It was generally felt that the original thoracic surgeon who Tony had seen hadn't been particularly helpful. So Simon arranged an appointment with a colleague of his for Friday morning, quite early.
In the meantime, one of Stella and Tony's oldest friends died. The funeral was for Thursday afternoon.
Lindsey arranged to head down and take them to the funeral, and then to take them to the flat, ready for their Friday morning appointment in Melbourne.
Matthew and Belinda arranged to visit them on Thursday for lunch.
Jim and I were detailed to pick them up from the flat on Friday afternoon and take them home. We thought we might stay overnight and head back to Mount Helen on Saturday after lunch.
With me so far?
The plans then that Lindsey, Ian, Matthew, Belinda, Sage and William would head to Far North Queensland on Saturday afternoon. Jim and I would stay in Mount Helen and look after the house and dog, with me going to Melbourne on Tuesday overnight and coming back on Wednesday. We all felt that Stella and Tony would be OK on their own for a few days.
Then on Thursday Matthew and Belinda arrived and found that Stella had not just the cold that she had told me about on Wednesday but what seemed to be bronchitis. Lindsey arrived, took one look at Stella and called an ambulance. She went in the ambulance with her. Then there was a great deal of to-ing and fro-ing between the Emergency Department, the hospital Stella eventually ended up in and the house in Mount Martha, before Matthew and Belinda finally managed to head home and Lindsey took Tony to the flat in readiness for his appointment on Friday morning.
Stella remembers nothing of any of this!
Jim and I went as planned to collect Tony and off we went to visit Stella, who has pneumonia, a chest infection and fluid on the lungs. I must say that when we saw her early on Friday afternoon I thought I was probably shortly going to be writing an RIP post for her. When we went to visit her again in the evening she was looking quite bit better, although definitely not actually well. She was sitting up in a chair when we went on Saturday morning, although I'm told she wasn't as well last evening.
Wendy appeared on Saturday afternoon so we could come back to Mount Helen. We hadn't taken spare clothes with us and someone had to look after the dog and the house.
This, however, has added a huge level of complexity to the coming week. Wendy has just had a week off so can't take more time off this coming week. I need to go into work on Tuesday and Wednesday, plus I need to go and talk to the Immigration Department before Friday to apply for a residency visa for Jim. Tony can't drive at the moment so wouldn't be able to visit Stella and in any case probably would struggle entirely on his own for a more than a day or two. Simon can't abandon his operating lists at no notice. And Lindsey, Ian, Matt and Belinda are, of course, in FNQ.
Jim and I decided that on the whole it would be much easier if he and I just head down to Mount Martha tomorrow morning and stay put for the week. We are beginning to find it very confusing and quite tiring moving around all over the place. I can get to work from there as easily as from here, leaving Jim to take Tony to visit Stella. And I can probably get myself organised to go to the Immigration Department on Wednesday morning if I push myself a bit. And Ross has agreed to come and look after Sam and the house.
And to add just a tiny, tiny extra level of difficulty - my right ear has become very blocked and I can't hear through it. This is making it quite difficult for Tony and me to communicate. He is deaf in both ears and speaks quite softly. He can't hear me. I can't hear him. We may have to resort to text messages!
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