Some more doctors, blood tests, mammogram, MRI and a return to the village

Last Wednesday I went to see my ENT surgeon who was a disappointment this time. First of all, she was 20 minutes late and then the guy that came after us, but obviously had the first appointment, was in for 35 minutes. A consultation is usually 30 minutes, so she was running 25 minutes late. I am sorry to have to write this, but she tried to make her lateness made up by having me for only about 15 to20 minutes. She advised that I have a hearing test, but did not address my main concern, which was a set of very disturbing and loud scratching noises in my right ear. She also completely ignored my throat, which should have also been looked at. Great shame, but I will have to look for a new ENT surgeon if the noise in my ear gets a lot worse.

The food shopping that was put off the day before, had to be done on Wednesday. We went to Lidl on King Street and managed to get home with very little walking, which considering the weight we were carrying was very good. The first trolley bus, the no. 70 came straight outside Lidl, and the next one, the no. 76 came in about 4 or 5 minutes. The longest walk was from the theatre to our flat, but even that was not more than about 200 yards. 

Thursday started quite early and without  breakfast. I had a blood test at 8:40 am, to which you always have to turn up on an empty stomach. Once the medical vampires finished, I had a very nice and large Pink Lady apple and a croissant, that Roy brought with him to stop my blood sugar levels collapsing. From the hospital we headed to the next appointment in an establishment I haven't been in before. It is called the Wáberer Medical Center. the owner is one of the most famous (or infamous) entrepreneurs in Hungary. He has been into transport, construction and now medical clinics,  but dr. Gerő, my gynaecologist, recommended them to me, so off we went. I had that long overdue mammogram, that dr. Gerő was upset about and I went for the comprehensive test with ultrasound and immediate results. She showed me the cysts that the mammogram showed on the screen, but the ultrasound confirmed to be benign. I hope she is right, but I had to promise her that I will go back yearly, just to be on the safe side. At £150 a go, it's not exactly cheap, but health comes first, as I always say.

The "Crazy Market" building

After we have finished at Wáberer's, we headed to what we call the crazy market, due to its weird building. It is the best market to get fillet steak and we ended up buying about a £50 worth of half fillet. We are having David and Ági for the weekend and Roy is planning to cook a surf and turf. With reference to the latter, en route to Lidl on the day before, we popped in to our favourite Asian food shop and bought two enormous bags of king prawns. This meal should be a great treat, I hope our guests will enjoy it too.

And it was in the late afternoon/early evening when suddenly I started getting chest pains, followed by nausea, extended puffed up stomach and pains everywhere eventually. I really didn't know what to do, but at one point I was so sure that I was having a heart attack that nearly called an ambulance. I put it off, hoping that it'll pass, and while it did that very slowly, my all round cure of drinking lots of sparkling water seemed to ease it a bit. About 11 pm it got good enough that I managed to go to sleep, but I have already decided that who knows what the hell is wrong with me, so I had to cry off my three days of geocaching at the Spring Geocaching Festival and Competition in the South, with Heni, Józsi and Szabolcs. The main problem was that I was supposed to take the Duster and now they have not only lost their driver, but the car too.

Heni at the last weekend's event

I wrote to Heni and she was really nice and just wished me a quick recovery and assured me that they will solve the problem themselves. They promised to keep in touch, to enquire after how I am and probably send some photos from the countryside they would be visiting and the event in Almamellék. I was most upset, not only missing my caching, but causing such problems to Heni and the others. As it happens, they took their own car, which in spite of being about 20 years old, was still going. Later on Friday I received the first set of photos, but I was quietly having the odd cry, I was so upset not being with them. Amazingly, after a good night's sleep I was getting a great deal better and faster than last night's feeling sick made me think I might.

Old choo choo train outside Kaposvár railway station

I had breakfast and lunch, both of which stayed down and my mood improved too. Roy came up with the idea, that if I feel better by Saturday morning, I could catch a train down quite early, and perhaps the three of them could come and fetch me from the station. I am happy to report that that is exactly what happened.  I caught the Kresz Géza Intercity train at 6:50 am and was in Kaposvár by 9:20 am. After leaving the station, we went to find a two-parter multi-cache, which was about the railway and old engines. Both parts were easy to find and then we carried on caching. 

