Hospital: Day Five (Mon 12 Nov).

Very nice sunny day. Had breakfast: tea (with no milk again!) and biscuits. Hope to talk to doctor today. Leg itching again.

Doctor came, told me I could get up and start walking about a bit, as long as my foot doesn’t hurt too much. Said they will start to overlap heparin injections with anticoagulant tablets and maybe can go home tomorrow or wednesday, depending on results of blood tests.

Been walking around a bit. Every now and then I get up, walk round the bed, round the chair, then back to bed. Leg’s quite painful and stiff (more stiff than painful). Managed to piss in a toilet for the first time, don’t need the piss bottles any more, but, also don’t have an excuse to call the pretty nurses !

Lunch came. Pasta bolognaise was half edible. The turkey rounds were quite nice, manky vegetables again!

Bored now I can walk, before I could just lay there and be depressed! Got up and had a good shit in the toilet, glad I don’t have to use a bucket any more! Knee starting to hurt a bit now.

And then it hit me. You know that point when you realize the full heaviness of what’s just happened. Heavy, heavy, heavy !! Couldn’t help thinking of my blood clot like a dice deciding whether I live or die! It just needed to block the wrong artery and that would be it. Game Over!! Got so depressed, had a bit of a cry. Must hold back the tears till later on though. Stiff upper lip and all that !! Decided to do some reading, take my mind off it.

Dinner came: Murcian salad and chicken nuggets. Murcian salad consists of tomatoes, olives and onions all covered in olive oil: Yuck !! The nuggets were half descent, the tomato sauce was mank, the chips reheated and cold !

After dinner got back to my depression. Thought of the song by Queen:

“One by One”

“Only the good die young”

“They’re only flyin’ too close to the sun”

“And we’ll remember”

“Forever”

Hope I’m not too good to die young !!

Started thinking of the plan for the future:

- Go back to England, be with my family (can’t stay here on my own after what’s happened), recover my physical and emotional health. About 3 months should do it. Christmas in Wales sounds good.
- Come back to Spain, strip the house down, redecorate, spend a ridiculous amount of cash on it!

- Get a new car. I want to get a Jaguar (the original babe magnet!). Can’t afford a new one though ! Will have to find an old one in good condition.

- Go back to University and do my PHD in chemistry. The last 5 years in the University of life has got me nowhere except hospital (and nearly the morgue!)

While in England get new clothes, image and lifestyle.  Maybe this way I can convince some girls to go out with me !! Or maybe I’m just destined to be alone forever !

Ate a satsuma to stop me getting depressed again!

My redhead nurse, P, came to give me and injection. Afterwards, my brunette nurse, N, brought me some milk. If I ever do find a girlfriend, I’d want her to be as lovely as P or N !! Got blood test tomorrow so can’t have any food or drink after midnight.

Hospital: Day Four (Sun 11 Nov).

Woke as one of the girls was taking my temperature in my ear. Had breakfast, had asked for tea and biscuits. Biscuits were nice, but, tea with no milk ! Did hair and teeth. 2 women came in to give me a bed bath. Can’t wait to be able to get up and wash my own arse !

Contemplated scenery. There was a large window, could see nearly the whole of Torrevieja salt lake. Big flocks of swallows flying about, 5 or 6 birds of prey way up high. Saw a UFO, was probably a plane! Just outside the hospital was a palm tree which looked strangely like the Predator ! The whole view was spoiled by a huge electricity pylon and street lights.

Mum phoned, talked about getting back to England, can’t stay in Spain on my own. It’s 2 hours by plane, but, probably won’t be able to fly. It’s 3 days by train though. Would have to talk to the doctor about it. My Aunty, who’s 92, phoned had a nice chat.

Lunch came. Had ordered, chicken salad and grilled sole. The chicken salad was OK, fresh salad, chicken was a bit dry, but healthy. This is the type of stuff they should be giving us! The fish on the other hand was completely mank !! It was green !! Obviously boiled, not grilled. How the f*$£ they’d managed this, I don’t know. I couldn’t deliberately cook this badly !! The vegetables that went with it were boiled beyond all recognition !

Later, my mate S phoned. Rested some more, hard work all this absolute rest ! Needed to take a dump again, waited till after dinner this time.

Dinner came. “Sopa maravilla”, roughly translated as soup of wonders. Exactly the same as yesterday’s chicken soup ! Hold your breath and down the hatch ! Then ham “flamenquines”, (mince wrapped in ham, battered and fried) these were actually very nice ! The accompanying vegetables were mank.

Af ter dinner called for the shit bucket, found out what it was actually called: “la cuña”. Better than “el cubo de cagar”! Set up a better system this time. Put the side bars up (checked they could hold my weight first, didn’t want to end up with a broken neck as well!). Broke off some pieces of toilet roll. Took off my pajama. Put my bad leg on some pillows. Put a sheet of absorbent paper down, the cuña on top, and another sheet on top of that. Using the bars on one side lifted my self over it with 1 arm and my good leg, leaving my right arm free. Then proceeded to take a shit ! Was quite a strange site looking in the reflection in the window ! The faeces fell on the paper over the bucket as planned. When I finished, wiped my arse, wrapped up everything in the paper and pushed it into the bucket. Perfect! Was knackered though!

My lovely redhead, P, came with the heparin injection, rested, supper came. Asked for tea with milk, got a cup of hot milk with a teabag in it! What do you have to do to get a descent cuppa tea around here!

Had a long kip, woke up, did some writing. My bandaged leg started itching like mad, driving me mental! Can’t wait to get this bloody thing off! Crashed again after a long while.