I have not posted anything on this site for more than twelve months. This is because my wife and I decided to take a break and travel overseas to visit family and friends in Singapore and Hong Kong. On our return to Australia, we then enjoyed a ten-day holiday in Port Macquarie, NSW.

By the time we returned to our home in Canberra, the 2015 Christmas period was almost upon us so I had to get myself motivated and catch up with all my neglected garden chores. A couple of days before Christmas, I was trimming the hedge in my back garden when I had a fall and fractured a bone in my upper left arm. I have never in my life experienced such a high level of pain. When the ambulance arrived the paramedics worked their magic on me and I do not remember very much after that and woke up in hospital the next morning.

A CT scan showed that the fracture was so serious that surgery had to be performed to affix a metal plate to the bone using seven screws. This meant my left arm needed to be immobilized for six weeks followed by an expected recovery period of six to twelve months. This was quite problematic for me because I am left hand dominant; so you can imagine how difficult it was for me to perform even the most basic tasks for myself, such as bathing, shaving, dressing and of course eating with my useless and uncooperative right hand/arm.

During my recovery in hospital I developed cardiac problems. Suddenly, my heart rate skyrocketed: this brought the cardiac emergency team to my bedside where all sorts of drugs were pumped into my body to slow my heart beat down to normal. It appears that my heart’s natural rhythm went haywire. This was quite a scary experience and I was kept in hospital for the rest of the Christmas period. After several ambulance trips to hospital over the next few months, I was eventually fitted with a heart pacemaker to prevent my heart from beating too slow and also prescribed medication to prevent it from beating too fast.

Prior to my fall and my cardiac problems, I was invincible: these sort of mishaps always happened to the other fellow not to me. Discovering I was mortal was quite a shock and now, ten months into my recovery, I am still struggling to come to terms with the limitations my medical problems have imposed upon my life. These experiences certainly brought me down to earth with quite a bump. And, being mortal has taken the fun out of my life because my family keep trying to wrap me up in cotton wool so I do not do anything stupid like trying to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

aquarianmist