I'm sure you will all agree that it is a work of art. I can take some credit for making the model, but the design is all down to Lea (surprisingly). Hopefully the real thing will turn out to be far more impressive, but it will be a while before we see the end result so don't hold your breath.
One piece of bad news which we received recently was that Grand Designs are not going to be featuring us on a future series. It seems that they have no plans to cover any more projects outside the UK.
Further bad news occurred on tuesday last week when I decided that a trip to hospital may be in order. I had been suffering from headaches for a few weeks but thought I had got over it. It was something of a surprise when a crippling headache came out of nowhere following a football match so I finally decided enough was enough. I got home from football and woke Lea up to tell her that she had better drive me to the hospital. I still felt a bit of a fraud walking in to casualty and saying that I had a headache, but they admitted me immediately, and that was the start of my 48 hour adventure in the canadian healthcare system. Following some lengthy discussion with the doctor i was told that a ct scan would tell me if i had any brain haemorrhaging going on. As it turned out the ct scan was clear, and although this would seem like good news it actually meant that I had to have a lumbar puncture as the next step in the diagnostic process. I wasn't too keen when they mentioned this to me, but drugs are wonderful things and I sailed through the whole process in something of a dream. It was a bit more real for Lea, as she stood there watching the doctor sticking a huge needle in my spine and draining out some fluid! Once again this test showed nothing either so the doctor left me to pass out from the drugs and Lea finally went home (at about 3 in the morning).
When I finally came to in the morning I was confronted by another doctor, who decided I needed another ct scan, but this time I would need some radioactive tracer inside me first. Cue even more needles being stuck in me for a second IV and I was wheeled off for my second scan.
It was following this second scan that things started to get a bit serious. Having the doctor tell me that they had found a blood clot in my brain was a very strange moment. I didn't really know how to react, as it sounds like it should be quite serious. However, the doctor was pretty lighthearted about it and told me that I would be sent home the next day so I felt strangely positive about the whole thing. The following 24 hours passed as a mixture of extreme boredom as I sat in my hospital bed interspersed painkillers, heparin injections and blood tests every 4 hours. The doctors and nurses were very helpful in their explanations of exactly what was wrong with me. It turns out that the only real effect is that I am not allowed to play contact sports for 6 months while I am my blood thinners. This was a bit of a blow as my last 8 games had yielded 8 goals, so I was very disappointed to miss out on the end of the season.
So I was discharged from the hospital on the thursday night armed with my painkillers, warfarin pills and heparin injections. Having not really eaten much over the 48 hours that I had been in hospital I was pretty happy when dinner was delivered for me by my office mate and his wife (Thanks Faye, great meal). After that I was back at work and trying to get back to normal. It was (and still is) an interesting experience, and it's nice to know that the healthcare system here seems to run pretty smoothly.
Thanks very much to everyone who wrote, cooked, sent cards and flowers. And thanks for all the 'Blimey, they found your brain' comments! That's about all for now. I have an easy excuse to stop doing anything now. I can feel a bit of a headache coming on!
Until next time,
Rob and Lea
