Heroes and people who inspire me

Hero –noun, plural -roes

a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal

Everyone has a hero, or heroes.  I have lots of heroes - sometimes I see something that someone has done and I think "Wow, that's great, I really really admire that!"  And then I forget what it was I admired... and the hero moment is lost.

So I'm going to write about my heroes here so their great deeds won't be forgotten...

Spiderman

Ok, well there has to be one superhero in here, and Spidey is my favourite.  Why Spidey?  Because of his "With great power, comes great responsibility."  And Spidey is smart, he's a scientist, and he's nerdy in real life too (hmm, parallels anyone?).  How could anybody not admire the crime fighting Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman?  I wish I had powers like his!  Climbing walls would be awesome.

William Osler

The father of modern medicine, Osler was a teacher, pathologist and a bit of a practical joker.  He insisted that medical students learned from seeing and talking to patients, and also established medical residency.  He once said, "I desire no other epitaph … than the statement that I taught medical students in the wards, as I regard this as by far the most useful and important work I have been called upon to do."
Osler said a great many wise things:
- "He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all."
- "If you listen carefully to the patient they will tell you the diagnosis"   (emphasising the importance of good history/examination)
- "Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability."
Amusingly, he wrote articles under the name Egerton Yorrick Davis, one of which was about penis captivus (which is about muscles of the vagina clamping down so hard on the penis you cannot withdraw - which was a hoax btw).  What a cheeky fella!

Harvey Cushing
A brilliant neurosurgeon who not only is attributed to Cushing's disease and the Cushing reflex seen in raised intracranial pressure, is on my list of people I admire because he also was the first to use an anaesthetic chart as well as introducing blood pressure monitoring and praecordial auscultation.  He also described the terminology of regional anaesthesia and employed the first independent neuroanaesthetist!  Now a surgeon who thinks?  I like it.  And, he also won a Pulitzer prize for his biography of Sir William Osler.

 

Howard Florey

Alexander Fleming originally discovered the Penicillum mould whichinhibited the growth of bacteria in his lab in 1928.  However, Australian scientist Howard Florey and his team of scientists developed penicillin 10 years later, earning him a Nobel prize with Ernst Chain in 1945.

Florey studied medicine at the University of Adelaide, inspired to do so by his chemistry teacher.  He was a quiet man, but sure of himself and his direction. He inspired those around him with his scientific enthusiasm, his skill and his total honesty and lack of pretentiousness.

Today a suburb in Canberra is named after him and he was depicted on the old $50 note.

Developing penicillin was a team effort, as these things tend to be

—Howard Florey, Baron Florey

Zhengrong Shi
Someone who is still alive!  Zhengrong Shi is the founder of Suntech industries, and is the son of a Chinese farmer who came to Australia as an electrical engineer to study solarvoltaic technology.  He was enticed back to China to start up a solar panel company and today is one of the richest people in China (and also on the Australian list too).  Why do I admire him?  Well he had humble beginnings, came to Australia to study and went back to China yet still donates to UNSW for solar technology research (well he is rich after all!).  And he is researching and advancing sustainable energy.  A bit of a strange person for me to admire, I know, but for some reason his story seems to inspire me because I think he has a great legacy to leave behind.

Solar Panels with Energy Matters

Well I finally got a call back from the Energy Matters people and I'm going ahead with my solar panels!  I paid a deposit on the spot and they gave me a free wireless monitor.  How cool!  I am going to get a 2.5kW system with a 3kW inverter just in case I decide to upgrade later.  Hubby doesn't mind because with the gross tariff feed-in system in NSW (60c per kWh!) we could pay off our system in about 4-5 years!

I can't wait!  Keep an eye on this post for more updates!

A green Fridge!

Electrolux has a very enviro-friendly fridge that I saw in my inbox today - it's on sale at Appliancesonline.com.au.  I have never seen a 5 star rating fridge before!

See it here on the electrolux website.

