Laparoscopy, 5 days after

Well, today was a step backwards. Not sure why. I was having abdominal pain and period-like pain all day and barely got anything done. Next to no gas pains though- just some minor discomfort in my diaphragm like there was a bit of remnant gas there. A lot of the pain was on my left side, like it was before the op, and there were no holes cut in that side, so I'm assuming maybe a lot of the pain is being caused by whatever led me to have the op in the first place. Unless they did something on that side when they made an incision in my pubes... I suppose I won't know until Friday. I could barely eat anything all day even though I was hungry, because the pain and bloating made me feel like it would be uncomfortable to eat. I felt a bit better by the evening, so I managed a proper meal then. I suppose given that I was sitting around in pain all day I wasn't exactly burning much energy anyway.

I've decided that a week (plus a day) is way too long to wait for a post-op appointment. That might be standard practice for my gyno but if, god forbid, I ever have to have something like this done again, I'd like to go with someone that will keep me in the loop. Being in pain all the time was getting me down before the op, and I'd like someone to fill me in on what's happening so I can just focus on the end in sight instead of how crappy I'm feeling at the moment.

My scars are healing up nicely, but the one near my hip keeps getting itchy. So far I've managed to avoid scratching it, which I'm pretty sure would hurt, but I've reflexively scratched the area a couple of times, thankfully missing the stitches, only to catch myself and quickly stop!

Singapore opposition figure J. B. Jeyaretnam dead

From the SMH:

The grand old man of Singapore's tiny political opposition, J. B. Jeyaretnam, died early Tuesday just days before a constitutional challenge he hoped would propel him back into parliament, his family said.

[...]

Jeyaretnam, one of the rare few to speak out against the ruling People's Action Party (PAP), made political history in 1981 when he became the first opposition politician elected to parliament, dominated by the PAP since 1959.

[...]

Last year Jeyaretnam cleared the bankruptcy status brought about by numerous defamation cases from the government, which had prevented him from running for political office, and then formed the new Reform Party, saying Singapore had been "enslaved" by its rulers.

[...]

In recent years, Jeyaretnam - once a wealthy, flamboyant and high-profile lawyer - had stood on street corners and outside subway stations to peddle his own books about Singapore politics because no retailer would stock them.

Jeyaretnam's one-man street sales were a striking commentary on the iron-fisted control that the ruling People's Action Party wields over Singapore.

At present, the opposition holds two out of 84 elected seats in Parliament.

The book sales were also meant to raise money to help pay off damages stemming from defamation suits Jeyaretnam lost to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Lee's father and Singapore's founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime ministers Goh Chok Tong, and others.

"It's a very heavy price I have paid" for taking on the government, Jeyaretnam, the first opposition member to be elected to Parliament, told The Associated Press recently. He said he had lost count of how many times he had been sued - and lost.

He estimated that he paid out more than S$1.6 million ($1.4 million) in damages and court costs over the years

.

Don't forget- bankrupts can't run for public office! A handy way for Singapore's government to keep the nation free of democracy.

After losing the last defamation case, Jeyaretnam declared bankruptcy in 2001, unable to pay the fine of about $US367,000 in damages stemming from defamation lawsuits brought by the two Lees and Goh.

[...]

The government argues that such defamation suits are necessary to uphold the integrity of its leaders, saying any aspersions on their character would reduce the respect they command and hence compromise their ability to govern the fragile multiracial society properly.

The government of Singapore is only marginally better than the average dictatorship.

I wish Singapore many more J.B. Jeyaretnams.

Laparoscopy, 4 days after

Last night I had pretty bad pain and had to take a panadeine forte before going to bed. This morning I woke up feeling almost normal- pretty good. I was feeling well enough to do some housework for the first time in god-knows-how-long, so I did some washing up by hand (boo!) and a couple of loads of washing. In addition, I watered the plants.

By about lunch time I was in pain again- not gas pain but pelvic and abdominal pain. So I had a lie down and a sleep for an hour or so before getting up and getting on with my uni work. I remained in pain for the rest of the day, and had to take a few lots of panadol and nurofen which wasn't much fun :( At least I managed to avoid the panadeine forte, though I was tempted a few times. I suppose 'normal' for me lately has been daily pain, at least since late July... it's the reason why I had the op in the first place, after all, but this is a quite a bit worse than before the op, still. I suppose I should keep in mind that the op wasn't to 'fix' anything, it was mainly diagnostic... I just sort of have this expectation that after going through all that I should be 'cured' of whatever it is that's been causing the pain!

Pissed off.

I just checked our bank accounts and noticed that our credit card had been put over the limit.

Upon checking the record, I had been billed twice for the anaesthetist for my laparoscopy, once for $700 and once for $625.

On Friday September 19 I had phoned up to make the payment for the op. My credit card details were taken and I was told the payment would be put through on the Monday. Monday passed and on Wednesday 24th (the day before the op) I happened to notice that the credit card hadn't been debited. So I phoned up again, spoke to someone else, gave them my credit card details, and the payment was put through.

The next payment was put through on the day of my op. The person I just spoke to on the phone swore blind that one had been made over the phone and that I had sent in another one via the mail. Never mind that I didn't and I explained this, she insisted I had sent in another one via the mail. I explained that the mailout they'd sent to me quoted $700 and was sitting, intact, right in front of me. I asked if there was a signature on the 'mailed in' form, and she said yes "It just says 'Sarah'". Gah! I asked if the hospital could possibly have done it and she said no. It then twigged that because the person I'd spoken to on the Friday hadn't put the payment through, she'd probably written up my details on the bottom of one of a mailout form when I had phoned in, and only remembered to put it through on the day of the operation. Meanwhile, the person I'd phoned up and given my details through when I'd noticed that the CC hadn't been debited had also put through a payment and done it properly (i.e. noting that it was made over the phone and not doing it as if it had been mailed in).

At that point, the person I was speaking to on the phone said "Oh yes, that one looks like our receptionist's handwriting, and the other one looks like Dr So-and-So's secretary's handwriting."

So she refunded the $700.

Meanwhile, I'm going to get slugged a $25 fee for going over our credit card limit. Fuck that's annoying.

Steve Fielding slammed

Ouch. Steve Fielding has copped an absolute pasting in the News Limited papers over his refusal to back Kevin Rudd's plan to increase the Medicare levy surcharge threshold.

It's funny because when it was first released, the media initially took a position against Rudd's plan. I guess the fact that it was popular with the public because a lot of people resent being forced into purchasing expensive private health cover has been enough to make the media change their stance.

