Day: January 27, 2021

Random thoughts on Australia Day!

For those unaware 26 January in Australia Day in, you guessed it, Australia.  This is when the European settlers claimed Australia as its own.  Unfortunately, this neglected the thousands of years of occupation by the incumbent indigenous population, the Australian aborigines.   To them Australia Day is known as Invasion Day.

Thankfully, society has moved from the barbaric actions of the new comers to finally acknowledge and treat with respect the indigenous population.  There has been talk of moving the day, however, I think this is unlikely.

Australia Day is a day where the efforts  Australians have made to Australia for whatever reason receive awards.  The problem with this is when it comes to acknowledging the outstanding indigenous contributors who struggle with the day.

Now, I am far from an expert in indigenous affairs and therefore anything I put forward is not meant to be offensive to anyone at all.  But there’s a part of me that has always thought that there should be two days for Australia Day.  The 25 January celebrating the indigenous population’s contribution. Being on the day before Australia Day being symbolic of their existence before European’s landed.

Twenty-six January can then be for the celebration of landing on the wonderful soil that is Australia for the European settlers. Perhaps we need another day, the 27 January to celebrate the harmony between the two parties.  But perhaps 13 February “Sorry Day” is a better day to celebrate the coming together of the traditional owners and the new settlers.  It’s probably too messy for me to figure out.

Day 027 – Hospital Consult

27 January 2021

Celtic Cross Layout of daily cards. 1 is Now, card is Creativity. 2 is Influence, card is Stress. 3 is Goal, card is Rebirth. 4 is Distant Past, card is Harmony. 5 is Recent Past, card is We are the World. 6 is Future Energy, card is Comparison. 7 is Feelings, card is Ice-olation. 8 is Others’ views, card is Suppression. 9 is Hopes & Fears, card is Breakthrough. 10 is Outcome, card is Morality.

Today's Cards

Tabled list: position number, description, and daily card. 1 is Now, card is Creativity. 2 is Influence, card is Stress. 3 is Goal, card is Rebirth. 4 is Distant Past, card is Harmony. 5 is Recent Past, card is We are the World. 6 is Future Energy, card is Comparison. 7 is Feelings, card is Ice-olation. 8 is Others’ views, card is Suppression. 9 is Hopes & Fears, card is Breakthrough. 10 is Outcome, card is Morality. Shuffle Method used was Standard Shuffle.

Context

Welcome to Day 27!

Before the visit:  Today has on the table a visit to the Fractures Clinic for a consult on the progress of my broken ankle.  The clinic is to check whether I get to remove the temporary cast and put on a new one.  The doctor at the clinic, will also decide whether I need surgery or not.  

Hopefully, I will also get to see what the injury looks like on the X-ray.  Seeing the breaks will tell me how I can direct my mental focus on healing the injury.

From there, I’m in responsive mode or simply in the lap of the gods because I have no idea whether we will be in the hospital for an hour or half or all day.

After the visit:  we arrived at the Fractures Clinic right on time after racing through the entrance preparations: sanitise hands, grab a mask if necessary.  From there is was a one and a half hour wait to get in to see the clinic.  

At first, I was frustrated by not getting in on time.  Once I realised it wasn’t going to happen quickly, I put my feet up on a pillow provided by a nurse to keep my foot elevated until a bed became available for me.

Finally wheeled into the clinic and was asked whether I could make the bed on my own or whether I needed assistance.  My reply was, “I got this”, accompanied by a very loud fart!  To which I responded, “see, I told you I got this especially with the extra wind assistance!”.  This got a chuckle from everyone.  And although the incident did not get mentioned again, the camaraderie it generated with the team looking after me was just a touch warmer.  It’s really amazing what a sense of humour can do for you in a tight situation.

OMG!  Red-faced and laughing I managed to get onto the bed and noticed that the teenage boy on the other bed was studiously trying not to laugh.  Oh…. embarrassment *smiley face*.

It was at this point that I managed to see my foot in x-ray.  Personally, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined.  The bone was still joined and this was something I hadn’t expected.  On the whole, I didn’t think it was too bad.

There was a horizontal crack 75% of the way through the Fibula and two vertical cracks not on the fibula. Not sure of their location as I didn’t get a close enough look to determine exactly where.  To my mind they seemed smaller and will hopefully heal quicker – I could have asked more questions but no-one exhibited any concerning vibes.

When my mother broke both her bones fibula and tibia they were completely cracked and there were splinters of bone that needed to be fixed and the gap was big in the crack.  So, my expectations of this was it was broken all the way through and needed aligning and all sorts of complicated stuff.  By comparison, mine looked completely tame.

From there it was a trip to x-ray to make sure that nothing had moved since I left Tweed Heads.  Nothing had – bonus!  The doctor was called and assessed that my injury was on the border of needing surgery or not.  However, since the first x-rays heading had already begun and was progressing well and because the bone wasn’t separated.  With careful nurturing over the next six weeks it will see it healed without the need for surgery.

I wasn’t in any hurry for surgery but the prognosis seemed to be not to need it providing I behaved myself.  Meaning not falling, keeping the leg elevated and ensuring that it does not become load bearing until the doctor says so.  Argh…. I’m so conflicted!