I want one of these!  It only uses 406kWh per year!  My current one uses 700+.  The problem is it's a bit pricey at $1500+

Elimination Communication with Julian

Elimination communication (EC) is about early start potty training - basically training your baby to eliminate their waste, but it's also about training the parent to recognise the signals that the baby wants to poo/wee!

My mum started Erika early on the potty at 6 months (basically when she could sit) but I was reading a book by Linda Sonna which talks about EC.  If you think about it, we toilet train puppies, why can't you toilet train a baby?  And we do reinforce the idea of pooping and peeing in a nappy if you think about it - imagine when you're changing the baby's nappy and they wee, and we squeal and scream, they learn that doing that is not good and that weeing in a nappy is good.  Gosh I have to say that it is hard NOT to squeal and scream when you're getting a golden shower...

So I noticed that Julian poos and wees after eating, so after each feed I take him to the bathroom and hold him over the sink/potty and wait for him to do his business.  Started out kinda slow but lately he's been able to poop and wee while I'm holding him.  Which is good coz that saves on me having to wash poo out of nappies!  One thing I've noticed is that he pulls off the boob if he wants to do some business.  I've been ignoring that because I wanted to get the feeding done instead of dragging it out, but I may have to start taking him to the bathroom.

I didn't want anyone else to see me doing the EC stuff because I thought that they would all think I was crazy, but now that it is working a little bit I don't mind people seeing.  I did it at my mother-in-law's house with my sister-in-law watching, and she is very open and nonjudgemental and she was fascinated that I was doing that.  What was even better was that he wee'd when I was doing it so it made it look good too.

There is something really satisfying about "catching" a wee or a poo.  I feel like I should reward myself with a chocolate or something (well I should reward the baby but he doesn't eat chocolate, oh well!).  The other day I think I caught almost all his poos.  Yesterday I missed 3 poos which was a bummer.  2 were while I was in the middle of feeding though.  Julian's most reliable poo time is in the morning, he always wakes up at 4-5am to do a poo.  He makes lots of poo straining sounds too so that gives you an idea that he needs to go.  I wonder if he holds it till then or if he just feels like going?  Well I don't think he can hold poo or wee long, but he can certainly let you know if he needs to go.  He actually likes going to poo because I hold him over the sink and there is a mirror in front of him and he makes funny faces, smiles, laughs and coos which makes the EC that little bit more fun.

I wonder when I should start using the potty instead of the sink.  I'm just scared that he'll poop all over my clothes if I use the potty because I'll have to sit on the floor.

5 February 2010

OMG I managed to have no pooey nappies yesterday!  All poo was in the sink!

6 February 2010
I was reading someone's EC journey and I liked this page:
http://www.freewebs.com/freetoec/mythologyreality.htm
It would make all the people who think what I do is dirty and strange know that it's all quite normal!
Julian actually poops quite quickly after having a feed.  If he wants to poop that is.  Sometimes I don't even have to make the sound he just does it as soon as his bottom touches the edge of the sink.  It's nice that he doesn't do the golden shower on me anymore, he waits till he gets to the bathroom!

Nappy crazy

I know I'm not supposed to be buying any more nappies - I have so many! But I just can't help myself. On Nappy Addicts, there is a BBH co-op and BBH has just released some new nappies - some AI2s that are like ittis and some night nappies - which is basically Lotus nappy type design, and I LOVE my lotus night nappy. Super absorbent. Anyway had to get some more of those now that Julian is sleeping longer hours at night.

I also bought a Wild Child night nappy as well! And I bought some nappies for Alison's new baby which is due in March. So it's kind of nice that I bought nappies but really they're a gift. I hope she likes them. I got her 2 Blueberries, 2 Bitti D'lish and 2 Wild Child fitteds. But tempted to keep one Wild child if they're really nice.


Oh and I'm bidding on some BBH on Ebay, 5 OSFM Bamboo fitteds and 5 fold ups. Unfortunately I bid on them before I knew about the co-op! Which I've now won btw for $98 including postage.

Mirena

Well I've decided to try this as contraception. After years of using the pill I thought maybe time for a change. And not to mention I keep forgetting to take the pill so that's a pretty useless contraception! Anyway that left me with 2 choices, an implanon or a Mirena. I went for the Mirena.

