116 – Slowing the Slide Towards Death Part 6: 9 December 2024

Because of the Covid epidemic, Australia had closed its international borders.  Although there were no restrictions on leaving South Australia, there were severe restrictions on entering South Australia.  This meant Anne Ryan was stuck in Adelaide and could not return to Ireland.  This was not a great hardship because she owned her own unit at Glenelg and she had full use of my car free of charge.  Anne regularly walked with me at Morialta on Sundays and on at least one day during the week – usually Tuesday or Thursday.

I took this photo of Anne’s friend Mary O’Toole (left) and Anne Ryan on Tuesday 19 May 2020.

I took this photo of a koala perched up a tree at Morialta on Tuesday 14 April 2020.

This is a view of some of the mountains at Morialta; I took this photo on Tuesday 14 April 2020.

Despite my body’s rapid slide towards death, I kept up my walking at Morialta.  I felt that if I stopped, my death would not be a mere possibility but a complete certainty.

****

When I saw Dr Pant on Wednesday 27 May 2020, she found no medical issues with my sinuses.  There was inflammation of my left nostril which Dr Pant thought might be the result of stomach reflux or an allergic response by my nostril subsequent to the sinus operation.  She recommended doubling my dosage of anti reflux pills for a two week period plus the addition of Gaviscon (another anti reflux medication).  She also recommended twice daily nasal irrigation with Pulmicort 1 /2 milligrams for 2 weeks.  She also referred me to Dr Aiyappan a respiratory specialist.

I took the Gaviscon and Pulmicort for the two weeks recommended by Dr Pant and there was no improvement.  The coughing got steadily worse, rather than better.

By this point I desperately needed something which was strong enough to suppress the coughing because it was literally destroying me.  I also needed sleeping pills which were strong enough to override the coughing and enable me to sleep despite the coughing.  I was utterly exhausted by lack of sleep and the never ending coughing.  My body was a wreck.

****

Because of the constant coughing, my health deteriorated dramatically.  I was certain my life was seriously threatened by the constant coughing.  I could feel that the suture line from the open heart operation was under extreme strain.  I was certain something would give way.  By then, I had experienced 11 months of constant sneezing from May 2019 to February 2020, followed by the sinus operation on 25 February 2020, followed by constant convulsive coughing since the middle of April 2020.

The coughing continued without respite.  The coughing was at its worst at night but it was also present for much of the daylight hours - sometimes for hours on end, I got paroxysms of coughing.  I felt as if my insides were going to erupt.  I was totally exhausted most of the time.  Margaret was a registered nurse and at night when I was asleep, she could hear strident noises on inspiration and expiration.  She thought they were coming from the lower throat and not from the lungs.

****

I returned to A & E in the afternoon of Tuesday 9 June 2020.  Dr Bishop, (the A & E doctor) confirmed the previous diagnosis given by A & E and prescribed Rikodeine 100 mil to suppress the coughing, plus Pulmicort budesonide 200 inhaler.  I took these in the evening of Tuesday 9 June and they had an immediate effect.  I slept from 10:30 pm to 3:40 am on Wednesday 10 June 2020.  This was the best sleep I had then had in about 9 weeks.

****

As an aside, I would now be ecstatic if I could sleep from 10.30 pm to 3.40 am on a regular basis.  My sleep since Margaret died on 22 August 2023 has usually finished somewhere between 12.30 am and 3.15 am.  I remain constantly exhausted.  My sleep today (9 December 2024) finished at 3.15 am.

****

My weight had increased significantly after the open heart operation.  It had been 98 kilograms in November 2018.  By November 2019, it had become 108 kilograms.  I then began a strict routine of diet control plus exercise.  My weight on Wednesday 29 July 2020 had dropped to 89.8 kilograms.  By July 2020, I did 3.5 hours of hard walking at Morialta every Sunday plus an additional 2.5 hours of walking at Morialta with Anne Ryan on Tuesdays.  I had also been doing 1 hour of what I called easy walking near my home every day since early January 2020.

****

The coughing was not the only symptom that I was ill in the first half of 2020. 

