Sunday 28 October 2012

There and back again, finally

I'm finally back home in the Mid North Coast of NSW, I'm very glad to sleep in my own bed again.
What it was supposed to be a nice relaxing holiday/visiting family trip turned into a 'medical tourism' experience unwillingly.
I must praise the public hospital system in Mexico, the care I got was excellent, prompt, and very respectful of my rights as a patient, the Neurologist, Emergency Medicine Registrar and the Internal Medicine specialist were all very kind to me, treated me very professionally and were very knowledgeable, the nurses were also excellent, especially when I might have been a difficult patient due to the circumstances.
After all medical visits and alternative treatment options the trip was nice in the overall, even if at times I just felt like catching the next flight back.

I got to meet wonderful Maren whom I miss terribly, she has the loveliest gummy smile I have ever seen, I met with some really dear friends and other cool people, got to eat delicious food and had more rest than I have had in a long time.
The shit hit the fan on my return flight from San Francisco to Sydney, we were onboard the plane for 3 fucking hours without even water in a steaming cabin full of annoyed people when got told at 2am the flight was cancelled, no hotel rooms, no help, no flight until maybe 10:30pm next day, I was tired, pissed off and in acute pain when the big guy behind the counter threw the remnant of my used boarding pass at me and said 'not my problem', got ignored by the manager on duty who asked me 'what do you want?' as first greeting, charming.
United Airlines sucks big time.
Finally made a flight next night after even more drama but too tired to recount, after about 50hr travel made it to Sydney and 3 days after I got finally home.
I got a confirmation of the polymyositis diagnosis, a ct scan, a lumbar puncture, lots of laughs, cuddles from a beautiful baby, adverse reactions to multiple meds, 2 blouses, lots of pain, and some extra kilos, those are my souvenirs.
Tomorrow I go back to my hydrotherapy treatment and to start this new chapter in my life.