Back in 2019 in Bahrain I started to have difficulty in walking and bending over to tie up my shoelaces. I saw a variety of Specialists and Doctors over the years to see what the problem was. Some thought it was Osteoporosis, others arthritis, some said its all part of the aging process and finally they decided I needed a hip replacement. The first specialist have me injections to dull the pain but the second just tablets which soon ran out. I was also given Physio twice a week including shock wave treatment weekly and , prior to COV 19, needles in the muscle.
Some days these made it better and other days not. I was also told to loose weight from 121 Kg to 100 Kg. I started walking again ,in spite of the pain this caused due to my hip, and I saw a dietician, who had blood tests done and revealed I had Diabetes, so I started on Metaform for that and later, based on my brother's advice, Statins to reduce my high Cholesterol. In January 2019 , in Palawan, I bought three pairs of rubber slip on shoes to avoid bending over and went sock-less . Soon after this we were enveloped by the COV 19 pandemic and started delivering our Leadership Development Programmes on line and marking assignments at home so my students rarely saw what I had on my feet!
By the end of 2019 I had been advised to have a hip replacement and as the recovery period is 6 weeks I arranged the 2020 ILM schedule with 6 weeks without classes in August and September. The Specialist, Dr Ahsan Butt, arranged the operation at Bahrain's Premier hospital, King Hamad, and I was admitted on 5th August after a series of X rays, ECG, Blood tests, MRSA swabs and finally my COV 19 test at the hospital the day before the operation , which was negative. I returned my Hire car as I would be unable to drive, and engaged two drivers and tried to arrange to have the credit on my Sadeem Card transferred to them. However, working for Bapco , nothing is simple and they cancelled my card and i had to pay them in cash.
I set about looking for someone to look after me for 6 weeks at home. Many people offered to help out cooking meals, shopping and visiting but they all had their own families or worked 6 days a week and I needed someone 24/7 live in as I would be unable to walk for a few days and then only with crutches and finally a walking stick. Eventually I found a Filipino who was hired to work as a supervisor for a retail group in Bahrain, having managed a high end fashion retail store in the Philippines. He worked for one month before COV 19 hit and he , like many others , lost his job. So I was able to help him and he was able to help me. He had not seen much of Bahrain so I spent the two weekends before the operation showing him around and we got to know each other. He also worked one Friday with Corleen and Jake so he knew where everything was in the house and I taught him to cook a few dishes. I even gave him homework and he took several recipe books home to come up with a menu for my first two weeks convalescence.
Just before Eid , in July, I cleared the backlog of marking at work, designed the online ILM sessions for September to December and sent out pre course work and teams meeting invites for my return, before handing over to my colleagues Zainab and Evan and taking the Eid Holiday at home. By then I had gone from 121 kg to 115 kg and in the last few days was walking for 2 hours a day in the 43 degree heat to try and sweat off the final 5 kg ( the Specialist had agreed to settle for 110 kg instead of the original target of 100 kg!).
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| My new M & S Pajamas |
Finally I returned my car, went shopping with Julz for a dressing gown, House shoes ( slippers to my English friends or Tsinellas for my Kabayan) and Pajamas . I also got some new shorts and tee shirts to wear during my recovery. We made long shopping lists for Corleen for each week and new task lists for Julz, Jake and Corleen. It was decided Julz would live in but have Friday off and Jake and Corleen would work Fridays as normal. My gardener was also briefed so he could fill his own water drums while I was away. Finally I decided to minimize any tasks that involved lifting so handed over the bird food ( 18 kg sack of millet each week) to Jake and we got 6 weeks supply . Finally we closed the compost for good. Shji took charge of selling plants from the garden and I sold one of my indoor plants to Anis for his new flat. I also contacted HR to arrange to have my stuff shipped to the Philippines in December so it was there when I planned to arrive in February 2021.
