A Patients Journey - 6

Two months on from surgery I went swimming for the first time on Friday. No real problem, I did half the lengths that I would normally do. I was almost on my knees by the time I walked home though. Now I need to build up my muscle strength & stamina.

My dissolvable stitches didn't. I pulled the last one off last night. Fortunately it didn't bleed much. I think the spray on skin may stop the stitches dissolving.

No infection, just a bit of intermittant spotting.

I haven't heard anything about the biopsy results, so I assume that's good news. Presumably they would contact me if there was anything to be concerned about.

All good news then. Just under three weeks to get in shape for my month working in Malawi & the very long, (2 day) flights.

The miracle of modern surgery shouldn't be taken for granted. We have anasthetics, drugs for pain relief, skilled medics, wonderful hospitals - All free at point of need.  But for how long? Privatisation is already worming it's way into state provision at the behest of a Conservative Government who believe that is competetive & will save them money. Instead of looking to the USA & copying, they should look below the surface & interrogate what is really happening to patients there.

It is the patient that matters. Not the medical hierarchy, politicians, or company CEO's. I've been fortunate - A lot of people aren't.

Malawi - Possibility of non Return

Like I have said - I plan for all eventualities. So I had a conversation with my daughter & son in law about the possibility of me not coming back under my own steam. (I've already mentioned the amount of medication I'm taking in the last Post!).

I obviously didn't phrase it well. She got quite upset. I just wanted to avoid her having to go through the business of going out there & collecting me & dealing with all the paperwork. It's not going to be much fun is it?
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/what-to-do-if-someone-dies-abroad/

Ever practical, I thought, have me cremated out there & get them to send me back in a jar, on a plane.  Then have a lovely memorial service celebrating my life, with all my friends extolling my many virtues. (Well I can dream can't I - my failings aren't compulsory).

Anyway she thinks that she would want to go out to get me. And I am touched. That is real love & devotion.

It made me think how people differ in how they view death. I don't believe in anything to come. When I'm gone I'm gone. So the funeral service isn't for me, it's for the people I love to say goodbye in the way they choose & close the chapter of their lives that has me in it.

I would like to know how I have impacted on people - what they think of me. But that isn't going to happen. I won't be floating in the ether somewhere listening in, (which is a pity because I think we should tell people, while they are here, how much we love / like them & what they do that p.....us off).

Anyway - hopefully none of this will come to pass. I will return & bore people rigid with tales of Malawi & everything I've seen & done.

Actually that might mean I have less friends when my funeral does arrive.

I Was Dying

First I was dying to finish high school and start college
And then I was dying to finish college and start working
And then I was dying to marry and have children
And then I was dying for my children to grow old enough so they could go to school so I could go back to work
And then I was dying to retire
And now...I am dying .... and suddenly I realize I forgot to live.

Anon

Not me. This is me living!

Malawi - More Preparations.

In life if you don't know the question to ask it can be very difficult to find the answer.

So - I wanted to get refills for a plug in Mosquito zapper for my room, which I haven't used for a long time. My refills are square, current ones are oblong. To cut a very long story short I have to ditch the old one - fine. However Malawi turns out to be the only African country which has UK sockets. UK electric bug zappers have USA, European & North African fittings to be used with a travel adaptor. A huge amount of time later decided to buy a local one out there - hopefully.

The information is all out there on the web or by emailing companies. It's just all time eating into my life & I have other things to do.

I have retrieved my old phone & charger from my Grandsons to use with a local sim. But the instruction book has gone missing & I don't have a record of the number. I think that the local sim will come with it's own number though if it's the same as Kathmandu.

Every surface in my study is now covered with medical supplies - my meds, malaria meds, anti mozzie sprays & sting relief, sunscreen, anti bac gel, wet wipes..... I'm a travelling pharmacy. I keep thinking how lucky we are that all of this is available to us, whereas the most basic healthcare is denied to so many in the African sub continent.

It's two & a half weeks now till I go. Things are coming together. I am a planner - I do think ahead. Sometimes I wonder if over thinking things is not necessarily a good thing.

I'm reading "The Shadow of the Sun" by Ryszard Kapuscinski - published in English in 2001 - A really great insight into Africa from a journalist who lived there from the 1950's for about 40 years on & off.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryszard_Kapu%C5%9Bci%C5%84ski

In the book he says Africans live in the moment - literally. "Africans apprehend time differently - it is much looser, open, elastic, subjective. Time vanishes when we neglect or ignore it. If you go to a village where a meeting is scheduled, but find no one you ask - When will the meeting take place? The answer - When people come".

I think I need to embrace that concept.

Man at War - Women Weep

Happy 98th Birthday, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who decades ago wrote:

“Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.”
― Lawrence Ferlinghetti
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpQhO35P5W8

How many countries are mired in fighting & wars?
How many people are suffering famine, torture & pain?
How many children have to be traumatised, injured & die before sanity returns to the world?
Why do men torture & kill populations to get power & territory?
How many people flee in a desperate search for safety?

I despair - we have lost our humanity & allow this to happen. Empathy has died. 

 

http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/

Look at these pictures & weep.

Malawi - Preparations

These are ongoing. Something seems to get ticked off the list daily thank goodness.

