Author Archives: azahar

emt time

03 Friday Oct 2025

Posted by in health, hospitals, sevilla

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UPDATE (Monday Oct 6th): turned out it was Flu A (not Covid – phew!) and after that first scare on Friday his temp went down to normal. Today he still tested positive for flu but with a very faint line showing, so hopefully he’ll be all better soon.

Well, not your usual Friday evening at Casa Azahar. Last night I woke up a few times to hear Peter coughing away in his room. He’d been out on a tapas tour and got home after I’d gone to bed. But he hadn’t been coughing before he left. Anyhow, I had a sherry tasting today and when I headed out around noon, Peter was still asleep so I didn’t disturb him. But when I got home late afternoon he was still in bed. So I made him some noodles in chicken broth and put it on his bedside table with a glass of lemonade. A few minutes later I heard a THUD… he’d fallen out of bed trying to sit up, and couldn’t get up off the floor.

In moments of pure panic like this I go stone cold, stop feeling. I tried several times to help lift him up but there was no strength there at all. I’m thinking STROKE and trying not to go there, trying to keep Peter calm (he was so scared) and trying to think of what to do next. And so I called the emergency 112 number on my fridge door, talked to a woman who asked me all kinds of questions, so many I said “aren’t we wasting time here??” and she said “no, the team is already on its way, I’m just getting extra information”. Phew.

The EMT team got here in about 10 minutes, three of them came crowding into Peter’s room with all their equipment, managed to lift him up into his chair and then started in on all the various tests. First of all they wanted to rule out a stroke, he had a portable ekg done, he was given IV paracetamol… I’d say they were here for about 30-40 minutes (though by then I was really losing track of time) doing this and that test. Turned out he had a fever of 38ºC. I think just having the team there helped Peter feel better, less afraid. Honestly they were so good, even having fun with trying to speak English to him and making him laugh. So he relaxed.

They gave Peter the option of going to the hospital with them for observation or staying at home, and he wanted to stay home. So now I’ve got to monitor his temperature and, if it doesn’t improve or gets worse, I was told to call the other emergency number 061 and they’d be back. And that’s where we are.

jfc ffs

01 Wednesday Oct 2025

Posted by in health, hospitals, knee saga, knees, sevilla

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Remember my disappointment with the “nothing burger” visit to the knee surgeon in August? Aside from being given a cortisone shot (which did absolutely nothing) I was also sent down for updated x-rays so they could see the state of things now, and I was reassured that my next appointment wouldn’t take so long as I was now “in the system” as priority. Then I was sent home with a new set of pain killer prescriptions and was told to lose weight, go to the pool, ride a bike, etc. BUT at least I thought I’d be seeing the surgeon again as soon as the new x-rays were ready.

A month later there was still no news, and for some reason the doctor’s report was not on the Clic-Salud website, so I went down to my health centre to request a copy. This is what I got… 

History: 68 years old. Referred for right knee pain lasting approximately two years. Reports mechanical pain, with limited ability to walk long distances and work (tour guide). Does not take pain medication.

Examination: Overweight. Right knee with negative brush test. Pain in medial compartment, BA 0°-120°. Stable. Additional tests: Last x-ray 2023: incipient gonarthrosis.
MRI of right knee: Grade II femoropatellar and internal femorotibial compartment gonarthrosis with internal meniscus tear and chronic overload of the internal collateral ligament. Joint effusion.

Action plan: After signing the informed consent form, I performed infiltration of the right knee with mepi + trigon. No incidents.

Treatment: paracetamol 1 g every 8 hours, tramadol 50 mg every 12 hours, arcoxia 60 mg every 24 hours during periods of increased pain. Weight control and exercises. Follow-up in 3 months with X-ray.

FOLLOW-UP IN 3 MONTHS. There was never any intention of seeing me sooner. And according to the Defensor del Puebo, for follow-up appts to specialists, 3 months is the maximum wait time allowed. So they went for that. 

Also… limited ability to walk long distances?? How about ANY distances, like I told her, and not without extreme pain. I mean, she saw me hobble in there on my crutches. Well I guess this is how it feels to be “just a number” in the system. I am not being treated as a whole person but as a jumble of symptoms and they are simply following protocol without, well, caring. Just get me in and out asap, fill out the report showing they followed protocol, and push the next appt to the maximum time limit. It’s very hard for me to accept that this is my life now and to feel so helpless. 

zombie bars 2.0

30 Tuesday Sep 2025

Posted by in restaurants, sevilla, spain, tapas bars

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Remember Zombie Bars? In a nutshell these are classic sevillano bars that close for any number of reasons. In some cases they are pushed out by greedy landlords, in others because the owner retires or dies, and then they are snapped up by vulture corporate groups who do a reno job to spiff the place up and reopen using the same name and even pretend they opened when the original bar did… basically pretending to be the same bar, appropriating its history and profiting from a legacy that doesn’t belong to them. I call them Zombie Bars because it looks like the same bar is still alive, but no, it’s an empty shell, dead inside without the heart and soul of the original people who created it.

Anyhoodle… just when you thought THIS COULDN’T GET ANY WORSE… let me introduce you to Zombie Bars 2.0. Recently two brand new tapas bars that were opened by two different corporate groups here (yes two of the same usual suspects) came to my attention because for some reason they had chosen to use the names of long-closed establishments here, ones that clearly have a history and are fondly remembered by people old enough to remember them. The two bars in question had both been long gone by the time I arrived in Sevilla in 1993.

I can’t decide which is worse. But worse still is they are even being lauded by our city council and even our regional government with awards for how they have “saved” our gastronomic heritage. How exactly? By appropriating family histories for their own profit? By turning a once-beloved tapas bar into a tourist attraction? Because their target market is not locals… it’s all about duping tourists into thinking they are having an “authentic” sevillano experience. Spoiler alert… no they aren’t.

Why not? Because you can maybe try to duplicate an ambiance, and even try to use the old recipes… but you have to wonder. WHY are they doing this? Because if you actually go to these places, the “old recipes” don’t have the same spark, the ambiance feels fake and forced, and the service is mostly young kids getting their first job in hospitality who don’t know anything about the bar or the food, or even how to be waiters. Not their fault. They weren’t given proper training.

I’m not about to name and shame here (don’t want a lawsuit on my hands) but if you’d like to see a selection of non-corporate tapas bars and restaurants in Sevilla, have a look here.