Category Archives: health

medical check list

17 Monday Mar 2025

Posted by in health, hospitals, sevilla, spain

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I was ready today! Had blood tests done a while back so it was time to check in with Nice GP again. Peter also needed some things checked out so we made back-to-back appointments (he needs a translator and it’s easier than coming at separate times). Aside from what I might hear re: the blood tests I also had a check list of a few things that had been causing me concern.

Peter went first. He needs to get more blood work done along with some other tests, and also has to see a kidney specialist, meanwhile he’ll continue on blood pressure meds, the vitamin D mega pills and will also start on statins. Phew.

Then it was my turn. Going through the blood test results it turns out that my good/bad cholesterol levels are kind of cancelling each other out, my sugar levels are “borderline” and everything else is pretty normal. So no extra meds for me (yet), just continuing with the blood pressure ones.

[WARNING: this is totally boring, continue reading at your own risk]

And then I took out my list. First off was the neuropathy in my feet that I’ve had since chemo (2009) but has been getting noticeably more painful. I was concerned it could be diabetes related but my blood test results cancelled that out. Doc recommended a new multi-vitamin that is meant to specifically help with neuropathy. Okay.

Next up… my old nemesis tachycardia has been really been knocking me sideways over the past few months. I’ve had this since I was about 25 and to date nobody has ever actually diagnosed me, after countless ECGs and Holters and cardiologist visits… nothing ever happens THEN but then a day later at home my heart goes crazy. Anyhow, another cardiology appointment has been requested and this time I want answers. Because I’m pretty sure it’s POTS but I don’t know why recently symptoms are happening when I’m just sitting at my desk (like now) or even when I’m in bed (which is actually scary). That’s new. And worrying.

But I wasn’t finished. My seemingly random SHOULDER PAIN came back a couple of months ago. And I mean, on top of knee pain and not being able to walk it’s almost too much so I decided to ask yet again if anything could be done about this (nobody else has said anything other than “take these pills”). But Nice GP said it sounded like a nerve problem because of the pins-and-needles and she has requested an MRI.

By the time I got around to mentioning my KNEE and that I was still waiting after 5 months to see the surgeon I could tell I’d kind of worn out my welcome. I mean, I get it. When Agustín was my GP he told me they were allowed 4 minutes per patient and between me and Peter we’d already taken up close to half an hour. She said the only thing I could do about that was put in an official complaint with the hospital and, well, that’s already done.

Then it was back downstairs to book appointments. It’s curious because some appointments are made automatically when the doctor orders them (then you wait for the call), but others need to be done at the reception desk. WHATEVER. Did all that. And an hour and a half after getting to the health centre we were released. 

A footnote: Peter and I were the ONLY ones wearing masks other than one woman who was clearly keeping her distance. Also, I am so grateful for Nice GP (who replaced Heartless GP back in June 2024). She actually listens and gets things done.

 

five years of covid

14 Friday Mar 2025

Posted by in coronavirus, covid, health, hope

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It’s still so vivid for me. I’d just come home from a Decanter research trip to the Axarquía visiting Bodegas Dimobe, Viñedos Verticales and Bentomiz (where I spent the night) and the next day after lunch I went to Capuchinas Viejas. After which Susana drove me to the Santa Ana train station just outside Antequera and I got home about 9 pm on March 12th, 2020.

Of course I’d already been hearing “rumours” about the schools closing here because of what had been happening in Italy, then shops and restaurants were also mentioned, so the next day I popped over to Casa Morales to ask my family what was going on. And they had no idea. This was Friday. And then on Saturday March 14th everything shut down. Bang. Just like that. And life changed forever.

It started off being a bit surreal and we somehow had the notion that this would all be over in a few weeks, so people hunkered down and stayed home. Now in Spain we had a more rigid lockdown than most other countries. We were only allowed out of our homes (one person at a time) to go either to the supermarket or the pharmacy. And if you had a dog you were allowed 20 minutes but had to stay close to home. Otherwise we stayed home. For close to two months. During that time a few more shops and services were deemed “essential” and we all started wearing masks.

This was also when some bars and restaurants (I think my friends at La Azotea were the first) began offering take-away and delivery options.

I took to doing daily walks on my rooftop, with my music plugged in, going round and round like a hamster in a wheel, just to get a bit of fresh air, sunshine and exercise. I was lucky because it was just me and my downstairs neighbour Encarni (Peter was living elsewhere at the time, thank god) so it was allowed. It was prohibited to socialise on rooftops if you lived in a multi-dwelling building.

Then we were allowed to go out for walks, but without straying more than one kilometer from our homes. And you had to wear a mask. Walking times were assigned by age. By now it was May and already getting hot so elderly people were given the early morning cooler times, then other age groups at different times. Shortly after that bars and restaurants were allowed to open but only at 30% capacity. Memory is a bit fuzzy about this, but I think by mid-June most bars and restaurants were operating almost normally, especially if they had a terraza. Though vaccines were still many months away and it would be a year before everyone had their two required shots.

