Like they say in the classics - a change is a good as a holiday but its not really. My husband became a workaholic and work became his total focus. This happened over a number of years and we didn't have many holidays because he could not bare to be away from work for too long. Even when he did go on holidays, he always answered work queries on his mobile phone, checked emails, wrote reports and did quotes. I bet everyone has known of a person like that.
So in 20 years or so we have only had one two week holiday per year. The HR department in his work keeps chasing him to take leave but he wouldn't. His boss didn't particularly want him to take leave either as Greg is the only person to do his job so when he is not there very little gets done in his department.
Anyway, last year he opened another department where he works and employs another bloke and this is all run out of Melbourne. Lots of to - ing and fro-ing and stress and stuff happened. His health began to suffer but he would not slow down and work was far too important. Even the marriage wasn't as important as work. Like any machine that gets worked too much without proper maintenance, Greg's body started to break down and he showed signs of stress and had health problems. In spite of my many requests to get him to start treating his body like a precious thing instead of an abused item, on the 18th of December last year he had a heart attack.
Heart attacks are very scary things. I rushed him to hospital and sat and waited in the emergency department reading the crazy heart graph on the monitor that my husband was plugged into with various leads. This is real and he might die. This was all avoidable. What damage has he done long term? The staff were very thorough and kind. I guess they are used to looking at over stressed spouses looking like they have been dragged through a hedge backwards sitting all hours of the day and night beside drugged out partners, (4 lots of morphine to control the pain) praying that it all will turn out ok in the end.
Next day he had a stress test and it showed up that the 'plumbing' for the want of a better word was all fine and that there was not 'fixable' cause like a stent or bypass or anything that needed to be done so we all concluded that it was due to stress. He was to see his GP and could leave the hospital so long as if he had any slight pain he was to return at once.
Christmas was a blur for both of us. Greg was so exhausted and weak he couldn't do anything except sit in a chair or rest on the bed. We went to my parent's place for Christmas which is at the coast. We had planned, for the last few years, a family get together. My sister is in Melbourne, my brother and his family in Queensland and we live in Canberra so its like trying to herd cats getting us all together.
Prior to all of this, some months before, Greg and I had spoken about taking a month off, using some of his leave and chooffing off on a road trip. We had always wanted to get a caravan and 4WD and go photographing wildlife and landscapes. We decided to revisit this thought and put it into practice. We had a conversation when we came home from Christmas and he filled out a leave form and sent it to his work. Miraculously it went under the radar of the big boss and was approved. Trouble was that the only convenient time to go away for such a long time is in the middle of winter. So July the 13th was the date.
It felt like a lifetime away. July and we were only in January! Still there were things to do before then. We always wanted a 4WD so started looking. Greg's brother in law used to be in the second hand car game in Melbourne so we asked him to ask his contacts to keep an eye out for a vehicle. Still if we didn't find one by then our dear old falcon wagon would do the job. The other thing was a van. I priced hiring one for that length of time and it turned out we could probably spend a month in Thailand for the same price!
Because Greg and his heart attack was not a fix thing, we managed to slip through all the cracks on the medical system. He should have had 6 weeks off. The local GP we now used to go to gave him 4 days. All he told Greg to do was stay off the grog for 2 months, take really strong ant acids for 2 months and change jobs. Greg didn't drink much anyway and he didn't have a stomach problem either. Its not like you can change jobs like that - even though the job was the problem. He really needed rest and the doctor didn't want to give him any time off. I didn't think much of his advice. He didn't even refer Greg to a cardiologist. I gave Greg the chance to find another GP. After 2 months of Greg not bothering to do that and still feeling exhausted and tired all the time, I found him one. To the new GP's surprise that Greg wasn't under cardiac care, he found and got us in to a cardiologist within 2 weeks. Greg started having more tests. It was looking more like he had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome all the time. Luckily other than an irregular heart beat, it appears at this stage there is nothing structurally wrong with the heart. Having said that we are still doing more tests - everything takes so much time and appointments are had to make for huge waiting lists.
