Hospitals are all the same!

It’s been a while since last we spoke, so before I talk about what’s going on for me now let’s play catch up and set the scene for the current state of emotions and challenges. Here goes...

I can now officially say that casualty is the same wherever in the world you are and just to prove my point I thought I’d get on a plane for nine hours and then travel for a further three and a half hours just to check it out. I did get a few days sun, sea and sand as well after all I did travel a long way to be in the Dominican Republic for Christmas and New Year but unknown to me mr lupus decided to tag a long I should have known better to think that a matter of geography was going to separate him from me.

he was behaving himself, (in fact I didn’t even know that he was there) enjoying the sun and paying me very little attention that was until I decided to go and explore the capital Santo Domingo. Well I couldn’t go so far and not visit the oldest city or some of the firsts of the new world could I? (Well apparently I could as you will see later).

Our fist stop was Los Tres Ojos (3i cave) with three serene lagoons of crystalline purity submerged in a deep cave and surrounded by tall (still-growing) stalagmites and lush vegetation. It was then that mr lupus got so very excited (it must have been the view), which wouldn’t have been so bad if there wasn’t all of those stairs. I approached them with caution and almost made it down them when my leg or legs, I’m not sure which gave way and there I was sitting uncomfortably on my bottom but the view of the blue lagoon framed by the stalagmites was breathtaking or was that simply me trying to comprehend what was going on and wondering what to do next. Well I must say the men of the Dominican Republic are very good. Four men gallantly came to my aid. In no time at all I was surrounded by men wanting to rub and generally be of assistance which on another occasion I might have truly appreciated. They were at my disposal to take me up the stairs again but to everyone’s surprise I demanded that they stop so that I could take a picture, well I didn’t want to miss out I’d come a long way.

With five days of my holiday to go I could only think what an interesting end to an already challenging year. My good foot as it once was was now swollen to balloon proportions reminding me that when I break through my pain threshold the shit really hurts. As I sat there dumbfounded all I could think was isn’t this pain supposed to stop sometime soon? This would have almost been comical if this wasn’t me and it didn’t hurt so badly.

Lying in that Spanish medical facility I learnt something new. In the absence of pain killers music is a good soothing aid. Thank God for my ipod and the soothing voice of Lynden David Hall interestingly he was singing ‘Medicine for my pain’. Don’t get me wrong music doesn’t make the pain go away it just provides you with something more pleasant to focus on.

Three men who don’t speak very good English accompanied me to the clinics in search of an x-ray (cleanliness was in question but that’s another story). Still no handsome doctor or nurse for that matter to take my pulse which incidentally seems to have remained pretty calm through all of this, could be worst I guess I could already be in 2006 or it could be the first day of my holiday or… hey I’ve done Chemotherapy, hospital, many trips to casualty, palpitations, pneumonia et al this is bound to be a piece of cake in comparison (well that’s the theory anyway).

I navigated my way through the rest of the holiday in fine Carole style, smiling and joking along the way but there was a moment when I really couldn’t laugh my way through it anymore when I had to stop and acknowledge this is crap and I’ve had enough.

Well that was almost nine weeks and three lots of plaster ago, life is still challenging but walking is much easier so all I can do is live in hope and the belief that one day this will well and truly be behind me.