Hankin Redden Blog

  108 – Celebration of Friendship, Staying Alive Part 8: 30 November 2024 In blog 106, I referred to our trip from Adelaide to Port Lincoln on Tuesday 30 April 2019 and to how Ann Ryan and Sue Chapman went with us.  The Port Lincoln trip was to celebrate my 70 th birthday. **** An earlier celebration of my birthday took place in the evening of Saturday 27 April 2019 at a restaurant overlooking Adelaide’s River Torrens.  In hindsight, I see this evening was the last occasion when the nearly complete friendship group gathered to have fun without the shadow of Margaret’s illness hanging over all of us.  Margaret looked very healthy in the restaurant. Finding this photo of Margaret from just before she became deadly ill, has filled me with longing for a past that can never be relived.  Margaret looked so very healthy, yet even then, the cancer had probably already started its initial growth spurt.  During the 4 ½ years of life that Margaret then had left...

  107 – Staying Alive, Part 7: 29 November 2024 I have already recounted the increasingly strong sneeze attacks I began experiencing as 2019 wore on.  Although I felt most vulnerable when the sneeze attacks occurred while I was walking at Morialta, they occurred everywhere and not just when I was at Morialta. Increasingly as 2019 wore on, the sneeze attacks began undermining my stitch line from the open heart surgery.  The constant sneezing began to tear one side of the stich line away from the other side. I assumed that the sneezing was caused by the stress of what I had been through and that the sneezing would settle down as time went by, By 2019, I usually walked my Morialta perimeter circuit on my own.  Ill health among my friends meant that they were no longer able to engage in a walk that was as strenuous as the one I was doing.  As well as walking the circuit on my own, it was usually dark for the first 30 minutes or so that I walked.  For most of th...

106 – Staying Alive, Part 6: 26 November 2024 Magaret and I both started yoga classes on Wednesday 23 January 2019.  Our then great friend Ann Ryan had spent the Australian summer in her unit at Glenelg and she also started yoga with us on 23 January.  We continued doing yoga classes even though I was simultaneously undergoing the cardiac rehabilitation program after the open heart surgery.  We were all one great big happy family.  Anne, Margaret and I attended yoga classes from January to April 2019 on the following Wednesdays.  ·          30 January 2019; ·          6 February 2019; ·           13 February 2019; ·          20 February 2019; ·           6 March 2019; ·          13 March 2019; · ...

  105 – Staying Alive, Part 5: 24 November 2024 I walked my full perimeter circuits at Morialta on Sunday 27 January 2019 and I maintained my perimeter circuit every Sunday morning after then.  The time I needed to complete my perimeter circuits gradually became less and by the middle of 2019, I was again doing the circuit in 3 hours 45 minutes. **** Photo above is of the creek at Morialta on 2 October 2016.    The rainfall had been unusually heavy just before this photo was taken. ****   Adelaide and suburbs as seen from high up the mountains in Morialta.     **** After my discharge from hospital, I had to take doses of a medication called Warfarin.     Warfarin is – quite literally – a major component of poisons used to make rat killer baits.     Warfarin is a potent poison but it is also a powerful medicinal blood thinner.   Warfarin is a standard, essential medication for patients who have had open heart surgery, ...

  104 – Staying Alive, Part 4: 23 November 2024 I was discharged from Griffith Rehabilitation Hospital on Monday 11 December 2018.  By that stage I was bored by being stuck in hospital for weeks on end.  The Nursing Discharge Summary given to me when Margaret took me home said this about my progress. Past Medical History Hypertension, GORD Stomach Ulcer, Mitral Reguration [sic, probably regurgitation] Coronary Artery Disease Admission Progress Mr Hankin is an alert and oriented 69 year old.  Admitted 30/11/18 from Ashford Hospital following a coronary artery bypass with valve repair 20/11/18.  He has attended physiotherapy and occupational as part of his rehabilitation programme.  Mt Hankin has improved his endurance and is keen to discharge home on 11/12/18 Observations Vital signs range this admission afebrile pulse 58-70 Blood pressure 100/50 – 150/75 Function at Discharge Mr Hankin is currently independent...