Opinion Australia

As I said in one of the comments, one of my friends suggested I get an Epipen *now* because there may be no time to think if this happens again.

I rang the doctor first thing and went round straight away. After *again* thanking her for saving me, I explained what Sue had said and of course she agreed 100%.

She had a bit of a tussle with the Pharmaceutical Benefits Board (PBB) to get permission to prescribe it, but persuaded them it was better that I had it and not need it than *didn’t* have it and died. They allowed me *one* pen and said I had to have the level of risk assessed properly by an Allergy Cliic so I’m ringing up the local hospital to make an appointment.

So… at least pro-tem I’ve a little more protection and at least in the meantime I’m not in quite as much danger as I apparently was.

She also suggested from now on I go in for some risk reduction… for example when I do gardening wear gloves long trousers and a long sleeved shirt…. and Aeroguard (Deet) as well I assume.

Before I use this pen (though God forbid I ever do need to of course) I need to learn how it works or there is a *very* real danger of losing a thumb!! Seriously… adrenalin is a vasoconstrictor and as the needle just pops out of an end… so if you hold it the *wrong* way up and inject… up you could *easily* get gangrene in the thumb and lose a digit!!

Actually, the Epipen site has a video available to instruct you on its use so I’ll find it tonight and watch it.

Anyway… that’s that for now. Except that I think I’ve still got some delayed shock going on as I’m falling apart again… but I think I’ll survive.

So there I was… really gung ho about clearing up the garden. Yesterdays task was to trim the Jasmine and get it under control so it stops attempting to strangle us as we pass it. I was merrily chopping away at it with a pair of shears… when I got stung by a paper wasp defending it’s nest! Ouch!
After leaping about I went inside, got some ‘Stingose’, sprayed it orund my hand and went back to work muttering to myelf. Ten minutes later I get stung *again* by a different wasp… the first one had died in a cloud of fly spray.

Back in for more Stingose…and I gve up. It’s time again for picking up the eldest kid. As I leave I tell the old man… my back feels really itchy… maybe an ant crawled up my trousers… well… it happens.

Up towards the school I drive… getting itchier all the time and my arms are coming up in huge welts. I get to the school and my heart is now pounding and I’m feeling woozy. Not to worry I say to myself… I’ll get home and take an antihistamine… that’ll sort me out..

Five minutes later I’m SMS’ing the wife telling her I feel dire… then I ring the old man who suggests I visit the doc on the way home… just in case.

The daughter arrives… and I’m falling apart. Somehow I drive the 15 mins back towards home. We make it to the doctors with her chatting away in the back keeping me awake. I get inside the docs… and collapse on the counter keeping just enough wits about me to tell them I had been stung twice and needed a little help.
Not sure of the time scale here… but I think the recepionist rushes of for the doc who immediately (it seems) jabs an adrenalin shot into me. By now my insides feel as it they are a towel being wrung out by someone and I’m tied in knots. With what’s left of my mind I’m saying goodbye to the world and feeling bad that I’m dropping dead in front of my 10 year old daughter.
The adrenaline does its job and my mind starts to clear a little… I start to come back from the black… ten mins later I get a shot of hydrocortisone… and I begin to think I might live after all (which of course I did or I’d not be here).

I recall saying thank’s to the doctor for seeing me so quickly… she said “Thanks for saving your life you mean?”… “That too!” says I.
From the docs to the chemist… from the chemist home… collapse in a chair in the dark… then go to bed and hardly moved all night. Left everyone to their own devices. I was still in shock, feeling dreadful and realising just *how* close I was to dying.

This morning I’m still woozy. My head is thumping and my hands are still swollen. All else seems ok as far as I can tell. The lumps on my arms have gone, and me head is fairly clear… as clear as ever it was I suppose… but I was *very, very* lucky. For example, had my father not suggested going to the docs I might well have gone straight home… and that would have been fatal… literally.

Still, all’s well that ends well. I think on the basis of this I might go ask the doctor for a prescriotion for an epipen so that in the unlikely event of this recurring I’d be able to get help until I reach hospital.

I’ve no idea *why* this allergy kicked in now… nothing like this has happened before… but I’m damn sure I hope it never does again! Having said that… if you *have* to go (as we all must eventually) then this was a remarkably quick and painless way to go so I’m not knocking it too hard

Hey… maybe *now* is the time to go buy a lottery ticket?

David Hicks appeared in court and pleaded guilty to aiding terrorism.

The show trial was the culmination of years of torture, illegal incarceration and political machinations designed solely to find him guilty of… something.

In fact David had little choice but to plead guilty. The charges were formulated and made retrospective *exactly so they *would* cover things he might have done. And after 5+ years solitary confinement in a dog kennel almost anything would be preferable to what he’s been going through… except that is, for more of it.

Just one thing… if John Howard thinks this will get him off the hook with ‘us the people’, he had better think again. Nobody will forgive him for abandoning an Australian in time of peril.

We are all ashamed of John Howard’s behaviour.

Spent the morning in the garden hacking, pulling, weeding, chopping and the like… and this is on just one small part of the garden… just outside the front door.

At the moment I’m in the mood for a tidy… so I decided I would start at the front, work over the side, the pool area and back… and *then* maybe I’l feel more like fixing the house.

Basically I got sick of doing ‘bits’ of organising and figured if I concentrate my efforts on one bit at a time I might actually end up *doing* the place instead of just messing here and there. Still loads to do…. but it’s tidy outside around the front at least:D

And… just to round things off…I mowed ahead of the rain… which in the end didn’t arrive… grrr.

As said the kids went off to a Guide Camp for the weekend and a good time was had by both as far as we can tell. Into bed at midnight first night… 3:00 a.m. on the second… geez!

Loads of fun falling in lakes, doing archery, sliding across valleys on flying foxes and sitting around eating and singing. Nice to be young� eh?
It rained of course. We are in the middle of a desperate drought so what else would it do?

In fact even when we picked them up it rained. Was almost dry all day… and the heavens opened *just* as the buses pulled up to drop the kids off. You wouldn’t bet on it!!

What was even sillier was that whilst on Sunday the temperature was down around 35ºC by Saturday the temperature had dropped 19ºC… which after Sunday was pretty chilly! This is what a ‘cool Southerly’ does for us. Looks like winter has arrived early.