Update - day 2 not incl. op. day

Hi again to all -
Jean is slowly improving. She has been out of bed and walking with the aid of a walker. Still feeling very "spacy" though, probably due to coming off all the drugs she has had. She doesn't have much appetite either and is in a certain amount of pain when she tries to move in bed. Still, it's early days and there is a great improvement day by day. Jean is a little depressed at times which is understandable given the pain at physio sessions although she always says she feels better afterwards. Must be a classic case of "no pain no gain"!.
Jim is keeping himself amused by answering emails, writing these blogs and also on the NZ Herald website leaving comments on political articles under the pseudonym "Tiare Taporo III". There is a General Election coming up in NZ on Sept. 20th. and we will be voting on-line. If you read the blogs you will get an idea of our political leanings!! In addition feeding Jean tidbits and summoning nurses when required. Not to mention reading a book called "Millennium" by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, which is an account of the world's history over the last 1000 years. Some very interesting accounts of civilisations which existed in the Middle East and Asia, the details of which were completely unknown to Jim previously. Once a day there is a 500 metre walk to a local shopping mall wherein there is a supermarket of moderate quality. Jim is a connoisseur of these things! On the way one dodges potholes, large stones and motorbikes and hordes of people. Such a contrast between being outside in the real world here and being in the hospital or the shopping mall. Security everywhere. When you enter the mall they run a device over you to check that you aren't carrying any bombs and yesterday there was a guard on the ICU who didn't want to let Jim in as he had left his pass up in the room. However, someone else recognised him and all was well!
We saw the surgeon briefly yesterday and he showed us gory photos of the op. Didn't mean much to us but he said that the condition of the hip was much worse than even he expected. Of course the inner areas are hidden from x-ray. So, it isn't a moment too soon that it was done. It's still a way off before we can make any decision about the other hip, but given the pre-op. condition of the left one and the fact that the right one is painful too, it seems inevitable that it should be done too. It's just a question of when. Issues like length of visas and remaining time on the boat before it has to be re-exported from Thailand are all matters we have to consider as well. Life is complicated at times.
The view from our hospital window is interesting. We face south looking in the direction of the airport about 12 kms away. The whole landscape is flat and uninteresting with many mostly nondescript buildings in view. Georgetown, the old colonial heart of Chennai (Madras in those days) is another 12 kms to the NE. The port is there also. In a few days Jim has it in mind to go and have a look - being interested in history.
Immediately in our near view is a construction site. Very salubrious. It is part of the metro railway under construction which will revolutionise Chennai's transport issues. Maybe. Right by the hospital is the new 2 level station with the overhead structure for the line itself already finished. Next to the new unfinished building is a construction camp which consists of 6 long corrugated iron structures which house the workers and their families. All around is bare ground with the usual amount of disorganised litter evident. At the back of the camp are 2 rectangular concrete water tanks each about 3 metres square. The water is replenished either when it rains or by tanker. It is used for the workers' ablutions. The colour of the water is brown as the bottom of the tanks is hard packed mud. They stand by the tanks and ladle the water over themselves for washing. They are partially clothed while doing that so at least one item of clothing gets washed at the same time.
Whenever we look out the window, we can see large numbers of "workers" all over the site, but usually we can only discern less than 50% actually doing anything. They work around the clock but we feel sure that if they were properly organised they could do with probably less than half and get the thing finished much quicker. Such is India's inefficiency. However, they do get things done - unlike NZ where there is always endless discussion and not much doing. But here there is high unemployment and wages are cheap so......
The weather has been overcast since we have been here and on Sunday/Monday night there was a thunder and lightning storm and torrential rain which kept us awake.
So, overall it's not the most pleasant place, but it's serving a very important purpose and that's why we are here. We were going to keep these "direct" blogs short but trust you will understand that this is a special situation. We will endeavour to keep future progress reports much shorter!
Cheers and love from us.......
Jim and Jean

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