Tag Archives: hospital

what a weekend

26 Monday Oct 2026

Posted by in health, hope, hospitals, sevilla

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I don’t often get the chance to say that but omg this past weekend was nothing but wild, and not especially in a good way. Okay, mostly not in a good way. Let’s start at the beginning, when on Friday I slipped after mopping up after the electrician and landed BLAM on the wet marble hallway floor. Not good. I knew at the time I would be getting serious grief from my left hip and KNEES the next day and sure enough… I did. The hip pain was so bad that I ended up getting a taxi over to Urgencias, just for a (hopefully) quick Xray to check that nothing was broken. And phew! Nothing was. That left me enough time to taxi back to the centre and meet up with Ana, Simon & Sara who were here for a quick overnight visit. And it was fabulous.

Then came Sunday morning. The plan had been to meet another lovely friend, UK beer maven Melissa on the last day of her weekend birthday trip to Sevilla. They had also done this last year and loved it so much they wanted to do it again. It was all planned, we would meet them at Vineria San Telmo. Except… and the squeamish of you can turn away now… I woke up to find that MY POO WAS RED. Okay, not a bright fire engine red, more of a deep burgundy red wine colour. This was more than a somewhat alarming, especially as I’ve been waiting for another colonoscopy since mid-September after an earlier similar experience. So damn… what to do?

I was half tempted to just let it go for another day or two and see how things, um, developed colour-wise. But then I foolishly looked up “blood in stools after a fall” and, predictably, read all kinds of scary shit (sorry). So what the hell. The quick in-and-out experience of the previous day’s Going To Emergency experience gave me a deluded sense of optimism that it could happen again. Well, it didn’t. In fact, it didn’t happen big time.

(warning! it’s a long one)

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patched up

26 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by in casa azahar, christmas, hospitals, sevilla

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patched up

Well this was a Christmas to remember. Yesterday morning I was having coffee at my desk when Peter walked into the living room with a hand over his left eye. I asked what happened and he removed his hand and OMG the eye was BLEEDING. He had bashed it on the corner of his bedroom night stand while bending over to pick something up off the floor. I got him to lie down with a damp cloth over his eye while I got ready and then we were in a taxi on our way to Emergency. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got there because I knew that, like everywhere, Andalucía is having problems with hospital staff shortages. But in fact it was quite orderly and efficient. It was also quite busy, with lots of people coughing in the waiting room. Thank goodness we still have a mask mandate here (for hospitals, pharmacies and public transit) though most people in the room were wearing sloppy fitting surgical masks. We had put on the FFP2 ones I bought for travelling so at least we were a bit better protected.

Anyhow, after a while we got in to see the ophthalmologist on duty (who looked about 14 years old) and after a primary examination he put some drops in Peter’s eye to dilate the pupil and we waited another hour. By this time there was a different doctor on duty (who looked at least 30) and she did some tests to check for any retina or other damage and, other than half his eyeball being blood red, he should be okay. Then we had to find a pharmacy that was open on Christmas Day to fill his prescriptions and stopped for some restorative jamón and sherry on the way home. Peter has to put antibiotic cream in his eye 4 times a day, “tears” every hour and a lubricant cream overnight (with an eye patch). He also needs to keep an eye on (sorry) any changes in his vision, but the doctor thinks he will be fine. What a day! But of course it could have been much worse so it did end up being a Happy Christmas.

no news is… well, no news

19 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by in cancer, home, sevilla

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Back from seeing the oncologist and basically there’s no news. Things are as I suspected, with both the colonoscopy and endoscopy results clean. But there remains that pesky – and mysterious – inflammation that nobody can explain, short of opening me up, which my doctor seems to think is a bit drastic at this point. She wants to continue with clinical studies for the moment and monitor my “well being”. And so the next CT scan will be in May and I’m to check in with her again mid-April just to report on how I’m feeling.

All of this is both comforting and yet still somewhat alarming, because if they were sure I was okay then they wouldn’t be doing another CT so soon. So there must be something about the inflammation they find worrying. I forgot to ask about possible peritoneum issues, which I’d had before, and which usually don’t show up on scans. But I was there on my own today and, as usual, I got nervous and forgot what I’d wanted to say. I had also wanted to ask about the “opening me up” options, but then got  caught up in the good news side of things. Basically I should never go alone to these appointments. I’d be more worried about this now if I wasn’t seeing the oncologist again in April. Next time I’ll take notes.

Anyhow, afterwards I made my way home, stopping at Casa Morales for a quick “brunch” (tortilla and a beer), because I had been too nervous to eat breakfast before going to the hospital. And it was nice to just chat with the guys there and feel normal, even though “life in limbo” continues.

watery windows

23 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by in cancer, health & happiness, home, hope, hospitals

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water windows
The windows in the oncology waiting room are the one source of beauty there. I had to go see my oncologist to set up my next PET scan and was surprised to find out she wasn’t back yet. In fact, I haven’t seen her for about a year, but put that down to her being out of town or otherwise busy whenever my routine check-ups came around. Since I get my PET scan results in the same day as the test I don’t need that follow-up appointment afterwards.

Well, not only did I find out that Dr Ana wasn’t there, but I was also told she might not be coming back. Turns out she had cancer (!!!) and although she seems to be physically recovered now it looks like she isn’t psychologically well enough to resume her duties. So I had a chat with the new guy and was impressed that he’d read my file and seemed to know my whole story. I told him that both Dr Ana and Ricardo had recommended I do the PET scans every six months for 5 years (after finishing my last chemo) and this guy agreed that this was a good thing to do. Though he did surprise me – when I suggested I might also get the chemo port removed – by saying I could have had it taken out ages ago. When I asked him the obvious, he said if the cancer comes back they’d just put in another one. Well!

So I am now waiting to find out when the next PET scan will be. If all goes well I should be getting the port out soon and will be able to stop living within six-month segments of time. Meanwhile, I keep on working and playing as best I can.

up and about

01 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by in change, health & happiness, hospitals

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Finally got my little office set up here at the hospital and have been getting some work done. I’m really recovering fast from this operation, even though I was slit open from sternum to pubes again. Considering it’s been less than 48 hours since the op I think I’m doing very well.

The doctor said this morning that I should try to be up and about as much as possible and so as soon as they got me off the morphine and removed the catheter I was able to move around. I just have a saline/antibiotic drip to move around with me on a wheelie pole and the icky drainage bag hanging off my belly, but compared to all the tubes I had me when I woke up from the op, this is nothing.

I just caught up on emails and have had more tapas tour requests. Also had to get in touch with the tours I have booked for Saturday, Monday and Tuesday to see if the clients would mind going out with Peter, and they are fine with that so at least they still get a tour and I don’t lose any money. I might actually be well enough to go out on the Tuesday one – hope so!

Feeling okay, but a bit depressed by all of this. Out of the blue I am back in hospital and hating it, worrying about Azar at home (he’s blocked up again) and generally wondering how I’m going to keep things together, including myself. But I’m very grateful for all the company online here at casa az and on Twitter.

Well, think I’ll take a wee siesta now. Not much else to do…