The Daily Telegraph understands Senator Fielding wants to increase the 30 per cent tax rebate for private health insurance from 30 to about 33 per cent for singles earning less than $50,000 a year.

Families who earn less than $100,000 a year would also have their rebate lifted to 35 per cent in a move that could cost taxpayers almost $425 million a year, wiping out the $300 million in savings the Government expects to make from the tax changes.

If Steve Fielding was really interested in standing up for the people who need help most, he'd be demanding that the Federal government pour more money into the woefully inadequate public health system, not into the pockets of for-profit private health insurers. Is he really so stupid that he believes he's taken the right stance on this issue?

Anna Bligh thinks Green voters are stupid

"We only tried to build over 30% of the Brisbane river!"

Newsflash, Anna Bligh: Green voters aren't morons. They're more likely to have a tertiary education than voters for any other party and they don't just care about trees.

So trying to highlight your government's 'environmental credentials' (North Bank? Traveston dam, anyone?) simply isn't going to work when you're doing such a shithouse job of managing the health system, public education and public transport systems, all of which are extremely important to people who vote Green.

Anna Bligh, you're on a hiding to nothing. Greens voters are just as angry with your government as the rest of Queensland is.

NSW most racist

According to a new report, NSW (not Queensland!) is the most racist state in Australia.

It scored highest when people were asked if Australia was weakened by ethnic groups sticking to their old ways and if there were any cultural or ethnic groups that did not fit into Australian society.

Yeah, instead of sticking to their old ways, migrants and 'efnics' should adopt our cultcha and do things the 'Strayan way.

Queensland can always console itself- we still hold the proud position of being the most homophobic state in Australia.

UPDATE: More from today's SMH:

FORTY per cent of Australians believe some ethnic groups do not belong in the country, with one in 10 having outwardly racist views, a study shows.

[...]

People were asked which cultural or ethnic groups did not fit into Australian society. NSW respondents provided the highest result, with 46 per cent saying some ethnic groups should not be in the country. The ACT had the lowest response with 28 per cent.

Professor Dunn said people revealed who they singled out the most. "The most often-mentioned groups were Muslims or people from the Middle East."

The overall figures surge to 65 per cent for people over 65 but drop to 31 per cent for those aged 18 to 34. "It's too high," Professor Dunn said. "We've got to bring that down."

On average, about one in 10 people said it was not good for people of different cultures to marry and about the same number said not all races were equal.

One in every ten Australians is a hard-core racist. Up to 65% of older Australians are racist. No shit that's high. That's even higher than I would have guessed.

Pining for a dishwasher

I would just like to say that not having a dishwasher really, really sucks.

Spoiled and lazy, I know, but it's a luxury I really miss... and Gam's the one who's been doing the dishes! We have a tiny, pathetic sink in our tiny unit kitchen, so Gam washed up in the laundry sink in the main bathroom today. Washing up does suck even when a kitchen is big enough to be able to wash up a whole heap of stuff (you need 2 sinks- one for washing, another for rinsing, and room for a drying rack), but in a unit, fuhgeddaboutit. Dishwasher all the way!

We're leaning towards an AEG at this point in time... it got good scores for everything except water efficiency in the Choice report, but even then it's way better than our current sucky Blanco. I was surprised to see that the Blancos were actually just as expensive, despite their poor ranking in the Choice report- I assumed, given the cheapskate nature of all property developers, including the one that built this unit complex- that the ubiquity of Blanco appliances in new units and townhouses was because they were cheap and nasty, not just nasty.

Laparoscopy, 3 days after

Photo taken this morning after sitting in the sun- note the bandage tans!
The pube-incision is a nice neat little cross like the one near my hip-
it's only the bellybutton scar that looks hideous.

This morning when I attempted to get out of bed I didn't have the 'moment of agony' where I had to freeze mid-rise in order to allow the gas bubbles under my skin to settle. That was a good start. Though I still had a gas pain in my right shoulder, it wasn't as bad as the previous few days' gas pains had been. More on the pain level of a mild-moderate backache.

I took my bandages off completely before having a shower- the scar on my bellybutton was quite sensitive and uncomfortable when the shower stream touched it, but it was otherwise uneventful.

I'm still having a moderate amount of bloating, pelvic pain and bleeding, but I suppose it's only bugging me so much because the gas pains have died down enough for me to notice it. As with previous days, the pain has gotten worse as the day wears on, but there was a brief moment today when I was on a chair in front of the computer and I was totally comfortable, with no pain. It does suck for a moment to be notable because I wasn't in pain, rather than because I was, but it was a good sign nonetheless. I feel much better than I did yesterday.

Still, the advice I received was that the gas pains would clear up within 36 hours of the operation, and that hasn't been the case. It's now more than 72 hours, and though they're not as bad, they're still kicking around.

Earlier I had to cough (I was eating sardines and salsa verde on toast with black pepper, and a piece of pepper tickled my throat), and it wasn't total agony, though it made me a bit sore. I'm glad I didn't have an uncontrollable urge to cough before 3 days were up!

I would say I feel 100% on yesterday. Here's hoping for similar improvement between now and tomorrow!

Hairball

A little while ago, Feifei puked up his first hairball since May, shortly after we'd started him on Purina One hairball minimising biscuits.

For a long-haired cat who used to puke up one a month, that's pretty good.

Mr 2% might not want your uterus

Yesterday Family First senator Steve Fielding accidentally adopted a position on abortion that was not in line with the forced-pregnancy stance espoused by fellow religious nutters in the senate

In an interview on Thursday, Senator Fielding said abortion was "not a simple yes/no" issue.

"I've always said it is informed consent," he said.

Asked if there were any circumstances in which abortion on demand was acceptable, Senator Fielding said: "It's a decision that is a very difficult decision. In the end it is their decision."

See, that almost sounds like a person who recognises that being against abortion does not necessarily entail legislating for government to hold god-like powers over womens' uteruses.

But who would've thought that Family First could be out-nuttied but the nutty nutty fanatical forced-pregnancy catholics of the so-called Democratic Labor Party?

Victorian DLP Member of the Legislative Assembly Peter Kavanagh said Senator Steve Fielding should resign.

"He was given DLP preferences and received most of his votes on the basis of being against abortion," Mr Kavanagh said.

"Some DLP people even worked for Steve Fielding on the basis that he was pro-life. Steve Fielding's statements . . . show that he has misled the DLP and his supporters and those who voted for him over this fundamental issue. He must now resign."

Family First founder and federal chairman Andrew Evans said he had full confidence that Senator Fielding was opposed to abortion.

Basically, unless Steve Fielding is willing to point a gun at the head of any woman who expresses a desire to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, he is as bad as the dastardly babykillers themselves!

I, for one, was pleased to see that there was a recognition from Fielding that holding a certain position on abortion did not necessarily mean that every woman ought to be compelled to abide by his personal convictions. Who knows whether he'll stick by it? I hope so.

Not so flattering is this article on Fielding and his tactics in the Senate. 'Mr 2%'.

[Family First] desperately needs the profile which comes with the balance of power. Fielding was elected in 2004 with less than 2 per cent of the primary vote due to preference flows unlikely to be repeated. He faces re-election at the next poll.

Yep, who would have thought that Labor's stupidity in 2004 would still be coming back to bite them? I wonder if they've sacked the people whose bright idea it was to preference Family First over the greens...

Toowoomba racists' last stand

About time.

Indigenous activist Stephen Hagan has been fighting for several years to have the word "Nigger" removed from the ES "Nigger" Brown pavilion at Toowoomba Sports Ground.

Edward Stanley Brown, nicknamed "Nigger" because of his fair complexion, played rugby league for Australia while still living on the Downs, and later became a local councillor in Toowoomba.

Mr Hagan went as far as the UN in his quest to change the name, and it seemed as though a compromise had been reached when the Queensland Government undertook to demolish the pavilion as part of the ground's re-development.

But it was always intended that a memorial to Brown remain at the ground, and Toowoomba Sports Ground Trust chairman John McDonald - who is also chairman of the Australian Rugby League - was adamant even yesterday that the memorial would give Brown's nickname.

But Queensland's Sports Minister Judy Spence released a statement last night in which she said "it is not appropriate that the racist term 'nigger' be used in any way at the sports grounds, stadium, venue or stand".

I bet if Brown's nickname had been 'cunt' (for whatever very good reason I'm sure people in Toowoomba would have been able to dredge up) it never would have made it onto a sign in the first place. As it was, it supposedly only offended black people and no-one really cared to do anything about it for that reason. The Howard government even stepped in at the UN in favour of the sign, probably because they thought it would score them points in the post-Hanson 2001 election, when the Australian electorate was still fairly awash with racist fervour. Toowoomba was just perpetuating its reputation as a horrid racist backwater that I'd never want to visit. Frankly, from what I've heard, it still is. But the action to remove the offensive word from the stadium is a step forward, even if it took Queensland's police minister to finally step in and resolve the matter.

Laparoscopy, 2 days after

This morning's peek at my mangled bellybutton.

Today the gas pains have diminished. I won't say they're gone- it still takes me a few minutes to stand up straight after getting up from a chair, and I can still feel the bubbles move when I move- but I didn't need to take any panadeine forte, just a couple of panadol and a couple of nurofen. I'm not sure how effective either of those, or even the panadeine, are against the gas pains, to be honest. I think the panadeine just made me drowsy enough to sleep better.

The bleeding (vaginal), which I was told to expect for up to 1 week, stopped yesterday, but started up with a vengeance again today. Plus some pain. Not horrific, but quite unpleasant. I also seem to have a little more bloating around my abdomen, but no visible bruising. There's some pain from the incision sites, which I take to be a sign that the pain from the gas bubbles must have diminished significantly, because it was previously so bad that it masked the pain from the incisions.

The only thing I've really achieved in the past two days has been filling a couple of drink bottles with water and pouring it on my plants. That and sitting around trying to massage away the gas bubbles. I've been attempting to do some work writing up my project and a presentation, but it's hard to keep my concentration on any one thing for very long. Bearing in mind what the doctor said about moving around I've been making a point of trying to stretch when I get up instead of hunching over, but some times that's easier than other times. Still, I have these visions of my stomach petrifying in its current position and permanently hunching me over... it might be nonsense, but it's motivation!

A week to go until I found out what's going on and what can be concluded from the whole operation... it's a long time to wait.

Zymil- it's white!

I'm not generally a hot-tempered person, but occasionally I'll see or hear something on the TV or radio that makes me want to stab someone. Senator Eric Abetz every time I hear his voice when senate sittings are broadcast on ABC Newsradio, for example.

New to my 'stab list' is another one of those dreadful brand promotion advertisement vehicles- you're probably all familiar with Brand Power, a.k.a. Bland Power. Well I'd like to exercise my stabbing hand on '606 Product Networker' and its dreadful promotion for a fairly revoltingly-named niche diet product- Paul's 'Zymil' milk.

It's lactose free. They've broken up the lactose with enzymes, making it suitable for lactose-intolerant individuals who still wish to consume milk. Fair enough.

But they also advertise it as... 'gluten free'!

ALL MILK IS GLUTEN FREE YOU *$%^&! SHYSTERS!

Gluten is a protein found in wheat and related grains, not cow's milk, not any milk. You may as well advertise it as being "Free of rat poison!!", or "Free of toad bile!!".

I would hope that anyone who actually requires a gluten-free diet isn't so brain dead as to not bother to arm themselves with basic knowledge of this nature instead of relying on the transparent efforts of shoddy 'pretend-we're-not-advertising' marketers to flog particular products that have little or no relevance to their condition.

Finally, I'd just like to have a little laugh at how every single one of the 'ordinary people' that 606 Product Networker ("Real people... real opinions") features in the Zymil ad are white, with 'Strine accents. I suppose 'Kris' might count as the token ethnic, being perhaps a shade darker than porcelain. Lactose intolerance is much, much higher in non-caucasian populations. Aboriginal, East-Asian, Pacific Islander and some sub-Saharan populations show significant prevalence of lactose intolerance- it's comparatively very rare among caucasians. The Victorian government's 'Better Health Channel' web page on lactose intolerance states "Up to five per cent of Caucasians and up to 75 per cent of non-Caucasians living in Australia are lactose intolerant."

I wonder why 606 Product Networker doesn't seem too interested in the 'real opinions' of any non-white person with lactose intolerance who might have tried Paul's Zymil milk... you'd think they might make up a significant proportion of the potential market...

Congratulations Richard and Priscilla

My little brother, Richard, has finally asked his girlfriend to marry him! Priscilla is a gorgeous girl, they've been together roughly 8 years, and she has been a great influence on him... although she probably hasn't had as much influence on him as she and I would like!

I'm very glad that she's going to be officially mine and Gam's sister-in-law :)

Laparoscopy, the day after

After having more pain while attempting to lie down in bed last night I actually slept ok. The 60mg of codeine in the two panadeine forte tablets I took probably had something to do with it. I had realised that I'd been mistaken about the instructions on the packet, which said to take two every six hours; I'd been taking them roughly every four because that's when the pain levels would start to rise again. So I had a fairly comfortable, doped-up sleep.