My optical migraines had increased in frequency since the open heart surgery from once every six months to once or twice every week.  I still get them.  They last for about 20 minutes and then go away.  The optical migraines give me distorted vision and it is nearly impossible to read while they are under way.  Compared to the coughing, the optical migraines were easy to put up with.

****

I started meditating for one hour every day in late March 2014.  I am certain that being able to meditate gave me the skills that enabled me to live through the horrendous events I am summarising in these Blogs.  As an example, when my chances of survival looked very grim, I would slip into a meditative state and eliminate my panic.  I am certain the ability to avoid panic, was the key to me living when it would have been so easy to simply give up.

 

115 – Slowing the Slide Towards Death Part 5: 8 December 2024

Margaret had her 70^th birthday on 29 March 2020, just as the Covid restrictions were being imposed.  One of the restrictions was the closure of cafes and restaurants.  Despite the restrictions, an enterprising lady called Audrey was still able to provide coffee and light refreshments from a caravan parked on North Esplanade next to the Glenelg beach.  Audrey baked a chocolate cake for Margaret’s birthday.

The first photo above is Margaret with her two best friends Sue Chapman (middle) and Anne Ryan on the right.  The second photo shows Audrey’s caravan.  Both photos were taken on Margaret's birthday 29 March 2020 when my life was not yet threatened by deadly coughing.  The chocolate cake was delicious.

****

I attended A & E on Friday 22 May 2020 after the coughing was present throughout Thursday 21 May, but increased dramatically from about 8:00 pm on 21 May when it became continuous paroxysms where I brought up white sputum.  Intense coughing on 21 May lasted from about 8:00 throughout the night up to 7:00 am on Friday 22 May 2020.  I had no possibility of sleep during the night of 21/ 22 May.  On other nights since about 3^rd week of April, the coughing had usually died down and I had usually gained 2 hours of sleep – occasionally I even got 4 hours of sleep.

The coughing was still present when I typed up a medical history document to take to A & E on 22 May.  Daylight seemed to lessen the severity of the coughing, and in daylight there was a noticeable lessening in the frequency and severity of the coughing.

After attending A & E on Friday 22 May 2020 and on recommendation of the A & E doctor, I began using Nasonex Allergy 140 Metered Sprays on a daily basis – 2 squirts in the left nostril and one in the right nostril, usually three times per day.  I also took one tablet per day of Fexofenadine Hayfever & Allergy Relief.

As at 8:42 am on Wednesday 27 May, the coughing had shown no sign of improvement.

****

On the night of Friday 22 May I slept from 11 pm until 1.30 am on Saturday 23 May.  I completed that night through intermittent dozing on the lounge room sofa.

On Saturday 23 May, I slept from 10.30 pm until 3.00 am on Sunday 24 May.  I was unable to even doze after 3.00 am.

On Sunday evening 24 May, the coughing was so persistent from 8:00 pm that I didn’t attempt to go to bed.  I spent Sunday night/ Monday morning coughing on the sofa in the lounge.  I got no letup at all in the coughing at all.  I had an extremely long, hard night without even dozing.  The coughing finally eased at 8:00 am on Monday 25 May.

In the evening of Monday 25 May I slept in bed from about 10.30 pm until about 1.30 am on Tuesday.  I then got some intermittent dozing on the sofa.

Tuesday 26 May was very similar to the previous day – I slept from 10.30 pm until about 1.30 am on Wednesday 27 May, with only intermittent sofa dozing after that.

****

At that time, I ceased going to bed until my bronchial tubes seemed to be clear with no rattling noises.  For the nights of 224/ 25 and 25/ 26 May, I turned on an oil column heater in the bedroom for at least two hours before I tried to sleep.  I left the heater on when I went to bed.  I arranged the pillows on the bed to ensure that I was upright when I went to sleep.  I also sat upright on the sofa after bed became impossible and I sipped peppermint tea with teaspoons of honey.  The honey helped soothe my throat and (possibly) helped damp down the urge to cough.

