This morning we saw one of our rabbits on our deck. He was under one of our chairs and them proceeded to nibble at them. God knows what he found to nibble on a painted wicker chair?

We have to go to a meeting with him in a couple of weeks and presumably will be interviewed about our medical history etc and then we will be taken on. The woman who phoned said that he is taking on everyone he interviews so looks like we have finally found a doctor which is a big relief. I know I have received excellent medical attention since being here, but knowing we have a doctor to hand who has all our history etc and that we can get annual medical with is a big bonus.

I guess the moral of the story is keep trying and eventually, even if it takes a few years you will eventually get a doctor.

The doctor said that I have four abnormalities which individually are often seen, but rarely in one person – trust me to be different! None are dangerous, so onward and upwards – a big weight off our minds.

Thanks for the messages of support I received via various sources regarding this.

With some trepidation I went onto the Internet to look up these strange beings. I could not find anything, so I changed my search criteria and found much to my surprise and relief they were not spiders but moths – phew.

Apparently the “web” contains all the larvae for the caterpillars and protects them from predators. The caterpillars hatch in the webs and then crawl out. They are called tent caterpillars.

So if you happen to spot large, horrible looking webs in the trees they are not huge man-eating spiders but harmless moths and caterpillars.

So, there you go, you learn something every day!

On another topic, I have finally heard back about my MRI/ultrasound stuff. I have an appointment in two weeks to see the gynaecologist to discuss the results, so hopefully I will get a resolution to this long-lasting saga.

The second house was brand new and on six acres of land which was great, but needed intensive landscaping (it was pretty much a field). From the outside we thought the house would be worth the trouble of the landscaping, but once again we were disappointed once we got inside. The house was much smaller than it appeared from the outside, a bit like the TARDIS in reverse! So, we are back to the thought of putting the whole house moving idea on hold.

Anyway, onto another reoccurring topic – my insides! Yesterday I had my MRI done in Kingston. I had never had an MRI done before and had only really seen them on House (TV show) so knew very little about them.

When I was called in I was asked a lot of questions such as medical history, operations, allergies etc. I was also asked if I had any metal in my body or had any piercings (all jewellery ahs to be removed). Had I ever worked with metal or did I wear coloured contact lenses? Did I have any medical or smoking patches on my skin and many other bazaar questions?

I was then told they would need to inject a dye into me, which I needed to give permission for. I was just about to say, “yeah fine” when she told me that the dye could sometimes cause an allergic reaction such as rash or anaphylactic shock and death. She stressed the changes of the two latter options was very low and they had doctors on hand if the worst happened! So, completely reassured – NOT, I agreed.

I had to change into a gown and was told to lie on a table and had a strange contraption laid across my abdomen. I was then moved into the machine which was very closed in and had little room, so I have no idea how they MRI larger people? I was given headphones and it began.

You feel absolutely nothing but the noise is quite deafening even with headphones on. It is like you are in a metal cylinder and half a dozen people are on the outside banging and scraping the sides. Through the headphones they started to play panpipes music, which I hate. I did debate asking them to turn off the music as I preferred to hear the banging, scraping and beeping etc. There is also cool air blowing all round you, which I found really annoying as I hate draughts.

After about half an hour they pulled me out again and injected the dye into my arm, then put me back in the machine for a few more minutes. I suppose in total I was in there fore about forty minutes.

When it was complete they told me to dress (fortunately the dye had no ill-effects) and told me to wait in the waiting room. After about five minutes I was given a CD with my scans on it.

I now have to wait for the gynaecologist to contact me for another appointment once he has analysed the results. Hopefully he will also have the results of my ultrasound from last week, as I haven’t heard anything about that yet.

We are also getting our house valued at the end of the week. We have two companies coming round. Obviously the value of this house will determine if we move or not as you have to pay quite a lot more over hear for selling costs. With realtors, as a buyer you pay them nothing, but a seller has to pay around 7% of the selling price, so this can be quite a lot of money and will obviously eat into our equity.

Also, I had my second ultrasound for my cyst today. The woman doing the scan told me I would get a phone call from a doctor to give me the results. I believe the cyst has gone because I have no pain anymore and she told me before that it was this that was causing me pain and not the double womb or the fibroids. Hope to hear back about that soon and an appointment for my MRI.

We are also starting to wonder if we should move again. When we purchased our house, we did so on a two week trip a few months before we landed and although the house has pretty much everything we wanted, we also know that our perfect house is still out there. So, don’t be surprised if sometime in the future I announce that we are moving.

We have looked at a few properties over the last couple of weeks (only from the outside) and have ruled most out, however yesterday we saw a house which on paper (or MLS) looks great and perfect for us, but we will have to actually view it to see if it lives up to expectations.

In one way we want to view it, but are also afraid that we will love it and that will start off a whole chain of events that I’m not sure we are ready for. So, watch this space!

Over the last few weeks we have been trying to get some of our wildlife eating from our hands and we have succeeded with the chipmunks. We sit outside for an hour most days with a pile of monkey nuts feeding the chipmunks.

At first they were taking them at arms length, then running off a few feet to open and eat (or rather store in their mouths) them. Now they just come over and take the nut and sit by our sides eating.