In the morning I lay around on the balcony and got some sun on my belly. Gam arranged a couple of weeks ago to take the day off work, and while I was outside in the sun, he spent the morning washing dishes by hand, thanks to our dishwasher completely carking it the night before my op. I tried to peel up my bellybutton bandage to sneak a peek and see whether they'd cut into my bellybutton or below it, but the bandage was really sticky, and Gam saw me and roused on me!

Then I took a single panadeine forte and went grocery shopping in Toowong with Gam. Gam had to drop me off at home before we went to Mrs Flannery's because the gas pains in my shoulder started to get bad again. They're nowhere near as bad as yesterday, but yesterday they were downright crippling. Today they're just downright painful.

It's really weird feeling the gas bubbles moving around inside my body. It's worst when I go from a lying to a sitting or standing position, or vice-versa. Sometimes the movement of a large bubble is even audible! I had another panadeine forte after getting home- that's only 2 today I think, and followed that with a bowl of oats soaked in apple & berry juice. The anaesthetist warned me that if I took panadeine forte for more than a couple of days I will get constipated, which doesn't sound pleasant, so I'm going to try and be careful of both my fibre intake and my overall food volume. Truth be told, I'm dreading needing to do 'number two' even if I don't get constipated- my lower abdomen is still feeling really fragile. I had to take a clarinase this morning at the first sign of sniffles because I felt like I would pop something if I sneezed or blew my nose. Now is definitely not a good time to be a chronic hayfever sufferer!

I also had a sleep for an hour or two... the gynaecologist did say not to lie in bed all day and to move around, but I felt so tired- perhaps it was the panadeine forte or maybe I didn't sleep as well as I needed to.

Now, after getting up, I think I need another panadeine. I don't think what I'm feeling can be much worse than what most women feel after a lap, so I really don't know how my gynaecologist came to the conclusion that most women are fine on panadol the day after.

The only thing I've really done today is water all my little vegetable plants- some of them were threatening to die on me because I didn't water them yesterday. Hopefully they'll all survive. My bean plants now not only have flowers, but little incy-wincy beans growing on them! I took some photos the day before my op, and some 10 days before that, which I'll post in a little while.

The financial burden of official hatred

Jeremy of An Onymous Lefty quite rightly asks of the following story (via Crikey) "Where are the newspapers? Why is this not a front page story?"

Why not indeed? It is a disgrace that Australia imprisons people who are fleeing untenable hardship under murderous governments. It is beyond comprehension that a country that supposes itself to collectively possess even an ounce of humanity would bill those refugees for the privilege of being imprisoned.

Crikey revealed yesterday that the Department of Immigration was billing former detainees for their stay in custody at Baxter Detention Centre, and at exorbitant rates. Hope you enjoyed that delightful 16 months we imposed on you - here's a bill for $161,684! And sixty cents!

Kasian Wililo was ordered to repay his debt within 30 days.

Why is this continuing under the Rudd government? Australia's greatest shame over the past decade has been its treatment of refugees, why have John Howard's policies been allowed to live on past their father's political death?

Why would we want to place such a burden on people who came here with nothing?

QLD 12 year-old required judge's permission for abortion

I would really like to know- what is it about Queensland law that meant that this case had to go before a judge?

IN a landmark case a Supreme Court judge has given permission for state government doctors to abort the pregnancy of a 12-year-old girl.

[...]

The girl had told her carers she wanted the termination and her parents had both consented. However, it was considered their consent was beyond their powers and a judge's declaration was needed.

Obviously there is something very wrong when Queensland law requires the order of a judge before a pregnant 12 year old, with parents who agree with her desire to terminate the pregnancy, is allowed to have an abortion. That's nuts.

Peter Garrett loses his soul

I wonder if Peter Garrett ever anticipated becoming such a sell-out when he joined the Labor Party?

From The Australian:

PETER Garrett has approved part of the environment management plan for the $2billion Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania's Tamar Valley, despite it failing to meet conditions set by the chief scientist.

The federal Environment Minister confirmed last night that he had approved part of the plan relating to road-killed animals, despite Gunns failing to meet conditions covering a baseline survey.

You would think that for someone who once had such a huge amount of credibility when it came to environmental and social causes, it would be hard to sleep at night and not lie awake pondering how you turned Judas on your highest-held principles.

Petro Georgiou stood up for his beliefs, at a cost to his own career, when he publicly disagreed with and voted against the Howard government's inhuman stance on refugees. Why is it so hard for Peter Garrett to do the same?

From the Invisible Hand of the Market to the Red Hand of Lenin

Isn't it funny how everytime a left-leaning or nationalist leader like Hugo Chavez or Evo Morales nationalises something for the public good the media line up to engage in ritualised 'he's a communist' bashing. When the uber-capitalist leader of an uber-capitalist nation wants to use $1,700,000,000,000,000 of taxpayer money to nationalise bad debt generated by people who knew what they were doing, likely broke several laws and engaged in no action to mitigate the extent of the entirely predictable disaster, it's called a 'rescue package' and it's a sign of how perfect unbridled capitalism is.

That figure represents almost 10% of US GDP, and there are people on TV right now telling us that it's all over. Yeah right.

Laparoscopy day

Warning: this post is long, boring and contains way, way TMI. Read it and/or look at the pics if you're curious or want to know what my experience of having a laparoscopy was like, but otherwise I suggest skipping this one!

My anti-clotting socks/leggings and surgical booties...
The socks were white, but they look kind of flesh-coloured here.

After having my last drink of water at 11pm last night, I proceeded to spend the night having dreams about forgetting the instructions to fast and accidentally drinking water, running several hours late for admission to hospital, and having our car vandalised. But mostly about drinking water! Usually between going to bed and getting up in the morning, I drink between half a litre and a litre of water, so I was parched.

Gam drove me to the Wesley hospital for admission at 6.30am. I forgot to take my signed consent form and had to sign another while I was there. When I was wheeled into the operating theatre my gynaecologist/surgeon had a bit of a go at me for it... I think she was joking, but she's the kind of person for whom it's hard to tell.

Admission went fairly smoothly. After going through the paperwork and saying goodbye to Gam I was taken to a bathroom to get changed into some special anti-blood-clotting socks, surgical booties, some bizarre nappy-looking paper-pants, a gown and a dressing gown.