By 27 May 2020, the sneezing had returned, although on a much smaller scale than before the sinus operation.  In the three weeks preceding 27 May I usually had sneeze attacks twice daily of about 14 sneezes in any one session.  There was no obvious trigger for the sneezes.  Compared to the months leading up to sinus operation on 25 February 2020, these sneezing sessions were not significant but I was dismayed that the sneezing attacks had reappeared.

****

I saw Dr Pant again on 27 May 2020.  She found nothing amiss arising out of the sinus operation that might explain my coughing attacks.  Dr Pant referred me to Dr Vinod Aiyappan, a lung specialist.  This is what she said in her letter referring me to Dr Aiyappan

Thank you for seeing John who has a history of bilateral nasal polyps.  He underwent sinus surgery on 25 February 2020.  Please find enclosed copies of his histology, microbiology and blood test results. He was making a good post-operative recovery until mid April developed severe nocturnal coughing.  Please find enclosed a copy of my letter to his GP regarding this.  I am looking forward to your thoughts whether this is to do with a reactive post viral problem or potentially an undiagnosed lower respiratory tract syndrome.  He is a passive smoker as his wife smokes, and no past history of asthma.  I look forward to hearing the outcome of his visit.

****

When Dr Pant referred me to Dr Aiyappan, she yet again saved my life – this time indirectly rather than directly.  Just over a year after getting this referral, Dr Aiyappan plucked me back from the brink of death and I have been in good health ever since.

God bless you Dr Aiyappan.

 

114 – Slowing the Slide Towards Death Part 4: 7 December 2024

The photo above is me on 14 June 2019, about 8 months before the events described in this Blog.  I had ballooned in weight in the months after the open heart surgery, but apart from constant sneezing, I was mostly in good health at that time.

****

To give some context to the events which happened to me and Margaret later in 2020, 2021 and 2022, I need to give some background information about the impact of the Covid epidemic in South Australia.  This information comes from Wiki.

 

On 11 March, the SA state government announced its A$350 million economic stimulus measures. On 15 March, a public health emergency was declared in South Australia. On 22 March, a "major emergency" was declared, giving the police power to enforce self-isolation rules. On 24 March, state borders were closed. People arriving in the state were required to sign a declaration that they would self-isolate for 14 days and provide an address to the police, with penalties for failure to comply. On 27 March, a direction was made under the Emergency Management Act 2004 to prohibit gatherings of more than 10 people, and a limit of 1 person per four square metres. The African Nations Cup, a soccer tournament for African Australian players which had taken place in Adelaide annually since 2001, was cancelled. On 8 November the SA government announced that in the state budget it would double its coronavirus economic stimulus package to AU$4 billion. On 16 November, "a number of significant restrictions" were reintroduced after an outbreak of coronavirus in the northern suburbs of Adelaide.

The last time I saw Dr Pant before my body restarted its seemingly unstoppable slide towards death was on Tuesday 31 March 2020.  Because of the outbreak if the Covid epidemic, Dr Pant was dressed in a compulsory space suit, her body enclosed by the space suit to prevent me giving Covid to her and to prevent her giving Covid to me.  As recounted in the preceding Blog, Dr pant commented that healing in my sinuses was “amazing”.  Dr Pant prescribed a nasal irrigation to help with the healing.  I scrupulously complied with Dr Pant’s treatment recommendations.

****

My recovery from the operation was rapid and without incident until two weeks after my visit to Dr Pant on 31 March.  Then the coughing started – and the coughing rapidly acquired ta deadly potential.

At first, I assumed the coughing was nothing and that it would go away.  When the coughing got worse, I assumed I must have a minor infection in my lungs.  I took some antibiotics to make the “infection” go away.

• I started amoxycillin previously prescribed for a tooth abscess on Friday 24 April 2020
• On Friday 1 May 2010, I got a prescription for amoxycillin from the hopeless locum GP who had refused to try and locate an earlier ENT appointment for me.
• I started a course of stronger antibiotics also prescribed by the same Dr Hopeless on Thursday 7 May 2020.  I had the last tablet of this antibiotic on Wednesday 12 May 2020.
• I started a second course of the stronger antibiotics prescribed by Dr Hopeless on Wednesday 13 May 2020, having the last tablet of this antibiotic on 18 May 2020.

