Victor had a doctors visit in Brisbane at the hospital. We left here on Thursday afternoon and arrived at 6pm. My son and his girlfriend picked us up. It is always lovely to see them. We had nothing to do that night except for buying a few groceries, because the kids wanted me to cook dinner so we could have a family dinner at my daughter's house where we were staying.
My son wanted me to cook chicken giblets. A Sri Lankan dish. My sister in law had made it for him on one of his visits to Sri Lanka and I had promised to make it for him and never had the chance prior to our moving to Tasmania. He had already purchased the giblets for me from a shop that sells just chicken and all it's parts. It was quite cheap actually around $3.99 per kg.
We had to stop at his house to pick some mail etc and he was going to take us to do the grocery shop and then drop us off at my daughter's house. She had gone to play netball and her fiancee had gone to play football. So there was no rush to get there.
We had done our grocery shop - I had made up a menu on the plane so I knew what I needed, and were half way to my daughter's house when we realised we had left the giblets back at my son's house. So, Jason very kindly offered to pick us up from the hospital next day.
Victor only had one scheduled appointment on Friday, however, we had also been asked to get CT scan of his eye socket and I had a request form for that. I had called the Xray dept at the hospital prior to us leaving Tasmania a few days earlier and they had mentioned that we didn't need to make an appointment but just to turn up. So, we decided his Eye surgeon's appointment was at 2.30pm and that we be at the Xray department before 12. We arrived about 11.30am to be told, that we had been given the wrong information and that we MUST have an appointment. We didn't have time to waste we were leaving Brisbane on Saturday. I explained this to the lady and she was very kind and managed to get the scan done. We had finished by 12.45pm. We went down to the cafeteria because we had ample time before the Dr's appointment which a pre-op appt and had lunch.
By 1.45.pm we were at the Eye clinic. In amongst the paperwork they had given us there was a cardiology appt. But nothing was ticked as to what tests needed to be done, so I assumed it was going to be done later. No the lady said, go down to level 3 now and get an ECG done. Right !
Off we went to get the ECG. The receptionist assured us that we would be done by 2.30pm. Victor was taken in promptly, and I sat outside waiting for him. It seemed ages since he went in, and many people who were taken after him, had already come back out. Now it was 3pm and he was still not out ! I asked the man who was walking around where Victor was and he said, 'oh, he went out over 1/2hr ago' !!!! I was horrified. One of the side effects - if that's what you can call it to his brain injury is short term memory loss. I had visions of trying to find him in that big hospital. Where could he have gone, he would have had to walk right past me. Surely, he would have seen me ? Surely, I would have seen him.
The man came back and walked around and came back to tell me that Victor was sitting at reception. He had forgotten where I was seated, but sat in the front waiting room thinking that, that was where he had left me, and thought I had gone 'walk about' !
We rushed to the Eye clinic, only to find, that we didn't have a doctor's appointment it was just a pre-op appointment. UGH ! We went through the whole detail of the operation, the pros the cons, the dos and the don'ts with the nurse. Then we had to see one of the registrars. By this time it was after 4pm. Feeling really tired, exhausted and starting to get a bit weary of the day, we were told we also had to see the Anaesthetist, and also get some blood tests done.
The nurse was lovely and managed to get us an appointment with the anaesthetist on our next hospital visit later this month. But they still couldn't give us a 'date' for the operation. I am worried because Victor's daughter gets married on the 2nd of March, I need him well so he can walk her down the aisle. They mentioned the 28th of February and then mentioned the 8th of March for dates for the operation. Nothing definite. I am to call the hospital on Monday to check.
It was 5.30pm by the time we saw the registrar and left the eye clinic. Jason picked us up, armed with the giblets and we rushed off to my daughters so I could start cooking. Victor's daughter had come to Brisbane for a wedding dress fitting so she was able to come to the family dinner and so was my friend Joan who used to come every week to our family dinners when we lived in Brisbane.
Here is a picture of the chicken giblet salad that I made. It tasted quite good for a first time effort.
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