Enlightenment

24/08/2019

It's not often I'm moved enough to write for the sake of leaving my inner thoughts to posterity, but here goes.

6 days ago I went to Ruse hospital to get a thorough check up on what was causing my lameness/laziness. My right leg was swelling, if I stood too long, and after a few steps my leg muscle went into partial cramps, it had progressed to a point I was walking with sticks.

Even after living here in Bulgaria for 7 years talking to plants and animals only goes so far in expanding ones Bulgarian vocabulary. So in a foreign hospital with limited useful vocabulary I find myself. The reception staff are helpful and in a mix of broken English, from them, and broken Bulgarian from us, they direct me to the consultant my GP has made an appointment with. This initial consultant after examination takes me to see a neurological consultant who tested with ultrasound my venous comings and goings with no apparent problems. After this the initial consultant and another doctor had a conflab on what to do next , deciding that an overnight stay was appropriate so they could give me a CAT scan. This would be my first ever overnight stay in a hospital in my life.

I was led to ward 6, a small very clean and airy room with 4 beds, very well appointed with Aircon, well lit, en suite shared shower room/toilet and 3 other patients. Angeliss, a farmer, was just out of surgery, colostomy bag and nil by mouth, he looked in terrible shape. Angel, who was also a farmer of a small holding, had two thrombosis, one in each leg, and a problem with his hip, the other guy was Slavi, yep him a farmer too, he had lower back problems and possibly urinary issues.

The beds, let me just say that even though they were newish looking, the design and construction of them gave them a comfort factor of lying in a half filled scrap metal bin. Given I was to spend much time lying down it was a less than enjoyable experience to say the least. However, incorporated into the design was a clever overheight feature whereby anyone over 5’6” (1.524m) tall could dangle their pinkies through the ingeniously designed footboard which wasn’t a board but bars, which made me think of prison and become an inmate.

My main reason for writing this was to convey my thoughts and the feelings I experienced during my stay. Angel was a guy of a similar age to me and took the role of ward commander, he made sure everyone was comfortable, their drip was operating correctly and alerted the nurses when they were used up. He was often loud as often most Bulgarians are, it seems to be a great language to converse with people in a different postcode with clarity. Angeliss was waking up on day 2 , still "nil by mouth" and was unable to speak with any clarity but Angel was patient and began to understand his words and was assisting him with comfort and fluids. Angel would often just talk in general to no one in particular just inform anyone listening about news topics of the day, little by little Angeliss was able to speak more clearly and was able to take food and drink. He was asking about the other inmates and how their conditions were and got to form a mental picture of who we were and where we were in relation to him, as he wasn’t able to move his head very much. Angeliss was given some exercises to perform by clasping hands and raising them above his head, he cried a few times, once due to I guess to feeling helpless and needing care from others, but Angel was there to support him mentally and physically along with some additional help from Slavi. Its a humbling sight to see two partially lame patients lifting a big man up in the bed so he can get comfortable and eat properly.

Angel invited me on the first morning to join him and Slavi for coffee at the local cafe after morning BP checks IV drips and injections. I was moved, they didn’t know me from Adam, knew I didn’t speak Bulgarian well but that didn’t seem to matter and it didn’t. We managed to communicate our lifestyles and occupations, garden sizes, veggies grown and animals kept, broached subjects like the EU and communism, it was interesting to get an idea of how my generation of Bulgarians feel about these subjects, made more interesting by having to interpret the answer with reading body language.

Having never been admitted to hospital before I do not know if this sense of camaraderie exists in Uk hospitals, in fact is it even possible considering all the health and safety issues surrounding lifting patients and such like?

Overall I was impressed with the speed of service and the cleanliness. They don’t use overly powerful cleaning agents although when the sink was scrubbed it smelled like the orderly was using diesel.

Day 2 involved much puncturing of skin and taking of pressures, now I had my drip needle inserted I was an official inmate. An orderly (who was well beyond pension age) arrived with a wheelchair to take me to the CAT scanner room, the operator spoke good English and explained the procedure and the scan was done, the results produced showed a scarring on my prostate. I was asked if I'd had surgery there, the answer was no, so in the afternoon I was wheeled down to the scan room again for a 2nd scan with added dye, dripping into me, to improve the images.

Day 3 The results were in, I had a kidney 4 times the size it should be and it was pressing on things which caused me walking problems. It’s full of carcinomas. How did I feel about this? The first word that comes to mind is accepting, I kind of knew cancer would appear on my radar sometime in my life. I was expecting them to say I had prostate cancer, so the fact it was in my kidney was something of a surprise. My next thought was “oh, so that’s why my kidney’s been hurting a little” and here’s me blaming it on a bad back.

