid phone sound were on mute – what idiot did that, highest call sound phone in jeans pocket. Phone call from Nick – taxi did not come Dad back in hospital stay there hospital trying to get us on next flight at 12.30pm. Drank a very large hot chocolate and ate some gluten free thingy and waited after getting baggage off earlier flight and cancelling tickets explaining the problems. Wait, all travel done through Department of veterans Affairs in Brisbane QLD, they are on normal summer time, SA is on daylight savings time, NT on Central Australian time and we had to wait till officers were opened, all a difference of 90 minutes to QLD and 30 mins to the NT.

Pacing now with a luggage trolley loaded with 3 peoples bags in my left hand, a wheel chair loaded with my computer bag and handbag in  y left and now pacing at 11.30 at the taxi rank, just ready to morph into a monster and start ripping heads off taxi drivers. The men arrive, dad in his wool jumper, beany and jeans, yes warm, me now covered up in my purple hoody that I extricated from one of our bags son Nick took one look and laughed out loud. Got to new airline counter to be told we did not have wheel chair access, Nick lost the plot, counter man took pity on us and we were given up front second row seats with wheel chair access. Quite impressive performance when Nick gets frustrated in public. Toileting and lunch 10 minutes to go to our early boarding and they tell me Dad has had a fall to the floor that morning. I sat stunned then segued into an interrogator of M16 standard. In retrospect I should have cancelled the flight and returned to the hospital but I didn’t and we boarded and performed contortions to get us into the second row seats, one unable to move without aid from 2 people, but with some kind airline people we made it. I then had Nick tell me everything that had happened in sequence as I prepared a report in my head to DVA and the hospital.

Darwin, heat, humidity, taxi, family and hospital, home; I logged in George’s fall and asked for a doctor who came and examined him, got Panadol and helped him settle in, he looked dreadful and I think my heart was about to stop from fear. I still cannot write about it within crying. Back in early Saturday morning to find he had woken in the night screaming in pain from leg cramps and had to be held in a shower and then sedated to help him relax. More doctor talk from all of us, the two sons stayed guard all day and I took over that night. Sunday I took first visit and met the physiotherapist who I had taught at Katherine High School years ago, made me feel very old, and spoke very firmly to staff about reading his medical reports before asking him to get out of his wheel chair which he cannot currently do. I used a tone of voice I learned in the Army and it worked, with a semi smile but with tone. Family came, tablets worked, church members came and we all laughed a lot recounting silly things such as the Monty Python team act George put on after we woke from his operation. All feeling better, exhausted but calmer, me only crying on occasions when no one is around or talking on the phone to sympathetic DVA staff members

Monday what rolled out and the subsequent 4 days was something that Patton’s 5^th Armoured Corp could have emulated. Physio, medical help for pneumonia that we didn’t know he had, support from DVA and other organisations, visits to chemo and radiation, daughter Thea and granddaughters Holly (10) and Tahlia (8) flew in on Thursday. A car crash on Friday after a storm as another car slide into the back of my car, the washing machine finally dying and me steaming into a shop to buy a new one, Goy (daughter in law) and I ripped apart the boxing and installed it and love using it. Family all talking at once, phone calls from others joining the debate(s); just seeing George respond to physio and now able to move with the aid of a walker to bath and toilet and care for himself as he wants to do-  Heaven !!!

George home – by the end of the month all going well with a 12 week intensive support system in place, chemo and radiation treatment for 6 of those weeks.

Today is Sunday and after church I make a load of hot scones, with jam and cream and we all troop into the hospital to eat them with father. Activities that are part of our memories of 43 years, comfort, safety and lots of laughter, in other words -Family history.

pathology report

The pathology report is in and after speaking with Dr Vrodos yesterday George has grade 4 glioma blastioma, which means he has about 11 months to live. He is having more intensified physiotherapy to help his coordination and he will be transferred to Darwin sometime this week for further hospitalisation and physiotherapy. Once there he will undergo radiation treatment and perhaps chemotherapy, the oncologist we saw before in Darwin will advise on this. Dr Vrodos informed me he will have a leap in better health then a plateau stage before deterioration and the need for palliative care. My youngest son Kieran and I knew this information on Wednesday evening but waited till the pathology report was in to start to tell others.

