redemption

Don's moving from fortnightly to bi-monthly pay.

Back in the day when I worked at the PalaceOfEvil (long before it merged with SoullessPalace to become SoullessPalaceOfEvil), we were paid bi-monthly AND IT WAS AWFUL. No more are you paid on the same day, sometimes you end up with 5 week months AND IT IS AWFUL for any sort of money management.

So we decided that rather than being responsible for paying a couple of bills each, we would become Grown-Ups and centralise and pay everything from our joint account (which is currently merely a waystation for amounts to transferred into our meagre internet savings account).

But, of course, we had to deal with the pain of changing over the account details for every payment.

I called the contents insurance company to make the direct debit change and the efficient customer service person (ECSP) I spoke to was pleasant, efficient and easy to deal with. While ECSP was updating the details, she asked if we'd acquired any additional artwork (ooooh! multi-tasking!). We had, but I wondered if it was worth adding to the specified items, and given the value, she encouraged me to do so. Unfortunately, due to extreme idiocy on my part (okay, possibly extreme un-health) I couldn't remember the details, but ECSP assured me I could phone back.

Engaging brain and using INTERNET (which may become INFORMATIONSUPERHIGHWAY) led me to the adorable and wonderful Jeni's site (go! buy some art from her!) and our piece.

Wanting to knock this over, and given that it was insurance renewal time, I called the insurance company to add abstract in red and blue to the specified items list.

That was THIRTY-EIGHT minutes of my life I am never getting back.

You'd think a simple addition to the policy would take less than 10 minutes (with wait time to get to an ECSP) and under ordinary circumstances, you'd be correct. But, h0ly goodness, the pain! This was one of the most difficult telephone conversations I've ever had ("no, honestly, I'm fairly confident I have specified items on the policy" <repeat>>&etc &etc).

I'm just fortunate that I can work while conversing and on hold for extended periods). Also (as you will see), I'm fortunate that I am super-polite and tolerant and understanding.

Westpac (the insurer in question) has a rather useful survey feature at the end of each call - you can punch in values for satisfaction with call outcome and whether you'd recommend Westpac to your friends/colleagues/randoms. Naturally, after the hell, I rated Westpac extremely lowly and left a message to the effect that I was rather displeased with the CSP I'd dealt with and that really it should not have to take THIRTY-EIGHT MINUTES to resolve my update and that I would not recommend them to anyone, ever.

Imagine my surprise when I received a phone call from 38M's supervisor! He had listened to the whole debacle (yay for "recording for training purposes"!) and wanted to apologise for everything, welcomed my feedback ("tell me she is new" " tell me she is putting me on hold to consult with other staff"), wanted to keep me as a customer and offered me my own personal insurance person!

Then, Cathy, my own personal insurance banker(!!!) called me and sympathised with the 38M debacle and sorted my issues and was lovely and efficient and emailed me and by golly, I don't bank with Westpac, but the fantabulous problem-resolution rather makes me want to ask Cathy how I can transfer all of our meagre savings and other dealings (and keep her as my main squeeze) to them!

A day later and I am still rather staggered as to the response! I rather think that this is what prosperous people must live like.

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now with more uterus

Today I visited the surgeon. He is Chief of Gynecology at Very Big Public Hospital and teaches at Very Reputable Sandstone University. His rooms are much less spectacular than those of my other gynecologist, but do feature interesting and appropriately, quite menstrual, artwork.

Serge (geddit?) listed a number of options and why they wouldn't really work in my circumstances. Essentially my options are surgery 1 (chopping Carlos and his merry band of fibriods [yes, I do anthropomorphise everything] out) or surgery 2 (complete ute removal). Risks rather similar, costs rather similarly hideously expensive. Despite his somewhat ditzy academic-ness, Serge did a brilliant job of explaining everything and answering questions, I felt confident the ute and I were in excellent hands.

So, decided this mint we're paying in Health Insurance should be good for something (plus dare not run the risk of shared ward at Very Big Public Hospital) and have booked surgery for 2 September in Small Private Hospital near Joan's haus.

I can decide up until the day before which option I'd like to go for. I'm leaning toward option 1, because, despite all the grief he causes me, I'm rather attached to my ute.

