Hi Everyone,
My most sincere apologies for taking so long to reply, and for having neglected the blog for so long.
This post originally was a reply to an email from Julian, wondering if we had fallen off the edge of the world or what. I'm reposting it here as a quick way to let you all know what we've been up to. It's very condensed. I will expand some parts in other posts later on because some things just need a more in-depth reportage.
Anyway, here goes.
You wouldn't believe what's happened over the past few weeks. Construction finished on the house, roughly at the end of February, and we moved in. About a week to the day after that, things went topsy-turvy.
Wednesday afternoon, about 1PM or so, Dianna got up from the couch in the living room, intending to head to the bathroom. She never made it. Her legs refused to cooperate and she fell. Hard. On her left hip. Snap! The femur broke right at the ball joint.
I was just waking up from a nap, and I heard her call me. I thought she wanted me to come move a picture or a chair or something. Her voice sounded calm and normal. Such wasn't the case, however. No, she was in excruciating pain with a broken hip.
I called 9-1-1, and got Corozal Police, who told me to hang up and call the hospital. At least they offered to give me the number. I already had it in my phone, so I quickly called and gave our address and very brief instructions on how to find us in the real world.
I next called Vivien, across the street. She came over right away and told me I had done the right thing by not moving her and calling the ambulance.
I secured the dogs and opened the gate.
Amazingly, about five minutes later, the ambulance showed up. The ambulance ride to Corozal Hospital was the ride from Hell, for Dianna. A combination of our road being so rough and the ambulance driver, going like a mad man. Vivien rode with Dianna. I followed behind after locking everything and turning the dogs loose in the yard.
Some time later, another ambulance ride, this one to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, in Belize City. Again, Vivien rode with Dianna. I followed again, a bit later. I had to collect some stuff for Dianna and myself, and get some money as well as gas for the Sporttrac.
By this time, it's 5PM - night drive to Belize City. Worst drive of my life. The closer I got to Belize City, the crazier things became.
Let me back up a second. I packed some things for us... What to take? Who knows? I obviously wasn't thinking to clearly, as in a panic. I packed 3-teeshirts and my toothbrush, one of my prescription pill bottles, and managed to pack Dianna's toothbrush, toothpaste, and her PJs.
After giving the house keys to Denis, Vivien's husband, I gassed up the Sport Trac and hit the road to Belize City.
New Arrival - KHMH Emergency/Trauma Center |
Amazing how much running around there was that I had to do. Even just leading up to her surgery, which took place the following Monday morning. In the interim, I had to run essentially, a nationwide blood drive for her blood type (O-). KHMH required her to have two pints of O- blood on hand at KHMH before the surgery could commence, which meant the nationwide blood drive. I spent hours on the phone and on my iPad beating the bushes to get people to donate.
That's a thing in and of itself. Belize is much more restrictive than the US or Canada on who can give blood. Finally, by Sunday, it looked like we might make it for surgery on Monday. We did - just. At 8:30 AM, I got the certification for blood from the Belize Blood bank. The surgery was scheduled for 9:00AM. I'll do some detailed blog postings about all this, soon, I promise.
We came into the house, and it was still so new, it felt like it was someone else's house, no lie. We hadn't been in the new place long enough to bond with it at all.
So, from then till now, our days have been filled with physical therapy for Dianna. She's recovering quite well, but it does take some time
I'm also gearing up to try to start an ongoing drive to encourage younger Expats to donate blood and to do it regularly. With an aging Expat population, we're our own worst enemies when it comes to blood.
So, that's what we've been up to, in a nutshelll. And, you thought I was living the retired life of luxury, just lazin' on a Sunday afternoon, in the summer time (I have the Kinks on my mind, if you were wondering).
All for right now. More later. I think I'll copy this over to the blog and expand it as needed.
Again, apologies for being tardy. But, I have a good excuse.
Cheers,
Dave
6 comments:
Good to see your post, Dave, and to know that Dianna is home and in recovery mode. Wishing her a speedy and uneventful recovery.
Hi guys,
I just saw that you've read The Martian: wasn't that a great story - and the science made sense too. What a read. Haven't seen the movie yet but I will.
Glad Dianna is on the mend! Are you having to send out for "take out" or can Dave find his way around the new kitchen? I have to aks because some good friends of ours are enjoying new experiences since she's not able shop right now and my friend Gary always sat in the car reading while she shopped. Now he's completely lost in Publix (he's 78) and I almost want to follow him and get a video of him crusing the isles... :)
Julian
Hi Julian,
The shopping end of things I have down pretty well. I've done the majority of grocery shopping for years, even before we moved down here. Cooking on the other hand is more of a challenge. If there's left overs, I'm pretty good at whupping up a tasty concoction for a meal. From scratch, is a bit tougher. I can BBQ ok, it's doing it every day that's hard. Yes, we've ordered out a bit, probably about 50% of the time.
Even as a kid, I had to push the cart for my mom when we shopped in the base commisary, so I got a pretty good handle on how to comparison shop, and quantities too.
I feel for your friend. It's like having to shop for something in the lingerie department for a bra or something.
Cheers,
Dave
Hi Wilma,
It's good to be back home, even if it does feel new. She's improving daily. Might even get her into the pool tomorrow. More posts will be on the way about the adventure.
Cheers,
Dave
BTW -- do you have a review of your "Squatty Potti"or some such new device to deliver the perfect "delivery"?? Just curious if you found it of any real benefit. Some of us using prune juice are dying to know!
OMG, what an incredible experience to go through. That had to be the last thing you'd think you would have to deal with. So happy to read Dianna is recovering well and will be up and back to her routine in no time.
I can only imagine the panic you went through. I guess you did a lot of cloths shopping in Belize City :-)
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