Townsvlle September 2013, last weeks

September 7^th, Federal Election Day, I’m confident predicting a Liberal win and Tony Abbot will be our new Prime Minister tonight. Our Caravan Park put on their “end of season” dinner tonight for all Park guests, who wished to attend. The theme was Italian, so we had Spaghetti Bolognaise with garlic or herb bread and finished with fresh fruit salad, cream and icecream. It was also a fund raiser for Motor Neuron Research, so we had lucky door prizes, Raffles and, something we had never seen before, Card Draw Raffle. This is how it worked. You bought a paddle for a dollar, the paddle had a playing card glued to both sides, so they had 26 paddles in each draw. Then from a standard pack of 52 playing cards, someone would be asked to cut the pack and turn it over and that card was the winning card. The holder of the paddle with that card then claimed the prize. I won a small nylon sports pouch in that game and that was our only prize for the night. One of the prizes was a battery operated men’s “Nose, Ear and Eyebrow Trimmer” and Graham gave one to Val for me. It was a great evening all round.

September 9^th, Last night, after my shower, Val noticed that the dressing on my right shin was showing some seepage, so I rang the Clinic and made an appointment for 2.15pm to have it re-dressed, even though I was to get the stitches out on Thursday, and this is Monday. When they removed the dressing, I was sitting up, so this was the first time I had seen my operation. I was shocked to see that the centre of my operation, where the cancer had been cut out looked to me to be “mush”. That’s the only way I could describe it. As the Nurse was putting on the new dressing she assured me that I would be surprised to see how much better it would look in a few more days. I went home via the Shopping Centre, to pick up Val, and told her I was going to be sitting down again, feet up and letting my leg have the best chance to heal. I must admit that I was feeling so good that I had started to do a lot more for myself.

September 11^th, The longer we stay here the hotter the weather is getting. We know that occasionally there is a really hot day in Sydney but up here it is every day. Judy and Peter invited us around for “Happy Hour” at 4.30pm, as they were going home to Mackay for 4 days but leaving their Van here and we will keep an eye out for them. We had 2 new arrivals come in behind us (Robin and Carol, Janet and John) staying for a week, so we invited them to join us.

September 12^th, I dropped Val at The Willows Shopping Centre and then went on to my 12.30pm appointment at The Skin Cancer Clinic. I was very pleased to see that my operation wound was a 100% better than last Monday. They took all the stitches out and re-dressed my shin. It still has a bit of healing to happen, so I’ve got another appointment for next Thursday, when they will check it and they hope to be saying good-bye to me. All going well we will be leaving Townsville on the 25^th September. After I got back to The Willows we had lunch, Val picked up her new glasses from Specsavers and we headed home.

September 14^th, My operation isn’t causing me any problems and I’m fed up with sitting around, so it’s time to do some proper sightseeing. I drove into Town and picked up a few brochures from the Information Centre, then walked along Flinders Street checking out the old “Heritage’ buildings. Like most country Towns, Townsville has kept a lot of their old buildings in good order and now house new businesses. There are some exceptions see photo. I ended up at the Cultural Centre, the Aboriginal Art on show was very good, and The Museum of   I know, Tony Abbot did it when he visited Townsville recently.

Tropical Queensland was expensive, so just looked around their souvenir shop. I walked back up Town to the car and went home for lunch. We went for an afternoon scenic drive and ended up at Castle Hill Lookout. What panoramic views out over Townsville, awesome in fact. We were fascinated by the number of people who walk or jog up to the top of Castle hill.

September 19^th, Went to the Skin Cancer Clinic today for a redress and everything is going along as expected. They want to do a last dressing change next Tuesday, before we leave on Wednesday.

September 22^nd, I went to the Townsville Museum after lunch only to find out that it was closed. I wasn’t too happy and was sure that this was the 3^rd Sunday in the month, as I had looked t up on the Calendar. This Museum is run by the Historical Society, so maybe they couldn’t get a volunteer to man the place today.

