Crazy Dad scares hospital patient

Harrison had his op today.

They let me go into the operating theatre with him to stay with him while he got his anaesthetic. It's a pretty harrowing experience to watch, so it must have been quite scarey for the young fellow.

He was brave. I asked him if he was scared and he said "No". I said it was ok to be scared, then he admited that he was a bit fearful.

We clowned around in the waiting room before going in. Then, to take his mind of the whole thing, I asked him to name some capital cities while they gave him that horrible gas. (It's a bit more creative than counting down). He managed Somalia, Sudan and Nigeria, but passed out before we got to the capital of Mongolia, but I'm sure he knew the answer anyway :)

It went well. The doc says they didn't need to take any cells from his pelvis. They got some from the other bone in his forearm (ulna). The damged bone (radius) is wired together again now, and will start on the the Pamindronate therapy in a couple of weeks.

Liz is staying in the ward with him this evening. Hopefully they'll be out tomorrow.

Premature celebrations

We celebrated too soon about Harrison's arm.

It's worse than we thought.

He broke his radial head (end of the forearm bone near elbow) in June. We were worried that the lack of circulation to the broken end of bone would stop it healing.

A nuclear scan led us to beleive that the bone had good circulation, but it was wrong. A later MRI scan showed that there was no blood getting to the broken bit of bone. That's why it didn't heal. So after more than 6 weeks, Harrison's broken bone hasn't joined back up.

MRI's have a much higher resolution, so it was much easier to see what was going on after Harrison had the MRI. The attached image is a sample MRI of an elbow joint. It's not Harrison's elbow, because the hospital doesn't give out MRI's but it gives you an idea of the much better resolution that's available.

Since the bone isn't healing, our doctor has recommended a bone graft. They're going to take a small amount of bone from Harrison's pelvis, put it into the break in his arm, and wire it together.

The scarey thing is that they're going to give him a drug called Pamidronate. It slows down the natural breakdown of the bones. In most of us, our bones are in a state of equilibrium - bone cells get created while others get broken down. When you take Pamidronate, your bone cells don't break down. They just keep growing. There can be some nasty side effects like Kidney failure, seizures, breathing problems etc. But if it works, it will encourage the bone graft to take, and hopefully heal Harrison's elbow.

Because of the seriousness of the drug, Harrison will have to go into Hospital for a full day of tests every month while they he's receiving the drug.

This is hard work for all of us. But it will be worth it if Harrison's arm heals. The alternative for a growing seven year old isn't very nice. The bit of bone that broke is a "growth plate". It's where his forearm bone would normally grow from over the next decade. This won't happen if that bit of bone dies, and he'd need an artificial "spacer" to replace the dead bit of non-growing bone.

Lets hope it all works out ok!

Farewell Myuna II

My boat (Myuna II) sank this afternoon.

I'm not sure why - we'd had a lot of rain and the marina manager said she went down pretty fast.

A salvage crew is going to try to get her out of the water tomorrow.

We had a lot of fun on that old boat - sailing many times to Moreton Island, and I'm really sad to see her go like this.

She was built in 1967 and did a circumnavigation of the world in the early 70's. Pretty amazing for such a small vessel. Ironic that she could go all the way round the world, and still end up under water in a marina after a moderate storm.

Miracle Boy

Harrison broke his arm a month ago.

A lot of kids break their arms, but this was a bad break for a number of reasons.

1. The bone was completely broken right the way thru.

2. The break was at the top of his radius, i.e. on his forearm up near his elbow.

3. The periosteum (coating on the bone) was about 75% to 80% stripped away. This coating is necessary to supply blood to the bone. Without the coating, the bone dies and stops growing.

4. (To top it all off) He dislocated the bone as well.

The doctor put a k-wire (metal pin) in his arm to hold the bones together, then plastered him up. His assessment was that there was about an 80% chance that the damage to Harrison's arm would cause the bone to die.


Four weeks later, they removed the cast (and the metal pin) and did a bone scan. That involved putting Harrison under a camera that could detect nuclear radiation, then injecting him with a radioactive dye that would circulate through his blood, and eventually get into his bones a couple of hours later. By recording how much of the dye was absorbed by his bones, they could tell if there was enough blood supply to his elbow, and whether or not it was healing.

The process is amazing to watch. At first the screen is black, because we're not naturally radioactive. Then as the dye is injected, you see a bright streak on the screen as it passes through the veins to the heart, and then diffuses throughout the body via the arteries in a matter of seconds. The image that is formed is a bit like the one on the left (except that's not Harrison, just an example I found on google).

The good news is that after spending hours getting it, the scan shows that there is plenty of blood flow to Harrison's injured arm, and he's going to be ok.

Liz and I are very happy, and grateful to the amazing staff at RBWH. We've been in there quite a few times with the kids, and we know that they're in safe hands.

