Tag Archives: health care

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.

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…

shingles vax 2024

19 Tuesday Nov 2024

Posted by in health, hospitals, sevilla, spain

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shingles

So dammit. For the past few years I’ve been asking at my health centre for the shingles vaccine and the answer was always that it wasn’t available. Until this year! A couple of weeks ago while picking up some papers at the reception desk I asked if I could make an appointment for a shingles jab and they said, sure no problem. Well hey! So I signed up both me and Peter and today we went to get the deed done. Except then we didn’t.

When I moved to the present Casa Azahar in 2017 I didn’t change health centres because my long-time GP and friend Agustín was there. There’s actually another health centre about a 7 minute walk from me, and this one is about 30 minutes away. These days that would take me an hour on the crutches, so instead I take the bus two stops, though this still involves about 20 minutes of shuffle-walking. I know I could switch to the other place, and since Agustín retired a couple of years ago that would seem to make sense. But I dunno. I know my way around this one. It’s small, fairly modern. It’s comfortable.

I have had occasion to go to the closer health centre, a massive 8-storey building built in the mid-20th century, taking the place of the rather splendid Instituto de Higiene del doctor Leopoldo Murga Machado that used to occupy that corner of Marqués de Paradas. And well… I hate it there. It’s… too big? Walls are painted hospital green. It just feels too institutional. And as I say, I’m used to my now pain-in-the-ass to get to one.

But hey, whatever it takes. Got on the bus, hobbled up to the health centre, masked up and walked in, knew exactly where to go. My name was called… then the nurse asked which year I was born. Wut? Turns out the shingles vaccine is ONLY available to people born in 1959. I was soooooooo… wut??? The nurse went on to explain that this was the first year the vaccine has become available and, for whatever reason, they are starting with people born in 1959. She did seem apologetic, but what a waste of a morning.

I’d also had a telephone appointment with my GP earlier and asked if she could fast-lane my upcoming appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon and she said “oh, you’ll have to call the hospital about that, not my department”. Fucking hell, she could have told me this when I asked her two weeks ago during Peter’s appointment (I was there to help translate), instead she said that to look up anything about me I’d have to make a separate appointment. And so now I am on a continuous loop of calling-calling-calling the hospital on speaker. Wish me luck!

marques de paradasInstituto de Higiene del doctor Leopoldo Murga Machado

no news isn’t good news

21 Monday Oct 2024

Posted by in health, hospitals, knee saga, knees

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no news

I’m already exhausted about writing this post even before starting it. For a few days it seemed like the sudden and excruciating knee pain I first experienced back in May 2023 (left knee), which then extended to the right knee, and then got worse and worse to the extent that I’ve been painfully shuffling around (you can’t call it walking) on crutches since August, was finally about to be taken seriously and treated.

I knew I shouldn’t have got my hopes up.

I arrived at the health centre fully prepared with a typed-out list of the whole saga including every doctor’s visit, every test, every “non-treatment”, thinking it would be helpful for the traumatologist to see it laid out chronologically because, in my experience, most doctors know nothing about you or your case until you walk through the door and then there is the usual them skimming through your files on the computer and half-listening while you try to explain your situation.

Anyhow, my knees were poked and prodded and it was confirmed that I did indeed have mobility issues and PAIN because of the torn meniscus. Then the doctor said she wasn’t going to recommend a knee replacement (wtf?) but would send me to another specialist to see about getting the meniscus repaired. Well okay, better than nothing. I asked how soon I would get this appointment and was told not until AFTER CHRISTMAS. It was like a punch in the gut.

I got the usual ride a bike – go to a pool – lose weight – take painkillers “advice” and when I asked about seeing a physiotherapist the doctor said physio isn’t helpful for a torn meniscus. SO THEN WTF WOULD GOING TO THE POOL OR RIDING A BIKE DO?

I honestly don’t know what I am going to do now. The right knee keeps getting worse and worse and I fear that soon I won’t be able to walk at all, even with the crutches. Meanwhile not working is taking its toll both emotionally (I miss my old life) and financially (so scared about this). And to think that everything is just on pause, yet again, until January… right now I can’t bear to even think about that because it’s just too much. Fuck.

sled was right!

24 Tuesday Sep 2024

Posted by in health, knee saga, knees, sevilla

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torn meniscus

Back in mid-August when I suddenly couldn’t walk anymore without using crutches Kate @sledpress said it sounded like a torn meniscus and… guess what? She was right. Well, there are a few other things thrown into the mess, but this seems to be the biggie. And it was the reason that yesterday my GP pushed for another traumatologist appt ASAP. Of course I’m happy that this is finally being taken seriously, but it’s kind of a year late as my right knee was clearly the one with serious issues as far back as summer 2023. Instead I got the first MRI done on the left knee Sept 2023 (booked the previous June) and – until now – have been told that the right knee pain was because I am old and fat. Remember when I went to emergency last October and then had that disastrous appointment with the dismissive traumatologist? Anyhow, now I wait again. Meanwhile, can’t work, can’t walk… though I’m still getting out for a daily hobble and I’m also keeping up with my chair workouts.

If any of you understand DOCTOR here is the translated report of last week’s MRI…

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