Bart Bear's Blog

Dad was in hospital all last week. The doctors tried to cut a nasty thing called a cancerous prostate out of him. They couldn't do it because the nasty thing was too close to major nerves and the risk was too great. However, they checked and cleared everything they could and when he recovers from the surgery they will plant radioactive seeds in the prostate and zap it that way. I hope it works because I need my Dad, he helps me get into (and out of) lots of interesting mischief. For example, have you ever played with the controls for a hospital bed? You can get it into all sorts of interesting shapes, some of which Dad wouldn't let me try because he couldn't bend without yelling. One thing we did do was to see how high we could get the bed above the floor. We were up to about 2.5 m when a nurse caught us and scolded Dad. Anyhow, he is home now and slowly recovering. I am waiting to see if he glows in the dark when the radio treatment starts. Maybe he will grow big, green and mean and I will have to call him Incredible Hulk instead of what I call him now (Incredible Bulk).

Labels: Canberra, family, hospital

You might have noticed another week with no post from me. I have been busy helping Mum and the nurses look after Dad. Dad has been having problems walking for a long while and it finally hit the stage where his hip was almost completely worn away. So they put him into hospital, hacked off the top of his leg bone, cleaned up the mess he'd made of his hip socket, and replaced it all with an artificial hip. Now he is at home with Mum and I looking after him and I suspect he would rather be back having breakfast with my relatives on Hamilton Island. Hammo has a small zoo where you can see lots of Australian native animals. At breakfast time they bring koalas out and you take photos and cuddle them. We go there for breakkie a couple of times whenever we are on Hamilton. Despite the fact that Dad lost the paperwork that said just what sort of small bear I am, these photos leave no doubt that there are lots of koala genes in my makeup. I am really happy about that.

Labels: animals, family, Hamilton Is, hospital, Queensland

We have just driven Mum home from Hospital. She had a dangerously large gall stone and a batch of little ones that blocked some vital bits of her innards, so the doctors had to cut out her whole gall bladder. They were really impressed by the big stone. It was nearly 5cm across and shaped like a cross between a spikey golf ball and a brick. Way bigger and much more dangerous than the kidney stone that put Dad in hospital last month. The doctors wouldn't let me keep it. They say it is against health regulations, but I bet it ends up in a medical museum somewhere as the biggest gall rock ever. Dad and I went across to see Mum when she came out of the operation. She was really woozy and not making much sense. Quite scary for a small bear who cares a lot about his Mum. She had lots of pipes and things plugged into her and machines hooked up to her, but I wasn't allowed to play with any of them so I don't know what most of them did. They wouldn't let me stay with her overnight. When we went back next day she was a lot better but couldn't remember us being there the night before. I stayed with her that night and watched the nurses do their rounds. Anyhow, she is home now and Dad is being Cranky Nurse Vince and making sure that she does everything that the doctors say she has to do for the next few weeks. That will be a hard job for him; he says Mum is not a patient, she is an impatient. My job is to be a spy-bear and yell if Mum tries anything she shouldn't.

Labels: Canberra, family, hospital

We have had a busy and worrying week. Dad had to go into hospital and Mum and I had to do all of our work and Dad's as well. He got really bad pains in his left side and Mum drove him over to Calvary hospital and had to leave him there. The doctors X-rayed him and CAT scanned him (and Dad says that has nothing to do with cats; I always wondered about that). They found a big kidney stone was trying to move down and out and was getting stuck. It was actually damaging his kidney so they had to operate. Small bears don't really understand these things so well because we are short on kidneys and other internal organs. I guess we are lucky. Anyhow, Dad is home again for a while. He has this great big bit of plastic tube called a "stent" inside him to help drain his kidney and when he goes back into hospital to get that taken out the stone will come out as well. I hadn't been to a hospital before. Actually they are fun places for small bears. There are lots of interesting things to climb on and things with buttons and switches that nobody is allowed to touch except the nurses. I wanted to play with the controls for the bed. It looked like if I pressed the right buttons I could fold Dad up in it like a bug in a rug but the nurse wouldn't let me. Dad was hooked up to a big bag of liquid that dribbled into his arm. He let me have a go at it but actually it wasn't much fun. The fun thing is that everybody who visits brings interesting things like chocolates. Dad let me have a go at them too. They are lots more fun than drips.

Labels: Canberra, climbing, family, hospital