Why the Mirena?
Well it lasts for 5 years, it gives the dose of hormone intrauterine so it's a pretty small amount. Keeps the endometrium thin so that eggs can't implant and also thickens cervical mucus and apparently decreases sperm motility.
Though the thought of having something in my uterus was a bit scary (risk of PID, ectopics, foreign body, infection!) the convenience of it sold me on it. I was worried it would be expensive (like 5 years worth of pill) but it was only $36 or so! How cheap! And if I'm lucky I might not get any periods either. Now that's always a plus. And if I get super light periods I might be able to get away with just panty liners for the 5 years - which means I can use my cloth pads yay! Which are all panty liner types anyway. Apparently the guy can feel the threads if the ends are cut too short (because then it's like a prickle) but I think they're quite long at the moment. I haven't been game to feel the threads yet, maybe I'll do that tomorrow.

Birth Story

Gosh talk about totally different to the first time around!

I had my beautiful weeks off all planned. Thursday 15 October was my last day at work, had a party at work, it was great! I was naughty and ate lots of food and didn't check my sugars much, had cake and sushi and all sorts of yum stuff. Finished late though so that was annoying but since it was my last day.. who cares right? Went to a friend's house after that and stayed out late!

On Friday went and visited those same friends when they were sober, did some shopping and then I came home to wait for my daughter and my parents to come back. They arrived just after lunch and I spent the day playing with her and fussing over her and it was a nice day.

On Saturday, woke up and had some uncomfortable Braxton Hicks pains. Ignored them for a bit, thought it was because I jumped out of bed too quickly, and I went and did laundry and had some breakfast. I had to sit on the floor to do the laundry because it was so uncomfortable, the pains were giving me back pain as well. My parents were leaving to go back to Canberra and they wanted to go shopping first so off they went quite early. I decided to ring the hospital because I wasn't feeling particularly great, and the pains were coming quite regularly almost 6-10 minutely sometimes but lasting less than a minute. It was bad enough to make me stop what I was doing. The hospital told me if the pains hadn't settled down in 1 hour to call again, so at 915 i called again because now I was getting pains down my legs as well (which I remember from last time when I was in pre-labour) and so I called my parents to come back and look after Erika and went to hospital. I put my wallet, yellow card, phone and a book to read in my bag, and then quickly made up a hospital bag "just in case" which had my laptop, charger, wireless 3G, some pads, PJs, undies and maternity bras/singlets.

Got to hospital and went to the assessment room and got hooked up.. and typical no contractions. The midwife said to me that I looked too well to be in labour. I did get one contraction and then she gave me a drink of iced water and then I got more pains. She took one look at me and said "I think you're having a baby today, in the next hour or so" and I was in shock! OMG I can't be having a baby today! She examined me and i was 3cm and thin. So off she went to call my obstetrician. We had no camera, no clothes, nothing! So hubby called his brother to bring in a camera for us, called my parents to say we're having a baby today, and all the time I was like.. no my nice 2 week holiday... GONE!

Anyway they let me use the gas which was NICE! Didn't get off my face like last time, but it helped and it was grrrreeeaaaat! The anaesthetist was in Balmain and we had to wait for him to arrive and then off we went. I was sad to see the nitrous go...

Round to the anaesthetic bay and I got to meet my anaesthetist who was someone of some distinction (in my opinion) and was very good.. but the poor bloke couldn't get my spinal in! I tried my best to get in the position that would be best but it wasn't what they wanted, they seemed to want more flexion at the hips than what I would have done! So after 2 failed attempts at spinal he went to CSE but he got a dry tap with the spinal needle and put the epidural in instead. Went in nicely and was all good. Worked well and I needed some aramine later for headaches and what not, but baby was out soon enough and we got our cuddles and hubby went off to get him weighed... this time i got a scales picture!

Love that epidural morphine! Had no pain for 2 days and then started to get some discomfort which was covered by voltaren and panadol.