It was an unusual way to pass the time. I had returned to my home early in the morning after a short overseas journey to see family, arriving in my front door at 0315. While away, an old injury had decided to make itself known; painfully! For a variety of reasons I stuck it out while overseas and, at my wife’s behest was eventually able to see my local General Practioner (‘Doctor’) at 3.30pm on the same afternoon. After proddign and poking, the conversation went something like this: (Doctor) ‘You’ re going to hospital’. (Me) ‘When? (Doctor): ‘Now’!! (Me) : ‘Oh’!! (Since after all, what else can one say)? Our daughter was home, house sitting in our absence and as a result of her and my wife’s efforts, I was admitted to the local (state-run) hospital that evening. It ws not exactly the way I had expected the day to end. I hadn’t even unpacked!! The hospital staff were very very professional and kept me well informed. After the usual paperwork had been completed, I was put in a bed for the night and, the following morning, operated on. I won’t bore you with details, except to say that the surgery was successful. After the surgery, and on wakign up from the anesthetic, I was then monitored, fed and taken care of. The nurses did a marvellous job. Two days later, being deemed ‘fit to leave’, I was released back into the world. Aside from a slowly healing scar, and a minor difficulty as the materials used to repair the injury ‘settle in’, there is now little to show that I was ever admitted. My wife took a week off to care for me, and the result has ben good for us both; for her to recover from the stress of overseas travel and a husband beign unexpectedly hospitalised, and for me to just recover. Our daughter, the ‘crises’ with the ‘Old man’ now over, subsequently returned to the university where she is staying adn studying.
As being operated on and being confined to barracks for three days is not what one would normally expect to do after returning home from an overseas journey; it was indeed, an unusual way to pass the time…
Thank you.
nzcrownmines 