****

The courses of antibiotics had no impact on my coughing.  The coughing got worse and on most nights it forced me to wake up somewhere between 12.30 and 1.00 am.  I usually then got up and had a cup of peppermint tea with 2 teaspoons of honey to soothe the urge to cough.  Usually, I fell asleep on the sofa in the lounge room somewhere between 3.00 am and 5.30 am.  I had a sleeping tablet before bed on Wednesday 20 May.  It made no difference and I still woke up with coughing fit.

After coughing fits set in, I started bringing up green sputum but this ceased while I was taking the second course of the stronger antibiotics and the sputum then became white or clear.

****

I did not know it then, but I was in deadly trouble.  The only obstacle preventing my death was my stubborn refusal to die.  I have been able to write this Blog only because I refused to die over the many months that followed.

It was the middle of July 2021 before my dance with death had been successfully concluded by the defeat of the illnesses that did their very best to make Margaret a widow,

 

 

113 – Slowing the Slide Towards Death Part 3: 6 December 2024

In Blog 112 I recounted how I meditated on Tuesday 18 February 2020 asking the universe to get me an ENT appointment earlier than my scheduled appointment on 29 April 2020.  The next day I forced the locum GP to make a phone call seeking an earlier appointment and to his shock I was granted an appointment at 9.30 am the next day with Dr Harshita Pant.  The phone call which I forced the locum GP to make on 19 February saved my life because it meant I was able to see Dr Pant on Thursday 20 February.

****

 

****

Margaret came with me when I saw Dr Pant on 20 February. 

Dr Pant looked at the cat scan of my sinuses and put a camera up my nostrils.  She said I needed surgery to clean all of the rubbish out of my system.  As well as the polyps, I had a great deal of fungi and my septum (the part of the nose that separates the nostrils) was badly deformed.  She thought it was unlikely that I had ever been able to breathe properly in the whole of my life.

Dr Pant said she could do my operation on 25 March.  I replied “How about yesterday?  Can you do it yesterday”.  Dr Pant then asked if I was available for her to do the operation on Tuesday 25 February.  Her ability to operate on the following Tuesday was subject to her normal anaesthetist being available and it was also subject to me being approved by the anaesthetist as physically fit enough to undertake the operation given my open heart surgery in November 2018. 

I Immediately said “Yes please” to Dr Pant.

****

By yet another miracle in this series of continuous miracles, the anaesthetist was able to see me the very next day - Friday 21 February.  When I told him about the proposed surgery to be performed by Dr Pant on the coming Tuesday, he told me that he (the anaesthetist) was normally NEVER available on Tuesdays and that for this particular Tuesday 25 February he had to be away by 6.00 pm at the latest.  He and his family had a scheduled family trip. 

Dr Pant had rung him about my proposed surgery and immediately before the call from Dr Pant, his normal Tuesday surgery session had been unexpectedly cancelled, meaning that he would be available to assist in the operation.  He would be able to assist in my surgery only because Dr Pant had assured him that I would be the sole patient on the surgery list on the coming Tuesday.

****

So, the way was made clear for me to have my life saving sinus operation on Tuesday 25 February because the universe arranged a special operation in record time just for me in answer to the plea I had made while meditating for the grant of the gift of being able to breathe again. 

****

My operation started at 3 pm and did not finish until 7:15 pm.  I spent the night of the operation in the hospital High Dependency Unit before going home the next day (Wednesday 26 February).  Dr Pant instructed me not to do any exercise for 21 days.  This was a nuisance, but a minor one.

****

I spent the next 7 days recuperating and saw Dr Pant again on Tuesday 3 March.  She said the healing in my system was unbelievable and that it normally took 4 weeks for patients to heal to the extent I had reached that day. 

Dr Pant took the splints out of my nostrils, cleaned out the built up blood and sent me home.  She made a video of my sinuses so she would have visible proof of how well I had healed. 

