Category Archives: hospitals

churros therapy…

17 Monday Nov 2025

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

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Nope, I’m not in Jerez. This is that other only time I eat churros – after an early-morning doctor’s appointment. Remember back when I showed you this video and was concerned because it said that to evaluate the progression of knee arthrosis the surgeon needs to see a weight-bearing x-ray, and for the ones taken in August I was lying on a metal table-bed thing.

So I got in touch with my GP (phone appt) and asked if she could request a weight-bearing knee x-ray for me before my next (ha!) surgeon’s appointment. She had a look at the x-rays on her computer and said that the report said they were weight-bearing (con carga), but I told her I distinctly remembered lying down because when they turned my legs to the side it hurt. She said that was for the lateral ones, the front ones were done standing up according to the chart. Which I don’t remember at all. These were done in a mobile unit x-ray station outside the hospital and I was sure I got up on the table and they did both x-rays that way. Or was I? Fuck. Thinking back, there didn’t even seem to be enough room in there to do a standing up x-ray. Anyhow, I convinced her to make another x-ray appointment for me which was today. At 9.00 in the morning at a health centre way the fuck far away.

Last week I tried to change the appointment to a later time (sometimes you can do this online) but couldn’t find a way, nor could I find a number to call. So whatever. It would have to be today at 9.00. I already knew I would spend a mostly sleepless night (and I was right!) but the other thing was that Storm Claudia still wasn’t done with us, though according to the weather office she’d be clearing out by noon today. Damn. Well, maybe I’d have some luck? Spoiler alert – nope.

Continue reading →

emt time

03 Friday Oct 2025

Posted by in health, hospitals, sevilla

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, ,

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, ,

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. 

my world just got smaller

23 Tuesday Sep 2025

Posted by in health, hospitals, sevilla, tourism, welcome

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

So damn. I mean, I knew it was coming but yesterday it finally happened. I lost four of my lifeline bus routes, two of which I use several times a week, especially for getting to my various health centres or the market. Now instead of the 27 and 32 being 5 minutes from home it’s a painful 30 minute hobble to get to/from the nearest stop. All to make Sevilla more “tourist friendly”. The plan is to eventually replace the 27 with a “tranvibus” that will go to the main train station but who knows how long that’s going to take, and that still won’t take the place of the 32. So until that happens (sometime next year?) it looks like my world just got even smaller – and more expensive as I’ll have to start taking more taxis.