All manner of things happening these days.
We were on lockdown until October 1. I finally managed to finish the projects I had earmarked for the lockdown period. Admittedly, I did not finish them until the lockdown was over, but I had a good excuse.
I got very sick around the middle of September. So sick. in fact, that I finally went to see a doctor.
For the first 4 days, I was on my own as it was still lockdown. On the 5th day, I couldn't cope anymore, so I sent a tuktuk to fetch Vineetha. I had the worst stomach ache ever; gastritis I am pretty sure, but a severe case. My stomach was pressing on my diaphram so that I kept thinking was having heart trouble. Plus my nose and sinuses were completely plugged up. I was in bed for 4 days not even able to brush my teeth or have a shower. Just managed to make it to the bathroom. Couldn't eat, but made myself drink so that I wouldn't get dehydrated on top of everything else. Lost about 10 pounds which didn't hurt.
Vineetha stayed with me for about a week and then said she had to go home because her granddaughter had to go for a follow-up doctor's appointment which never happened. Not sure that I believe that it ever was scheduled.
I wanted to ask the young woman who lives in the annex and who is a home care worker to help me, but she was engaged by my landlady's daughter as my landlady had had a heart attack after receiving her second shot and was in hospital. To make matters even worse, the daughter's husband who used to be a Kandy city councillor called the Public Health Inspector saying I was ill. Three people showed up, two in uniform, asking if I had COVID symptoms, which I had not.
By that time, I had managed to drag myself to a doctor with Vineetha's help. He checked my oxygen absorption rate (fine), and sent me for blood tests (also fine). He gave me a note for a Rapid Antigen Test which I didn't take as I didn't want to vomit all over the lab tech. He put it down to severe gastritis and prescribed an acid suppressant that worked and I slowly started to feel better.
The PHI and crew wanted me to go for a PCR test despite the fact that I couldn't even get out of bed to talk to them. I told them I couldn't get to a hospital and that I would vomit if I had the swab stuck up my nose. They took this as my refusal to have a test and got the young couple in the annex so frightened that they would not come out of their room for a week. Idiots! My landlady's daughter and her husband are included in that lot. The opposite of helpful.
I am fully recovered now, but all told I was not myself for at least a month.
Thankfully, I was fine to received my second shot which was scheduled for October 12. Of course, I showed up there only to be told they had changed it to the next day. So I went trudging back expecting pandemonium but was surprised to find that it was very well organized. They sat me down keeping social distancing in mind and within less than a minute, a nurse came and gave me the shot. Maybe she injected me with water as there was no mark, no itching, no swelling, no nothing.
While all that was going on, my lovely Buddy Boy also fell sick. He was with a cannula on IV for 5 days and seemed to be rallying. They did blood tests and determined that he had an upper respiratory tract infection. At the end of the IV treatment he got a long lasting antibiotic that lasted only for 3 days and then he started to decline again. Of course, it was a poya day (monthly full moon holiday) and I couldn't get hold of his vet. In the end, my friend Deanne gave me the number of her vet who did come out and gave him a shot to bring down the swelling in his mouth and throat. He wanted to give him 2 shots, but he wouldn't put up with the second. He nearly clawed my hand off. That lasted for another day.
By this time, my vet was open again, but their mobile service was not working and there was no way I could get the cat to them, so I had to call Deanne's vet again. He managed both shots that time and brought some medication that I could give Buddy with his milk. Milk was all he was ingesting by this time. After another couple of days, things had not improved much so I took him into the vet. I didn't want to deal with Deanne's vet anymore as he charged double what I pay even for the mobile service.
Turns out that he has at least 4 ulcers in his mouth. We found this out only after giving him a general anesthetic. So another cannula has been put in and he is back on twice daily IV treatments for at least a week. Happy days! He is still alive and that is all that matters. Will cost me LKR50,000 or more in the end, but what choice do I have?
