The hundred and fortyninth week of the pandemic

Last Wednesday Stephen departed after we had a really lovely lunch at the Regős together. Most of the time, when he comes for these blitz visits, we hardly see him and almost never do we have some uninterrupted talk time with him. So, we were both really pleased that EasyJet decided not to fly on Wednesdays and the Wizzair flight that left in the evening was the only alternative.

Stephen in the Regős

We booked a table, which nowadays is very important, as the Regős has become very popular, had a lovely chat while eating and got back to the flat for Stephen to do some more work and then catch his flight. Amazingly, as he was worried about Wizzair, never having flown with them before, the flight was perfect. Left on time, arrived early, the train came instantly at Gatwick and he was at home way before he was expecting to be.

Roy in the Regős

He is now in Australia, starting his tour in Perth, then moving onto other places in Australia, followed by other Far Eastern countries. He'll be away for 5 weeks. I am pleased that his work abroad is sort of back after the worst bits of the pandemic, but I hope he doesn't catch anything in the process. He lives at such high speed, that I suppose even the viruses can't keep up with him. 

One of Stephen's Australia posters

The following morning my lab visit was OK, although admin must have regressed since I last visited this particular hospital about 2 and 1/2 years ago, as the ladies who took my blood didn't seem to know that I was having a gastroscopy as well as a colonoscopy. There was yet another Fidesz takeover at this outfit too, and needless to say, it showed. (more about this later).

Interesting screen saver on my laptop

On Thursday we returned to the village, via Penny, which is quite a reasonable supermarket chain, but unfortunately, it doesn't stock a few of our staples. Still, we were staying in Bér less than a week, so we thought we would put up with it. There is a Lidl in the same town, but we are boycotting it since we nearly got lynched for packing too slowly at the checkout. 

Brenda Blethyn in Vera

 

The weather was still pretty ghastly, so mostly indoor things were on the program. I did the usual admin, reading, watching TV and listening to music. Another fascinating program from Netflix was A Portrait of Richard Burton. It was excellent, with good vintage footage. Along with my usual US serials, I started watching some UK stuff as well. Obviously Call the Midwife is still going on. Interestingly, it has now got to 1968, which is the year I first got to know the UK and some familiar settings were observed, in spite of the fact that this story goes on in Poplar. Another one was ITV's VERA and BBC's Happy Valley, which I also enjoy a great deal.

Happy Valley: Sarah Lancashsire, James Norton

And then we went to see Heino and Manet on Sunday, which was definitely the highlight of the week. Typically, that visit has proved the old adage: if I am having a really good time, with good food, good drink and delightful company, I always forget to take photos. This does not mean that when I take photos I am not having a good time, but the total lack of photography, almost always point to an exceptionally lovely time. Well, this one was in that category, so I must look up and old photo for those two, just to be able to illustrate the paragraph. They will not be back until the spring, but I do hope they'll come for longer than 2 weeks.

Manet serving something delicious

And now for the bad news. I have mentioned the dreaded Fidesz takeover above, well, I had a really unpleasant experience, which was probably affected by that, if not directly, but definitely indirectly. Before my gastroscopy/colonoscopy on Wednesday, I had to starve for nearly two days and take two doses of laxatives to clear my gastric tract. This was nothing new, I have done this several times in the past, and had no trouble. Well, there is a first time for everything and this one was horrible.

The Semmelweis Emergency Hospital building

On the morning of the procedure I woke up about 3 am, feeling very wet. Apparently I was sweating buckets, feeling a bit woozy, having vertigo, shaking and very week. As I read in the instructions inside the packet of the laxative, that you can have all sorts of bad reactions to that stuff and if it is severe, one should contact a medical professional or call for an ambulance, I did the latter. The ambulance came with two young blokes, who were not particularly friendly, but quite efficient. They took me to the Semmelweis University Hospital's Emergency Department, which were absolutely marvelous. Admittedly, I was there for about 7 hours, but I can't complain about the way I was treated or the attention I had.

 

The upshot was that my blood sugar absolutely collapsed, (2.4 when the range it should have been in was 4.1 to 5.9) and that I had severe dehydration. It is a bit of a mystery why, considering that I did nothing else than what I was used to during several other times I had to prepare for this procedure, and especially that I followed the instructions to the letter and number. Latter relating to the amount of liquid I took in, and still I had this severe reaction.

My blood test at the ER page 1

My blood test at the ER page 2

Obviously, the state I was in, I couldn't go and have the procedure in the afternoon, so it has now been postponed for three  weeks. Unfortunately, I will have to pay for the blood works again, as those have to be within a week of the day of the procedure. I also had to prove to the Medical Director that I wasn't making it up, which did not please me one bit. The veiled threat was, that if I can't prove what I am saying, I would lose the deposit. Obviously, the money grabbing gangsters, (also known as Fidesz), have changed the atmosphere at this place as well.

My blood test at the ER page 3

My blood test at the ER page 4

Not having a scanner in BP, I photographed the casualty report I was given at the Semmelweis Hospital and attached it to the e-mail I sent to the Medical Director, accompanied by some comments, which prompted a phone call the following day. This lady must have remembered me, when due to malpractice 4 or 5 years ago, I had an entire procedure repeated gratis, so she knew she'd better ring me. I was very polite, I didn't ask her to do the second blood works gratis, just because she was very accommodating and polite. 

In the meantime, it turned out that I could have had sugar in my liquid intake, that might have helped with keeping my blood sugar high enough. That's assuming that was the cause of the severe drop. Well, I am rather bright, or so I have been told. But not having had medical training and not possessing the skill of mind reading, how would I have known? Especially, that nothing and nobody told me this, and I have already had 4 such procedures without any sugar in my liquid intake. So, I have decided that next time I will be drinking home made lemonade with lots of sugar in it and double the quantity they advised me last time, so that I can actually have this procedure, without any hassle. When it comes to mid-February, you will obviously hear of this again, as I will report the good or bad news, as it is appropriate.

 Next post next week, assuming I am still alive and kicking!