MOT

We are back in Santiago, it is time for me to have my first set of checkups since the operation back in July. Have just been in to see Dr Montagne who plugged me into his fancy laptop and downloaded the info from the ICD. Apparently everything is OK, nothing wrong apart from the obvious!



I now have a cleanish bill of health for another six months.

The weather here is fantastic, sun shining and temps between high 20s low 30s, much better than the snow and ice we had on our last visit! We have had Debbie with us for these first couple of days, on her way to NZ.


Going to make the most of the sunshine for the next few days now... The weather at home is apparently utter crap so intend to get a suntan while I can!

Home again

We are now back at home after a pretty uneventful flight back from Santiago. The 04:15 start was a bit scary but other than that it was all fine.

We got back to be met by a welcoming party at the house and then discovered that last week the boiler had thrown a fit and flooded the attic! The ceiling in the sitting room had come down and there was a hell of a mess. Poor Nuala had walked in to check on the cat to be met by a wall of steam and water pouring out of the ceiling, she promptly called Debbie (god knows why!!)


Then the cavalry was called and a load of our friends turned up and fixed EVERYTHING... Corrinne and Dad took away all the linen which had been soaked in dirty water and washed the lot. Pecker, Paicey, Sam and Tom fixed the ceiling with Nuala, Corrinne, Larissa and Debs tidying up behind them (no mean task!). They managed to keep it a secret from us, so when we turned up on Saturday it was almost as if nothing had happened, a truly amazing achievement!



And this is what it looks like now!


A huge thank you to everyone involved, it was a herculean effort and I shudder to think how it would have felt to have been faced by that on our return! It's great to be back, the animals seemed to be very happy to see us.


Hoping to get back to some form of normality now...

Last night in Santiago

Well this is it, our last night in Santiago... We are off to have one last feed of steak, bit nervous actually as we are meeting up with Lisa again(she is passing through on her way back to FI), the last time I had a meal with Lisa I bloody nearly died shortly aferwards (see "what happened waaas")! Then it is a 5:10 pick up for the airport in the morning... urk....

It has actually been quite nice to get to know Santiago over the last couple of weeks and it has been good for Jenny and I to be able to try and come to terms with the changes all this will mean for us.

We went to pick up the last of the bits and pieces from the hospital this morning, I now have the letter I need to get through the airport scanners, there will be a proper ID at some stage but that takes a while to process. For anyone who is interested this is the actual ICD I had implanted.... I think I prefer the name EnTrust to Vitality AVT!

Woohoo!

Could this day get any better? Just after getting the all clear from the hospital we popped into a cinema we happened to be passing and wonder of wonders they had The Simpsons movie in English!!! So that was two hours taken care of.... WOOHOOO!

(Never forget the inner child.)

Fixed!

Just had my final XRay and the pneumothorax has completely gone so I am clear to fly this Saturday... Very relieved and can't wait to get home.

Going to kick back and enjoy the last few days now, without the threat of further delays looming over us.

Reminders of Home.

Jenny is now feeling fine again, the drugs the hospital sorted out for her seem to be doing the trick and she is almost back to normal, albeit a bit tender still.

Had a lovely meal out with Tom, Larissa, Laura (who was very quiet) and Rosie last night, went to a Mongolian restaurant (the type where the chef cooks on the table in front of you) which was fantastic. The chef took a real shine to Rosie, to the extent of making a special rice heart for her, not sure Rosie was so taken with him though, apparently his hands were too small whatever that means!



We went to a rather bizarre Falklands War exhibit in the military museum here in Santiago today. It had a neutral view of the sovereignty issue which was nice to see and they also had a copy of the 25th anniversary PN which pleased Jenny!!!



Then to top it all off we had our first home cooked meal in over a month, nice and simple...

In the blurb for this place it says the rooms are fitted with an "American" kitchen...... what the hell is that? Answers on a postcard, a free Häagen-Dazs pot to the first correct (or most imaginative) answer...

Back to the Clinica

We had a very long night last night, both went to bed about 8 o'clock feeling grotty and to cut a long story short I had to take Jenny to the A&E dept of the Clinica Alemana at 3:30 in the morning as she was suffering really bad stomach pains...



They whacked in a drip of some kind and carried out a quick scan, and she was home again with a full diagnosis and feeling much better by 7:30. A truly amazing service!

Jenny is still feeling a bit ropey but we met up with Tom, Larissa and Laura for lunch which kind of made up for everything, just wish we where flying with them tomorrow...