I was a bit puzzled as to why the 'pants' were necessary. I think they were for people with psychological hangups about the potential for their arse to be hanging out the back of their gown (people who've watched too many movies). Not only were the pants fairly see-through, I was about to have an operation that involved the doctor sticking some kind of scope into my vagina, through my cervix and into my uterus. I mean, a pair of paper pants wasn't exactly going to protect my dignity. I put them on anyway, just because the nurse had given them to me.

Then I sat in a waiting room (where I was given a nice heated blanket) for a fair while, attempting to read my statistics textbook before giving up in favour of staring at the carpet and walls (there were trashy women's mags, but I gave up on them pretty quickly too). There was some interesting nurse-conversation going on in the background, with one complaining about a patient who'd had to be given some kind of pre-op enema, apparently with pretty disgusting results. What a way to start your day at work! I was given a tablet to help prevent nausea and vomiting after the operation as a result of the anaesthesia, and had a brief meeting with my anaesthetist, who turned out to be a nice, cheery young guy. At the conclusion of our meeting he gave me another tablet, but it turned out to be the same as the one I'd already been given so I didn't take it.

My totally superfluous 'nappy' pants.

My non-bum-flashing gown.

Eventually I was asked to lie on a trolley and wheeled off to another room to await my op. It felt a bit weird being wheeled when I was perfectly capable of walking, but it was kind of fun. The nurse in that room was very amiable, introducing herself and offering to get me something to read. God Woman's Weekly is shithouse, but I waded my way through a couple of them.

When I was taken to the theatre for my op, it kind of reminded me of the refrigerated storerooms that food shops have. My doc, after giving me a most likely non-serious telling off for forgetting my consent form, kept chatting, apparently to distract me from watching the anaesthetist put a cannula in my arm... Thing is, I actually prefer to watch.

Then I was told they were putting something in and I would start to feel a bit floaty. Instead of feeling floaty I felt like the atmosphere suddenly got heavier, and I said I wasn't feeling floaty at all. When they asked what I was feeling I tried to explain, and I think I must have passed out mid-sentence, because the next thing I remember was waking up in another room, feeling just like I'd woken from a nice sleep. The first thing I saw was a clock- I think the op only took 1 hour, which made me think they mustn't have found any endometriosis or it would have taken longer. I really felt like I'd had a good sleep, so I spent the next minute or two trying to get back to sleep.

Problem was, I started to get pain, and the pain kept growing. When a nurse told me I should probably go back to sleep I said I would need more pain relief. She said I wasn't able to have any panadeine forte until 1pm, and asked how I rated my pain. I gave it a 5 or 6 out of 10- it wasn't enough to bother me, just more than enough to keep me wide awake. My main worry was that it seemed to be increasing, but within a couple of minutes it had plateaued. The nurse came back and offered me some other type of painkiller (oxycodone, I think) but warned it might make me nauseous, so I declined.

I was then wheeled to a recovery area, where I was given a bottle of water to sip from but warned not to drink too much in case it made me sick. I didn't feel nauseous at all, but the water was a bit too cold for me at that point anyway. I was told I could only leave after I'd managed to pee. After being kept awake by the pain for maybe half an hour to an hour, it faded and I fell asleep. When I woke up I had these bizarre pains in my shoulders and diaphragm from the gas used to blow up my abdomen.

I thought the uncropped version of this pic that featured the lower bandage plus my pubic hair would be TMI even for anyone who *was* interested in the gory details!

I had a peek under my gown at my belly, and noted three little bandage-thingies over the incisions. I had been told by my gynaecologist there would be at least two incisions, and up to 4 if they found endometrial deposits and had to spend time taking them out. I couldn't remember under what circumstances they were going to make an incision in my pubic hairline, but I had been told it was a possibility.

I was not wearing pants. Presumably they had cut them off me after I had been knocked out with the anaesthetic.

From the spot of blood I saw on my bellybutton bandage I have been left with the hope that maybe the incision was made underneath it instead of inside it, but I haven't peeled up the bandage to have a look.

Bellybutton bandage.

I didn't see my doctor after the operation- she had already told me that she preferred to talk to her patients at a post-op appointment, after pathology results had been returned and at a time when I wasn't groggy from anaesthetic. I didn't feel groggy, I felt frustrated, despite being able to understand her reasons for waiting. So I sat up (which was more of a struggle than I'd anticipated... so painful I had to lie straight back down again the first time) and hoiked my file off the table at the end of the bed, hoping to glean something from it. I'm sure it's not really the done thing, but it was 'my' file. Still, the doctor's handwriting was illegible (now there's a surprise!) and I could glean almost nothing. There was a rough diagram of my ovaries and uterus, and an arrow pointing to one of the ovaries, with something written after it, but I could only really guess as to its meaning- I could not distinguish any more than a couple of letters belonging to the English alphabet. As I sat back down I felt a rush of warm liquid between my legs. Blood?

I had another drink of water and another sleep, then when I woke up the nurse took my blood pressure for the umpteenth time, noting that it had been a little low before (I don't know if that's why I was on a saline drip). She said I could try getting up and getting dressed if I felt ready- she fetched a pad for my pants and had gone to the pharmacy to get me some panadeine forte to take home (the gynaecologist reckons that most women get by on panadol, while the anaesthetist prescribed the panadeine forte). I find it hard to believe that any woman gets by on panadol.

Cannula. When my saline bag ran dry, it started sucking my blood into the tube!

The forgotten monitoring pad, stashed under my left boob...
I think in this pic you can sort of see how my upper-abdomen is still blown up by the gas.

I eased myself into a sitting position and swung my legs out over the side of the bed. Doing so immediately increased the pain I was feeling in my shoulders, collarbone area and diaphragm. The pain in my shoulders felt similar to the time I came off my bike and got a massive bruise inside my elbow joint. When I sat up I felt something weird under one of my boobs. I had a look, figuring they couldn't possibly have put a bandage all the way up there, and discovered a left-over monitoring tag thingy that the anaesthetist' nurse had put on me. I took some photos with my mobile, then hopped off the bed and got dressed. I had only just managed to pull up my trousers when a particularly bad wave of pain swept over me, accompanied by some mild nausea, and I had to lie down again. I had to avoid the big patch of blood/fluid that I'd left on the waterproof (and thankfully maroon-coloured) thing they'd left underneath me. After a couple of minutes I got back up, zipped up my bag and the nurse took me to a post-op waiting/patient pick-up room. She said I could only leave after I peed, so I went to the bathroom and had a go, despite not really feeling like it.

