I guess this revolves around my health, I seem to have been spending nearly as much time with Doctors, as I have at home, and that continues for the forseeable future.
I had the nerve pain block injections in both knees, and they worked, thank goodness, I have found that they don’t help me walk any further, but during the day I am relatively pain free, as long as I don’t try to overdo it, and that is certainly a bonus.
The MRI scan on both knees has been done, here, they give you the scan on a CD along with the written report, to take to the Specialist, so obviously we have have a sneak peak, looking as the CD meant absolutely nothing, as we haven’t a clue what to look for, but the written report, is far from encouraging, and whether the Surgeon will have enough material to work with is debateable, however until I see him on July 1st, I am just keeping my fingers crossed.
Then there is the Vertigo, unfortunately episodes of that, are becoming more frequent, I am going for therapy every week, initially the Doctor thought the vertigo had passed because she couldn’t initiate an episode, and my problem was just with equilibrium or balance, but after my first appointment they started again, and now my therapy has changed gear, to treating the vertigo.
Apparently I have, Positional Vertigo, which she has explained and shown me videos on Youtube to help, is as a result of calcium crystals, which are in a tube in the ear, and should be stuck in one place, in my case have come loose, and when they move, this causes everything to spin uncontrollably, the therapy is to try and ensure the crystals return to their rightful place and stay there. I also have daily exercises to do, but I can’t do them alone in case it triggers and episode and I fall striking my head, so Nurse Marcela has taken charge…She’s worse than an old school Matron, ha! ha! ha! what would I do without her?
Everything in Colombia, seems to have gone relatively quiet on the subject of Covid 19, even though the number of cases are rising again, most restrictions have been lifted, with the exception of wearing masks when outside your own house, and social distancing, the Government is in a cleft stick, in reality the restrictions we had for the first six months should have been continued, but the Country can’t afford it, unlike many countries there isn’t the financial capacity to given assistance, what assistance that was given, was only what would have been given to the poor anyway, it was just brought forward.
The rest of the help came from Family, Friends, Neighbours, and even Strangers, both in the form of food or financial donations, most Public Utility Bills were put on hold, they will still have to be paid at some point, but it delayed the stress of finding the money until later.
How did this effect us? in reality not a lot, yes we had to comply with the strict obligations, when we left the house, but we could live with those, unlike many we didn’t have the financial worries that many had, this is the benefit of being a pensioner, that pension still keeps coming every month, and again because of the restrictions, we were not spending as much, so had funds to help others, both family and friends.
The vaccination program, which was extremely slow to get started, is picking up a pace, the main three vaccines being used are, Pfizer, Astra Zeneca and the Chinese Sinovac, the latter seems to be being used more for those who don’t pay into the Health System, although they are now buying the Johnson and Johnson one injection vaccine, to send out to the remote areas, where it is difficult to send supplies.
As I have said previously, I have had both my vaccine jabs, I was given Pfizer, Marcela is due to have her first, in the next couple of weeks, and has been told it will probably be Astra Zeneca, over here we are just glad to get a vaccine, unlike those over in the EU who seem to be very picky!
To be cont’d
An Englishman in Colombia 