NO CLOT!!! :O)

January 6, 2011 Thursday

Hurray! Yesterday morning we were at the hospital by 8:30. They scheduled my ultrasound for 10:45 but recommended we stick around in case they could get us in early (hahahaha). Just after 10:30, a kid came and walked us around a bunch of long hallways (every hospital has them) and put us in the Imaging Waiting Room. Forty-five minutes later the tech came and got me and we went in to start the scan. She was quite young and said she had worked 2 years in the country before she was hired to work here in the city. Pretty much that’s how the medical system works here: the new guys work the country towns until they get some experience and then they get to come back to the city. Anyway, she explained what I was seeing on the monitor. She would find the vein and then push really hard on it my leg with the scanner doo-hickey to see if the vein would compress. All the way down from my groin to my calf the veins compressed (that’s a good thing showing that the veins were not blocked). Then she pushed really hard on my calf and I about hit the ceiling it hurt so much. So she started circling around that area and found a dark area about the size of my little finger. She said she was going to get the “radiographer.” In comes this little old guy who looked at least 70 walking on hand crutches. Anyway she showed him what she’d found. He explained that I didn’t have a clot, but a tear in my calf muscle. Wahoo! That was great news. They said they’d send the picture off to Dr. Hammond, and we left there smiling from ear to ear. I wonder how many people think a diagnosis of a muscle tear is a good thing?
We went to the Mission Office and were told they were going to move us into the same flat we’d lived in when we first came to Australia. (Rats, we’d hoped we’d get one like the other senior missionaries in Perth live in instead of an elders’ flat—no air conditioning, no clothes dryer, etc.) So we rode with the Crawfords to pick up the queen size bed (Elder Crawford has a trailer he pulls around behind his Camry when moving furniture). We got the bed we’d slept on at the Nielsen’ flat. It’s the best mattress we’ve had since getting here. Then we went to the flat. The elders being moved out (one’s going home in 3 weeks) were supposed to be ready to move their stuff when we got there. Well, the suitcases were packed, but there was so much junk all over the front room floor we could hardly walk through it, everything from Nerf balls to bike helmets to who-knows-what. The elders got there just after we did, and we spent the next hour and a half trying to get their stuff out (and the twin beds) and the flat cleaned up enough that we could bring our suitcases in. (I’m not sure the Elders appreciated having two sets of “Grandmas and Grandpas” telling them what to do, but it was obvious it wouldn’t have gotten done without our gentle “nagging.”) Sister Crawford and I spent some time scrubbing the tops of the stove and the microwave. Not really sure what was on the microwave, but it didn’t want to come clean very fast. Then we went back to the Mission Office to get a car. Surprise, there isn’t one available for us. So we worked it out we would take the Nielsens to their flat and drive home in their car so we’d have it in the morning to go to the doctor. Crawfords would pick them up in the morning. They had us eat turkey sandwiches with them and we left at 8 pm. We took a wrong turn and it took us an hour to get home instead of the half hour it should have. Driving unfamiliar streets in the dark isn’t a good idea. We made the bed and fell into it.
This morning Dr. Hammond said what I’d seen on the monitor was the hematoma (blood) caused by the tear and told me to keep wearing the ted hose, stay off it as much as possible and return in a week. (Yesterday we were also told that the flat owners were coming to do an inspection next Tuesday so we get to clean up the place way more than we would have (take down all exhaust fans and clean them, clean out window tracks, etc.) Thankfully there had only been elders here for 7 months since we’d moved out of here and not 10 years like it had been when we first moved in. The fridge was so much better this time.
The Robinsons (branch president from Broome) are still here in Perth from when they came down for the holidays. We had called him from the Broome airport to let him know we were leaving. He didn’t answer so we left us a message telling him to call us. He called yesterday while we were riding around with the Crawfords. (Crawfords have also served in Broome and know him well.) It took Orson 10 minutes to convince him that we were not pulling his leg. We laughed so hard. So today we met the Robinsons and Crawfords at the mission office and all went to lunch at the Sizzler. It was so good to see them, and we got great hugs from Anaya, their little 7 year old. Robinsons bought lunch. He insisted we order a meat entrée and then ordered cheese bread, and salad bar for all of us. For the 6 adults and two kids, the total was over $150. That’s why we don’t eat out often over here. We had a great time. We hated saying good-bye to them, but they do come to Perth once in a while so we are pretty sure we will see them again. Also, when they went to his company’s Christmas party (headquarters here in Perth) he was offered a new position a step up the career ladder. They plan to accept it so they will be moving down sometime this year. It leaves the future of the Broom Branch in jeopardy. We’ll see what happens.
We were given the Nielsen’s car to drive for the next two weeks before transfers. There are a couple of areas being closed and that will free up a car for us. Some elders near the mission home will use their car during the day and then Nielsens will have it after office hours, so they aren’t totally being stranded without wheels.
We did some shopping and came home. I was able to sort through the “pantry” and got what we bought put away. How do you “stay off your foot” when moving into a new home? Any suggestions?