Wednesday 3 September 2014

Day 9 post op.

Well, such a lot has happened since our last blog on day 2 after Jean's 1st. operation on her left hip.
First, we must thank all of you who have sent messages of support either by email or through Jean's Facebook page. You, and those we have rung on Skype will have had some more up to date news.
The hospital (Asian Joint Reconstruction Institute) and the Surgeon, Dr. Vijay Bose have been great. Jean has made excellent progress and the improvement day by day is absolutely amazing. Just before we left the hospital on Monday (day 7) she had even been climbing stairs. There were constant visits from the Physiotherapist and a very hunky young assistant Orthopaedic Surgeon. Jean always enjoyed his visits!! And the nurses who we have got to know quite well, have been very attentive. They are mostly local Tamils, although one is from further west towards Kerala. Tamils are startlingly dark when we are used to our pale skins (!) and very beautiful. The nurses all hold themselves well with great posture.
Our room was very comfortable with a daybed for Jim near Jean's bed, a modern well equipped bathroom and a sitting room with couch and chairs and a bench where one could prepare snacks and make tea. Also a fridge and 2 flat screen TV's. Meals were delivered 3 times a day and were always good and nutritious. And marble floors! The only other comment there was that they had a definite sameness and so became somewhat boring. Jim has eaten so much chicken that he might start flapping his wings anytime soon. Jean was very happy with the food generally - very nutritious for her post op.
We were very sad to be leaving on Monday and said fond farewells to the nurses but with the proviso that we were coming back in a few days. We were picked up by the hospital car with Jean propped up across the backseat to keep her leg elevated as there has been some swelling. We are assured that this will abate fairly soon. We drove south along the Coromandel Coast after which NZ's Coromandel was named. No idea why because you couldn't imagine anything so different. The coast here is flat and relatively uninteresting with canals, waterways and lagoons just inland. On the other hand everyone knows the rugged nature of NZ's Coromandel; doesn't matter whether you've seen it by land or by water as we did last time we were there. We went to Te Kouma and then up the west coast to Great Barrier Is. on Tiare - but that's all in the past now!!
Anyway, we carried on south feeling quite unimpressed for about 50 kms. Firstly, getting out of Chennai in the mad Indian traffic. Many dingy dilapidated buildings although every so often you would see either an old classical well maintained one along with some very impressive large modern commercial buildings. You see so many hair raising traffic violations that in the end it doesn't worry you. In fact you just have an inward and slightly nervous chuckle! We carried on south gradually getting into the countryside and then turned off the main road towards the Golden Bay Resort. We had been expecting a pleasant place where Jean in particular could relax and convalesce but, although the buildings were of a good modern standard, that's where the compliments stop. What a disappointment. The place had a generally unkempt appearance and the swimming pool which had figured highly in our reasons for booking here was murky and green. It transpired that we were the only guests and consequently the restaurant had very little food on hand, and so there were very few menu items actually available. Jean needed good nourishing food - lots of green vegetables. There was none of that although they kept saying that they could get them. They also kept ringing our room to find out when we'd be in the restaurant because they didn't want to keep it open for the advertised hours, seeing as how we were the only guests! It's quite depressing eating in a restaurant when you're the only guests. The power kept going off every hour or so - sometimes only for a few seconds but sometimes for up to 5 minutes. Pitch black in the meantime of course and we didn't have any torches. We didn't think we'd need them in what was supposed to be an upmarket resort (NZD110 per day!!). The property wasn't even on the coast; it only overlooked one of the inland lagoons which was brackish looking, shallow and totally uninteresting. The only thing of note that Jim observed was a fish which jumped completely similarly to the mullet in NZ. It jumped out and stayed flat then re-entered the water in a belly buster landing - just like the NZ version. A moment of nostalgia remembering the mullet Jim used to catch at Paroa Bay in the Bay of Islands.
However, none of this was relaxing for Jean - or indeed for Jim. We were both getting more and more frustrated and fairly cranky!!
So, we decided that we had to leave. The immediate problem was that we had paid (through Expedia NZ) in advance for 8 days. So there was a flurry of emails and acrimonious discussion with the manager and we finally got agreement to refund us the unused portion of our stay. We have had to take this on trust as it apparently takes 5-15 working days to process refunds. However, we have now received an email from Expedia which confirmed that the refund would arrive in due course. On that note, we have now been refunded by ASB Bank for the fraud which had been perpetrated when our ATM cards were copied. It seems that there is very little they can do to apprehend the thieves. Travelling these days sometimes is far from simple.
The next day early afternoon a vehicle arrived to transport us back to Chennai. The hospital had told us that the cost should be 2500 Rupees (NZD50) but the resort insisted on 3800 Rs - later reduced to 3500 Rs after Jean roundly abused them. Rogues pure and simple but we were in no position to argue. Jean had her feet up again - just like the wife of the pukkha sahib in the back!! And she's not even me wife!!!!! The hospital meanwhile had organised a booking at the Quality Inn back in Chennai for 4,000 Rs per night (NZD80). A bargain here because Chennai is a bustling city with so much commercial activity. The Quality Inn is mainly a corporate hotel with 5 conferences in-house observed so far today. We arrived around 1530 yesterday and soon settled in. Such a different feel from where we had been. Another small thing, but the laundry comes back on the same day and the shirts all nicely ironed with cardboard inserts - just like bought ones!! The food in the restaurant is excellent (cream of spinach soup to die for) and the room is very comfortable with a large king size bed which is an asset with Jean's need to keep her leg elevated to alleviate the swelling which is actually now starting to decrease. Jim is getting used to this nursing lark with lifting her leg into place and helping with removing and putting on of clothes. No (!), we are not 40 years younger any more!! She now also has another problem with a suspected rash of Shingles appearing on her back. It's not too bad so far but is a worry, particularly with surgery for the other hip scheduled for 7 day's time. We have an appointment tomorrow back at the hospital for 1030 and they are sending a car to pick us up. Hopefully it can be dealt with satisfactorily.
Des back at Popeye in Krabi Boat Lagoon has been suggesting that Jean may well be climbing Mt. Everest soon with 2 Deltamotion hips providing bionic power. Jim has replied that she may well go up for the day to admire the view but there's no way he's going up with his knees. He has a nasty feeling that with this new found mobility he may well be cut off at the knees - just keeping his head down at the moment to avoid flying crutches and dreaming of being back on Tiare and Captain once more! Actually the crutches haven't started flying yet, but the manager at the resort is lucky they weren't bent around his neck! She won't need the crutches for much longer although after the 2nd. hip op. it will be back to the walker for a few days then crutches again. But all in a good cause.
Well, that's it again for a while. Tomorrow we plan to go walking in the street - avoiding potholes and other Indian footpath paraphernalia should be fun on crutches!!
More to come as always..........
Lotsaluv from us
Jim and Jean
Quality Inn Sabari Hotel
29 Thirumalai Road,
T. Nagar,
Chennai 600 017
INDIA.

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