I was walking like a cripple- I couldn't move my shoulders, and any step bigger than a shuffle gave me killer pains in my diaphram. There were a couple of oldies in the waiting room, probably looking at me and thinking "Pathetic. Just you wait, kid." Despite having finished off a 600mL bottle of water, I had almost nothing to pee out- a couple of drops. There was blood pouring into the toilet, which was a bit alarming, but I decided to give it a while before panicking and asking the nurse (it seems to have since returned to non-scary levels of blood-loss). The nurse said that a couple of drops wasn't good enough, so she gave me another bottle of water. I must have been so dehydrated! I finished off the new bottle of water in a couple of minutes, and the nurse offered to call Gam to come, because he was allowed to wait with me in the waiting room.

I simply could not get comfortable in the big soft armchair, thanks to all the gas pains in my shoulders and diaphragm. It's not the worst pain I've ever felt, but with most other pain it's possible to find a comfortable position. Not the gas pain! Certain positions were agony, walking was agony, sitting on the toilet was agony, bending down at all is still agony. After Gam got there and waited with me for about half an hour I decided to try and pee again, even though I had no real urge to. When I went and sat on the toilet the pains in my shoulders were so bad that it made it impossible for me to relax enough to pee. Eventually it settled down and I managed to 'produce'. It stung a bit, like my urethra had been scratched- maybe they did put in a catheter during the op?

Gam had to drive home at a snail's pace- every slight bump, every turn, caused agonising gas pains. He stopped after about a block so I could take two panadeine forte. At home I had a cup of fruit juice- the first calorific intake I'd had all day, and I was in dire need of some energy. I had a craving for wonton soup, but we figured the place we go for good wonton soup (Laksa Hut in Toowong) would be closed at 3 in the afternoon. So Gam left me at home while he went and bought cherry crumble and cheesecake from Bean Scene. Talk about spoiling me!

While he was out I tried to lie down on the lounge, thinking it would make me more comfortable, and had the worst pains that I'd had yet. Lying down felt like was killing me, but attempting to get up hurt even worse! Eventually I manouevered myself into a position where I was half kneeling, half sitting, facing the back of the lounge and resting my forehead on it, and the panadeine forte kicked in and sent me into a light snooze just before Gam got home.

After eating, Gam was feeling pretty tired too, and went to lie on the bed. I went in, and endured another bout of gas pains while trying to get comfortable- a position propped up against the wall in a similar manner to the way I'd been sitting on the lounge seemed to work, and from there I was able to work my way down to a lying-down position within the next 10 minutes or so. Then we both fell asleep for a couple of hours.

I'm feeling significantly better already, although I took two more panadeine after getting up because it felt like the two I'd taken had worn off. Gam bought me a large serving of wonton soup from Laksa Hut for dinner, which was particularly delicious.

I can still feel the movement of gas bubbles inside me (but outside the organs you'd normally expect to find them in!) whenever I move around, which is a really weird feeling, and for a while I could feel the bubbles 'cracking' when I rotated my right shoulder. I also have to shift positions every time I need to yawn, and can't take deep breaths. At this point in time I seem to be feeling pain in my abdomen where the incisions were made, which I take to be a good thing given that the same level of pain was present before, it was just vastly outweighed by the amount of pain I was feeling from the gas. I don't see any general bruising on my abdomen, but the gynaeocologist said to expect some, and to make sure to keep moving around from tomorrow, and preferably get some sun on my stomach to help break up the bruising. Hopefully watering the vegetable plants (with a tiny drink bottle instead of a big watering can) and sitting around like a lizard will do the trick.

Not tomorrow but next Friday I go for my post-op visit to the gynaecologist, who will discuss what, if anything, was found during the laparoscopy.

Smokers deserve rubbishing

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a meeting with my favourite lecturer from my undergrad degree, who is interested in starting a research group on a topic that relates to my thesis. Because I got there a bit early, I was going to sit in the lovely park between the Public Health building and the Royal Children's Hospital. As I approached a bench, however, the sight of so many cigarette butts on the ground turned me right off the idea- I opted to sit in a dark, air-conditioned room over sitting outdoors on a beautiful sunny day, because being literally surrounded by cigarette butts simply grossed me out.

Ugh. Smokers are disgusting.

As if the smokers at the Royal Children's Hospital- staff members and disgusting parents* alike, couldn't get any grosser, here's something I walked pass on my way from work to the bus the other day:





* When I say disgusting parents, I mean the ones who take their kids (bald, intubated, disabled, infants, the whole gamut of serious childhood illnesses) for a walk up and down the footpath in their wheelchair or stroller so mum and/or dad can have a cigarette. I've never seen any of them pay any particular attention to stopping the clouds of cigarette smoke from engulfing their sick children. People like that don't deserve children.

Goodbye my bellybutton

God knows what horrors are about to be wreaked on it tomorrow. My now ex-pregnant (gave birth this afternoon, I should say) friend who once underwent a laparoscopy for endometriosis told me that the scar on her bellybutton expanded until it was nearly 2 inches long. Holes elsewhere, fine. Hole in bellybutton, not fine.

Mostly I'm just dreading that they find nothing and my bloating and pain will continue...

Nuttery not the domain of any one religion

Four months ago in the middle of the night, six men dressed in wide-brimmed black hats, black coats, white shirts and black trousers burst into the Jerusalem apartment of a young Jewish woman and taught her a lesson.

Mikhail, who is reluctant to give her full name, had scandalised members of her ultra-orthodox Jewish community by leaving her husband and embracing a secular lifestyle. The men, all members of the theologically conservative Haredi branch of Judaism, tackled her to the ground, slammed her head against the floor and tied a rag around her mouth. One assailant sat on her head as the others kicked her while demanding to know the names of the men she was seeing.

They also threatened to kill her if she did not leave the neighbourhood, which contains many secular as well as religious residents. 'A woman is only OK if she has a family, kids and a husband,' said Mikhail with a sigh.

[...]

Self-appointed moral guardians, dubbed the 'modesty police' by Israel's modern secular media, roam Jerusalem's ultra-religious neighbourhoods enforcing the voluminous and ever growing list of rabbinical laws such as the recent decree banning the sale of MP4 players. About 100 Haredi women have taken to wearing scarves and veils to cover themselves much like Muslim women.

[...]

Much of Kreus's time is spent checking out reports of illicit use of new technologies by members of the Haredi community. 'If we discover someone has a computer at home we throw the children out of school,' he said. Enforcing dictates on women's behaviour is another vital part of his brief.

He runs a library housing copies of the enormous notices pasted on the walls of Mea Shearim and other religious neighbourhoods berating women for wearing wigs instead of scarves and advertising appropriate dress on buses.

