26 July, 2018

July's letter


Mrs Jo-Anne Meadows
P O Box 253
Warners Bay
NSW 2282
Thursday 26th July 2018

Dear..................

Hello my friend, hope life is treating you good, I have had a rough week but things are looking up at the moment. School has gone back this week and both Blain and Leo seemed happy to go back to school. It is a warm day if you are in the sun but it is pretty cold inside my house.

Last Monday the 16th in the afternoon around 3pm my sister Sandra rang to let me know that she had to ring the ambos for mum as she was suffering delirium again. I then get another call from her at 4pm while I was in the bath, when I noticed it was Sandra I rang her back and she answered but didn't speak, I could hear her talking to someone about resuscitating mum. It was upsetting to hear and Sandy hung up without speaking to me and she rang back a couple of minutes later and all she said was you need to come here now.

I rang Natasha in a state as I had no car and needed someone to drive me to the hospital, as I was crying and a blubbering mess she had no idea what was wrong all she knew was her mummy needed her. She came straight over and drove me to the hospital and I rang both Kathy-Lee and Jessica as well and of course Tim each call I was a blubbering mess.

When I arrived at the hospital they were getting ready to put mum on a ventilator aka life support they had no idea what was wrong with her and still have no idea what was wrong with her. I stayed at the hospital till around 9pm and only left because I was finding it difficult to stay awake and function. The social worker at the hospital was surprised to see 13 people in the waiting room not just that there was so many of us there and that we all seemed to like each other, which we do.

At around 1am she was transferred to a different hospital as the John Hunter Hospital didn't have an ICU bed available. She was on a ventilator till Wednesday morning and the first thing she asked the doctor after they removed the ventilator was when could she go home.

The ICU doctor was amazed to see 10 people in the waiting room on Tuesday morning when he came to explain what was going on with mum and most of the staff were surprised that every day mum had so many visitors. Her kidneys had stopped working and her heart-rate was only 25 beats per minute and her blood pressure was so low it was non-existent that is how sick she was.
On Wednesday afternoon mum was moved to a ward and was starting to get around on her own, she was discharged yesterday and is glad to be home, in the end the doctors thought she may have over dosed on some of her medication. Although they really don't know what caused all her problems but what was most important is that she has gotten better.

Then on Saturday morning Sandra rings to tell me she had to ring the ambos for dad as he wasn't able to get out of bed and was unable to breath when he tried to get up to go to the toilet. So he gets taken to the John Hunter Hospital and for the second time in a week Sandra had give permission to resuscitate a parent.

Dad was in hospital Saturday & Sunday and was discharged on Monday as well so now both my parents are home and continuing to improve, although they both think dad was discharged too early as he still isn't good.

When my mum was in hospital Leo was concerned about how my dad was coping when I told both dad and mum about Leo's concern they were both touched. Leo is a very loving and caring boy.

I didn't attend my sister's 50th because on the day I was sick as and in fact spent most of the day in bed and I was glad that Tim was home and able to take care of Leo.

Speaking of Leo reminds me his mum has sold her car, she decided to get rid of it for two reasons, one she is trying to raise money for dental work and two her car had an oil leak that she couldn't afford to repair. She was up front with the people she sold it to about the oil leak and was lucky it sold really fast in was bought by the first people to look at it.

Jessica wouldn't drive her car very often with it often sitting in her driveway for a week or two without moving at a time, as during the working week she only goes to and from work, and couldn't be bothered going out anywhere.

So she will either catch a bus, walk or borrow my car which is why she had my car last Monday when mum was taken to hospital. In fact this morning I am sitting watching telly when Jessica walks in she walked her from her place just for the exercise and I drove her home.

Natasha is in talks with a woman about a housing swap, the woman seems to be interested, so fingers crossed it works out. I don't know where this woman lives but Natasha has told me it is within walking distance of my house this will make her happy as she wants to live closer to me.

Last week Tim sent off our visa applications for our China trip but of course he stuffed it up he didn't send a page and of course we had to then email the page with our names on it to them why he didn't send the page is beyond me when he told me the itinerary didn't have our names on it I said it did it the are one the first page and he kept looking at the second page not the first page and he even rang the travel agent to complain and was told our names are on the first page, so I was right and he was being thick.

I mentioned to Sandy that while we are in China I will be worried about Leo, how is he going to get to and from school each day, Jessica is going to be relying on Natasha and I just hope she doesn't let Jessica down.

Well Sandy says it isn't my problem and it is up to Jessica to sort it out and that she should change her shift at work, Jessica drives special needs children to and from school so I have no idea what Sandra thinks she does but there is no shift to change.

Yesterday afternoon while at the school Sandra was telling me our brother's car was found at Warners Bay not far from where I live burnt out, turns out it was taken from out the front of my parents place where it was my brother left it there when he took their car he was having trouble starting his car in the cold weather at 5.30am.

The first anyone knew about his car being stolen was when the cops rang Dave my parents didn't even know it was missing but they haven't been outside since they came home from hospital. Thankfully it is insured but still it is upsetting there is the loss of the stuff that was in the car.

On the 24th my niece Kelli gave birth to her daughter who has been named Freya Margaret she was 8 pound 9onces, she is Blain's little sister but Blain doesn't seem very excited about having a new sister. Blain met his new sister on Friday afternoon but he didn't seem that excited about it, in fact Leo was more excited about meeting Freya and wanted lots of cuddles and photos taken with her.

With the birth of Freya my parents now have 14 great-grandchildren, my sister Sue now has 7 grandchildren. Our family has been growing pretty much every year for the last few years.

Jonathon has asked Kelli to marry him, so they are now engaged, I don't know what Blain thinks about that, my sister Sue (Kelli's mum) said she isn't that happy about it as she doesn't like Jonathon much but she knows that Kelli is happy and she is happy that her daughter is happy.

Well that's all from me for this letter, until next time take care and write when you can.


Jo-Anne