The hundred and twentyfourth week of the pandemic

The second half of last week was still spent in the village, unfortunately, the promised cool down was very slow arriving, and the heatwave was getting really unbearable. The extreme bad luck was that having got our appointments for the 4th jab, we had no option but go to the Salgótarján hospital clinic on what was forecast as the hottest day of the year. Not a cloud in the sky, no breeze of any sort and promised temperatures in the 40's.

The banister rail as mentioned last time

As it happens, that wasn't too bad. Inside the clinic there was some sort of air conditioning, which didn't take the temperature down too much, but was still refreshing. The staff were extremely pleasant, even though we arrived half an hour early, they let us in and dished out the forms to fill in. Thankfully, I have downloaded one of them, so that was filled in already, we only had to do the other one, which was for the hospital's own database. Amazing, how they still haven't managed to couple up all hospitals in the country to the central Ministry of Health database, and if I know them as well, as I think I do, never will.

My office/bedroom from the bed

Anyway, we went in, I had mine first, then came Roy and I stayed in to translate. The lovely young woman doctor spoke some English, so she could communicate with Roy when she asked him if he feels OK. My jab was a bit more painful this time, but I wrote it down to the nurse's clumsiness. Unfortunately, as it turned out, I had a reaction, for the first time, as all the others I hardly felt and had no reaction to. But about this a bit later.

Looking towards the kitchen

After we walked back up the hill to the car, we sat in it a while, waiting for the air conditioning to come on. The weather really felt like we were in the desert. We filled up with petrol en route home, as nowadays all pumps are limited to 20 litres at a time, so we dread running too low, just in case we can't find a petrol station or they limit it to even less.

A visitor in the garden

Next stop was the Vodafone shop in Pásztó, where I lucked out again with a lovely, kind and very helpful young woman, who helped me with all sorts of new account numbers and other codes, so I can pay my telephone/TV/internet bill for last month. You may recall we were without the net for over a day recently, mostly due to utter chaos at Vodafone after their "system switch over". The girl agreed with me that it is unbearable when they do not communicate, their lines don't work, and the final slap in the face is that neither does the website. Only option is to revert to the previous century and go in person. 

Gorgeous roses

 

Anyway, I have used all the numbers she gave me the following day and paid the bill online, let us hope if they accuse me of not having paid it. The last call, and by this time I was dying from the heat, was SPAR, where we bought some food and drove quickly home. Due to the reaction to the jab I had, I could hardly sleep for two nights in a row. This took its toll in being tired all the time, but very often, just the high heat does that to me, so I thought no more about it.

Some deep red ones

On Sunday I did some more paying online, namely the two credit cards and some money to the children for various events, like birthdays and such. Poor old Stephen had forgotten to renew the children's passports and had to ask Lucy to take them one day to Peterborough, the closest he could get an emergency appointment. I said I would help with the extra costs, but I hope he will remember next time that kid's passports need renewing a lot more often than adults' do. It has not arrived in the post yet, let us hope the PO does not swallow it whole, or I will not see my beloved Elian and Xander in less than two weeks now.

And then came a very funny turn, one like I have never had before. I was shaking, my hands especially shaking like mad, I was starting having a headache, my eye sight was getting blurry and I had a strong vertigo attack with the walls going round. Checked my blood pressure and it was high. Now that I was writing the symptoms down I have to admit that separately and to a lesser degree I had all these symptoms before, but not together and as furiously as at that moment.

I managed to find the out of hours service's telephone number and asked the really nice lady doctor on the phone what it could be. She asked lots of questions, including, have I spent too much time in the sun, or have I drunk enough that day etc. I knew what she was getting at, but I was quietly and without any stress, indoors, where the temperature was only about 25-26 degrees Celsius, have not been outside at all, drank enough and stayed quite calm. We both thought that it must have been the heat and she suggested I rest, eat something, as it was getting towards lunchtime, have lots to drink and take a pain killer for the headache. If it doesn't get better, or especially if it gets worse, I should ring at once! Even if it is OK, I should ring her in half an hour.

I had a small amount of food and it soon started to get better, but very slowly. When I rang her after half an hour, it started getting considerably better, and finally we decided that it must have been the weather front, which was going across the country, having a go at my heart, circulation and nervous system. I suppose, two sleepless nights didn't help either. It was pretty frightening and I don't frighten easy. In about a couple of hours it was properly gone and I took no more Paracetamol after the initial two. 

Nice man, good doctor

This heatwave is getting properly dangerous for my health. If I am too hot, I know what to do, go inside, sit next to a fan, have a tepid shower and dry naturally, drink a lot etc., etc. But this one was very sneaky. I was feeling cool, no problems and then it came. Hopefully, should it happen again, I will be more confident not to get extra stressed about it. Or better still, I hope it never happens again. 

The most delightful young doctor I have

At one stage we were considering scrapping the trip into town and cancelling all my Monday appointments, but as I recovered, albeit a bit late, we got going. I was pretty knackered by the time we got into town and went to bed by about 8pm, especially that I had 3 doctors' appointments, the first being at 8am, the following day.

Good doctor, but not fond of her

Thankfully, the appointments all went off OK. The gynecologist confirmed that there is nothing untoward visible since my D&C, and I only have to go back in 6 months. The ultrasound of my glands in and around my neck proved pretty harmless too and finally the dermatologist lady also saw nothing to worry about, but I need to see her in 6 months again too. As I had a good few prescriptions for meds up in the cloud, I decided to get them in town. This way I have more control and don't have to bother the village social worker with them.

Well, it ended up quite an exhaustive process, especially that I was going low on my vitamins and probiotic too. My usual organic shop has somehow changed its profile and quite a few of them, which I have been buying there, were no longer available. Some I ended up ordering online and then went to fetch them in another shop, and yesterday, having gone to fetch some meds that the pharmacy was out of and they had to be ordered in, I also managed to buy some FFP2 masks for the aircraft, as Air France demands those for our flight to Canada in September, plus a couple of fast Covid test kits, as I think one should have them handy, just in case. We have never had them before, but nowadays we get about a lot more than in the past, plus the Omicron variants are so infectious, that it's better to be prepared. Then, if you are lucky, you will never need them.

Kéhli Restaurant

Today we are having a trip up the motorway after lunch, to our Dacia garage for a 3pm appointment, as we have got thoroughly fed up with the seat belt alarm screaming continuously, even when you are belted in. I hope it can be fixed quickly and not for a king's ransom, as I can't imagine driving the kids around with that going, in now less than two weeks' time. I also booked a table for next Monday, for a dinner with two Americans, whom Roy met on the net and who were so impressed that he didn't charge them anything for the research he did for them, that insisted on taking us out for dinner when they are in town. This dinner is responsible for us staying in town for over a week, as we didn't want to tear home after Roy' appointment at the audiologist tomorrow, only to come back a few days later.

 

I am pretty sure that the audiologist will recommend him wearing hearing aids, and I am equally, or even more sure that he will refuse. Still, a checkup at the audiologist was included in the cost of his visit to the ENT specialist a few weeks back, so he might as well have it.

That's it for now. Next post next week, when we are in Bér, but we should be back later that week, prior to the arrival of the family.