We had been advised that there was important mail waiting for us at Patricks Road so we headed back to Lawnton Showground.
After lunch we drove to Ferny Hills to visit then Marretts. I spent some time uploading the Motley website which I had thoroughly modified and downloading some software I had read about.
One of these programs is called AnalogueRipper which I plan to use to rip the cassettes of the talking books which Jean has collected over the years. I discovered that I have no analogue input on the iBook so I will have to transcribe the tapes on another machine, perhaps the eMac at Patricks Road.
Sarah had asked me to do a couple of minor repairs which only took half an hour.
Alain's cat, Monty, had been suffering from some kind of respiratory problem for a few weeks so Jean decided to take him to the vet. The vet said she was concerned as the possible causes, which included a tumour, so she did some x-rays and some blood tests. These showed that, though his general health was OK, he had some restriction in his airway and some fluid or other material between the lung sacks and the chest wall but she couldn't tell what. She asked us to take him to a vet centre in Albany Hills where they could do an ultrasound examination which might reveal the cause of the problem. We made an appointment to go there tomorrow.
While we were waiting for the results of Monty's tests, Jean picked up her new glasses from Brookside.
I also made appointments for us to see the doctor and for the truck to be serviced.
We went to Patricks Road to pick up Monty and take him to the vet at Albany Hills. The vet examined the x-rays and concluded that the problem lay inside the lungs or the bronchial tubes. She recommended lung flushing which would identify the source of the problem. In the event, she found a tumor in his larynx which she considered to be inoperable and unlikely to respond to chemotherapy. We agreed to leave him in the vet hospital overnight to cope with his recovery from the surgery necessary to take a sample for biopsy.
After lunch, we went to Aspley to see the doctor. We both needed new scrips. Jean needed to have her ears checked out and I needed to get some skin lesions attended to. The doctor syringed her had ear which had some build up of wax. She also gave Jean a referral for an x-ray of her back.
Up early to pick up Monty from the vet hospital. The vet waned to wait for the result of the pathology before recommending a course of action. The vet said she took a significant amount of the tumour for biopsy and he now has a better airway He certainly is better today. .Monty doesn't have too much more time but his last days may be made more comfortable.
We took him back to Patricks Road where he will feel safe pending Al's decision about his future.
We returned to Strathpine for Jean's x-ray and then went to the shopping centre at Strathpine for lunch. After three days of coming and going, we spent the afternoon vegging out.
Jean had to go for a blood test before breakfast. I did the laundry and planned an easy day.
As they say in old Scotland "The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglay". The kitchen drains had started to smell so I had to do something about it. The u-bend is located at the back of one of the cupboards so I had a considerable amount of unusual physical contortions with some resulting stress to normally unused parts of the body.
I also had to prepare the Motley for its service tomorrow which included pumping up the tyre on the trailer jockey wheel.
Up early to get the truck to Aspley for its service.
We took the Motley to Aspley for its routine service and went on to Patricks Road to check on Monty. He seems to be a lot better which is a good thing even if it is only temporary.
We went to St Lucia for lunch with my sister, Barb. I took some white shiraz and some cabernet from Banrock Station, a winery on the Murray which we had visited last summer. It was much better received by Ron than the Chateau Hornsby I took after the Alice Springs rally. Barb and Ron have recently had the house refurbished and it is absolutely wonderful. They had a miserable nine months living in just two rooms while the builder took more than twice as long as quoted to do the job. Happily they employed a local architect who not only satisfied all their needs but treated the house with a great deal of respect and care so the end result is still recognisably a house from the 1950s using the materials and style from that era but is modern in its functionality and its usability. They are both very happy with the result and find the pain of achieving the result worth the effort.
Having not heard from the vet concerning the results of Monty's pathology tests, I rang them. The answer was that the results were not back today but we should hear on Monday.
We went to Patricks Road meet Alain and to check on Monty again. He didn't seem as well as he was yesterday.
We went to Cafe Zanetti for lunch. The coffee has improved reaching a score of 4 out of 5 and the food was OK.
Jean wanted to do some sewing so I got the machine out. When she had finished I took the opportunity to sew up my shirts at the waist to avoid showing my belly. I had a high blood glucose level (bgl) when I woke up so I decided to do an all day series of readings taking a measurement every half hour. Far from being out of control the results were pretty good. I did discover that my usual early morning coffee made from all milk send my bgl way up so I guess I'll have to change my habits a bit.
In the afternoon, we had afternoon tea at Al's place at Nundah which was very pleasant. We bought Thai takeaway on the way back to the showground. It was nice having a good meal without having to cook.
Jean had an appointment at the hairdresser at Mitchelton in the morning so I had a coffee at Cafe Zanetti while she had her hair done.
In the afternoon, I took the Motley to a guy in Lawnton who specialises in caravan refrigeration. I needed to get the fan motor in the airconditioner fixed and the compressor checked out. He found that the fan motor was OK though he was scathing about it, saying that they were the worst motors you could get. The starting capacitor looked a bit sus so we determined to replace it. They didn't have one in stock so I went the rounds of the local electrical suppliers. No-one had one and each sent me to another supplier. Eventually I was told that no electrical supplier could cope with the great range of capacitors and that I should go to a motor rewinder. We fitted the new capacitor and all was back to normal. The noisy compressor is apparently normal.
I now believe that my decision to replace the original unit with another Coleman Faulkner was probably the wrong choice. I thought that the failures in the original unit were due to its compromised design resulting from its low profile. That model had been discontinued and I felt it would be OK to buy another Coleman Faulkner and avoid any problems with the mounting interface. Having had the second unit fail within two years, even though the failure was minor, if I have to replace the present unit I will certainly choose another brand.
The vet rang to give us the results on Monty's pathology tests. Sadly, he has a squamous cell carcinoma and hasn't much future at all. We rang Al who decided that it would be better to put him down now rather than have him deteriorate into an untenable condition.
We went to Albany Creek to try and get Jean's hearing aid adjusted so that she will wear it more. She doesn't seem to get enough benefit from it to encourage her to persevere with it. I have told her that if she wears it all the time, her brain will adjust to it and it will work better but she doesn't think the effort is worth it. The new audiologist wasn't surprised that she was having trouble and he said he would have it modified to make it less intrusive.
We took Monty to the vet in Ferny Grove and brought him back to Patricks Road to be buried with Sade in the front garden. Ian was kind and did the hard work digging the grave. Everyone had a bit of a tear in the eye as we had all known and loved Monty for many years.
In the afternoon, Jean had to see the doctor to get the results of her x-ray and her blood test. The x-ray showed no significant problem apart from arthritis. The conservative treatment these days is regular paracetamol because of the newly revealed side effects of anti-inflammatories. The results of the blood tests were OK and the recommendation was "Keep on doing whatever you're doing".
On the way back to Lawnton, we called in to Centrelink to fix up a problem. The lady was, as usual, very helpful and she put a message in place to ensure that our pension isn't suspended. I also had her fix a problem which had arisen because the last person we saw had made a slight error and we were being slightly overpaid.
We stayed on at Lawnton for one more day.