Dr Pant took a photo of the 2 tiny holes to the left and right of the top of my nose where she had inserted her equipment to clean the rubbish out of my system.  One week after the operation, the holes had nearly disappeared and she wanted a photo to show this to the anaesthetist. 

I was able to breathe without restriction from both nostrils immediately after the splints were removed from my nasal system.  Being able to breathe is a truly wonderful thing to be able to do!  It was as if I suddenly had a marvellous freeway inserted into my sinuses that allowed me to breathe in and out easily in the manner my body had always been meant to do.

I saw Dr Pant again in late March 2020 and I was given a complete medical clearance in relation to the sinus operation.  By the date of that appointment, the multiple restrictions arising out of the Covid 19 epidemic had been imposed in South Australia and Dr Pant was dressed in a “space suit”,

I asked her what would have happened if I had been placed on her normal surgery list for 25 March 2020.  She told me that on 25 March, she had been in the operating theatre preparing to start her normal surgical list of operations.  She had her first patient under anaesthetic in the operating theatre and was about to commence her first operation of the day when instructions arrived saying the government of South Australia had completely banned the performance of ALL “elective surgery” effective immediately. 

If I had been able to survive until 25 March, I would not have received my life saving operation.  It would have been postponed for months until the government order was withdrawn.

****

If I had not received my life saving operation from Dr Pant on 25 February 2020, I would have certainly died.

 

112 – Slowing the Slide Towards Death Part 2: 5 December 2024

The months leading up to January 2019 were filled with ominous omens that terrible events were waiting to happen.

I flew to Albury via Sydney on 28 November 2019.  As I waited in Sydney for my flight to Albury, the air was filled with choking smoke from bushfires that had broken out in the countryside beyond the Sydney city limits.  The smoke followed me continuously as my plane took me from Sydney to Albury (549 kilometres or 341 miles).  When I returned from Albury to Sydney on Tuesday 3 December, the smoke from the bushfires had thickened.  Despite the air conditioning at Sydney airport, the choking smell of the smoke was everywhere at the airport.

By 22 December 2019, South Australian was suffering from its own uncontrolled bushfires.

On 24 October 2019, strong northerly winds combined with existing dry conditions and high temperatures to create dangerous bushfire weather in South Australia (SA). Several fires broke out across the state, including one at Wongulla in the Murraylands where several firefighters were injured. Catastrophic fire conditions were forecast across the state for 20 November and the Country Fire Service (CFS) declared a state-wide total fire ban. A fire threatened Yorketown on the Yorke Peninsula that day before a wind change pushed the fire dangerously close to the township of Edithburgh. The fire destroyed seven homes and burned more than 5,000 hectares (ha). Dangerous fire weather conditions continued from spring into summer. In December, strong winds, low humidity and high temperatures on several days again combined to create dangerous bushfire conditions, including some areas with catastrophic fire danger ratings. Nearly all of SA recorded its highest ever accumulated forest fire danger index for December. On 20 December, catastrophic fire conditions were forecast as the state sweltered though its fourth day of extreme heat. Temperatures in the west of the state reached 49.9°C, several other sites exceeded 45°C, and Adelaide reached 43.9°C. More than 200 bushfires burned across the state that day, including a major fire at Cudlee Creek in the Adelaide Hills that spread rapidly, threatening the townships of Mount Pleasant, Springton, Palmer, Cudlee Creek, Mount Torrens, Harrogate, Inglewood, Gumeracha, Lobethal and Woodside. Twenty-seven roadblocks were set up by SA Police to manage traffic entering threatened areas, and a Large Air Tanker from New South Wales (NSW), called in to assist firefighters, was grounded due to high winds. Over the next few days, the fire burned 23,000 ha before being brought under control. An elderly man died in his home during the fire, and 84 homes were destroyed as well as over 400 outbuildings and 292 vehicles. More than 40,000 ha were burned by fires that started that day and more than 1,500 firefighters responded; 31 firefighters and two police officers were injured. A 24-year-old man from Queensland (QLD) died in a car crash that started a fire in the Murraylands.

