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Okay, I admit, I believe in the Karma Fairy. I helped an Old Lady out today …

About 9 months ago My family and I moved from one of the largest cities in New Zealand, Auckland, to one of the smaller towns,  Cambridge.  Its been interesting to say the least getting used to being more relaxed, only takes 2 minutes to get to anywhere, takeaways now consist of about 5 options rather than 1000 (this is a good thing, my diet is MUCH better!). Everyone is totally more friendly and helpful. If somebody tripped and fell on the sidewalk, everyone would be there in and instant helping them up.

One of the coolest and fun things I like, is if you are walking through town, and even remotely look like you are going to cross a zebra crossing, cars will stop and wait for you to get to the crossing, and cross! It makes you tend to hurry up since they are so darned nice!

When i was in hospital and my husband was at home with the kids, he had people turning up with dinner and other things to help out, it was really awesome.

This town is friendly, and i guess I’m really getting into the ‘being a helpful friendly person’ thing that you just cant do in Auckland without people taking advantage of you. I love the feeling when you do a good deed.

I was finally back in Cambridge, and going into work to surprise my husband. I visited Maya (i think thats how you spell it!) at the shop downstairs and got her to send up some munchies upstairs to the office, and was just about to go up the lift (hey i was fresh outta hospital!). Anyway This old lady in the shop grabs my arm and asks if we could possibly help her carry her bags so she doesnt have to make two trips.

Im all for helping out, and I figured Maya would be another 10 minutes preparing the food. I wasnt allowed to lift heavy items so i got my 2 lovely daughters to do it for me. We carried them maybe 100 mtrs down the road.

So the next week i she asked me again, and because again, still not allowed to lift heavy things I had to say no, I felt kinda bad, but didn’t have much choice. So I was thinking about it , I had a talk to Maya, and this lady apparently does this every single day. Goes and sits at the cafe and leasurely eats morning tea and lunch then tries to get people to carry her shopping for her.

So I went down to the Second hand shop, and asked if they had a Shopping Trolly Bag. One of those ones with the wheels that you drag behind you. The lady said “no, but i have one at home i can bring in you can buy for $5!”. So today i went in and picked it up.

As I got to the Cafe, i noticed the old lady sitting there having her cuppa, bonus! I didnt have to wait! So i gave it to her …… She looks as me as if i did something nasty. Eeeek! “I dont accept gifts from strangers!” she says. Eventually I got her to remember me from helping her out other times and when I’d seen her a couple of other times.

Then she looked like she was going to cry that somebody had been so thoughtful. And then she got talking ……..and talking ….

Started with a “Oh are you from Cambridge? oh the new area, houses are very close together there …… oh you rent … you need to buy one …. im selling my house …..” So by the time i left, my lunch was cold, and she had tried to pay me off with food (from the cafe of course), buy my daughters things (we refused), sell me her house, and had a moan about how the toilets in the building were not free for public use etc.

Though you might be thinking im a nice kind person,  I’m not. I just figured that the $5 i paid for the silly trolley bag may just stop her having to ask people for help and give some independance (apparently people were getting annoyed with her asking every single day also lol)

+5 Karma Points

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Urgent Help needed for a Kidney Patient!

Having just donated a kidney, and being fairly aware of how hard the entire process is to get to the actual surgery date. when i read this in the paper today i really felt for the guy.

Hes given up years of his life with family whom he hasn’t seen in years because Tonga doesnt have the facilities to deal with it. The family pays over $2000 a week for just medication and dialysis and now has none left over for the kidney transplant which is booked for June!

Heres the herald article from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10577753

lakalaka_kidney

A Tongan overstayer counting the days until a life-changing operation in New Zealand is looking unlikely to meet the $110,000 fee needed to make it happen.

Sosefo Lakalaka has been here for the past three years paying for dialysis treatment – both his kidneys are failing and Tonga does not have any facilities to treat his condition.

After years of paying for his medical needs, his family have nothing left over for a transplant operation scheduled for June 20 in Auckland.

But since late last month Mr Lakalaka’s supporters have been fundraising to make sure the operation goes ahead.

A radiothon in Tonga has raised 30,000 pa’anga ($20,256) and an earlier Herald appeal raised $9774.14.

Family advocate Ulualo Pouhila said that although the family were still hoping New Zealanders would continue to donate, they were also trying to apply for a bank loan to make up the difference.

“The money that has come through has been amazing. But their only hope is the loan, it’s a big struggle for them.”

Mr Lakalaka has not seen his wife or five children since he has been in the country, but a brother has moved here to help financially support his sick sibling.

Mr Pouhila said the extended family were exhausted by continual fundraising efforts over the three years which had gone towards paying for dialysis, which had cost up to $2559 a week.

If the operation costs were not met in time, Mr Lakalaka would continue to visit the dialysis clinic twice weekly, but it was an option which served nobody’s interests, Mr Pouhila said.

“It’s a hell of a job.

“This is an opportunity to send him home.”

HOW TO HELP
Donations to assist can be made through the ANZ bank account:
Sosefo Lakalaka and Family
01 0186 0379433 00

Please Forward this link to all your friends

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Update on the kidney donation (3 weeks)

Well the tummy swelling is down heaps and im back to normal in that respect, though im still bothered by pain under the left ribs, and im unable to lie on my back or left side for any kind of period. Its just uncomfortable.

I went to see my Dr about this, and being the paranoid guy that he was suggested blood clots, and sent me for a slew of blood tests. I got a bit paranoid about this after he called me back and i did more blood tests and had more appointments.

It was only painful if i had been leaning forward, beathing deeply, laughing etc or doing things that compressed the internals on left hand side. So yesterdays Dr appt he sent me off to the hospital.

I spent the better part of the day in the A&E at the hospital trying to avoid people with masks over their face, coughing, sneezing, looking like they were dieing. I could see them looking at me in that ‘What are you doing here? you dont look sick!’ type of way. Dispite apparently having blood clots I actually felt fine and didn’t honestly think I had them.

I have noticed that I seem to get some sort of priority treatment since donating the kidney, and I’m unsure if this is related to it or not. Whilst in the room of 4 people recovering, if others pressed the buzzer they often got ignored or it took forever to get service. If i pressed mine i had somebody friendly there really quickly! I noticed this yesterday at the Hospital also, i had to wait for 4 hours still, but once I was seen it was pretty quick, and they were most helpful.

The Dr at the hospital says that my internals are just still swollen and trying to heal. The pain is from them chafing against each other whilst healing (much like the Ulcer in your mouth you keep biting which stops it healing). So Im now taking a bunch of Anti-inflamatories which appear to be helping that out. Will see how it goes.

My brother is doing ok with the new kidney, hes happy to be able to eat cheese, raisens, and peanut butter amoung other things. His fav thing appears to be being able to go to bed without spending an hour setting up machinery and disinfecting things. He has to get up at 6am every morning to take medication (on the dot!), then be at the hospital 8am for blood tests, then hangs about for the Drs appointments till 10-11am. He does this every single day of the week so they can monitor for rejection etc. This means he cant really work or travel anywhere, So we are heading up to Auckland this weekend to catch up with them and see how hes doing.

Hopefully we wont catch anything before doing so, he cant be around anyone with any kind of illness whilst having no immunity (anti-rejection drugs).

Oh and I entered and was short listed for a competition for a PVR thing at http://www.ben.geek.nz/win-and-the-nominees-are/ – so if you are feeling nice towards me please go vote for number 3 so i have some Freeview to watch whilst getting better 🙂