Our daughter Sam was there and added some insightful questions and later in a phone call some observations about how to talk to dad about this and his reaction, after the doctor left all the family left to talk about this between themselves and I was gifted with a quiet time to tell George and come together as the spirit children we are. We both cried, and then this great man I married said his wishes for the next 11 months are to celebrate our family life together. We talked about his decision some years ago to know the Saviour and his lack of fear as he approaches him.

Sitting at my friend’s house in Beaumont, I thought how incredibly blessed we were; we currently have daylight savings here and spring has bloomed in Adelaide and the hay-fever tablets are selling like hotcakes. Because it was such a balmy evening my friend's giant German shepherd dog, named appropriately 'Rommel' was doing his best to herd me towards the gate for a walk. I am ever obedient to a higher power structure so we walked and he smelt every bush and twig and tree in a beautiful garden housing area; however he missed the dead possum half way across the Common much to my relief. While walking I talked to my Father in Heaven about the gifts he has given me, especially the time in 2011 when I was able to introduce George to his sister Jean and her husband John. Then yesterday I was able to "put off the world" and become spirit children having a human experience on the way to a Celestial world. I am humbled beyond mere words for these experiences.

B DAY operation

George had a successful operation going in at 2pm Tuesday, Dr Vrodos rang me just before 6pm to say I could visit in 30 minutes. The Critical Care unit nurses and Doctor were very supportive as son Kieran and I approached, they said he had woken up asking for me and when we gently woke him again he entertained us with 'Monty Python' type quips and wanting to learn Tatum?? and Tagalog so he could tease the nurses. We put it down to the drugs he was hooked into. I did suggest he could go back to learning about and using computers to be told he wanted to do something useful. So that part of the brain is intact!!! The staff gave him physical responses to meet with holding hands and push pulling on hands and feet and the difference was remarkable  from before the operation. It looked as if he had regained a lot of control over the left side of his body.

I meet with the neurosurgeon this afternoon Wednesday during his rounds for more information and we all wait on the pathology report.

Thank you all for your support, prayers and words of comfort.

BRAIN SURGERY IN ADELAIDE SA.

George and I will be flying down to Adelaide tomorrow, George will be admitted that afternoon to The Memorial Hospital North Adelaide. I will be staying in a friends house about 6 klms away, which is a great blessing to us.

On Monday George will have a G.P.S. guided MRI of his brain, sounds kind of exciting we thought, then Tuesday afternoon he will be operated on by Dr Nick Vrodos and Dr Sandler, he will have a specialist anesthetist in attendance because of his lung condition. Dr Vrodos said that he needs to excise the 2 gliomas as George's quality of life without their removal would deteriorate rapidly. He is expected to stay in hospital for one week then have rehabilitation for a further 2 weeks. Kieran our youngest son will fly down Tuesday and stay with me, daughter Samantha will arrive with partner and 3 children on Thursday after driving over from Melbourne. Youngest daughter Kim, husband Kerrin and two small children are flying in tomorrow thanks to Kerrin's boss generosity in paying for their flights both ways. Daughter Thea is still in Europe and son Nick in Houston, we communicate by phone daily and skype.

We are all in good spirits though I found the need to have a Thai massage this afternoon, now all my aches are reminding me that the Thais are the same as Chinese massages I have had - designed to remove my pin number by torture!!!!

I will keep you up to date as events progress.

God bless

DAD'S BEEN DECOMMISSIONED

George is out of Darwin Private Hospital and home with us, as we were packing up at the hospital he made one of those famous 'Dad comments' about life, work and family, I laughed and said that he was now decommissioned and life had changed for him and us.This provoked funny comments from daughter Sam, dad and myself about his decommissioning and images of Naval docklands with rotting hulks. This morning he said his brain was now a 2.5 cc whipper snipper and that produced sound effects from Sam and a wry comment from me of did he really think  he went as high as 2.5?
The Shaw sense of humour an outlook on life is alive and kicking back in the face of a serious situation. As son Kieran said "I don't do sad unless I'm drunk" or his football team losers the final game to Melbourne AFL Club.
George has been diagnosed with a glioma tumor on his parietal lobe with a secondary one closer to the top of his head. We see the neurosurgeon this coming Thursday 10th at 6pm. The treating doctor at the hospital said that he would require a biopsy which will be carried out in Adelaide, South Australia. Further treatment will depend on the biopsy results but may include radiation treatment here in Darwin NT. More information will come to us at the next doctors appointment on Thursday.