****

I took these photos of Adelaide central city area on Sunday 22 December 2019 from the top of the mountains in Morialta Park.

****

It is 2,168 kilometres (1,347 miles) from Sydney to Picton in New Zealand's South Island.  The smoke from the bushfires in Australia was visible in Picton.  I could also smell the choking acrid smoke from the bushfires.  I did not know it at the time, but the smell of the bushfires in New Zealand was one of the last things I would be able to smell until December 2024.  As I write this blog today, my ability to smell brewing coffee is only now starting to return.

****

By the time I took these photos, my sinuses had become completely blocked and breathing through the right side of my nose had become impossible.  The sinus blockages simply kept getting worse; by late December 2019, the left sinus had also ceased to function.  Breathing through either nostril had become impossible by the time Margaret and I went to New Zealand.

****

After our return from New Zealand, Margaret’s cat scan revealed “polyps” in her digestive system.  She had an operation on Tuesday 18 February 2020 to remove the polyps.

****

I had the Cat scan on 10 February which revealed my sinuses and breathing passages were choked with polyps and unusable.  I was referred to an ENT specialist whose earliest available date was 10 ½ weeks away on 29 April.

On Tuesday evening 18 February, I meditated for an hour and asked the universe to get me an earlier specialist appointment through a cancellation.  That hadn’t happened when I started meditating at 2.00 pm on Wednesday 19 February at 2 pm so I stopped meditating and asked Margaret to get me the earliest possible GP appointment so I could make whoever I saw make phone calls to get an earlier ENT appointment.  Margaret got me an appointment with a locum at 4.10 that afternoon

When I told the locum what I wanted, he told me to go home, do a Google and make my own calls to find out about an earlier appointment.  I refused to move and told him I was there because he was the doctor and he was going to make the calls not me.  He then reluctantly did a Google search and made a call to the first ENT practice he found.  When he asked for their earliest appointment, it was 9.30 am next day Thursday 20 February. 

The surly locum looked stunned.

That phone call - which I forced him make - saved by life.  By refusing to go away and by insisting that he do his job, I saved my own life.

I did not know it then, but I was about to see a wonderful, extraordinarily kind and almost miraculously skilful miracle worker called Dr Harshita Pant.

Dr Pant is my personal nominee for the most wonderful Australian I have ever met.  

111 – Slow Slide Towards Death Part 1: 3 December 2024

Our dinner in Killashee House on 22 September 2019 to celebrate our wedding anniversary, was the last significant event that Margaret and I ever took part in while Margaret was still alive.  We did not know it, but her death was now a little less than four years away.  We would never be able to return to Ireland again together.

We flew out of Dublin on Tuesday 24 September and we got home to Adelaide on 25 September.

When we got home, Margaret was still in great pain from the deterioration of the myelin sheath that was supposed to protect her spine.

I still suffered from constant sneezing and the sneeze attacks were obviously getting worse.  I was unable to breathe at all through my nose.

Despite our health issues, we were both completely elated.  We had just spent weeks in Ireland with our wonderful friend Anne Ryan, we had again caught up with some of our wonderful Irish friends who had come to our wedding in 2009, and our unbelievably wonderful friend Anne Ryan would be joining us again in Adelaide just a few short weeks after our return home.

How could life be better!

We were both so very glad to return to our own home again.  We have a small, enclosed veranda outside our back door.  My birthday Buddha statue is sitting on the table in this photo.

****

I no longer remember the exact date when Anne Ryan returned to Adelaide for her Australian summer break, but I think it was in October 2019.

As always, we met Anne at the airport and drove her to her fully owned and paid for summer residence at Glenelg. 

I had lent my car to Anne in November 2018 when I had been unable to use it because of my open heart surgery.  

I again lent my car to Anne when she returned to Adelaide in October 2019.  As before, we neither asked for nor accepted any payment for Anne’s use of my car.  We made it clear she could use the car until she returned to Ireland via Bhutan in February 2020.