The other day when Chris went to the mailbox to get the mail one of the chips followed him and he nearly trod on him. Also, on Saturday he was doing some weeding in the garden and the chips were following him about waiting to be fed. He ended up carrying a bag of nuts around with him so he could feed as he weeded.

Last night we had the thunderstorm from hell. We went to bed at about 11pm and the skies were rumbling gently in the background, but within half an hour the thunder was crashing down with lightening so bright and frequent it was like midday not midnight. The rain coming down was torrential and the storm continued till about 4am. We could not sleep with the noise and they forecast more today and tonight.

I am off to the hospital today for another ultrasound, so hopefully my cyst has gone and I then just have to wait for the MRI appointment for the other things that are amiss with my insides!

He is really quite cute.

I have also been called back for another ultrasound at the hospital on July 9th. This is to make sure the cyst I had is gone. I believe it has because I haven’t had any pain for quite some time. I am still waiting for an appointment for an MRI. No idea how long that will take.

We had heard quiet a bit about the city, located north of Toronto on Lake Simcoe, so drove there via the scenic route of Highway 7 (part of the Trans-Canada Highway) rather than the quicker route along the 401 and 400.

When we got there we walked along the waterfront which was reasonably busy with people in boats, jet skis and others lazing on the beach. The weather was glorious about 25C and it made wandering around a pleasure.

We walked all along the coast of the lake and into the main town. There were fairs going on and the local radio stations were out entertaining everyone. Barrie has a strange monument on near the harbour, which reminded us of the Angel of the North in the UK.

After spending a few hours here and trying the local ice cream, we took a steady drive back and stopped off in Peterborough for a meal at Kelsey’s. All in all it was a great day out.

On Sunday morning I spoke by phone to my aunt and uncle in Spain. They were surprised that we were having such nice weather. I think they believe we live in perpetual snow!

On Sunday afternoon I started to get a really bad pain in my lower abdomen, but tried to ignore it, but had a restless nights sleep. On Monday it was no better, but I tried to work through it, but again had a very rough night, so on Tuesday morning after being badgered by hubby, decided I should go to the ER to find out if it was anything major. I have already had my appendix out, so knew it wasn’t that, but it was very painful.

We got to the ER at 8.20am and paid for the parking ($3 per hour) and almost immediately got seen by a triage nurse. She took my blood pressure, temperature and medical history and then told me to wait in the waiting room. There were a few people about, but not too many. We ended up waiting until 12.30 when I was called to go through to see the doctor. They would not let my husband through, so he had to wait again.

I was asked to put on a gown and wait. I ended up waiting only about five minutes for the doctor. She asked me some more questions about my medical history and various other things and then examined me. She said she thought I had an ovarian cyst and that she would get me on an IV drip and get x-rays etc done.

After she left I waited for about five more minutes and a nurse arrived to take some blood and set up my IV containing a litre of fluid, painkillers and anti-inflammatory. About ten minutes later I was wheeled to X-ray and a woman there took x-rays of my chest and abdomen and I was then wheeled back to emergency.

About ten minutes later then bought my hubby round to see me and we chatted for about twenty minutes before he was kicked out again. After about an hour my IV had stopped and the doctor came back to go through my results. She said she was 99% sure I had a cyst and that I did not have an infection as my white blood count was good.

She discharged me with some painkillers and said she would also refer me to a gynaecologist for follow up. I told her that I was actually still waiting for a referral from the walk-in clinic for a gynaecologist relating to contraception and she was staggered that I had waited so long. She said she would get their gynaecologist to contact me to speed things up. Then I was on my way at about 3pm.

Felt much better after I left as the pain had reduced considerably and last night had a good nights sleep. So, apart from the initial wait I received excellent service from the hospital.

The hospital phoned at 7.30 this morning asking me to attend for an ultrasound scan tomorrow morning, so looks like I’m back there then. Still in some minor pain, but bearable.

On a lighter note we saw the first hummingbird of the year today, so hopefully we will see many more in the coming months. Also, the killdeer chicks are really growing fast and will soon be flying as their wings are much longer now.

The robin has laid three eggs in her nest and is now spending a lot of time sitting on them whilst the male forages around for food in the garden. We can see the eggs through the deck slats and I took this pic, which you can just make them out.

We also seem to have a very crafty raccoon. Ronnie as we call him seems to have realised that if he comes early in the evening he can get all the left over bird food before the other raccoons arrive. He has started turning up in broad daylight anytime after about 7.30pm. He then eats everything from the ground in the back garden, goes up the tree and eats everything from the feeders and then wanders round the front to do the same there. He is obviously very savvy!

Since having the snow shower last week we have finally got a generator which hubby now has to install – very technical and I have no idea, so will say no more about it! Hopefully the next time we are without power, we will be able to use the generator and hardly notice.

We have also been out a purchased some winter coats ready for the colder weather. I just need to get some warm boots and I think we will be kitted out for winter. Whilst looking we noticed come boots advertising that they were good for temperature down to -35C, I hope we won’t need them!

I forgot to mention that we received our medical cards a couple of weeks ago. They arrived a few days before our three-month anniversary of landing. This means we now have all our required paperwork and cards.

Hubby is still working on the basement and now has all the wall studding completed and has hung three French doors. It is amazing how different it looks, even with just that done. It should look great once the walls are completed and the carpet is laid.

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