Kersti's Corner

Surgery Plans

Tomorrow is D-day. I'm headed into Mt Carmel hospital for some surgery. Fairly routine and the doctor I have is by all accounts one of the top in his field in the world so it should be simple. I'm due out at 6pm, although the last time I had the same procedure done I was kept in overnight. I'll be off work for a week.

Bugger!

A few years ago I had a rather convoluted and drawn out root canal involving specialists and much trauma and through the process discovered my allergy to gold...

Anyway, the tooth has from time to time been a bit achey and my dentist in Ireland said he wasn't happy with some shadowing under it on my x-rays but that it could be fine for many years.

Well, Sod's law says that's never going to be the case and sure enough my tooth started to really ache a couple of months ago - needed painkillers to cope with it as it was keeping me awake at night. I took the painkillers and otherwise ignored it as any good scared-of-the-dentist person would do. But my tooth was not to be ignored, a small lump appeared on the gum so I took the hint and took myself to the dentist.

Anyway, dentist sent me to an orthodontist who took more x-rays and pronounced that my original root canal treatment was perfect - great news! However, that means there's nothing that can be done, the whole lot has to come out...

So today it was back to my normal dentist who took out the tooth. He pumped me so full of anesthetic that I didn't even notice that the tooth had come out at all - I was quite confused as to why he would be putting in stitches before he'd taken the tooth out! The least traumatic tooth extraction I've ever had (except for my wisdom teeth, but then I was knocked out cold for those)

On my way back to work an elderly gentleman at the train station asked me what was wrong. Apparently I had a bit of blood on my lip and chin, so once he'd convinced himself that I really had just been to the dentist he whipped out a perfectly folded handkerchief and wiped my mouth for me.

The drugs are starting to wear off now - I'm sure that it's going to hurt like hell for a while. So now I'm sitting at work with a half-smile and feeling very very sorry for myself!

Friday

Today started pretty poorly - woke with a migraine grrr... not too impressed. But the drugs started working soon enough. On top of that the weather was particularly nasty today with it just pouring rain.

I met Steve, my old flatmate, for lunch as he works just around the corner from where I now live. Afterwards I changed and then headed into town for an interview with a recruitment agent about a job that I  think would be perfect for me. It was a positive interview and I should hear more next week. Don't really want to discuss anymore - no point in giving the fairy folk ideas.

On the way home I popped into a butcher that I'd seen a few times. No beef sausages, no idea what lamb backstrap is - although they did have some lamb steaks, which are hard to find here. No lard, apparently I won't get that anywhere in Ireland or the UK. However, the exciting thing is that this guy actually butchers his own pigs and next week he's going to save up the fat for me. I'll be able to render it and make my own lard.

Why on earth would I want to do that? Well lard makes for much nicer pastries than just butter. Huge difference. I've been on a mission to find it for weeks now. I've had great conversations with old butchers about how much of a difference it makes, but until now no luck...

Homeless No More

Recently I've been looking for a new place to live. I've been living with Emma and Steve for 18 months now and I've kind of out shopped my wardrobe space! Time to move on!

It's been a real pain looking at places - they vary so much and at times it really gets you down. Then there's the number of people who do't reply to messages grrr...

Anyway, I've found a place and I'll soon be living in Sandymount. It's a half hour walk to work - as opposed to my current 7 minute hike, so I'll need to get up earlier! I'll be living with just one person - Lissi who's German. I move in the weekend after Tegs and Cam arrive, so I've got built in moving helpers!

Looking forward to it...

I'm a venture capitalist!

I came across Kiva.org today. I remember hearing something about them a while ago but hadn't caught the name of the company.

Kiva.org allows individuals to make $25 loans to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world (microfinance). By doing so, individuals provide affordable working capital for the poor (money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc.), empowering them to earn their way out of poverty. 

It's a great way to fight global poverty, and the way I see it, I get a higher return on $25 helping someone build a future than the interest my savings account pays. It's nice to think that I can make a difference to others.

They have received great press in publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal to TIME to BusinessWeek.

I'm joined up under eCraftWorld, which is the successor to my eTatters.com site. I'm putting a portion of all funds raised there to this, so now people can join my site and help those in need at the same time.

 Visit my Kiva.org lender page to see who I've loaned money to so far.

How clean are your windows?

I got the fright of my life this morning... well, possibly not, but I did jump! At about 8:30 as I was getting ready for work the window cleaners arrived - we'd had no warning of it so it was a complete surprise when the wash brush was slapped up against my window!

Still, can't complain too much - my windows are now sparkling clean!

Lunar Eclipse

What a fabulous sight! Last night we had a total lunar eclipse and for the first time in my life it was a) happening at a time when I would be awake and b) happening in a clear sky.

The sky was completely clear, in fact we'd just had a beautiful day of blue skies and sunshine. It was very cold tho, so I was popping outside every 15 mins to get a look at how it was progressing - good thing that a lunar eclipse is so slow!

Unfortunately I didn't have the equipment to photograph it, I would have needed a telescope to get more than a fuzzy dot so this pic is from someone with a little more stuff.

And it looks as though I was very lucky - was woken this morning by howling storms!

Irish medical

Well shortly after I posted that one about my little fall I was feeling pretty crap - back was starting to get sore and so was my neck, in fact my neck was quite stiff indeed. I put my hand up and felt a lump - eek!

Asked one of the girls at work, who said that she could see it, went to the bathroom to look in the mirror and sure enough, a big lump sticking out of the base of my neck at the side. Not good.

Now I haven't yet bothered to find a "family doctor" in Ireland, I tend to not really get sick so when I need some doctoring I just head to a walk in service down the street from work, trouble is that they're only open from 10 to 3 or something.

A quick check of the Golden Pages (where else?) turned up a few clinics nearby, but it was starting to look pretty dicey when the 8th one in a row was fully booked up last night and couldn't see me until the follwing day.

Finally found a "late night" walk in service - open until 7. However, Jon said that he didn't think that would be a good idea, seems my own walk in service is unusually good compared to the norm here. And no, no such thing as a real late night clinic.

So there was nothing for it. Off to the local hospital emergency ward.

Now I must admit here that the last time I was in an emergency ward for myself was well over 10 years ago, and to tell the truth I can't remember if it was for me or one of the times I took Gary there, so while I can look at some comparisons, they won't be scientific.

When I first arrived there was a queue to sign in and register. I waited for 15 mins standing in line - as I was on my own I didn't have the benefit that others had of getting their companion to wait for them. Anyway I signed in and was told to wait for the triage nurse. The chairs were wooden backed, and there was no reading material around, so I figured I was in for a hideously boring time - thank whoever you believe in for google talk on the blackberry!

Anyway it was only about 10 minutes until I was called in to the Triage nurse who decided I needed to go to Zone 3. So back out to the waiting room and a call to St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne to see if mum happened to be working - she was so I chatted to her for about 15 minutes until I got called into Zone 3.

Once in my little cubicle in Zone 3 (minor injuries and illnesses) the doc came past and chatted and then had a look at the lump on my neck - the verdict, nothing to do with the fall. Instead a pretty nasty lymph node infection. He had a look at the movement in my neck and decided that it would be OK, but if it gets worse I'm to go back. I asked about the location - turns out there's more lymph nodes in my neck than I thought, and given that I've never really been a sicky it'd quite understandable that I wouldn't know about those ones. Doc was quite adament that I was right to come in rather than sleep on it.

All in all I was in emergency for about 1.5hours - pretty damn good for someone who wasn't actually about to die. I'll get a bill for 60 euros, which to be honest is only 10 euro more than a standard doctor would have cost me. All in all a pretty good experience with the Irish health system. Although Jacqui from work waited 14 hours to get treated for pneumonia last year so I was clearly very lucky.

So, I got myself home and today went in to work but had to leave early - now the infection's really hitting and I'm feeling absolutely terrible. Not sure if the aches in my back are from the fall or from the sickness. Guess it's time for me to actually rest up. I so hate getting sick!

The epitome of elegance!

Great start to the morning… I went outside to drop the rubbish in the bins and on my way back I slipped on the wet decking. Was like a slow motion movie and I landed with a loud thud sitting on my backside with my hands on the ground beside me. My skirt managed to keep me decent which is at least one good thing and no, wasn't wearing stupid shoes - was wearing my "Europe boots" which are flat.

Like a 3 year old I considered for a moment whether or not it was worth crying, decided that there wasn't much point as noone was around so got up and went inside to wash myself down and survey the damage.

Anyway, I've grazed my hands, bruised my coxyx and the spot just at the very very top of my left leg and wrenched my shoulder which pulled out my neck so I had a migraine half an hour afterwards. As I was sitting at my desk at work I also realised that the middle of my back was starting to ache.

Fire!

It had been a standard Monday night. Emma and I had watched Ugly Betty and America's Next Top Model (Steve generally joins up for these but was in Cork for work) and we had both decided to call it a night.

In my room I was a little annoyed at the racket coming from the street, seemed like a crowd was deciding to have a bit of a party. Next thing Emma bangs on my door telling me we had to get out - there was a fire. So that explains the crowd! As we grabbed our belongings I heard the fire engines arriving. Heading downstairs you could already see the smoke in the house so we spilled out onto the street.

We could see huge plumes of smoke billowing out from the vents into the carpark under the apartments and people were saying that there was a "big" fire going. We could certainly smell that unmistakeable scent of burning stuff. The fire crews got out their hoses, pulled up a little man-hole cover that we'd never really noticed before that clearly gave them access to mains water and went on down.

After a few minutes the guys returned and donned breathing apparatus before heading back down. Smoke was still billowing out of the carpark, but clearly reducing. The boys were down for about 15 mins before they gathered at the top of the entrance to the car park to wait for the smoke to clear before heading back down to make sure everything was out properly.

Once it was safe we could hassle them and ask what was going on - turns out it was an old van that had been abandoned down in the car park and that the residents had been complaining about for months. It had even been reported as a fire risk, which naturally makes it a little suspicious that it should go up in flames. I'm sure that the drama will continue over that one!

We got back into the house just after midnight. The place was full of smoke and stunk, so we had to open up all the windows to let it air a bit - a very cold thing to do on a still Dublin night! Telly wasn't working, so we couldn't watch that - thank God we got to finish watching Top Model before we lost that!

All in all a fairly exciting Monday night in quiet Dublin!