The right kidney is now called Keith, thanks to my kids, and is being evicted asap, as the scans indicate the carcinomas are encapsulated within Keith, so we are now looking at a simple kidney removal, apart from potential poking about in my veins to remove lymph nodes. Tracey was in attendance and we had the situation explained by the Urologist who spoke English very well and couldn’t understand why we weren't going to go back to the UK for the operation. Our answer was simple, Time and Trust. It would take so long to be operated on in the UK that it would be a wasted effort. I have total trust in the Bulgarian system, our experiences in the past 7 years have far exceeded what we expected from Bulgaria and conversely made us realise how poorly managed, financially overloaded, inefficient and not patient orientated the NHS is.

I wrongly assumed I would be homeward bound, now they had given me a diagnosis on the cause of my leg problem and recommendations of hospitals/surgeons to have Keith obliterated. No, today was also electrocution day, they were concerned about my leg function so I went to an English speaking, and pretty, skeleton and nerve specialist, who wired me up to her computer and used a forked probe to send shocks into my nerves starting at the foot. So far so good, then she put the probe behind my knee, I said this will be interesting, it was, the shock sent my leg shooting from the bed and almost took her eyebrows off with my toenails. I was to stay the full 6 days for observations and medication for my leg pain and blood condition (it was like me, a bit thick).

Day 4 Morning starts at 5:30 with a big DOBRO UTRO (Good morning) and switching on the arc lamps to test our ability to endure pain from a different source and perhaps stress levels. The orderlies come in and do a quick assessment of things that need attention and leave, then the ward sister comes in to first take blood pressures then deliver the different drip liquids and hypodermics that maybe necessary. We have time for a wash and brush up, tidy the beds and lie down again to get hooked up to our respective drips. This kills an hour or so, then breakfast is served, most often it’s a bread roll with a cheese component and a cup of chai (tea) or hot milk. After this the ward doctor came in to inspect our well being and administer any injections and drop off our daily allocation of tablets. Now was cafe time and off we went like the 3 lame musketeers hobbling along the corridors and down in the lift to the awaiting cafe nestled amongst a forest of trees. Something Bulgaria has been great at is building sympathetically within woodland.

It was great listening to Bulgarian conversation between Angel and Slavi whilst watching people go about their business around the woodlands/hospital grounds. I was recognising many words and phrases in this conversation so I interjected to Slavi with "Az misli toy imash golyama gradina" roughly translating, in my mind at least, as “I think you have a big garden” It made enough sense that both my friends laughed out loud Slavi replied with "Da ima tree decare" (yes I have 3 decares) we then started conversing with many words I knew relating to gardens and animals, it felt so good to enjoy the freedom of conversation. Then Slavi gets a phone call so gets up and leaves us, I look at Angel quizzically and he tells me “Slavi needs to go for tests” so we light another cigarette, just before he turns the corner Slavi shouts back I am also needed at which point Angel says “no rush, finish your cigarette” not long after Slavi and an orderly meet me outside room 6 and we are accompanied to the neurologist. The neurologist located a throm in my right calf muscle. Salvi had been seen first but it was touching to find him waiting for me, once my examination was finished, I assumed Slavi because he knew the way back, it turns out he didn’t.

Day 5 Just one more day to endure and I would be home, I was loaded up this morning with 2 litre bottles of something and a 1/4 litre of something else, I asked if this was Gin and 2 tonics apparently it wasn't. At morning coffee I asked the boys a question that had me perplexed - when you’re talking to the village Baba about your health they always recommend Rakia (which is a local brandy or moonshine) for ailments inside and out, I asked why they had none in the hospital, they admitted it was a mystery to them also. Knowing it was possible I wouldn’t see Slavi tomorrow I wished him well and that his Op on Monday in Sofia went well, he replied with of course we will meet up for coffee in the morning.

Day 6 Time to leave. The ward doctor came in at 8:30 and announced to me with a huge smile that If I give her my lichna (residency) card I can go home, I was packed up and sat on my bed like an eager schoolboy on his first school trip. I forgot that when she had said yesterday, I can leave in the morning, that could potentially include the minutes up to midday. Eventually the paperwork was complete I was issued with, in duplicate, a full description of the treatment and medications I had been administered during my time there. The doctor showed me where to sign and then pointed to my drip feed. When she removed it a fountain of blood issued across the room, she was a little irate with me that I wasn’t pressing the vein hard enough. Anyway I was given a swab which I was to press onto my skin which made walking with sticks and hand shaking somewhat awkward.

Angel was also leaving today, he in a similar condition was outside the doctors office, both reluctant to spray each other and become proper blood brothers we managed a masonic like handshake while holding our veins closed. He said something about Slavi which gave me the impression he was having tests that morning and wouldn’t be going for coffee, I hope to meet them again at some point in the future. After a few more minutes the vein had closed up, I went to collect my things and say goodbye to Angeliss, he was moved to tears, I wished him all the best with tears also.