Today I went to the Travel Clinic in a local pharmacy, which my surgery suggested, to get my malaria pills. This involves a car journey. I've had Larium before with no side effects, so I thought I would just get them over the counter. When I got there I discovered you have to make an appointment with the pharmacist, so I have to return tomorrow.

I've had my jabs, which were free much to my surprise, at my surgery. All I have to do is collect the Cholera suspension today & take it. I wonder why the NHS doesn't also do the Malaria pills? I would have been happy to pay for everything. I understand that the decision is to prevent costs if someone comes back ill, but I'm chosing to do this, so it seems like a cost I should pay. I'm sure someone has done the cost benefit analysis though.

I also went to my local Carphone Warehouse to find out why O2 couldn't unlock my phone. R, who works there, is really good at his job. Apparently all recent smart phones are actually unlocked - all you have to do is ring a number & leave it open for 5 minutes, no less, to make sure it is unlocked. So I rang my home landline. Why couldn't O2 tell me that & saved me the time & effort? Could it be that they hoped I wouldn't buy a much cheaper local sim when I get to Malawi & would pay them for roaming?

There seems so much to do & fit into an already busy life. It occurred to me that I should cancel my magazine subscription temporarily because I don't want my post to clog up the hallway.

I need a notebook in every room or the thought slides out of my brain & could be lost for ever.

MicroLoan Training Centre & Office Kasungu

Volunteering in Malawi

It's now just under a month before I go.

I'm a good traveller I think. I've been to lots of countries in the world including Asia, the Middle East & Africa - I always did all the organising when my husband was alive. This is more challenging because I will be travelling completely on my own for the first time. And it involves changing flights in JoBurg both ways. But hey - I'm an old lady - people will help.

A trip like this isn't a holiday. There is a lot of planning involved. Who knew I needed a "Power Surge Protector" for example. I could guess what it was, but had never heard of one. Fortunately the internet tells you all & Amazon sells everything. My trusty packing list has had to be expanded & I've bought a bigger, lightweight suitcase.

I try to be a minimalist when travelling & usually only take a cabin case. I'm not a big believer in dressing up & wearing several outfits a day. But this is a month in Africa & it's hot. Clothes will get sweaty & dirty. Another reason not to take my best clothes.

It's the essentials which need thinking about. Medications for example. I have been advised to take over a months supply, keep them boxed & pack them in the hold case. Apparently customs in African countries have a habit of taking them off you - There is a market value for meds. Actually I wouldn't begrudge that. We are very lucky in the UK. We have the NHS, however much it's understaffed & underfunded. It's just that I need the meds. So I have to take prescriptions for everything as well as back up & hope that I can get them. Then there's the jabs (tick), & Malaria to think about.

I'm staying in a Lodge the charity uses & it doesn't have a website - I don't even have contact details yet. So I can't look up anything on the internet. In fact contact details probably wouldn't be much good in Kasungu - I gather the phone service isn't brilliant either. I'll get a local sim card if I can get my phone unlocked - O2 don't seem to be able to do it here. (Why not for goodness sake?)

What I need to know is basics - will there be soap, towels, loo paper etc. Will I have an ensuite - don't fancy trotting out in the middle of the night much. How reliable are the showers - I think they do have showers - I have been advised to take wet wipes, but enough for a whole body wash??

So, in fact packing my clothes is going to be the least of my problems. But it is all quite exciting - providing someone does meet me at the airport in Lilongwe & I do actually get there!

  

Kasungu Maternity Waiting Village 

Yes! - I'm Going to Malawi

I think I'm probably living my inner teenager.

My idea was to go and work in India or Africa when I had finished college. However marriage immediately post graduation & then a baby a year later gave me other priorities. Life, earning a living initially, a husband, a baby & home, become all consuming. Suddenly you are a grown up with responsibilities. Then a career took over & the desire to run my own school.

Life goes by so quickly. Literally in the blink of an eye your child is an adult & you are retired. You have done some of the things you wanted to, but have also had to make compromises along the way. If you are married, have a family & elderly parents, other peoples needs always come first.

So, in 2012, as a widow of 3 years, with no parents around, I got to do what I had wanted to all those years ago. I went to work for a month as a volunteer, teaching in a "Bamboo School" in Kathmandu. It was a wonderful experience, but took a bit of a toll physically.

Now I'm going out to Kasungu in Malawi in August, working for a month as a volunteer with a great organisation called the MicroLoan Foundation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkzQ5bIHiAQ&authuser=0
(highlight, click & open link)

Kasungu is about 80 miles North of Lilongwe, (the capital), in the NW of the country close to the border with Zambia & Kasungu National Park. It's a chaotic one street town which was the birthplace of Hastings Banda the former life President, who had a palace there. Malawi is "the Land of the Lake" because beautiful Lake Malawi is the dominant geographical feature following the Great Rift Valley. Fortunately for me English is widely spoken because my Chichewa (a variant of Bantu) is non existant at the moment.

I'm supposedly going out to help set up a training programme for local people so that they can take over managing the loan book. Small loans, typically £25 - £50, are given to women to help them set up small businesses so that they can support their families, educate their children & put a little money by as savings. Over 90% of the money is repaid, so constantly recycles. 

I hope I can do what they want me to. In my experience travelling a large part of the world it's the women who keep the show on the road. Anything we can do to help them is a win win situation.