Putting out a moving cache in the rain

 

The one downside of this particular Saturday was the weather. In the weeks immediately before and since last Saturday the weather was and is absolutely perfect. Sunshine, warmth, a slight breeze and a perfect chance to enjoy yourself in the great outdoors. Saturday was the only day when it was dark, cold and pouring with rain. Having written that, I must admit we didn't let all that spoil our fun, and we just went out in it to do our planned caching regardless. I must admit, I had to keep moving, because by the early afternoon I was soaked through and through, and sitting down made me feel very cold.

Enormous beech tree

So after a few caches between the station and the event centre, we arrived in a place I have already cached twice, but there were still lots of caches to find, especially the 8 moving caches that other cachers brought either straight to the forest school, which was the event centre, or fairly nearby. The hills and forests were rather muddy, so after a while everybody was covered in mud, so we didn't care any more. These events are also good for meeting other cachers who you haven't seen for a while. I had some good chats with many people and we kept discovering the moving caches all the time. I also managed to find my 5th big tree in an ancient beech forest quite close to the event centre.

An emu in the little zoo around our B&B

Once we have finished at the event, we went and found some more caches and finally we ended up at our accommodation. This was an interesting place, I think it was converted from an old hunting lodge and is now a popular B&B with a restaurant and a cute little zoo around it. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed, as the system here was that you had to request dinner in the morning, and we have only just arrived. Thankfully, I have brought a lot of food with me, so I wasn't hungry. The room was quite nice, the bed very comfortable, and my only grouse was that the gutters had leaks and the loud dripping of rain water onto the patio occasionally woke me up. I still had a good sleep and got up quite early. Heni was awake too, so we had a really good chinwag in the morning, which I enjoyed.

Lama, pretty well shorn

Before leaving the B&B I went and looked at a few of the animals in the zoo, we saw saw muflon, deer, goat, emu, lama and pigs. This was Sunday, the third day to the three of them and only the second day for me. Yesterday, due to a few good caches that we all enjoyed finding, plus the event cache, the big tree cache and the 8 multi-caches, I actually ended up with a good few finds. It was about time, as 2026 has so far been very poor from the point of view of geocaching for me. On Sunday, however, we went to a lot of multies that were having at least two points impossible to find. Thankfully, we did have help from people who have found them in the past, so eventually we could log those as well.

Józsi's pretty little railway museum

The highlight of Sunday happened in Pusztaszabolcs, where Józsi lives. He has a cute little railway museum of his own, in his garden and in the little forest behind his house. In it he has on display every single memorabilia that he had gathered during decades of working for the Hungarian State Railway as an engine driver. He even has a narrow gauge railway, which wasn't operating yet, but I will be back with Roy in the summer to have a ride. He also has a geocache in a railway storage box, right next to the rails, which  I could find. He was very happy that we came and that he had a lift all the way to his house. I am already looking forward to see him and his little railway sometime in the summer with Roy.

Monday was the day of my last visit to a doctor, at least for now. As the rheumatologist recommended a lumbar MRI, I had that done back at the DMC. The results came very quickly, but it is so full of jargon that I will have to get back to him for an answer to many a question that had been unanswered over far too many years. Further news on this, hopefully, within the next few weeks. All the other results, bar that of the cervical smear, are also in. The mammogram was OK, the blood works were also OK and now I am only awaiting the results of the smear. The final sum of fees was well over £1000, but considering that it included some big name consultants, a very comprehensive blood test and a mammogram with ultrasound, as well as a lumbar MRI, it's not as expensive as you think. 

The caches with names are our targets

Returning to the village was scheduled for yesterday, but both Roy and I had so much computer work and other stuff to consider that we postponed it to Wednesday. I was working on two geocaching outings that are coming up soon: the first will be, weather and other commitments permitting, next Saturday and another one in early June. The one next Saturday, 30th May, will be happening in a nearby mountain range, the Mátra, with my good friend Csilla. There are still a few caches I have never managed to get to, so we will have a go at a few of those. The travelling logistics are pretty horrendous, but I think I have sorted it now. The one in June will be just Roy and I, but at the same part of the country and at the same time as Heni and Szabolcs go away for 6 days. We'll join them for 5 and it will include at least one day of cycling. I will have a chance of trying out my e-bike, which should be fun.

Ági and David at his 70th birthday last year

Here, I will have to have a go at tractor mowing the back garden again, plus we will have to tidy and clean the house for the arrival of Ági and David on Friday afternoon. I will have to do some washing too and make the beds etc., etc. Then the cooking and other preparing, so we will be busy for the next two days. Next week's post is due on Wednesday, let's hope I'll be on time with it.