In fact, Anne retained use of my car until the date she cancelled me in February 2021.  

Her way of saying thanks for our generosity in relation to the car and everything else was to give Margaret a $150.00 chocolate gift voucher and I got a $150.00 gift voucher for books.

****

We both tried several sessions of acupuncture in an attempt to relieve the symptoms that afflicted us.

The acupuncture gave neither of us any permanent relief.

****

By the end of 2019, Anne had become best buddies with every one of our friends in Adelaide.  

Anne, Sue Chapman and Heather and Andrew Long decided that a short holiday in South Island New Zealand should happen and we were kindly invited to join them.

Neither of us particularly wanted to go to New Zealand and neither of us was in good health, but of course we agreed to go.

Andrew and Heather Long, Anne Ryan and Sue Chapman decided they wanted to celebrate New Year in New Zealand by doing a guided walk through the New Zealand wilderness.  They all knew Margaret’s back meant she could never take part in their walk, but that did not really matter to them.  They knew that because I would never leave Margaret on her own, Margaret’s physical disabilities would never be their problem.  

Margaret would never complain and John would never abandon her under any circumstances, so there was no problem for them to solve.

We arrived in Christchurch Airport on 28 December 2019 and stayed overnight in the airport hotel.

We flew to Nelson on 29 December.

The two female lovers and the married couple left for their guided walk on 30 December while Margaret and I drove a car to Picton, where we stayed until we returned to Nelson on 1 January 2020.

We flew from Nelson to Christchurch on Saturday 4 January 2020 and we arrived back in Adelaide on Tuesday 7 January 2020.

****

I took this photo of the two lovers in Christchurch on Monday 6 January 2020.

****

I took this photo of the South Island countryside on Sunday 5 January.  Compared to the outback of South Australia, the countryside shown in this photo is astonishingly green.  In January, the countryside around Adelaide – which is among the more fertile land in South Australia – is burned to a brown straw colour.

****

When we got home, Margaret visited the GP.  She felt unwell and she had lost weight.  Her weight loss turned out to have been 20 kilograms compared to her normal weight.  The GP ordered a cat scan and the cat scan revealed a “polyp” in her digestive system.  It had to be removed surgically.

As for me, my sneezing had become almost unbearable and my inability to breathe through my nose was starting to cause me great discomfort.  The GP recommended Nasonex spray and ordered a cat scan of my sinuses.  The Nasonex made the sneezing significantly worse.  My cat scan showed my sinuses and breathing passages were choked by polyps and completely unusable.

Our slow slide towards death had begun to accelerate.  

Neither of us had any real idea about how desperately ill we both were.

The lovers and the rest of our closest friends didn’t give a shit.  It was irrelevant to them that we were in a death spiral.

110 – Celebration of Friendship Part 3: 2 December 2024

In blog 109, I said that Margaret and I holidayed in Ireland from 13 August 2019 to 24 September 2019.  I also said that Margaret’s closest Australian friend Sue Chapman, arrived in Ireland on 12 September and she too stayed at Anne’s house in Newbridge.  I said it was probable that Ann and Sue had been long time lovers when Sue arrived in Ireland on 12 September.  I said Anne and Sue holidayed together in the English Channel Islands from Friday 27 September to Sunday 6 October 2019.

****

With the benefit of hindsight, it is difficult to imagine how Margaret and I could have failed to realise that Anne and Sue had commenced a love affair, but if we had guessed, we would not have seen anything malign in it.

I now believe it likely the clandestine love affair played a major role in the cancellation of me and Margaret in February 2021.

****

From Saturday 14 September to the morning of Thursday 19 September, Anne and Sue shared a room in an apartment the four of us rented at the Clew Bay Hotel in Westport, County Mayo.

We returned from Westport to Newbridge on 19 September and on 22 September, Margaret and I held a dinner at Killashee House to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of our marriage at Killashee House in 2009.  We stayed overnight at Killashee House, as did Anne and Sue.

I took this photo of Margaret, Anne and Sue in our room at Killashee House on 22 September 2019.

