Immigration JournalThe story of two people who emigrated from the UK to Ontario, Canada July 2006.Home | Profile | Archives | Friends
 Ronnie has a sex changeWell, not quite, but the Raccoon we call Ronnie who comes around early each evening to raid the bird feeders has turned out to be a female. You might be wondering how we got close enough to know this. Well the other night as she climbed the tree I noticed that she had very full teats, so she must be a female with young.We seem to have lots of animals and birds with young at the moment: squirrels, rabbits and raccoons. Talking of babies, our mother robin nesting under our deck now has four chicks. The eggs hatched successfully and I will take a photo soon to post here. They are just little bags of skin and bones at the moment. The weather here has been very warm lately, but we have been suffering with smog coming over from the US. So although it has been in the high 20’s the sun has not been getting through too often and the sky is very murky. Rained al day yesterday and forecast today too. Money, babies and photosToday we received the renewal notices for our house and car insurance. Last year when we first came to Canada we were pleasantly surprised at the premiums we had to pay as we have heard horror stories about people paying three or four thousand for car insurance per year.In total last year we paid $2,500 for both car and house insurance. That price includes taxes etc. This year we have renewals for a total sum of $1,650, so we will be saving $850 on last year which we thought was pretty good. I also got a call from the doctor I saw at the hospital last week. She rang to say they had studied my ultrasound further and come to the conclusion that I have two wombs, one cyst and fibroids. When I get something I don’t do it by half measures! I still have to have the MRI just to make sure and also to see what the next stage of treatment will be. I am still in some discomfort, but not to the extent of last week. I just hope I do not have to resort to surgery. Anyway….. the killdeer babies in our garden are growing so fast it is now hard to tell the difference between the parents and the babies. I suspect they will be leaving us soon. We still haven’t seen them actually fly yet, but it won’t be long. The robin is still on her nest and we expect to hear the sound of cracking shells next week – can’t wait. One of our squirrels must also have babies as she has droopy teats, poor thing. Mind you she still spends all day stuffing herself with nuts, so the poor babies must be lonely. We also caught two squirrels bonking in the garden this morning, so they are either later at breeding than the others, or just having a good time! Ronnie the raccoon is still coming on his evening forages. If there is still plenty of food about the stays for about two hours, going through every feeder in the front and back garden. We haven’t seen the deer for a few weeks now. I suspect that now the weather is good they have found food in the woods and won’t come to the house if they don’t have to. Talking of weather, it has been lovely here for the past few weeks. Temps are in the mid twenties and today it was 29C. Apparently the average for this time of year is about 20C, so we are doing well so far. My husband has bought me a lovely new camera for our wedding anniversary, which will be at the end of June. I only have one of these small pocket digital cameras and wanted something with a better zoom etc. I am really getting into photography since being in Canada. He has a really nice SLR digital but I find that too complicated. I needed something better than mine, but as easy to use. Hopefully this will be the answer – so I apologise in advance if my blog suddenly becomes a photo gallery! Many more hours spent at the hospitalWell the hospital saga continues. As requested by the hospital I had to return t have an ultrasound scan on Thursday morning at 11.45. As my pain had subsided considerably I thought it would just be a formality, but I was wrong.I have the ultrasound done by a very nice woman who at the end of the scanning told me she needed to discuss the results with a radiographer. I waited and when she returned she said she wanted me to report back to emergency to discuss the results with a doctor. This got me wary so I asked if anything was wrong. She said yes, there was something wrong but she couldn’t discuss the results with me, I had to see the doctor. So hubby and I very nervously went back to emergency. We waited to be seen by a triage nurse and explained that I had been sent back from ultrasound for results. She then proceeded to write down all the information I had given them on Tuesday. We had to go through everything all over again. When she had finished she told me to wait to be called. I asked if it would take long as I was pretty worried about the results. She said she hoped not. Well an hour later I was called and a doctor asked me to sit down in a side room. He then told me they had found a problem with my scan, which could be a lump or something wrong with my womb. He said he needed to refer me to a specialist to discuss the options available to me. I was very worried now and asked him to elaborate, but he said I needed to see a specialist. He said he would page one right away. So, I was sent out again and sat with hubby getting more and more concerned that something pretty major was wrong. We waited another hour and I was called again. The same doctor told me that I needed to go to a surgery over the road from the hospital to see the specialist. I asked when and he said that the doctor was expecting me. We then had to take some paperwork and go over to the specialist surgery. I went to reception and explained that I had been sent by the hospital and they gave me a questionnaire to complete and asked me to wait. We waited about 90 minutes before I was called. I was measured for height and weighed and then a doctor came in to ask me questions about my pain, family history etc. He then got another doctor who turned out to be the specialist obstetrician. He was really nice and explained that my ultrasound had revealed an abnormality with my womb, but they could not tell from the pictures exactly what was wrong. He said it looked like I had two wombs and fibroids. The fibroid was pressing against my womb(s) causing them to deform. However he needed to get a better picture to see exactly what was going on and to see what if any action was needed. I have now been booked into have an MRI, but will have to go to Kingston to have it done. He said I may have to wait a while for the appointment. I finally left the surgery just after 4pm. At least I now know that I am simply deformed and do not have anything life threatening. It is very strange that I have never wanted children, but now find that I possibly have two wombs. So, I will just have to wait now to get the MRI done and see what happens after that. On a happier note, we spotted the porcupine in the garden again last night and he came right up to the back of the house, but he had wandered off again before we could get the camera out. Also the robin has laid another egg, making four in total. Apparently they hatch after about 10-14 days, so we will be keeping watch. I will post pictures of the new arrivals when they appear. The killdeer chicks are bigger still and are practicing flying. Well, then run along the garden flapping their stumpy wings – bless! I wasn't planing on being in hospital, but.....This weekend was a long weekend in Canada and so many people took to the roads to travel to their cottages etc. We decided to join in with the locals and take a trip to Barrie on Saturday.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!  
And then there were twoThe three baby killdeer that we had in the garden are now two. We think the hawk got one of them the other day. We did manage to get some slightly blurry photos – they run very fast!This is mum  And her two remaining babies  Mum and dad are staying close to them and if anything threatens them they run away from the babies and play injured. They roll around on the ground as if they have broken wings to attract predators away from the babies – it is very entertaining to watch. We also have pics of the make & female grosbeak we have now acquired. The male is stunning with his flash of red, but the female is pretty dowdy by comparison.   We also have a new robin’s nest under our upper deck. They literally built the nest in a day and have lined it with mud. We can see the nest from our family room, but can actually see inside it if we look through the gaps in the deck from above. So far there is nothing to see, but we will definitely be keeping an eye on it from now onwards. <- Last Page :: Next Page -> |