September 24^th, I dropped Val off at Castletown Shopping Centre and went on to the Skin Cancer Clinic for my final dressing. Once again they were happy with my progress but the wound would still need dressings for the next couple of weeks. I said, no problem, Val will handle that. I called into the Townsville Museum and found out that the reason that they were not open last Sunday, was that it was the 4^th Sunday in the month, not the third. This month had 5 weeks in it, so how foolish was I? I had a long chat with them about Townsville, 50 years ago, hoping to recall where I lived back then as so much has changed, as you would expect. I went back to the Shopping Centre and we bought the dressings needed to redress my shin, then headed home to pack up ready to leave in the morning for Airlie Beach.

Townsville September 2013, weeks 2 - 3

August 22^nd, Went to the Skin Cancer Clinic this morning and had a small cancer cut out of my left shoulder, 2 stitches, no problem. The results from the biopsy taken from my right shin had came back as nasty and will require cutting out. After discussing my operation with the Head Doctor, it was decided that a skin graft would not be required. The method would be to cut out the cancer by removing a 20 cent sized piece, then doing a scallop cut diagonally across my shin, just through the skin, both on the top and bottom of the area removed and that will allow sufficient loose skin to pull together and sew up. So I will end up with a 15cm long scar, lucky me! After trying to frighten me with the possible recovery problems due to the bad circulation in my lower legs, I was given an appointment for next Thursday morning for the operation at the Clinic. The Doctor also prescribed Efudix Cream to be used on my forearms and forehead, to remove the numerous sun spots on those areas. The forearms are to be treated one at a time for 3 weeks each then the forehead for 6 weeks and from what I’m told I’m not looking forward to that.

August 25^th, I’ve spent the last few days, since my visit to the Skin Cancer Clinic, to do a few jobs around the van, while I was still able to walk. I even washed the car!! We went to the Sunday markets today, as Val is able to pick up produce for her Jams and pickles at a good price. She has been doing well with sales, so now the job for us is to keep producing.

August 26^th, We ducked out this morning to do a bit of shopping at Woolworths, where the strawberries were “on special”. After we got back home, Val was looking for our chopping board, to get on with her cooking. Val looked high and low, then remembered that when she had finished using it yesterday, she washed it off and put it out front to dry in the sun. So after looking out front and no sign of it, I said “where did you put it to dry”, and she said “on the back of the car”. To clarify that, the chopping board was sitting on the towbar and resting against the back of the car, would you believe it, I couldn’t. So the chopping board could be anywhere between home and the Supermarket. I didn’t think it would really be far away, as there are a few speed humps in the Park before you get to the front road. So I went looking and was surprised to find it in the middle of Ingham Road, having been run over by numerous cars and trucks. Ingham road is an extremely busy road and it can take quite a while to get a break in traffic so that you can get out of the Caravan Park. A new chopping board is now on our Shopping List.

August 29^th, Val came to the Clinic this morning for my 8.45am appointment. The operation took just over an hour, all went well, and after making an appointment for stitch removal in 2 weeks, Val drove us home. My instruction were to, sit down, leg up , keep wound dry and do as little moving as possible, for the first few days. Only take Panadol for pain, if needed.

September 1^st, Fathers Day. We drove into the Flinders Street Markets and Val did her Shopping while I sat in the car and read my book. We allowed 1 ½ hours for the Markets before we were due for our Booking at The Brewery, for my Father’s Day Lunch, organized by our Family in Sydney. The Brewery Building was originally the main Post Office, so is one of those old buildings with high ceilings and lots of ceiling fans, which made the inside temperature very pleasant. When we were shown to our table, there was a Father’s Day Gift, from The Brewery, of a bottle of their own Townsville Beer, a nice surprise. Today’s menu was an all day brunch, so I had a sausage, eggs, bacon, chips, salad and toast plate and Val went for a Pizza, all with some nice wine. The food was great but they didn’t have a dessert menu, unless I wanted pancakes. We moved on from The Brewery to Jupiter’s Casino where we had our dessert and coffee, some more wine and a flutter on the Pokies. We walked out with $40 in our pocket, so didn’t lose on the day. This is only the 3^rd day after my leg operation and I was beginning to feel that I had overdone it a little but there was no way that I wasn’t going to have and enjoy my Father’s Day and I did. Then it was back home, to sit down, feet up, etc. How boring!

September 5^th, I drove myself down to the Skin Cancer Clinic today, to have the stitches removed from my left shoulder and to get my right leg operation re-dressed. The Doctor was very happy with my progress and instructed me to keep doing the same until next Thursday, when they will remove the stitches from my leg.