Back on track

Hello there!

After a little break I am resuming service and am pleased to advise that as things stand at the moment I am ok

Thanks to everyone that contacted me with enquiries and good wishes and in particular the kind things that you have said about the blogs, I am delighted that you have enjoyed hearing about my journey.

There appears to have been some exaggeration of the problems i have had and therefore will now provide the official version.

 My last blog ended with my discharge from Sydney minus little toe, right foot. This is still the extent of my body part donation to Australian medicine. I have however been back into hospital on two further occasions both times at the Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide.

On advice I decided not to fly back to Adelaide, favouring instead the train on the ‘sister’ service to the Ghan, the Indian Pacific,

 

 

which covered the approximately 750 miles in 23 hours. The scenery was different from the Darwin/Adelaide journey only in that the predominant soil colour was not as red but most of it was scrubland BUT I did see kangaroos ... loads of them...at last.

 My brief on leaving Sydney was to take it easy, rest with an elevated leg and keep a close eye out for any changes in condition of the wound/foot, which, despite a bout of acute ‘cabin fever’, I managed to do.

I attended hospital 10 days after getting to Adelaide to have the stitches removed and everything was good. I still took it easy, used the special footwear but became aware of some swelling of my foot over the next week or so.As a precaution I reported to the casualty unit and was immediately admitted for tests and observation and consequently put back on intravenous antibiotics. Over the next 5 days my leg and foot were tested for ‘everything’ by ultrasound scan, x rays and another mri scan, both with and without a disclosing dye. All of the tests were negative, there was no explanation as to why it had flared up, but when the swelling had reduced, I was discharged.

I made a point of asking the vascular team about the ongoing care, as by now the wound site in particular was surprisingly stable, and I was so disappointed, and a little worried, that there were still problems. They couldn’t provide an explanation for the flare up but the advice was, as before, keep the pressure off the foot with the wearing of a different orthotic shoe and watch out for any changes in the condition

I did so, and again, all looked good, the tests had given me a clean sheet but I paid heed to the advice and spent more days doing very little... but again there was a further bout of swelling that took me straight back to the hospital, back onto the ward and a further intravenous antibiotic course. There was a suspicion that there may have been a problem with two very small bones behind the big toe, but this again proved to be clear on investigation. It was finally considered a hangover from the original infection.

 

After 4 days, the senior vascular surgeon suggested that there was an operation that might address future problems. The biomechanics of the foot can be altered surgically by cutting one of the tendons that connect to the outside of the foot. I was assured that this was a simple procedure and there were studies from the USA suggesting that this could bring great benefit and with little, if any noticeable changes and so I agreed to have this done.

The operation was carried out successfully, two days later I was discharged and since then all has been good .... touch wood

 

I thought may be the antibiotic course had been finished too soon, or what I had been given was not strong enough, so I asked these questions. It was explained that from the beginning I had been given intravenously, Piperacillin/Tazobactum  a very strong drug that can only be prescribed in hospital, and even then, only in accordance with strict guidelines.  I had been on the maximum dose for a total of 27 days. It should have been enough to cure Kenya of all its ills!, I can only hope it has finally cured mine.

I have got to record the huge support I received from, and express my eternal gratitude, to Mary. Mark, Sue, John and Glynne (Snr) in Adelaide, without their help and understanding I would have probably have had to return home. Having them there was fantastic and as the health care was, I believe, better than I could have received at home, I was quite comfortable staying here during this difficult time. Also I want to thank the medical and support staff at Flinders who were brilliant and a couple of fellow inmates, Phil, Trevor, John and Denise who made the time pass far more easily.

 

Despite the above I was able to enjoy Adelaide and the city certainly grew on me the longer i stayed there. I managed to get out and about quite a bit and did the usual museum, art gallery and civic building stuff but also had the opportunity to get to a wildlife park – which more than satisfied the kangaroo lust – and got me up close and personal with a huge pelican

 

                                                      

                                                          

 

visited many of the miles of beaches which flank the city,

                                                 

 

including a lovely day watching some tall ships leave port;

 

 

 

 spend an afternoon fishing in near freezing conditions that resulted in just the one highly poisonous puffer fish being hooked; going to an Aussie rules footy game;

earning my keep by hosting a couple of dinner parties and having a few good meals out including a curry for my birthday.