Whatever option I choose, I'll have roughly the same down-time: at least 3 weeks off work. There is an upside to being at TheSaltMinesLimited for all this time, I've got a bunch of sick leave accrued! Now I need to stockpile books, dvds and chocolate and buy some slippers.

After all this. I am having another glass of wine.

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our shame

For obvious reasons, our usual Wednesday/Thursday weekly shopping / Meal Planning was delayed until this weekend.

We'd done most of the planning, but were at a bit of a loss as to what to have this evening. After some thought, Don decided, after last night's masterchef he'd like to have a bash at Alvin's Drunken Chicken and Bruised Salad.

We did most of our shopping at Leichhardt in an attempt to avoid the zoo which is Broadway on the weekend. Unfortunately, due to an absence of shaoxing wine (for the chicken) at Leichhardt we ended up at Broadway anyway.

Harris Farm Markets were our shaoxing wine salvation and as we were scanning for the other ingredient we required for Alvin's dish, the woman standing next to us asked, "are you looking for dried shrimp to make a certain salad?"

I think our foodie wanker credentials should well and truly be revoked!

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Edited to add: While the chicken wasn't bad, we found it a bit too one-dimensional and wouldn't have it again. The salad, however, was absolutely sensational and will definitely get another outing.



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this is not the efficiency you are looking for

I promise this will be the last post about my uterus for a good while!

With referrals for a sonohysterogram (ultrasound) and surgeon in hand, I'd hoped to quickly and efficiently knock over both appointments next week and come out the other side with A Plan.

I called to organise the sonohysterogram and was informed that I'd need to wait until my next period started again because I was too late in the cycle.

After hearing this, I became slightly sonohysterical and sat at my desk sobbing quietly (fortunately my cube neighbours were elsewhere) because I really am terribly reluctant to repeat the last week EVER AGAIN.

I'm planning to make the appointment with the surgeon next week sans sonohysterogram, I'm hoping we can at least discuss Options.

Despite chowing down on iron, I'm still exceptionally, unattractively pale (unlike Joan, who is exceptionally, attractively pale) and still very weak (stupid stairs) - this is making me quite surly indeed.

There will be many steaks in my future.

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chop chop

Visited Gyno this afternoon. His rooms have utterly spectacular views over the Botanic Gardens, Harbour and Eastern Sydney. He has wonderful decor and some lovely art and is really a very nice man. Can totally recommend if you're looking - though he mostly focuses on the OB, rather than the GYN. So if you're knocked up, get yourself to Dr Morris.

Had a chat about the mirena and, because I had not seen him since I'd had the ultrasound (my GP being the one to take care of that) told him about my incident and fibroids. He was a bit dismissively "oh x% of women over 40 have fibroids" but seemed to think the mirena could have good results and that I may lose the period altogether (1 in 3 women do).

SQUEAMISH WARNING: YOU MAY WANT TO LOOK AWAY NOW.

Speculum in (shudder) and he asked, perplexed, "did I put your last IUD in?"
me: "you did"
Dr: "hmmmmm ... let's just stop this for a moment".

Then he grabs the ultrasound wandy thing, rolls it around on my abdomen and asks, "how big was that fibroid you mentioned?"
me: "well, there were a couple, but the biggest was 2cm"
Dr: "it's now 7cm"
me: "holy fuck! I only had the ultrasound in March, that can't be good".
Dr pales: "no, isn't very good, but that definitely explains that bleeding".

Upshot being, my ute is now quite distorted, the mirena would not make any difference, the big fibroid will probably keep growing at the same pace and the bleeding will get progressively worse.

I now have a referral to a surgeon to discuss My Options.

So, unfortunately, not really my salvation then.

Also, after that news, Don and I briefly interrupted out Dry July - just for this evening.

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the squeamish may want to move past this post

As it says on the tin, if you don't care for reading about girly-parts and associated ickiness then FOR THE LOVE OF HUMANITY, do not read any further.

So if you're following me on twitter, you'll probably be aware that I have been quite unwell for the past few days.

And, if you've been reading this blog, you're probably aware that I had my IUD removed and an then an ultrasound (you've all seen the pix) a few months ago for some horrible gynaecological issues which I refrained from horrifying you with at the time, but now, you get a glimpse into the unpleasantness (NOTE: THERE IS STILL TIME TO LOOK AWAY).

