appendicitis and kangaroos

So...I (suzanne) had a recent bout with appendicitis and got some firsthand experience as a patient in Australia :)

After a day and a half of feeling pretty sick, Nick took me to the emergency department at the hospital where I work, and within 3 hours I was on my way to the operating theatre.  A nurse asked me if I was feeling nervous, but I was in enough pain that I was more than happy for them to just take the silly thing out.  And I felt much better when I woke up.

Nick took very good care of me the during the recovery, and now I'm feeling SO much more like myself.   :)

Throughout this process we were thanking God that I had appendicitis here in Australia, rather than in France or in rural Africa.  It would have been more complicated in France with the language barrier, and could have been dangerous in Africa.

But as we kept saying "better to have surgery here in Australia than have appendicitis later on in Africa", my next thought turned towards the many people who DO need surgery in Africa.  Because the only reason I get access to good healthcare and so many others don't is because of my nationality, and sometimes the unfairness of it all really gets to me.  

When I was being wheeled back for surgery, I was mostly thinking "bring it on, just get this appendix out".  I wasn't worried about whether or not my surgery would be successful, or whether or not the instruments were sterile.  Needing surgery in West Africa comes with many more risks and fears.  I remember one of our interpreters in the Republic of Congo last year telling us "you do surgery here on the Mercy Ship like it's a piece of cake- I don't think you understand, when someone needs surgery here in Congo, we immediately start thinking of death."

Being a patient in need of urgent surgical care myself was very thought provoking, and gave me a new perspective on the needs that we are trying to help meet in West African hospitals.  And also a new perspective of thankfulness for the very good care I received, free from fear.

.............

On a lighter note, my goal of seeing some Australian animals before we left Brisbane was met last weekend.  Nick took me to the Lone Pine Koala reserve and I loved every minute of it.

One of the main things I took away from this visit was how amazing it is that Koalas can look so comfortably asleep while wedged between tree branches.  

Thanks for reading!

exploring Brisbane city

when we arrived in Australia I realized that I left all of my camera cards back in America...I finally got one in the mail last week and I was happily reunited with using my good camera- hence the photo overload on the last couple blog posts.  :)

After work one day last week, my friend Jen and I met up at the botanical gardens and did some exploring in this lovely city:  

side note: our time here is going by very rapidly- we are leaving Brisbane in one month, and spending Christmas in Cairns before heading to France.  Time flies.  

This is where I work- St Andrews War Memorial Hospital

There were a bunch of these big lizards on the paths in the botanical gardens....we don't have those in Indiana  :)

Jen took me to her favorite tree- according to the sign it's around 150 years old- it's amazing how it just grows more trunks to support the huge limbs 

the Brisbane River flows through the city, and after we visited the gardens we headed out of the city on a ferry.  I've never lived in a big city- Brisbane is beautiful and I'm really enjoying our time here. 

camping weekend

We took advantage of a 3 day weekend and went camping with friends in an area called the Hinterland which is north of Brisbane.  It was a really fun and also really hot weekend (this was my first taste of how hot Australia actually gets....and I'm told this is only the beginning!)  We were very thankful to be near water and spent most of our time at the swimming hole.  

I really enjoyed seeing more of the area- here are a few photos from the weekend:

what I'm learning about Australia

*written by Suzanne

A few random facts I have learned about Australia since coming here.....

I am loving life here in my husbands homeland,  and thought I'd share few things from the American perspective.   : )

(for most of these, I grabbed photos from google just to show you what I'm talking about)


1- You can see exotic birds just sitting on the power line in this country...(that's a Cockatoo)

and if you have food for them they might perch on your shoulder :)

2- $1 frozen cokes are really popular and really delicious
(do we even have these at fast food restaurants in the states??)
I especially like mine with ice cream in it.  :)

3- kids wear uniforms like these to private schools:
I think the little kids look super cute, but I'd be pretty over wearing that hat by the time I graduated.  The hat is mandatory from what I've heard.
also...another fun fact...Nick was never required to wear shoes to school until high school..they just walked around barefoot and that was normal.

4- Jacaranda trees are beautiful and they smell good

5-  in Sydney, there are signs painted onto the road which are probably there to help keep Americans from being run over by cars

6- Australians think you have to have a kit to make s'mores (we found these at Aldi) :)

7- Australians have the game "snakes and ladders" instead of "chutes and ladders", and they eat gummy snakes instead of gummy worms.

8-  Milo is a heavenly invention, and so are Tim-Tams

9- Russell Crowe lives in Australia, and owns a rugby team called the "South Sydney Rabbitohs", and I like them because their name is fun to say.  

They recently won the NRL Grand Final, which was in Sydney while we were there visiting.  Also, I now understand why American football players get made fun of by Australians for wearing so much gear, because these guys wear no helmets at all, and beat each other up every game.

10-  Bike riders are often seen with zip ties sticking out from the top of their helmet, and the reason is to discourage magpies from dive-bombing their heads while they are riding.  

A magpie swooped down at me several times when I was walking home the other day, and it was pretty scary! It definitely made me duck, so I can see why bikers would find that distracting.  And they look so fashionable too.    : )

11- This is called a Huntsman, and I saw one on the wall at a friends' house and once was enough for me. 

(apparently though, they aren't very dangerous.  But Nick's instructions to me about Australian bugs was  "if it looks mean it probably is poisonous".  I think I'll just keep away from insects.)

And this just made me laugh... :)