Aaaah, summer. Jindalee Beach.  © PJ Croft 2016

It won’t be the deepest, but I’m having the first cut on Tuesday. Yes, I’m finally, after years of procrastination, booked in on Tuesday to have my gastric band removed. This is preparatory to having the gastric sleeve operation done next year.

I’ve decided I have to do it. I’m suffering more from the effects of diabetes and I hate this feeling of being so overweight, so it has to be done. I’m not happy about it, but if I can just focus my mind on being able to wear normal clothes, feel better looking, get the tray table down on planes, walk easily and enjoy feeling light on my feet again (I do remember it), I calm down.

I only need to be at the hospital at 10.30am this time, instead of the 7.00am last time, so I won’t need to book at the hotel next door. That was a debacle last time in 2014. I was warned of possible complications by the anaesthetist, had a bad night worrying about the whole thing and next morning at 7.00am, fronted at the desk and said “No thanks, changed my mind.” There were lots of reasons, and I was on my own then, so it all made sense. (I wish I hadn’t cancelled, in hindsight. I’ve wasted over two years. Should’ve gone ahead then.)

But now I have a new life, so I need to be healthier. The sleeve operation fixes diabetes, that’s its main claim, and that’s super important to me. Strangely, I’m having good success at keeping my blood sugars under control at the moment, but it’s not always that way. To be able to dispense with the needles and tablets will be fantastic.

More news as it happens. I have to wait two months after the band’s removed, to let the stomach resume its normal shape, so that puts the big cut into February sometime.

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Meanwhile, I head back to Bali in a few weeks’ time for Xmas and New Year. I’m being offered kangaroo in red wine for Xmas lunch in Bali, how about that? I didn’t know you could buy roo meat there. Please don’t ask me to bring some up, honey. 🙂

I’ll be on the north coast, in Lovina area. With a Great Dane for company, along with my Great Austrian.

There was an earthquake on the south coast of Bali last Thursday, she said, also felt in Lovina. I didn’t see any mention of it here.

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Aaaah, a good night’s sleep last night. I’ve been having so much insomnia that I’m nervous about going to bed now. It’s very boring lying there for hours, with eyes closed, trying all the tricks to fall asleep without success. I feel OK until about 5 or 6am, then the weariness closes in and I feel awful until I can go back to the bed after some food. Strangely, then I can fall asleep. Maybe if I ate some carbohydrate type food an hour or so before bed?

Coincidence. A fellow sufferer.

On Friday I had to go to the Mount Medical Centre for my appointment at 11.30am. I’d slept badly and felt woozy and wobbly when I finally got up. My b/s was 4.9 – that’s low for me. After breakfast I felt better (carbs) but didn’t have any time to go back to bed. Train into the city, and I would normally have walked from Elizabeth Quay to the Mount, but had to bus it. Got there feeling OK, if a bit thick headed.

Then after the appointment, I decided to walk back to the station as I need the exercise. Boy, that was hard going. Low energy, right hip hurting. But I got there.

While at the specialist’s office, I had to fill out the admission forms for the hospital. Blurry hell, six pages of questions and things to be filled in. Complete medical history. It took me more than 20 minutes. At the end I commented and said, “I’ve been a patient there before, they should have all this in their files.” The receptionist said, no, it has to be done for every admission. She had a patient who needed to go in every week for about 6 weeks, and he had to fill out the forms anew every time. It’s enough to make you sick.

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The ABC is running a repeat of The Politician’s Husband, a three episode political thriller they showed a few years ago. I’ve had a second chance to see the end credits.

See anything odd? I saw this first time around but didn’t grab it. Now I have. MMXXIII is not 2013, it’s 2023! Some script assistant at the production company has got this wrong. It’s on all three episodes and it was never corrected.

Maybe they should have called it The Time Traveller’s Wife. Oh, someone got there first, probably a time traveller.

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I succumbed. I finished scanning (ripping) all my CDs a few days ago, and said I wouldn’t go back and redo the early ones where I wasn’t using the dBpoweramp software. Therefore I didn’t get all the track names and the image of the CD cover.

Well, I couldn’t resist. I’m addicted to this ripping, so I’ve re-scanned two boxes of the six early ones so far. It’s not hard and is just a background task while I do more important things, like writing this. 🙂