I am not good at sitting around doing nothing so Mr. Gregory sent two USB with Movies on, Mark Johns sent a load of reading material and I updated my book list and started buying books to read and printing articles . I also designed my Christmas card with Chester and had it printed. I prepared my annual Christmas letter in July and selected the best of my 2020 photos which Chester put into a format to match the card. Julz then folded and addressed them all for me and I came up with the design for my 2021 calendar based on an idea from Mark Johns. While I was recovering Chester designed the Calendar and Gary at ASK Print in the UK had 50 copies printed and sent them to Mark Johns to distribute!
Finally the day came and on 5th August I got in a taxi for the hospital. I had done a recce the day before when I had to go for my COV19 test, and I had asked the nurse in Awali, Judith, to check exactly where I had to go. She had also reminded me to get a letter from Awali Hospital to confirm they would pay the charges ( nearly 3000 bd ( 390,000 peso or 6,000 GBP). Luckily I took a copy of the letter to the hospital! I went to the emergency desk as instructed and gave them my ID card and was told to take a seat. After 30 mins I was seen by a nurse who asked what was wrong with me and then sent me back to the desk to tell them I was being admitted but was not an emergency! I was asked to go to the insurance desk to confirm the payment ( in another building on another floor) . He then called a colleague before stamping the letter and sending me back to Emergency reception. Here I was asked to take a seat again and given a questionnaire to fill in, an ID bracelet and finally after 1 hour sent to the 4th floor of the main building where the nurse was waiting and asked why it had taken me so long to get there!
By 8 pm I was in bed , and had various doctors, nurses and anesthetists come and visit to complete consent forms signing my life away on various I pads. I had my blood sugar taken then my blood pressure and temperature, before finally being fed and told not to eat again. Its a long time since I have been in hospital for my Colonoscopy ( 2019) , fractured wrist ( 2018) , Hernia ( 1996) and post nasal polyps ( 1973) . I had forgotten just how bad hospital food was.
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| I think this was meant to be tomato soup |
At 10 pm they decided to take me for more x-rays as Dr Butt had only asked me to bring the ECG and Chest x ray, and the latest blood test results. The MRSA swab results that I had done on Tuesday had also gone missing between Awali and King Hamad hospitals, even though I had checked with the Lab in Awali that they would be sent to the hospital in time. We spent an hour trying to get my laptop connected to the Wi-Fi then another 30 mins emailing doctors and nurses in Awali but to no avail. After reading all the articles on relocation to the Philippines, Donald Trump's handling of COV 19, a great piece on Greta Thunberg's journey to Davos from Time magazine and a piece on Teams that was recommended in a Belbin webinar I finally got changed into my new pajamas and went to sleep at midnight ( which my friends and regular readers will know is 4 hours later than usual).
As I said earlier, it has been a long time since I went to hospital ( I have only had two days off sick at Bapco in 11 years) and I had also forgotten they love waking you up in the night. At 1.30 am a male Filipino and female Bahraini nurse came to put the thing in my hand to link me to a drip, and then at 4 am another nurse who told me to shower and put a gown on. Then I waited to 7 am when they came again to check I had insurance, reconnect me to the drip ( after having disconnected me at 4 am so I could shower!) and remind me not to eat. I had managed to keep myself so busy until then I had forgotten how hungry I was! Again regular readers will know the first thing I do when I wake up at 3.30 am at home is get coffee and cereal, or hard boiled egg, cottage cheese and granary bread.
Thanks to everyone who sent emails ( Jim, David Green, my brothers etc.) and left messages in Facebook ( Jeanine, Mike, Jilly, Pav, Becky, Gracie ,Jam and many more) . Also thanks for all the good wishes from my work colleagues ( Maureen, Zaid, Zainab, Evan, Andy, Andrei, Hasan, Shaun, Tom, Vince , Kaverjee, Latha and Crystal ) and all my delegates ( sorry if I missed anyone) . Special thanks to our Building B Janitor who gave me a hand made get well message and a Twix bar!
I will sign of now as they expect my Specialist, Dr Butt, to be here soon and I will let you know how the operation went in another blog.
Until then, Kita kits, Ingat...
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Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories.
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