The real start of the journey
We received a call from Trevor the brother in law from Melbourne one Thursday about 5 weeks ago. There had just been traded in a 100 series white Land Cruiser in pretty good nick with 200,000 on the clock. She was a 4.2 litre turbo diesel and because of Trevor being a good mate of the bloke that owned the car yard, even managed to get $4000 off the yard price. He sent a photo of the car and I was in love.
Because we were in Canberra, we got Trev to test drive the car and on his recommendation we said we would buy it. The following weekend at sparrow's fart we caught a lift with a neighbour who was going into work to the airport to pick up our new second hand car. Greg has a magic redraw your mortgage cheque book and in a few hours we would own a Cruiser. Trev and Janece (Greg's sister) met us at the airport. It took us for ever to get to Melbourne from Canberra as we had to go via Sydney which is a pain in the neck but saved us $300 per person. Melbourne was freezing cold and raining which is why Melbourne is a great place to visit and I would never live there. We went directly to the car yard after waiting for ever for our luggage. Now you might wonder why we would need luggage for an over nighter in Melbourne but I am a fan of taking your own lunch on the road and a thermos and we have a bag with all our road trip gear which I put in another bag with our bits and pieces and stuck it in the luggage. In the bag is a knife for cutting fruit so I had to. Anyway the luggage people must have been having a tea break when we rolled up as we waited over 20 minutes for our one bag.
Arriving at the car yard in the rain and gloom that is a typical Saturday in Melbourne - I know this as I grew up there, we met our car. She had been detailed and carpets cleaned and smelled all deodorant ish. they had covered every vinyl surface with armour all so whatever you touched it came off in your hands. I could not wait to get it home and get a soapy sponge and towel on it to get rid of it. We paid our money, got the paperwork sorted then came across our first problem. Who gets to drive it first.
Greg got to drive only because I hate driving in Melbourne traffic. The steering wheel was leather and worn so I suggested we go via an auto shop to get a cover for it, also some floor mats so we followed Trev and Janece back to their place in Kilsyth where conveniently placed next to the biggest Bunnings you have ever seen is an auto pro shop.
A few hundred dollars later including a steering wheel cover which was such a tight fit that the manager had to go out and put it on, some good rubber floor mats with a lip around them so when you get in with muddy, wet shoes the stuff that falls off them doesn't go all over the place, a tow ball cover and some sheepskin fluffy seat covers to avoid that sore backside on big trips - we went to the rellie's place to play with the car.
We had a lovely evening with the family - we had only been down a few weeks before for Greg's Mum's wedding. The next day Trev and Janece were due to fly out to Thailand for 10 days so we gave them a lift to the airport. They were there a bit early - like hours as we had to get on the road to drive all the way back to Canberra so we said our cheery bye's then attempted to navigate our of Melbourne airport and on to the Hume highway.
The first thing we did was get stuck in a roadworks traffic jam for half an hour. Then near Seymour there was an accident that held us up for another long time by which time we had been in the car nearly 3 hours and barely got out of the burbs of Melbourne. It was going to be a long trip home and I needed to pee.
We stopped for a coffee, wee and fuel. It was one of those truck stop come roadhouses. We haven't owned a diesel car before so we had to keep in mind to find the DIESEL pumps. The other thing was which side do you fill on? One of us jumped out to look. Conveniently its on the same side as the falcon's. One less thing to remember. At this place the diesel pumps were over there and the petrol ones over under the cover. Too easy. Aren't we fancy all you petrol people queues for you and we have a choice of pumps with nobody there! Turned out they were the truck ones and the fuel came out an 100mph so poor Greg is trying not to get sprayed with fuel as he tried to only hold the pump half in.
I was oblivious as I went to get coffee in our labelled mugs which I thought was such a brilliant idea. I named our mugs with our dymo lebeller. Mine says Caz's coffee Mug, Black NO Sugar. His says Greg's coffee Mug, double shot flat white, one sugar. Saves confusion at any coffee place. I came back to a grumpy Greg who said next time we should line up at the normal bowers - avoid truck ones.
Eventually we got home. It did strike me on the way that we now own a 4WD and this was the beginning of it all.
No comments:
Post a Comment