My Interview !.....

The Lovely TZ over at Zimmerhouse-(Link on Left) has sent me some interview questions....Because I am not blog savy and I have already driven Scott and a few others mad asking how to link, tag and mark...Anyone who dare takes the challenge of my questions he he he he.... canfeel free to leave me the word "interview" in your comment....

Now...onto the questions....

1. (this is a tough one, so I'll give you an alternate one if you don't want to answer it) Your husband has sarcodosis (I forgot the name of the disease)? It's very rare and I think you said there are not a lot of people in Australia with any expertise in it...was it your nursing background that helped find his diagnosis? how long did it take to find a diagnosis and was it relief to finally know what was wrong (not a relief at what it was, but a relief of just knowing what it was...)?

I think my nursing background helped me realize that originally "something was not right ", what I first saw were huge hot red marks on the back of his legs. I instantly thought it was a DVT and told him to sit down straight away on the floor. I called a Doctor to the house who thought the same thing and called an ambulance. At the hospital they started blood thinning treatment and took a chest x-ray. The chest x-ray showed enlarged nodes and shadows. The next day they sat me down and told me they believed it was Metastatic disease and they would look for his primary cancer via a CT scan. It took 3 days to scan his whole body and every time it came back NAD. It was then that they decided to do a lung biopsy and a skin biopsy. Both came back positive for Sarcoids. It was a relief to know it was not cancer but frustrating that little is known about it here in Australia. The disease itself is often fatal in African Americans and quite well known about in The USA. I have spent literally 100 of hours in books, on the nets and ringing all over the world to gain information on Sarcoids. We even flew half way around Australia to see a specialist from London that was at a University giving a talk on Asthma. This specialist was from a Sarcoids clinic in London. I begged and pleaded for him to see us. I keep in contact with The Australian lung foundation as well. But honesty they need to pull their finger out and start looking at Sarcoids seriously, as the only support group is old people with O2 cylinders and a history of COPD.
I found a beautiful family in the USA who's young son started a project called Sarcoids life... sadly he never got to finish this project. I e-mailed his parents and asked if I could and I now have a 32 page power point on the latest findings, history and treatment of Sarcoids. I even found that we have a world first- A clinic in Chicago dedicated to People living with this hideous disease. My dream is to be able to take DH over there one day and attend the week long work shop that they have once a year and bring some of that back to Australia....

2. What made you decide to become a nurse and then later a nurse in palliative care?

I have always wanted to be a Nurse, we have a long family history with Nursing.People often tell me that they could think of nothing worse...but I cant think of anything else.I also have a bit of a wicked edge to me that allows me to see the funny sides of nursing.
I know this will sound weird but I have always been fascinated with life and death. I was brought up in a family where you don't talk about death and children don't go to funerals. I thought that you were supposed to be afraid of death, that it was something you fear. I knew that death was a huge part of nursing so I called up a local funeral home and asked them if I could come and talk to them about death and dying. As it turned out I met one of the most incredible people I have ever met. A funeral director with terminal cancer who taught me that dying is not the end of life. We spent a whole day together,she took me through death from babies to teenagers and older people. I witnessed the lot and it was probably one of the best things I have ever done for my nursing. I currently work in Oncology. Which as you know has a high number of palliative patients.

3. If you had to leave Australia, what country would you move to and why?

The united States of America, We love the place. I'll admit it is very very different to Australia.But we did think of relocating on a working visa in 1995.

4. When did you know you were in love with your husband and he was the one?

I think I always knew, after the first phone call and date, he was just so different to all the other guy's I had ever dated. The only time I thought "Hello" was that he put the "hard word" on me on the first date. In fact,lets be honest here...the first 25 minutes I knew him....
I put him straight and he never mentioned it again,no hang on that makes me sound like the virgin Mary...he didn't mention it for a while...

5. (stealing this from Ali) Name a time when you and your husband laughed yourselves silly.

Camping last year....We have this huge double blow up bed. I tend to go to bed first, while DH does some serious male bonding. At about 2am at night when all the camp site is quiet. DH decides to jump into bed. Well if you have tried jumping on a camp bed you will know what I mean. He jumped clean over the top of me and I ended up air born. We literally wet ourselves laughing as I ended up in the camp kitchen. We made so much racket that we woke up the other campers who laughed along with us....

alternate question: (stealing from chief rock) If you could be anything other then a nurse (without the need of extra schooling or training and you could just walk into it) what would you be/do?

Hrmmm I think I'd be a Wedding planner. I love organizing things and I think I can have pretty good taste at times....

okay, here are the rules that you have to post on your blog:

The only rules are that you have to link back to the original post and you have to put these rules in your post:"Want to be part of it? Follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions."