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My father has survived, we think, the removal of a tumour on his bladder, but still can’t urinate. The Albury Private Hospital wanted him out on Friday. But then found he couldn’t urinate, so they hooked him up to a colostomy bag and said we could take him, knowing full well, that because of his dementia, he has a past history of removing catheters and IV drips from himself – he has done it on three occasions. So if he came home and ripped the colostomy tube out, we would have had to rush him to hospital. We refused to take him until having some sort of nursing help available. My mum is depressed, he is depressed, I am feeling absolutely useless. I wish I could be there to help but I have a cold, which is getting worse, and I don’t want to give it to my father of mother. We still don’t know if the tumour was cancerous. We can’t access help from dementia organisations in Victoria until my father is shifted back into Victoria, so we are trying to get him shifted ...

Hi all, My left eye seems to have come through cataract surgery well, with 20/20 vision restored to it according to the ophthalmologist . I could read the bottom line of the eye chart with my left eye, but I still need glasses to read. Perhaps when my eyes are equal, after cataract surgery on the right eye next Monday, I might discard the glasses. As it is, I am now using an old pair, the first pair of glasses I got in fact, as I type up this post. I have had a few concerns, like stinging eyes after eye drops due to dry eyes, and there is a tiny flutter of light in the middle of the eye, especially after I have been in bright light or have just woken up. I don't see it when reading or using a computer. Much to my surprise , I was able to do some writing/editing in the afternoon of the surgery and have continued doing so since. Just 10 mins to half an hour, as I get a dullness just above the nose after a while, a thick...

Hi all, I know a few readers of this blog are considering undergoing cataract surgery, so I have decided to write a post on my experience, so far. About four months ago I had conjunctivitis which left me with one very pink left eye, and not so pink right eye. It cleared quickly but I was worried it might have damaged my eyes. Instead of talking to the doctor about whether this could have occurred, I started examining my eyes by closing one eye when reading and I noticed that my left eye had a foggy patch, like I was wearing scratched glasses, right in the middle of the eye. I also noticed that the print of whatever I read became clearer when I closed my left eye. My mother had just had cataracts removed so I immediately thought, I must have them too, either that or macular degeneration, which was being heavily publicised at the time on the television. I had to wait two weeks for an optometrist appointment. He quickly confirmed that I had cataracts, in both eyes, which came as a...

Hi all, Thought I would post a day earlier than usual as I probably will be incapable of writing anything much over the next week or more due to cataract surgery at 9am on Monday. Glad the surgery is in the morning, my anxiety will have less time to build up. I had an interesting - for me anyway - writing week. I finished the second draft of chapter nine, which is vastly changed from the original in content and the attitude of main characters, but still gets to the same ending. I then had a look at the next chapters because I thought they could just be padding until the next twist came along. I found chapters 10-13 could be removed from the novel without having any major effect on the story, so I have cut them, 22,000 words in all. The second draft is now 127,000 words, about 6,000 less than the original. I've been thinking that if my novel gets published as an ebook I could include a deleted chapters section, like the deleted movie scenes on a DVD. Readers might be interested in ...

Hi all, The countdown until my cataract surgery hasn't been postponed a second time and is diminishing too quickly for my liking, with only a week to go. If the surgery is in the morning next Monday then I probably won't be doing a weekly blog post next week. I wonder if I will be doing any writing at all for a while. My compulsion of writing every day since new year's day 2008 will probably end - 671 days in a row so far. I reckon I need a break anyway. Hardly a word of the first draft of chapter nine of Stalking Tigers still survives. Surprisingly, the chapter is still going to get to where it originally went, but the characters will arrive with different attitudes. I read that Dymocks , in an attempt to appease some of the many who oppose changes to the parallel importation laws, suggests the setting up of a levy to help Australian authors writing "culturally worthwhile" works. Just imagine a Liberal appointed body judging what is culturally worthwhile: is it...