We're also very grateful for Harrison. He had a precarious start to life, seven years ago, and we almost lost him. He's beaten the odds again, and we're so glad he's here.

Head in the clouds

My mum always used to say I had my head in the clouds :)

These clouds just happened to be overhead one day while I was at a BBQ.

Picking up the leaves for Dad.

A couple of very eager little workers helped me clear up some Autumn maple leaves around our house. They lost interest after 5 minutes, but I got a real buzz watching them work as a team.

Lilly, in her pink "beautiful princess" dress rakes up the leaves with a rake twice her size, while Harrison scoops them up in an old plant pot and puts them in the garden bale.

But take a close look at those gorgeous shoes that lilly is wearing. My size-eleven, paint-spattered deck shoes.

Priceless.

A shipboard view of what it looks like to sail of out Brisbane.

Here's a timelapse video of the Pacific Star leaving port today. I'll try and upload some more ports / ships in the near future.

S.S. "TinnyTanic"

Our trip from Port Vila to Brisbane took two and a half days by sea.

One of the many fun activities we had during the long leisurely sea days was a "Scrap Heap Challenge". Basically the idea was to build a boat out of rubbish found on board the ship, float it across the pool, and have it carry a carton of beer without sinking.

As you can see from the photos below, some of the entries were pretty good. I wonder where they got (or bought) all that junk from!



Our entry was the "S.S. TinnyTanic". (Below) She looked more like a handbag that a ship, but I can guarantee she was made 100% out of junk.


And you can see from the picture below, she made it safely across the pool, with beer on board, and didn't sink!




Hey - how did this picture get in here? I wonder how many tinnies this boat can carry?
Actually, it's the "Pacific Sun", sister ship to "Pacific Star", which passed as we headed back to Brisbane.

Exploring Port Vila

We spent all of Wednesday in Port Vila.

A local Taxi Driver took us around the local area for a few hours.

We made a sweatty climb through the jungle to get to Cascade Falls where we had a cool refreshing swim in the Crystal Clear water.

Our driver then took us to a local village to see how the people here live the traditional lifestyle.

After that we came back to town and caught the free barge across to Iririki Island where we had lunch.

The harbour around Port Vila is very picturesque.

When we came back to the boat, some of the local people put on a farewell dance for us which really impressed the kids.

We're somewhere to the North of New Caledonia at the moment, for a few days at sea before we arrive back in Brisbane on Saturday.

See you all soon.

Neil

Climbing Cascade Falls in Vanuatu.
Beautiful clear, cool water in a steamy forest.

A traditional village near Port Vila.
Everyone in the village was so friendly!

Catching the barge to Iririki Island. A free barge from the centre of Port Vila takes you to an island resort where you can swim and have lunch.

The locals give us a traditional farewell. I don't think Harrison or Lilly knew what to do when these Ni-Vanuatu men said hello to them.

Leaving Port Vila, Sailing off into the Sunset.
What a beautiful way to end a busy day.

New Caledonia

We spent yesterday in Noumea. Officially it's part of France, about 700 nautical miles north-east of Brisbane.

The local Kanak people are very friendly. We got to sample some of the French food & wine, as well as see some sights around town and some local dancing and singing.

We woke up this morning in Lifou, a small untouched island to the east of New Calediona's main island. Once again the people we very friendly. They loved Lilly.

The coral reefs here are impressive, so we took in a bit of snorkelling in Jochin bay.

One thing about this ship - you get a lot of exercise. It's two hundred meters long, and to go to breakfast we walk up 5 floors from deck 5 to deck 10. Do that a dozen times a day and you have a pretty good workout.

More news tomorrow from Port Vila!

Neil

The local welcoming committee in Noumea. We received a very warm welcome from the locals as we disembarked in Noumea.

A view of Noumea from one of the many high spots in town. If you look carefully you can see our ship in town.

Place de Cocotiers (Coconut Square) in the middle of town. We had a bit of a look around Coconut Square in the middle of town.

Baie des Citrons. The kids had a great time playing by the beach at Baie des Citrons (Lemon Bay) which is a short Taxi ride from the middle of town. There are lots of great cafes here.

Liz enjoys a glass of French wine at a cafe in Baie des Citrons. It's hard work thinking about how to order things in French so we kept it simple :)

Lifou - a beautiful unspoilt village by the sea.
They had to bring us ashore in the ship's tenders (lifeboats) because there's no wharf large enough in Lifou (or deep enough water) to bring the ship in to shore.

Jochin Bay - a great snorkelling spot on Lifou.

Harrison and Lilly check out a local grass hut
I wonder what it's like in a cyclone?

Lilly makes some new friends
These ladies braided Lilly's hair for her. She felt like a princess. I think they wanted to keep her. :)