Rehab - Day 58 (12 Jan 2011)

Woke up to sunlight - who'd-a-thunk-it after the last weeks.  Hasn't rained for quite a while by the looks of the ground and the mugginess in the air.  So maybe even tho we'll get the flood still, it won't be as bad as they're predicting.  Latest at 2.00 pm

While I was having brekkie, Tracey blew in and said the home visit was on - she had to walk down to the hospital, get the car and get back to pick me up.  So I finished, got up and got dressed (had my shower yesterday to try out the other shower chair) and was ready, keys in hand, when she came up to get me.  Kathy was coming as Alissa is helping set up the gym for some refugees from the other facilities who have been evacuated.

I took us along beside Albion and Wooloowin railway, up Shaw Road and down Buckland Road and no standing water anywhere, so that was great.  It was so wonderful to see my house - the hedge is way high and the back yard is a jungle of grass to about 2ft but the ground is not even soggy.  I have 2 mildewed chairs at the front which will have to go I think but, apart from doors swollen shut so they were hard to open, even the Honda's tyres are still inflated!!  All my plants are dead but that is easily fixed - but no water damage, no leaks and just a lot of dead cockies on the floor!  Tracey and Kathy set up the loo and the shower and they work well - and then we tried my sit/stand ability.  By dint of putting the cushion that Physio gave me on Dad's recliner (which is my usual chair), no problems at all getting up.  God, it was good to see my home for the first time in 8 months and all is OK, and am going to have a lovely time opening packets and boxes and mail (online shopping is a wondrous thing! ) Everything is on track - as I said I can get in and out of the car, get in and out of my recliner chair and, most important, get up easily out of bed (not my own bed - too low, but Mum's is just right so guess I change rooms yet again), I can get up and down from the sewing machine and the computer desk and everything I will be using in the kitchen is on waist or higher level -- and there's still icecream in the freezer and soup and Nutrigrain in the pantry - even if Coles cancels deliveries I'll have enough for a week at least!!

All I have to arrange is a shower chair, a 4WW walker for outside if I go walking or to shop or Norths -- now, there's a thought... Norths :o) and a personal alarm thingie in case of an emergency to get hold of Vonn or ambulance.

I was home for 5 minutes when the home phone rang and it was a charity wanting a donation - couldn't believe it!! Life hasn't changed on the outside, has it.

So only 1 sleep to go... unless the flood situation changes dramatically and if so, that's life, on to Plan B. Oh, I forgot, I have no Plan B!!


Looking towards the Gateway Bridge from Room 5

 We came back the way we went so smooth going again and because I was sitting on the cushion, I got up and out of the car on my own so was chuffed with that.  Then I had my "exit interview" and tests for OT and I think Tracey was satisfied tho she doesn't like the idea of me being on my own until Lolly can get here.  She still doesn't really understand how damn lazy I am: to begin with, it'll be from the bed, to the shower, to recliner and back again, so can't really get into that much trouble if I concentrate as to where my feet are and what they're doing when I'm in transit!!

After lunch, I just sat monitoring the situation through news and Queensland Police's Facebook page ... not that I can do anything but still want to know what's happening!  (In between I managed to remember to ring Scott, carpet shampoo and pest control person extrordinaire and it'll be a week before he can come, flat out like a lizard drinking!  So booked him in for 10.00am next Thursday then back to the flood situation). Ipswich's Bremer River peaked at 19 metres so although it was bad enough, it wasn't as horrendous as they thought - but I think the flooding from our curvy river was as bad today as was expected (it's so hard to hear the TV with everyone in the dining room talking on top note!!)  After I finished tea, I rang Julie to check in with her (all is well at Logan - they're nowhere near the Brissy River so she and my puppies and her puppies are safe tho soggy!  She also said if I get into strife once I'm home and Vonnie isn't available, I am to ring her - I will if I have to but will try to avoid it:  Logan is a long way away!!) and then later, rang Vonn about the way she should come tomorrow (as she's always before lived on the southside so doesn't know the streets like I do).  She said Karrl has been stuck

up at his work for 2 nights cos Morayfield is cut off too.  I can't get in touch with Chrissie to make sure he, Liza, girls and Maccie and Sam and the boys are safe, so just have to hope they are -- so all of us are at 6's and 7's.

Mrs Lamb rang me and she and Steve were fine, they are on high ground and also far enough away from thr Bremer for it not to be a threat to them but she also can't see CU being back on line by Friday morning as they (the experts with their 3D modelling) reckon it'll take 3 or 4 days for the waters to recede (and tomorrow at peak of tide they're expecting the water to be at least half the way up the foyer walls at Riparian), then they have to check out the electrics, the lifts, ya da ya da so although the authors and WP operators may be able to work remotely, unless they are routed through another server than Brisbane, there's no electricity to get the Brisbane server online to work from it!!  Latest at 9.30 pm Brisbane time.