Signs warning women not to enter if they are wearing trousers, short sleeves or a skirt above the knees, hang in the neighbourhood.

[...]

Extraordinarily, he admitted to slashing the tyres of women who have driven into the neighbourhood who, he said, were indecently dressed. 'There was a mess with the police,' he said. 'Now I'm trying new creative methods, not using violence. Now I make a small hole in their tyres and the air deflates slowly. I'm not destroying their car.'

[...]

Having secular people on the buses is a problem. They go like animals, without clothes. Non-religious girls don't dress properly. They encourage me to sin,' he said.

With the demographics skewed in their favour, government authorities are acquiescing to the growing demands of the ultra-orthodox. The transport ministry, which regulates and funds bus transport through private companies, has allowed operators to provide 'kosher' or 'pure' routes, where women are required to sit at the back and cannot board unless appropriately dressed.

When crazies who espouse oppressive, dangerous 'values' like this Yoel Kreus nutter, appear in the media and they happen to be Muslim, people are happy to tar the entire religion of Islam with the mud of the crazy minority's disgrace and use it to justify anti-Muslim bigotry.

That simply doesn't seem to happen in the case of Judaism. I suppose that could be partly because most of their crazies live at 'home' and keep themselves busy by picking on women who don't conform or living in settlements and harassing Palestinians. In the media we see plenty of examples of normal Jewish people, and only a relatively tiny minority of rabid racists would have anything bad to say about Jewish people in general. But most of the crazy Muslims live in tribal backwaters in the middle of Bumfuck Nowhere too. So what's the difference? 'Teh Jew' doesn't cross the mind of your average, garden-variety racist in Australia at all, I'd warrant, yet in the hick rural regions where 'Teh Muslim' is held in widespread fear and loathing, people have almost as much chance of encountering a Muslim as they do a Jew, i.e. none.

The notion that women should cover up or they invite 'sin' is widespread across Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The Kate McCullochs of this world have no problem with the nutty conservatism of these religions, they have issues with the skin colour, accent and variations in dress that cause ordinary followers to stand out. The media actively perpetuates these fears, both with its biased journalism and with opinion columns designed to appeal to the dumbest common denominator. Did anyone happen to catch Kate McCulloch on 'Embedded with Sheik Hilaly' on SBS last night? She was incoherent, as might have been expected, but also scared shitless over something she knows nothing more about than what she's read in the Daily Telegraph.

Let's not even get started on when someone in a high position in one of the Christian faiths starts spouting bigoted bullshit- then the media starts treating it like there's a legitimate debate, two sides whose views ought to be given equal weight. The media are happy to mock and condemn Iran for its ridiculous stance on homosexuality, for example- why not George Pell and Peter Jensen? Why do we seem to have an inability to treat this kind of bigotry with the contempt it deserves no matter what uniform it happens to be wearing at the time?

Singapore cracks down on FEER

The happy oppressor: hereditary PM Lee Hsien Loong

Singapore's government is at it again- using their pet judges in a legal system wholly geared to punish anyone who dares to express opposition to the Singapore government's policies to once again sue someone for defamation over a perceived slight.

This time they've gone after the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER). The FEER is a fine publication- as a kid I used to read it when it was a magazine. Last time I read it it had gone to a more no-frills journal-style publication, but still as insightful as ever.

The FEER has frequently reported on the Singapore government's misunderstanding of the concept of democracy. This time it's editor Hugo Restall who's in trouble, alongside the magazine itself, for the supposed defamation of the Lee hereditary dynasty:

The Straits Times reported that lawyers for the Lees had said the article at the centre of the case was "calculated to disparage both leaders by suggesting they were corrupt and unfit for office, and would sue and suppress those who questioned them as the questions would expose their corruption".

Hilarious. Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong proved the FEER right by responding in exactly the corrupt and oppressive manner that the article and opposition politician Chee Soon Juan predicted. I suppose dictators aren't known for possessing a keen sense of irony, and the behaviour of Singapore's government, democratic in name though it is, definitely skews toward the dictatorial.

Singaporean leaders have won hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages in defamation cases against critics and foreign publications, which they have said are necessary to protect their reputations from unfounded attacks.

The BBC neglects to mention that after Singaporean leaders sue their opponents into bankruptcy and poverty, they may then jail them for being unable to pay their fines. It suits the Lees and their cohort very well.

Why Anna Bligh needs to watch her back

We all know the Courier Mail is a total rag and intelligent people who aren't gluttons for punishment don't waste their time reading it, let alone voting in their polls (I often do... sad, aren't I?). But today's poll of peoples' voting intentions looks bad for Anna Bligh whichever way you spin it. The fact that the Greens were getting 9% while the ALP was not far ahead on 15%- even if we assume that Labour's figure is double, even triple what's appearing in the CM poll- means that Anna Bligh isn't just facing a dip, she's in a dive.

On a two-party preferred basis Queensland Labor slumped from 55 per cent in the June quarter to 51 per cent in the latest poll.

However, that 51 per cent, which would see Ms Bligh scramble back into office, comes thanks to The Greens, whose primary vote is steady on nine per cent.

I'll be voting for the Greens, as usual, but I won't be directing my preference to the Bligh government. Anna Bligh is pouring buckets of taxpayers' money into massive 'Towards Q2' billboards around town, and television ads with pretty pictures of sunsets and dulcet-toned voiceovers. They might be designed to make Queenslanders feel good about the way they're being governed right now, but they only represent the Bligh government's mismanagement and poor priorities when it comes to the state budget, and therefore only serve to piss me off.

Your money at work. Forget about the hospital waiting lists and the piss-poor state of public education in Queensland... here's a nice, soothing sunset.

I guess we need a new dishwasher

A couple of minutes ago there was a 'click' and every appliance in the house shut down. At first I thought it was a blackout, but then I realised the lights were still on.

I immediately suspected our crappy Blanco dishwasher. It's been threatening to die for some time now, mostly with random plastic bits disintegrating. I didn't think it would try and blow up our place with an electrical fault, though. Sure enough, as I followed the instructions on the back of the little door to our electricity-switch-thingummyjug, and unplugged every appliance before switching them back on one at a time, the safety switch tripped the minute I switched the dishwasher back on.

I calculate that the Blanco is between 7 and 8 years old, going by the age of the unit complex. I'm not sure how realistic my expectations were, but I figured it would, and should, last 10.

Given that we're in the hunt for a new one now, does anyone know of any brands they would or wouldn't recommend? I'm going to check out Choice, but I'd like to know if anyone has had a bad or a good experience, whether with the dishwasher itself or the service they received if they ever had a problem...