From the time my period started (when I was 10), I'd always had quite heavy periods, but I had kind of learned to live with the ickiness, pain and inconvenience.

However after I'd moved to a copper IUD for birth control, things got a whole lot heavier. I knew this was a known side effect, but hadn't quite realised how much worse it would become, but I learned to live with it after a fashion, although arranging your life around your menstrual cycle is kind of suckful (ensuring that, for around 5 days each month, I was never not within sprinting distance from a bathroom, because I'd need to visit at least hourly, lest I have a horrible accident). Other than that, the IUD was utterly, wonderfully fantastic as a birth control method (because hormonal birth control really does not care for me at all).

Then we completely lost our minds and started considering having a baby. This meant I needed to have the IUD removed and went on the pill while the baby decision was being made. Both my GP and my gyno were pretty sure that this would reduce the heaviness.

Sadly, the reduction didn't really happen.

Joan, in her wisdom, suggested I might have fibroids. Then around the same time I happened upon this ask metafilter thread and so very many of the descriptions in that thread sounded like those I suffered through that I mentioned my symptoms in extremely graphic detail (rather than my previous "my periods are quite heavy") to my GP. He was all, "you probably have fibroids, let's send you for an ultrasound". Hence the snapshots!

And guess what? I do have fibroids. A fair few of them as it turns out.

We tried stronger birth control pill in an attempt to manage it (the nuclear option of ute-removal was raised, I absolutely do not wish to go there) and things, while still heavy, were definitely easing off, of course there was a downside: those horrid hormones - I was enfattened, I was listless, I was choc-full of malaise.

Late last week, I decided I just could not bear the side effects of the pill any longer and, having done my research (thanks INTERNET!) arranged to have a mirena inserted at the end of this week.

In the interim on Sunday evening, a week after my period finished, all hell broke loose. From nowhere I experienced the most heavy, horrible bleeding I have ever had (well except for that time 12 years ago when I almost bled to death after a biopsy and was in hospital doped-up on morphine for a week).

It was(is) ghastly. I had to visit the bathroom 1/2 hourly, I went through 2 packets (64) super tampons and 3 packets of maternity pads in 3 days. I had to leave work on Monday for fear of bleeding all over the furniture. Poor Don thought I was going to die. Indeed, for a while there I thought I was going to die. Once again ask metafilter to the rescue, where the horrific accounts in this thread, calmed us a little - kittens indeed.

On Tuesday, my GP said it was definitely from the fibroids and all I could really do was ride it out until I saw the Gyno on Thursday afternoon. GP said I could go on an even stronger pill (much more malaise and I would be comatose), he said they wouldn't recommend hysterectomy because I was "much, much too young" I would need to be "around 40 for that to be a suggestion". I was like "errrr dude, I'm 42, remember?" - frankly this was the only upside in a rather dismal two days.

So I've been sitting/laying about mostly confined to the bedchamber and have bled and bled and bled and become increasingly paler (albino is me) and weaker (so that I can barely breathe after climbing the stairs) and bled some more.

So I'm rather hoping that tomorrow afternoon will see my salvation.

In the interim, I'm guzzling iron tablets.

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foodie bits

It is no secret that we are foodie wankers (^TMJoan), what with the WCoiC and 3 months of no-repeat meals and the food preserving and the hideously expensive, esoteric ingredients and the rancho farmo &etc. But we're really in the junior leagues compared to Glutton for Life, so many strange and wonderful ingredients that are just not available here (raw milk! scapes!), also rendering fat! making cheese! I really do wish I worked from home and could pop in and out of the kitchen all day making marvellous things (at least, I tell myself that I would make all manner of marvellous things, in reality though, I'd probably just waste time on INTERNET).

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I've long been really quite envious of the multitude of US bloggers with their CSA shares and the eatin2010 project has really rammed home how many vegetables we do not eat, seriously, I'm sure you've noticed there's a distinct lack of green among the multitude of pix. So I'm really kind of jazzed by food connect sydney! We do love a project and trying to incorporate random veggies into our menu sounds both awesome and challenging. We haven't committed to signing up yet, but will probably start with trial box in the next couple of weeks.

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While it could be argued that my food photographs (yes, I'm still taking them) for eatin2010 have a certain regimented, rigid (if non-green) charm, there'd be no end to my boasting if my food photographs remotely resembled those on What Katie Ate. Just so utterly gorgeous!

