Not Dead Yet !: organised... the blue bag... over-organised

I'm an organised sort of person. A place for everything and everything in its place. Plans prepared with options and alternatives for every contingency.

Okay, I'm not much good at *following* a plan. Plan Step One is always. "Be prepared to react and adapt as we go." Still, that's a separate issue.

On my first waking up in ED -- having fallen unconscious in a fun run -- I heard of the difficulty my son had, finding where I was, finding where my wife was, getting to the hospital to see how I was. Within a day, my son had given me a mobile phone. One that actually worked.

I promised myself that I would carry that phone everywhere. Not just for my own purposes. But as reassurance -- and as a thank you -- to my son for providing this now-essential technology. (Thanks, Robbie!)

Then I learnt to catch buses and trains. I'm not allowed to drive, for at least six months. And I realised the difficulties of not being in full control of my transport. Anything that I do not carry with me out of the house -- is not available until I get home again.

So I have organised what I think of and refer to as... the blue bag.

Okay, I've tried for a better name. Emergency kit? Ready kit? Essential items for travel? No, nothing really works. It's a blue bag, I call it the blue bag...

The bag contains items such as my mobile phone. Which is always either in (or by) the bag or tied to my belt so that I can actually reach it and use it. (Tied? Yes. I really do like to know that I will not leave the phone behind :-)

The bag contains my glasses. Or, rather, the glasses case, which holds enough to get me home from anywhere: bus pass, credit card, some notes. And a library card... so I know where it is. As I prepare to leave the house the glasses case will remind me to also add my reading glasses to the blue bag. The blue bag also has my distance glasses... essential for reading bus numbers.

The blue bag contains a light paperback, a small notebook, pen. The plastic folder provided by Genesis to record each visit for treatment. Medicare and health fund cards. There is a variety of less-used plastic cards, just to keep them together. (For example, I want to know where my RAC card is, even if I'm not allowed to drive.) And there is a house key so that I can get inside when I arrive home by myself.

All very organised! I'm rather pleased with the blue bag. In just a couple of minutes I can be reasonably sure that I am carrying everything that I will need for a day out of the house.

Of course I did forget to bring it on one visit to ED... And that was a visit when I was conscious getting there. Ah well... On the bright side, I was able to ask Deb to, Bring the blue bag when you come back!

And yesterday, we were driving home from an orienteering event. Planning to buy fish&chips for dinner. But Deb had been orienteering -- and had not brought her handbag! Not to worry, my credit card is in the blue bag... Which I had brought because it is... the blue bag which must be brought everywhere :-)

===

aside: Yesterday was Deb's birthday. We began with a visit to Deb's sister. Then an enormous icecream followed by a smaller lunch. Orienteering in the afternoon. Fish & chips for dinner. All very enjoyable, with an added bonus: My taste buds -- which play funny-buggers with some food -- accepted all of the icecream and fish and chips that was on offer.

I hope that my taste-buds and gut are settling back to a more normal state of affairs. Certainly my appetite seems to be recovering nicely. Whether that's good or bad :-)

===

There is a down-side to being "well organised":

A week ago I lost the bit of paper with a report of the CT scan of my brain at Charlies. I know that the results were, Shows normal signs of being post-surgery, all else normal. I had scanned the paper so the words were not lost. But where was the paper itself?!

This morning I needed something else that I have not used for a couple of weeks.It took me a while to find -- and the "missing" paper was with it. So, "well organised"? What's that all about?

I gather bits of paper -- and other stuff -- round me where I sit at the dining table. CT scan reports, crosswords in progress, that sort of thing. Each Sunday -- before the family arrive for dinner -- I shift that pile off the table. When everyone is gone, I shift it all back again. It's just one small pile of odds and ends, mostly paper.

Last Sunday I was barely conscious. I didn't clear my stuff off the table. I did notice that it had been cleared. My small pile of stuff had been moved to an obvious spot -- very close to where I sit at the table -- but not a spot where I would normally stack stuff.

It took me a week to look in that obvious spot -- just because it is not a spot that I would have chosen myself!

Sheesh! Man the mighty hunter... If it had moved, I would have seen it :-)

I'm very well organised. When I clear papers off the table I know where I will place them. And when someone else moves the papers -- to a different spot -- I am so well organised that I do not look beyond "my" spots.

Perhaps I'm just a little bit *too* well organised :-)

===

and btw: Today I'm feeling very well ! Tired but well. I don't plan to do anything active... but I am very comfortable doing not very much.

A good day :-)