The countryside also came to us when a koala arrived in the tree adjacent to the elevated deck at Sue and Johns' house and spent a few days just chilling out and sleeping precariously balanced in the branches.

 

                                           

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I had planned to return to New Zealand before moving north and had to do one more thing before leaving Oz. Seventeen incredibly frustrating and quite lonely days in hospital looking at the Sydney back street skyline had left a void that needed to be filled and so I booked my flight to Christchurch from Sydney and spent a couple of days there to finish off the trip.

It would have been great to have walked the Sydney Harbour Bridge, visited the world famous zoo and trekked the beach walk to Bondi, but obviously this was not on but I still managed to get around the principal sights on the hop on hop off, open top bus and then a  trip on the ferry out of Circular Quay to Manley, I think, I finally realised what Sydney is all about, it is a beautiful, massive natural harbour.

 The whole of this immense body of water, some 15 miles in length, is actually a drowned river valley called Port Jackson and this contains Sydney harbour. As the ferry approached Manley, escorted by a small pod of dolphins, a large gap appeared in the coast line leading out into the South Pacific. Putting the whole thing into an historical context, you can only imagine what an incredible discovery it must have been for Captain, ( or rather Lieutenant as he was then) Cook, whilst passing the Australian coast, ventured into this area to discover  what he described in 1770 as primarily a ‘safe anchorage’.

It was nearly 20 years later that Governor Arthur Phillip, keen to investigate Cook’s discovery, landed in Botany Bay and established the first European settlement in Australia, which later became Sydney.

 Of course the area is dominated nowadays by the Sydney Harbour Bridge (the coat hanger) and the spectacular Opera House and also fronts the main CBD (Central Business District) of the city between Circular Quay and Darling Harbour, but this is only a stones throw from the original settlement area, which is the popular tourist venue known as The Rocks.

But the harbour is so much more as it provides a spectacular backdrop to innumerable bars and cafes, is the highway for a thousand ferry crossings to the various limbs of the greater Sydney area, is a huge working port and base for the worlds cruise ships, is an immense leisure resource for sailing, fishing and a focal point for the whole of the city 24 hours a day.

The world renowned Bondi beach is only about 20 minutes out of the city and this is one of the features that makes it so popular. A surprisingly small semi circular cove of beautiful sand, leading into turquoise water, with strong waves, ticks all the boxes for many, and it is a fact that the summer popularity of the venue makes it almost impossible to get  on the beach, let alone spread your towel out. As a pretty deserted, early spring attraction I thought it was fine. Mid summer it would have no appeal for me and the chip shops, kebab houses, discount bars and generally tacky retail stock of the area made it even less interesting and quite disappointing considering its reputation.

Fortunately I met up with a new friend, Ann, the daughter of one of my fellow inmates at hospital, who met me at Bondi,  her home. We found a great bar and a wonderful backstreet Italian bistro, where we had a super evening, and she was also kind enough to give me a bit of a whistle stop tour of the, some of the 'off the beaten track', sites the following day which was really interesting.

Generally, and in particular after my previous experiences of Sydney, both as a red light area and as a care centre, I discovered it was a great place. There are heaps of things to do and see, as in all cities, but somehow it is the waterfront areas that dominate, and what a waterfront they have! The inner city buildings are an incredible mix of glass and steel towers and lavish Victorian buildings, beautifully restored in many European styles and, in my experience, the people were friendly and helpful.  This time I stayed in a good hotel, a little out of the CBD, backing onto a delightful bay (Rushcutters) well serviced by public transport, the sun shone and I eventually got to have a couple of days to appreciate the place...and I am so glad I did.

 Obviously I have mixed emotions about Oz because of what had happened. For the most part I think there are places that I would sooner go to before coming back, but having said that there are people here, in particular in Adelaide, that I will miss and would love to see again.

Overall, quite an experience and some terrific memories, but it was time to return back across the Tasman for my final spell in the southern hemisphere, and the fjords were calling!