The 5 Things

The 5 Things

by | Dec 22, 2016 | 2016, CEO's Blog

Terry Wesselink is our Continence and Pelvic Health Physiotherapist – she adds to our Blogging repertoire:

As a physiotherapist working in pelvic floor health, I am often surprised by how little my patients know about incontinence. Often my patients think I will be shocked by their problem, or that they are simply wasting my time. I often hear phrases like: “I’ve never told anyone but..” ; “My mum says it runs in the family and I just need to get used to it.” ; “I’m too young to have this problem..” ; “Men don’t leak.”

My Best Friend Max

by | Oct 27, 2015 | CEO's Blog

A common thread that links our pets and our babies is their inability to talk and yet they are very capable of ensuring that their needs are met. Parents, care givers and pet owners innately develop their powers of observation, they listen to the intonations of the cry, the bark , the meow, the tweet, the thump, or the whine and they learn to understand that particular gestures, grimaces and behaviours require action and somehow babies thrive and pets live to a ripe old age! At different times in our lives we will need to rely on someone to understand our needs if we are unable to communicate with words or we are not able to speak the native language. During these times, we are reliant on others to utilise their powers of observation and give us the care we need. If this doesn’t happen then the consequences can be dire. The summer of 2013- 14 in Victoria was extremely hot, we had days and days of unrelenting heat with temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius. Commentators on TV and radio were giving us an endless array of tips to stay inside, keep the air-con on, check on your elderly or frail neighbours and make sure you stay hydrated. During this heat wave my husband and I had a 5 day holiday in Tasmania. The plane was late taking off because the tarmac was so hot, it had become soft and boggy. While we were away I had entrusted the care of my pets to my teenage daughters and in the back of my mind was a niggling concern that...

Sleep Apnoea and its friend Nocturia

by | Oct 14, 2015 | CEO's Blog

This is my Story about “Sleep Apnoea and its friend Nocturia”. Sleep is a beautiful thing! Bouncing out of bed after a deep, solid sleep, feeling energised and ready to take on the day was a recurrent fantasy that I lived out each day when the alarm went off declaring the beginning of a new day! Feeling as though I had been hit by a 4b2 and reaching for the strongest coffee on offer, I would muse about kids and their reluctance to sleep……..remembering a line from a comedy sketch way back in the past that always made me laugh “ the definition of maturity is voluntarily wanting to go to sleep”………. Or the lecturer I once had describing the definition of narcolepsy as “It is normal for the student to fall asleep in the lecture but it is not normal for the lecturer to fall asleep mid-sentence” Why have those lines been embedded in my sub conscious?? For many people sleep is a given…….. Sleep conversations usually arise when you are lacking sleep, deprived of sleep, have a restless sleep, mattress too hard, mattress too soft, an interrupted sleep or too much sleep…… Sleep is the pre-occupation of the shift worker………How many hours did you get? Neighbours dog barking, loud music, construction site noise The family with the new baby…..How many hours does your babe sleep between feeds? When does the new mum sleep? The insomniac who can’t sleep…. The chronic fatigue sufferer who sleeps most of the 24 day……. The partner who is kept awake by the SNORER!!!! ……often portrayed as the long suffering female who has...