Groundhog Day.......and Days.......and Days....

The movie Groundhog Day is a light hearted tummy rubbing comedy staring a Groundhog called Punxsutawney Phil and Bill Murry. Murry for some reason I can’t remember ends up continuously reliving the 2nd of February (Groundhog Day) in a small town called "Gobblers Knob" near Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (honestly it's a real place!).


Kayla stated today that she is living a Groundhog Day existence. Just like the film .Friday, Saturday and Sunday have all kind of blended into one big 72 hour chunk of existence for Kayla, each day very similar. Each day in fact the same, each day horrid and the same, each day horridly monotonously the bloody same...oh yes just with varying levels of pain and nausea.

Our day starts with Kayla feeling groggy and dopey due to the previous night's medicine. She does not want to eat because the medicine also leaves her feeling sick. The lack of eating makes her feel weak. By feeling weak, dizzy, groggy and sick, she does not want to get out of bed. By not getting out of bed she does irritates her bad back (protruding disk and damaged vertebrae). In addition the pelvic pain from the tumour is constantly there. Large amounts of regular medication is needed to stabilise the pain thus adding to the wooziness and sickness.


It is a big vicious circle, sickness during the morning, the lunchtime "food! Eeeewww no thank you", the low blood sugar afternoon weakness and giddiness, by evening the pain starts to increase, by late evening its medication time......."Come morpheus.... to sleep....to dream". No such luck it’s a broken sleep with constant trips to the bathroom..... And before to long its time for another bloody Groundhog day!

During these dark Groundhog days, Kayla being Kayla still keeps her sense of humour (just) I hear her and MJ laughing or is it cackling? I try to keep her spirits up with jokes and larks and jolly japes. If this doesn't work I just enter the room butt naked, doing a silly walk wearing nothing but a single rugby sock! (I won't tell you where!) That is guaranteed to get a laugh, but it can also put one off one's supper!


However, sometimes, not always, and during episodes of extreme pain or acute sickness, her "milk of human kindness" curdles. The venom rises and the sense of humour does disappear without a trace. But hey, with what she is going through it is not only understandable but I feel totally justified to get a little cranky now and then. I feel luckily, I have hardly ever been on the business end of Kayla's wrath. The biggest thing that gets Kayla's ears to blow steam is the constant phone calls. I know people are genuinely worried about Kayla but when the answer machine kicks in and says.........


"I'm sorry but Kayla is not taking calls right now ... look if she is not even well enough to talk to her children what chance do you have? Please do NOT leave your message after the tone and please please do NOT ring back in ten minutes and under no circumstances must you call the mobile....well you can ring it if you want it's actually turned off wrapped in tinfoil and locked in a lead lined box in the garage, .......tell you what why don’t you just read the blog and then send a short email ............... she will read it when she can........Thank You have a nice day ....BEEEEEP!"<br>


Some people just don't get the message and ring straight back! Please dear reader, if the last paragraph sums you up and you are one of the phantom callers please, please do not take offence because there is no offence intended. It is simple Kayla is feeling so ill, pained and tired that does not want to talk to anyone on the phone right now! She is just counting down the seconds to the surgery so that she can rid herself of this thing and then concentrate on recuperating and rebuilding her life.