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Dry July is still going along peachily, but the lack of interesting non-alcoholic beverages is a bit of a Sad Trial. I already drink litres of water, utterly loathe soft-drink and herbal tea is beginning to lose its lustre. Don mentioned homemade lemonade and then by coincidence, these lovely photos appeared in google reader. We bought a bunch of lemons today and are planning to embark on syrup creation!

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Also, Oven fairies?! Utterly Genius Idea. I so want to organise a visit!

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cheer cheer

Dry July has turned football accompaniments from this:



To this:



Cast on just as we sat down and fortunately the basic simple lazy pattern is simple enough that I do not have to look at my knitting and could happily watch the game. It was delightful and relaxing, but makes me unsure how to juggle both beer and knitting at the next game in August.

Fifty minutes into the game today, a lone vuvuzela briefly sounded causing everyone to turn in their seats looking for the source. The owner, sensibly, showed remarkable restraint and did not use the instrument again. I wish the same could be said for the cardboard concertina clappers they hand out when entering the game, my ears are aching from the people behind us who were ceaselessly clapping, you really don't realise how horrid cardboard can sound until faced with these tools of satan.

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cast-offs

It is interesting to see the change in dynamic now Joan is more grown up. When she first moved out, we gifted (or fobbed off on) her quite a bit of stuff we no longer required (vacuum, ironing board &etc), and I'm always trying to press clothing or haushold items on her that I'm not using.

Now that she has been out of home for a good long while, the tables have turned quite a bit. Over moving weekend, we had quite a bit of the "why don't you take x, you could use it for y". I am helpless in the face of offers of anything and thus could not resist and, to Don's initial horror (he believes we have far too much stuff already), ended up with quite a haul.

Don was more pleased when I announced that for everything I was bringing in, I would be chucking out a similar object, for example, folding chairs replacing mouldy deck chairs on balcony, nice galvanised bin replacing the gutted-computer-monitor garden bin (which had definitely seen better days) &etc.

After living with the tabletop from old ikea table of Joan's perched atop our old coffee table for a week as a trial, we decided it was quite superior to what we'd been using and so yesterday I cut down the legs of Joan's table and Don attached new wee wheels to them.

As an aside, we've decided to try to avoid visiting Bunnings ever again, because 1. it is a madhaus and takes hours and hours to get in and out; 2. they have loads of cheap, breaky rubbish; 3. their staff are, in the main, completely indifferent to the products they sell.

Instead we're now patronising the local hardware store, where the staff are extremely knowledgeable and where they sell merch of amazing quality and which is less than 5 minutes away - yesterday we picked up a saw, wee wheels and screws and the whole operation was quick, painless and all-round delightful.

Back to the table ... I love to saw and the new saw cut through the legs like butter, it was amazing! Again proving that quality tools are definitely superior - makes me want to run out and refit the whole toolbox.

Now we have a table that looks a great deal better and is the perfect size for board games!





Incidentally, if you're thinking of buying the 25th Anniversary Edition of Trivial Pursuit, I would recommend not. The questions vary between disappointing and appalling (television questions in the history category! and that was just the beginning). We're now in search of an old-skool version.

I also gave Joan my cheap, small ironing board and received my old, enormous one back, added a replacement cover and now the laundry is full of circles.



A dismantled butcher's block cart remains in the garage just waiting for me to find a use for it.

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summary

Am alive.

Joe/Frank is at his dad's.

Helped Joan move over the weekend. Her new flat is lovely and in a much more salubrious locale - she even has water glimpses.

Completed and posted the first Mom hat.

I have horrid cold - which struck me just as I was passing Harold Park trots on Tuesday evening while ferrying J/F to the suburbs. I was feeling perfectly fine, if not a little tired, and then BAM! it was as if there were razor blades in my throat.

Dry July is going along really nicely. Yay for us.

Salary letters handed out yesterday, according to DishyBoss, I was one of 3 people to get a greater than CPI increase - because I am awesome. No, really. Awesome.

Two "redundancies" at TheSaltMinesLimited on Tuesday (we like to sack people by giving them lots of money to go away). One caused much delight as she's the most unpleasant person I have ever had the misfortune to even be in the same building as.

Normal transmission will resume at some point in the not-too-distant future when I'm feeling a smidge more human.

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