Further proof that Feifei is not a real cat

Feifei is a reliably fussy cat. However, he is persistently curious when it comes to anything we're eating. Whenever Gam or I are holding a plate or cup of something, Feifei will gesture to us with a flick of his head for us to bring over whatever it is we're holding for him to inspect. Because we can count on Feifei to turn up his nose at whatever it is we're eating as reliably as not winning lotto without buying a ticket, we usually oblige. He'll give it a sniff and then dismiss us by turning his head away, whether it's meat, cheese, milk, cream or anything similarly tasty. Sometimes I can convince him to have a lick of something that by all rights a cat should enjoy (see the aforementioned items), but if we stick the food item under his nose again after we have been dismissed he gets really offended and will storm off in a huff. It's one of the most effective ways to get him to move if he's stolen one of our chairs.

Last night, Gam made gnocchi (from scratch) while I sat around on my arse doing nothing (yes, he works full time, comes home and cooks dinner... I do have an excuse for my laziness at the moment, being unwell, but he's this good even when I'm healthy). Feifei was sitting on my lap, and Gam brought over a freshly-boiled piece of gnocchi for me to try. The gnocchi was plain potato-and-flour gnocchi- no egg, no cheese. It wasn't at all salty, either. Naturally, Feifei demanded to smell it, so I held it in front of his nose. Before I knew it, he'd licked it! Scarcely able to believe it, I pinched off a piece and gave it to him. He ate it, then wanted more. Cats aren't even supposed to have tastebuds for carbohydrates, I don't think. He's never shown any interest in carb-y foods before, save for once when Gam saw him eat a whole chip from a box of fish and chips. That at least had fishy smell, salt and fat to account for his desire to eat it (though mostly he even turns his nose up at the fish)... He really is the most bizarre cat. How many other moggies have two broken-off fangs as a result of regularly face-planting into the ground?

Australia needs to take a stand

It probably is about time Kevin Rudd did something that John Howard refused to, and underline Australia's opposition to the death penalty. John Howard was happy to play the hypocrite, supporting the execution of the Bali bombers while claiming to oppose the death penalty whenever it was being applied to an Australian. If Kevin Rudd is so concerned for the sanctity of life that he's willing to protect embryos from scientific research in the name of protecting human life, he should be willing to solidify Australia's position against the death penalty in all cases.

The NSW MP Chris Hayes has lodged a notice of motion in Parliament calling on the Government to take a number of steps, including passing laws making it illegal for states and territories to reintroduce the death penalty. The current legal position means states and territories could reintroduce it, should they wish.

This would incorporate Australia's obligations under the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aimed at the abolition of the death penalty, into domestic legislation.

Such a move, advocates believe, would send a clearer message internationally on Australia's position, and strengthen its arguments for Australians on death row overseas to be spared.

Politician labels other politician evasive.

So, Malcolm Turnbull finds listening to Kevin Rudd's answers to questions in parliament 'excruciating', eh? I suppose he'd rather be engaging in one of those private-school-boy-style 'debates' that involve the flinging of stupid insults back and forth across the chamber that seem to be the favourite way for our politicians to spend their 'working' hours.

Complaining about not being able to get a straight answer out of Kevin Rudd is massively hypocritical given that the PM whose party he joined spent 12 years evading questions and had a policy of never giving a straight answer. In response to questions, whether in parliament or in front of the media, John Howard typically wound up answering a question that hadn't been asked but whose answer suited him very well, thanks very much.

Mr Turnbull said if he were prime minister he would stay at home managing the economy, not travelling to New York.

"Besides, I prefer Venice."

*Sputter*

What the fuck is wrong with the News Limited papers?

Some WalMart employee in the US stole a picture of Britney Spears' younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears breastfeeding her baby daughter.

How on earth someone hears 'breastfeeding' and thinks "PORN STORM!!!!" is just totally beyond my comprehension. I believe it was The Sun in the UK that came up with the headline, but fellow Murdoch News Limited rags in Australia decided to appropriate it wholesale. To the 'journalists', sub-editors and editors at News Limited who had anything to do with okaying that 'article' for display on your websites- you are a despicable bunch of twisted perverts and should be ashamed of yourselves.

The good news here is that despite being a poor role model for teenage girls in the US by not practicing safe sex, Jamie Lynn is at least setting a good example to her multitude of pregnant teenage peers by breastfeeding, in a country with one of the poorest rates of breastfeeding in the world. Wouldn't that be a better focus for a news item?

Solar power

One question: Why is a tiny island off Denmark putting Australia to shame?


What exactly are we doing to match the progress of the likes of Samso and Germany?

Uhhh... clean coal? And by clean coal we mean burning coal as we've always done but collecting the carbon dioxide emissions and stuffing them in cavities under the ground from which they may or may not (but inevitably will) escape. Yeah, Australia is really keeping pace. Let's just keep telling ourselves that.

Not feeling good

I could tell I was feeling crook this afternoon when I arrived home from work. I'd left the radio on and it was broadcasting parliament. And I felt so goddamn awful I couldn't even drag myself out of my chair to turn it off. That's got to be a first for me.

Guide to breastfeeding in Australia

Linda McIver has written a very valuable opinion piece on breastfeeding for WAtoday.com.au, largely centred on the outright disapproval she experienced from family, friends and Australian society at large when she 'failed' to stop breastfeeding the second the clock ticked midnight on her daughter's first birthday.

Australia has some serious issues with its attitude to breastfeeding, and the more that can be done to counter those the better. Go and have a read.

I've also put together a user's guide called Breasts in Australia: What's acceptable and what's not:

Acceptable:

Flashing your boobs at Indy. Wooo! Shaahsyatits!

Flaunting your boobs in Ralph magazine (but no nipple! That would be obscene!)

Flaunting your boobs in FHM (but again- no nipple!)

Flaunting your boobs in Zoo Weekly- A-OK as long as there's no nipple.


Breastfeeding: as long as you do it at home for an age-appropriate offspring of your own and keep the frightful business from assaulting the eyes of the good citizens of Australia, breastfeeding is fine.

Not acceptable:

Breastfeeding in public: for god's sake woman! Don't you know that the minute your breasts are used for their primary biological purpose they become obscene? Put them away!

Oh heavens, a travesty on two counts! Breastfeeding in public is bad enough- When it's a child over 12 months old? Practically a hanging offence! That said, if you're interested in posing topless for a men's magazine after weaning the brat, you (and your boobs) are welcome.