The Journal
Thoughts
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Almost Home
It has been a long road, but we are almost home. Amanda and I left Wanganui yesterday and drove up to Auckland, where my brother David manages a complex of 114 apartments in the city CBD.…
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Wanganui Hospital Again
An astonishing, excuse filled response from the Wanganui (or Whanganui) Hospital in response to a front page story today in the Wanganui Chronicle about some of their failures in Amanda’s care. I have just emailed a letter…
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Wanganui Hospital Stuffs Up Again (and Again)
I wrote a week ago that I expected normal transmissions to resume forthwith. That didn’t happen. Amanda was then in the Critical Care Unit at Wanganui Hospital. I foolishly imagined that she would be safe there.…
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Conversations With Amanda
A Poem for Amanda Dressings for windows and watches and wounds I think all my zebras are coming home soon. I asked my friend Millie the mincer to fix But she sits on the mantelpiece playing…
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I’m Ba-ack!
I am still In Wanganui in New Zealand, still caring for Amanda. But we seem to have settled into a routine now, and I have found a decently quick internet caff, so posting should be back…
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Mental Health Services
This is an article I have just written to send to the Wanganui Chronicle. It is about Amanda, but may be of wider interest. I apologise for the lack of posts over the last few days. Things have been pretty…
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A Short Break
Amanda is being flown up to Wanganui in the next hour. I will drive up – about three hours – and be there tonight. Posting will resume tomorrow. Run the race. Keep the faith.
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Help!
Staff at the Intensive Care Unit in Wellington told us this morning that Amanda is to be transferred today to the ICU in Wanganui. It is clear she is going to require a long period of support…
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NZ Too Much for Darwin
By the time the twenty-three year old Charles Darwin reached New Zealand he had definitely had enough. Despite its natural beauty and fascinating birds and insects, Darwin wrote of the Maori people: “Their persons and houses…
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Amanda Update
Amanda has been a lot more responsive yesterday and today, and was able to mouth the word ‘Wellington’ when I asked her if she knew where she was. So co-ordination is returning, and higher brain function…
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Amanda Update
There may be no more posts today. We are arguing with staff in the ICU about whether Amanda should be returned to her completely ineffective regime of psych medication. It is difficult and time-consuming. Please continue to…
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Amanda and Gran Torino
After an ultrasound doctors found a large quantity of fluid in Amanda’s chest yesterday, and asked us to leave for a few hours while they sedated her and inserted a drain. Dad and David and I went and…
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Lindsay Lohan’s Tantrum Works
Shouting, stomping your feet and screeching at people are an effective way of getting what you want. If you are a two year old. My Mum used to tell me that if we were in a supermarket…
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We’d Be the Heroes. Yes, Sure
Via Kathy Shaidle, this report from the Catholic Register. ‘In elementary school, teachers tried to deprogram students of any anti-Jewish sentiment we might have heard at home. In high school history class, we watched footage of…
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Amanda Update
I arrived in Wellington last night and was picked up by my father and brother David. After stopping at the Whare Whanau (family house – low cost accommodation for families of patients) we went up to…