As Sam and son Jacob are here with us at present we have them in our bedroom and George and I are in my office, me in the single bed and father on a two layer futon mattress beside me, the first night when I stood up to head out to the bathroom at about 2am I forgot about the futon and nearly toppled over onto George, though asleep he twitched and moved in his sleep showing his sense of survival was awake and looking after him, 'old soldiers never sleep properly' as a friend once told me. I must admit the NT News headline of elderly man with brain tumor killed in sleep by wife falling on him did have me giggling in the bathroom for some time.
DAD and SAM

This day will affect the rest of your life, those thoughts came into my head as I drove home from Darwin Private hospital yesterday afternoon.
Wednesday evening in ER at Darwin Hospital we were told that George had what appeared to be a tumor on his brain and would be staying in for more tests. I remember sitting in my car at 11.16 and ringing son Nick in Houston (he was actually in Colorado at work). I was stunned. I emailed work and set up relief teaching. Went to bed, talked to my Heavenly Father for awhile.
Thursday George was still in ER as there were no beds in the main hospital or private wards and it was chaos, so much noise, but oh how I admire and respect the medical people working there. Such diversity, intensity, and ongoing admittance to their care.
Early afternoon we were informed by Dr Murrow that there was a tumor on the back, left side of his brain and he showed us the cat scan images. We talked about symptoms and I remember laughing because I now had something to hang George's erratic behaviour on, it wasn't him, it wasn't a marriage gone stale after 42 years, it wasn't Alzheimer's disease, it wasn't old age and ASD behaviour worsening it was a tumor. YES!!! Rang and told children, usual Shaw uproar, always before acceptance and then intelligence. Emailed family and close friends, hated sending that news, just hated doing that, wanted to be there with them to give a hug and a gentle message of hope and love, to comfort them.
NO!!!! but yes a tumor.
I managed it through the rest of the day, my emotions, stunned was the predominate emotion followed by relief. Rang school, couldn't think, couldn't plan relief lessons. My head of department emailed me, she had it all in hand, such admiration for Kate and relief. Sleep with the help of half a sleeping tablet. Phone seemed to never let up, Home teachers gave George a blessing, District President Steve Bond visited him in hospital now in the Oncology ward in Royal Darwin
Friday, my emotions everywhere, all kids upset. I swore at Nick who hit "Nicksville' and would not listen, always wanting to McDonald speed fix anything. He rand back and we both apologised. George wanting out, dressed, packed ready to go to be told that he had a bladder infection and would be staying. A catheter and liquid drip later a very unhappy husband gave in, ate his lunch and some jelly lollies I bought him from the canteen and started on reading my kindle. I drove home, ate, sat and talked to Goy, talked to kids and friends. Slept,washed clothes, slept, read, talked to Heavenly Father. Goy, Kieran and the boys visited dad in hospital he is now in the Darwin Private hospital.
Saturday visited, was told to go home and rest by George. Took him the Saturday papers to read, jelly lollies and new bath gear as he had left everything in Royal Darwin hospital. The specialist saw him and gave a battery of tests, told he will be medic-vacated to Adelaide for the biopsy and what else comes from there. MRI scan on Monday, Samantha and Jacob arrive Monday from wintry Melbourne to sunny tropical Darwin same day.

I am sitting on the bed in a two story home in Las Vegas, home of Darcy Bevans sister Darla and her husband John. It is winter and a cold day but with sun shining, I did not take a walk this morning instead read some more if my book about the American war of Independence. George gently snored beside me. We arrived Saturday night and were picked up by Darcy's brother Kim, who then promptly got lost getting us back to the house here, an interesting way to see LV. Sunday was church, then meeting and greeting family and a huge roast turkey and ham meal for dinner. Monday we went to Cosco and a craft shop. I bought lots of beads and a bead book and Darcy tried every give away food going, came out noy needing lunch.watched a documentary on the Civil War then cae to bed early to read for me and sleep for George who has developed a cold.I feel peaceful and gappy beingwith firm friends and involved in their big family.