There was a guy at work (for story purposes I will call him Bruce) who went skiing the same week he got his proper cast put on.  He had his brother remove the cast so he could put his foot into ski boots.  

Bruce’s reasoning being that downhill ski boots were just as tight as the cast and would keep his bones locked into place.  True.  Nonetheless after two weeks skiing he went back to the doctor and the doctor was impressed with the advanced stage of healing his bones were in.  

Later the medical profession had identified that putting pressure on the bone forces the body to focus on healing the area and it heals quicker.  This is the “shortcut” I had hoped to make.

Couple of things that worked in Bruce’s favour were that he had a plate holding the whole break together, he was younger than me, and had already booked a non-refundable skiing holiday. 

The things going against me are, I have three fractures – one horizontal and two vertical. The pressure might only help if there was one fracture going in only one direction.  My years as a secretary for a structural engineering firm taught me something about cracks and pressure.

So, I’m going to have to do the right thing and follow advice as much as my impatience is pushing at my boundaries of patience.  Patience is quite comfortable to letting impatience rage because there’s nothing impatience will accomplish at the moment.  

The cool thing is that I got a lighter cast that went all the way around as well as a pretty purple – incidentally the colour of emotional and spiritual healing – to make me feel better about having the cast.

That was the day.  Now what do the cards have to say about it…. 

Purple cast from below toes to just below knee - apparently an ankle cast.

The Cards - Analysis

Creativity is the first card out in the Now position with the Stress card influencing or blocking Creativity.  This make a strange kind of sense.  In the waiting room I needed to get creative to pass the time while the stress of not being see to or knowing what was happening was looming.  

If you see the two cards as constantly cycling through the day the dance between Creativity and Stress could have happened on an hourly basis at each situation.  First in the waiting room, then in the consultation area, the x-ray department, waiting for x-rays et cetera.

The Goal could be seen as the metaphorical Rebirth of my bone healing.  It was a renewed hope that surgery would not be necessary and while I begrudge the additional two weeks in a cast.  The long term benefits of not having surgery outweigh the immediate need for it. Let’s not confuse this for me being anti-surgery, if the doctor’s recommendation would have been to have it.  

My training to trust subject matter experts would have agreed to it too.  It does help that the doctor was echoing just about word for word what the Tweed Head hospital orthopedic specialists had said, without them committing another doctor to a course of action they may or may not take.  After all time and swelling reduction needed to occur first before they would be willing to give a definitive course of action too.

Harmony was the fourth card and is in the Distant Past position and We are the World in the Recent Past position.  For the purposes of the distant and recent past positions these two cards are very similar in my mind right now.  We are the World is just a slightly watered down version of Harmony. 

That means from the synchronicity of Harmony, and I’m guessing it stems from Tweed Heads hospital, prompt ambulance, and care from Alicia to the local doctor’s prompt referral to the clinic everything has been healing and working as well as it has.  We are the World is simply and extension overlapping the latter events.

Comparison in the Future Energy position.  There’s no surprise to this card appearing in this position reflecting how I would feel about things following the knowledge disclosed to me today regarding my healing path.   Of course, I would be considering Bruce’s circumstances and reminding myself that I’m not him nor is the situation identical – plus I don’t really know all the facts for his incident either. 

Not to mention that my mother, my mother-in-law and best friend’s mum have all gone through a similar thing and come out smiling.  Again, I’m comparing… grr  Yes. I’m aware that it’s useless to compare because comparison only makes me feel isolated in this circumstance.  

Look at that, Ice-olation is the card that is in position seven reflecting the Feelings I have about the situation.  Ice-olation is more about loneliness than the Aloneness card.  Ice-olation is usually about the loneliness you create for yourself by not sharing your feelings.  

Sometimes, it’s difficult when you’re home alone and don’t really feel like sharing, so it’s about wallowing.  Wallow I did.  No good dose of self-pity happens without a good scoop of wallowing.

Suppression is an interesting card to have in position which identifies Other People’s Views.  To my mind, I didn’t think I was suppressing much.  Perhaps my frustration about the weight but once the nurse visited and mentioned they were waiting for a bed, I was good.  

The other area where the staff at the clinic may have thought I had been suppressing might be how stressed I was about the injury.  Perhaps, they thought I was making light of the situation to mask my true worry on the topic.  Guess we’ll never know even if it is interesting.

Breakthrough was the ninth card and is in the Hopes & Fears position.  You bet, I was looking forward to gaining some knowledge breakthrough!  That knowledge has the power to lift me into hope and cause me to fear it.  

Hope that everything would be okay and that the injury wasn’t as bad as my mum’s had been and fear that it was more complicated and would require surgery.  Surgery added to longer, more complicated and more merry persons looking after me.  Don’t get me wrong, I love merry persons but I’m happy with the quotient I have now.

Morality is in the Outcome position of position ten.  Morality is all about doing the right thing at the cost of having fun sometimes.  It definitely feels like that is the outcome to my visit to the hospital today.  It also sees me wanting to wish this temporary situation with my leg away.

 

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