****

This is a photo of the group of friends who came together in Killashee House on 22 September to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of our 2009 wedding in Killashee House.  Anne is on the right at the front and Sue is the final person on the right side.

****

Margaret did not at all want to get out of bed on the Monday after our dinner.  I love this photo I took of her in bed that morning.

****

I took this photo of Anne and Sue in the morning of Monday 23 September when the three of us went for a walk together.

****

Both Anne and Sue were in their early 70s and for all practical purposes, both were divorced. 

Anne had never remarried after she had divorced Margaret’s brother Jim Redden. 

Instead of marrying a human being, she had preferred to be married to her career as an academic at Maynooth University.  That career saw her become a full professor and Dean of the Adult Education Faculty at Maynooth.

Sue’s husband David suffers from a serious, life threatening illness and has required constant care in a nursing home for many years.  Sue’s two children are now both adult and no longer require her full time attention.

Both Anne and Sue were financially independent.

Both Anne and Sue were fervent believers in the Cult of Wokism – Anne perhaps because woke beliefs are essential for any career progress as an academic and Sue probably because of muddled thinking.  At first meeting, both Anne and Sue impress as intelligent, but they are unable to think outside of the rigid boundaries of their Woke religion.

Anne and Sue tolerated Margaret’s lack of Woke beliefs because they knew Margaret before they converted to Wokism.  In effect, Margaret was tolerated as the token “free thinker”.

As for me, I do not adhere to any particular religion and I certainly do not see any sense at all in Wokism.  Although I did not realise it during the time I was with Margaret, this means I was tolerated ONLY because I was connected to Margaret.

****

I did not realise it then, but the vehement claims of Anne on Australia Day (26 January) 2021 that the date of Australia Day should be changed, were restatements of basic Woke theology.

When I became seriously ill after Anne had been so rude to me on Australia Day and wrote my letter to Anne telling her the results of her behaviour, I was unaware of the love affair between Anne and Sue.  I was also unaware that anyone could believe so vehemently in Wokism that they would believe this justified atrociously rude behaviour.

This is my guess about the sequence of events after I wrote to Anne complaining about her terrible behaviour.

****

Anne felt guilty and wanted to repair the rift.

Anne told her lover Sue about my letter.

Sue saw my letter as an opportunity to reinforce and strengthen her love affair with Anne.  Sue probably – wrongly - saw me as a potential rival for Anne’s affection when Margaret died.

Sue persuaded Anne to make the rift permanent rather than repair it.  She probably claimed this would not substantially affect the friendship with Margaret because Margaret would be dead by about May 2021.

Anne accepted the urgings of her lover and told me to bugger off, while saying she hoped she could still remain friends with Margaret.

I was cancelled immediately and Margaret was told no one would ever see her in her own home again, so Margaret had to go elsewhere if she wanted to see her friends.

Margaret did not quickly die as hoped for by Anne and Sue.  This meant they had to invent a big lie for Margaret’s other friends to explain why they would no longer visit Margaret in her own home.  No one has ever told me the actual lie peddled by Anne and Sue, but my guess is that they falsely accused me of a sexual assault on Anne.  I guess this because of the complete cancellation to which I was subjected.  People I had thought were friends, refused to have any contact with me, refused to come to Margaret’s funeral and if they did come to the funeral, they avoided me as if I was a carrier of the Black Death.

****

Everything I have said in the last few paragraphs may be no more than intelligent guesswork, but it all fits together, and I think it is correct.

Unless and until someone tells me facts that make more sense of what happened than the theory set out in this blog, I will assume my guesswork is correct because it makes sense of events that otherwise make no sense.

I will retract this version in a later blog if I am ever told a more convincing explanation of the events.

My reaction to this appalling behaviour? 

Shame on every one of the whole putrid, stinking lot of you!  You make me ashamed to be a human being!

As for those apart from Anne and Sue who simply accepted as true, claims that common sense told them could not be true, Stalin coined the expression “Useful Idiots”.  Let me be clear though, you are not useful to humanity, you were useful only to people who peddled complete lies.  You are merely idiots.