Sam's new knee

I mentioned in my last post that Sam underwent a TPLO operation on his knee. Our vet had previously determined that he had torn the cruciate ligaments in both his right and left knees, but it seemed that the right one was in worse condition. And so it was that on Feb 13th we had him booked in for an operation by a specialist in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. That's a two-hour drive for us to get there from our home in Wollongong. I took time out from school that weekend and flew home after classes the day before.

Sam was left overnight at the surgery, and later in the evening we received a call letting us know that he made it through with no problems whatsoever and that we could go pick him up the next morning.

The nurse was kind enough to show us the x-rays taken after the metal plate and screws were put in place.

He seemed to have gotten over the anaesthetic when we arrived to pick him up, and was keen to get home as quickly as he could. So we bundled him into the back of the car and off we went.

Rosie semeed quite happy to see him, I think she was fretting overnight while Sam was away having his operation done. She followed us all over the house and wouldn't let us out of her sight the entire time. Still, the reunion was to be rather short-lived.

Our instructions were to keep Sam quiet as much as possible in the first couple of days, and then his bandages were to be removed. Having Rosie around meant that she would try to get him to play with her and she might try to lick the wound/stitches on his leg. Really could not afford to have Sam over-exert himself or get his wound infected from having it licked.

So Rosie's been bundled off to a friend's place (thanks, Ann-Marie!!) where she's staying for the next 3 weeks or so. That's the time Sam's stitches come off and the risk of infection from licking goes away. Ann-Marie's got a lovely home with a beautiful backyard and a pool; and most importantly another lab called Willow to keep Rosie company. Here's a pic taken the last time Sam and Rosie went to visit. Willow's on the left in the foreground.

Meanwhile, Sam's at home with a HUGE bucket on his head to stop him from licking his stitches.

Fast forward - Melbourne Business School

Blink your eyes and 3 years go past. As I am writing this, I am sitting in Syndicate Room 15 at Melbourne Business School undertaking a full-time MBA program for a year and a half!

Noon, Sam and Rosie are still back in Wollongong, a whole state away. Hard to believe that I have left my family and former life behind so completely isn't it? It wasn't an easy decision though, not by any stretch of the imagination. Noon and I had to come to terms with the idea that we would be separated temporarily while I pursued my education in a city more than 1,000kms away while she continues working in order to support our family (she's the Facility Manager of the Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at the University of Wollongong - you can tell I'm proud of her!).

Oh, and by "our family" I mean us and our two kids - Sam and Rosie. No children of the two-legged variety just yet!

Just to catch you up on recent events...

Sam and Rosie are doing fine. Rosie's her usual self, through the years she's developed quite an obsession with her toys and loves nothing more than to play fetch with the tennis ball or whatever you care to throw for her.

Sam, however, had torn his cruciate ligaments in his knees. Yes, both knees. I had to fly home to Wollongong from Melbourne last weekend for his first TPLO surgery to repair the damage. Didn't get to stay long as I had to then get back to classes on Monday. Noon tells me that he's doing fine and is starting to slowly walk on the leg, exactly what the surgeon ordered given that he needs to build up muscle mass again to speed up the recovery process.

Noon, in the meantime, is having her hands full looking after Sam (Rosie's staying with a good friend of ours while Sam is recovering at home, she stirs him up way too much!) and tending to matters a work. Since the last time this blog was updated, Noon's graduated with her PhD in Chemistry (she even made the Dean's Merit List!). I guess we will now need to call her Dr. Noon! Much easier that than her full name... try saying "Dr. Thitima Urathamakul" in a hurry! **sorry honey :)**. A couple of months after finishing her PhD she applied for, and got, the position of Facility Manager at the Mass Spectromety Laboratory.

Finally to myself. Noon and I started looking into furthering my education now that she had finished hers. The MBA was my top choice given my growing disillusionment at the managerial practices at my (now previous) workplace. I took out Australian Citizenship in March 2008 in preparation for this, studied for and sat my GMAT exam, and began the application process to the top business schools in Australia. Applied to both the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) and Melbourne Business School (MBS). I won't go into the details with this post, but Noon and I made the decision to go with MBS despite the fact that it is in Melbourne, as opposed to AGSM which was in Sydney. I'll write an entry on that at a later date. So in December 2008, I tendered my resignation and packed my bags. January came around and I kissed the wife and kids goodbye and boarded the plane.

...And here I am in sunny/rainy/cold/hot/wet/dry Melbourne!