So yesterday was spent taking Buddy to the vet and later in the day going to an appointment to see an opthamologist about getting the cataract in my left eye dealt with. I had already gone for 3 appointments with another eye surgeon who works out of KPH where I had my right eye done in 2017. He sent me for the usual refraction and biometric tests. Turns out that I have astigmatism in my right eye due to a scar on my cornea from the cataract surgery. No-one; neither the surgeon nor the optometrist who did the follow-up mentioned anything about astigmatism. The surgeon put down the fact that I don't have perfect distance vision with my right eye to the fact that they had to insert a strong lens. They were not able to determine the proper lens strength apparently due to fact that I did not have a topographical scan of my eye prior to receiving laser surgery about 25 years ago.
This latter is at least in part BS. The surgeon screwed up and scarred my cornea. So this new guy was reluctant to do the left eye, but said he would consult a colleague as to whether the surgery could be done in Kandy. In the end, he came back with a story that they had some kind of infection at the hospital and were not doing eye surgeries there for the foreseeable future. He recommended some guy in Colombo. I don't want to go to Colombo.
So off I went yesterday to see another eye surgeon recommended my friends Lorens and Jim. I set up the appointment through Doc990 which is an online and telephone service for specialist doctor's appointments. My original appointment was for 4:15pm. Doc990 advised me that she would not be arriving until 5:30pm, so I went then. At 6:30pm she had still not arrived. I was furious, so I demanded a refund from Suwasevana Hospital and left. Doc 990 advised me that she arrived at the hospital at 7:22pm, almost 2 hours late. No apology, no explanation. I do not want to deal with a doctor who has so little respect for her patients. After all that, she only spent less than a half hour at the hospital according to Doc990. Shameful! Back to drawing board. Hopefully I can manage to get this done before Christmas.
On a brighter note, we have resumed mahjong and Film Club so there are some social things to do. Unfortunately, on a sadder note the woman who started the film club, Clare Leask died about a month ago with cancer and my friend Judith who organises Film Club now has had a basal cell carcinoma removed that is malignant. I don't think Judith is in any imminent danger, but it is scary in any event.
All my projects are complete now: chairs reupholstered, leather pillows made, marionettes refurbished, and an oriental carpet repaired.
These marionettes were made for me in Udaipur by a local puppet theatre 35 years ago. There are only 2 puppets really. The smaller one is a man on one side and a woman on the other. After all that time, the costumes and the jewellry were disintegrating. I gave them to my seamstress, Anu, to redo them. She did a great job as you can see. I repaired the jewellry, so now they live again.
We have had unending rain so that even though the pool has reopened, I haven't been able to go swimming. The rains have done wonders for the plant life. Here is an interesting plant growing in the garden next door to Lesley and Ralph.
When I first came to Sri Lanka in 1987, I became friends with Carolyn McAskie who was the Canadian High Commissioner at that time. She shared a wonderful idea with me of a small retirement community of like minded individuals living independently but together. It has never left my mind. Wherever I have lived, I have always spotted places that would be suitable for such an arrangement.
Well, at long last, I think the dream might come to fruition. I have friends here, Simon and Pauline Lazenbatt, who have a beautiful boutique hotel in Naulla, called Flamboyant Villas. Check out their website at https://www.flamboyantvillas.com/index. They are also on Bookings.com, TripAdvisor, and Facebook. Anyway, there has not been a lot of tourist trade since the Easter bombings and nothing since the pandemic. I broached the idea with them of converting Flamboyant into a retirement community more out of self interest than anything else. Happily, they have agreed and we are proceeding with the project. We will begin by converting one of the villas for me as a permanent residence and proceed from there. Hopefully, within the next year, I will be living the life of Reilly at Flamboyant Villas.
All the other cats are fine, although I have not seen Baby for some time.
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| Buddy and Nangi snuggling. You can already see the degeneration of Buddy's fur. |
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| Buddy today. Looking ratty and scrawny, but still breathing. We are expecting the vet at 10am. |
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