Of course much has changed since then, but sometimes I am almost nostalgic for those lockdown days. Obviously not for the death, fear and uncertainty because those were terrible dark times for many of us. But for a while it was almost like we all cared about each other and there was a glimmer of hope that we would come out of this crisis stronger and with a renewed sense of community and social responsibility. Instead… well, you can see for yourselves what’s happening. But dammit we were so close, or so I like to think. We missed our moment to shine. Fuck.

Oh, and COVID is not over. But you already knew that, right?

dodging the rain drops

06 Thursday Mar 2025

Posted by in climate, health, markets, sevilla, spain, substack, writing

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What a week. I had so much research planned for my next Substack article on local markets, which meant visiting some further-out markets I hadn’t been to for a while, plus one I have never visited. BUT the forecast was (and still is) for pretty much non-stop rain for at least the next ten days or so. And as we all know, walking with crutches AND an umbrella is basically impossible.

But… it’s turned out that other than on Wednesday the rain has mostly been happening from mid-late afternoon until morning, leaving midday free for me to get out there. And so I have been, wielding my old lady bus pass (I’m really getting to know the bus routes around here). Just a couple more markets to visit to finish up. Here’s a pic of the clouds heading back in as I hobbled home today.

not the hand!!!

03 Monday Feb 2025

Posted by in health, sevilla, weather

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Fucking hell. Booked blood test appointments for both me and Peter about ten days ago, of course not knowing that on this particular day, and only for the time we’d be having to get from the house to the Health Centre, it would be totally bucketing down like fuckity. Got there totally soaked through and exhausted (had to get by with only one crutch so I could carry the umbrella) and then OF COURSE the nurse couldn’t find a vein. So eventually I got it IN THE HAND. Damn that hurts.

Walked out of the centre and it was all blue skies and I mean wtf. But whatever. Went for breakfast, came home and thought… well that’s Monday done (it was only 11.00 am). Turns out it wasn’t done, but there was no way I was going out again. One thing this one crutch plus umbrella experiment proved is that I really do need both crutches to walk outside. I mean, yes I can walk without crutches (like I do at home) and even outside with just one (like today) but the result of walking without proper support is that it fucks me up. At home I only have to get from one room to the next one, outside the streets are uneven, and I’m obviously walking for a longer stretch. And it really hurts.

Because while it also hurts at home, and I end up walking like a penguin, it only hurts from the living room to the bathroom, or wherever. Not the same as hurting for half an hour or more on a walk that should only take ten minutes. Avoiding the penguin walk also means I am able to walk correctly and upright and avoid doing even more damage to by back, hip and all those other joints. So… crutches it is. For the foreseeable…

plague doctors

24 Friday Jan 2025

Posted by in coronavirus, covid, health, hospitals, sevilla, spain

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The Plague Doctors of the middle ages put themselves at great personal risk to carry out their duties, much like any doctor would today. Oh wait, let me revise that. Much like doctors did during the first two years of the pandemic. These days doctors are more likely to be carrying plague (well, Covid) and are not taking any precautions in order to not pass it on to their co-workers or their patients.

Today Peter and I went to the Centro de Salud to make appointments for blood tests and I thought I would pop in to their drop-in emergency room and have someone take a look at my throat. Ever since I got that killer sore throat more than a month ago, which evolved into a big mucousy mess of a “cold” including a non-stop runny nose and chesty cough, well it’s never quite gone away. It’s more like it ebbs and flows, with some days feeling normal and then WHAM it’s back again. But each time it comes back with slightly different symptoms. Lately I’ve noticed a somewhat disturbing pain just above my clavicle on the right side of my oesophagus that I thought should at least be mentioned to a doctor. Since this “cold” first arrived I reckon I’ve done at least eight Covid/FluAB/RSV tests and so it kind of points to a possible bacterial infection.

Anyhow, after a short bus ride from hell crowded with unmasked people coughing and hacking all over the place we arrived at the Centro to find… the exact same scenario. I’d read about health centres and emergency rooms here being overwhelmed by “respiratory illness” patients and so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. But I was completely dismayed that NOBODY was wearing a mask. So the last thing I wanted to do was remove my mask in a small unventilated examination room with an unmasked doctor getting up close and personal to have a look down my gullet.

And so after making the blood test appointments (Feb 3) I decided to hold off and maybe try to see a doctor then if my symptoms are still a concern. But I mean… idiot selfish asshole people coughing all over everyone and not bothering to SIMPLY PUT ON A MASK is one thing, but oughtta-know-better professional health care workers doing the same… is unconscionable, to put it mildly. I honestly don’t know how they justify their behaviour when they are clearly putting their patients and co-workers at risk. THEY should be the ones setting an example but it’s like we’re living in the upside-down now.

For my food tours and wine tastings I require that people be fully vaccinated with the most recent Covid booster. Today a potential client (63 years old) told me that he and his wife went to get their flu and RSV shots a couple of months ago but – AT THEIR DOCTOR’S RECOMMENDATION – they did not take the Covid booster option. Wtf…

People always say that the medieval Plague Doctors looked scary… I say the present day ones are far scarier. Because they have the science to know better but choose to ignore it. And they don’t seem to care who dies or is disabled as a result. Shame on them.