2025, Week 13 journal.

Week 13 of 2025 began started at home with me in agony and ended in agony but in the hospital in the Virgen de la Caridad, Cartagena.

Monday 24th March.

I woke up in agony several times in the night and had to take more painkillers at 5 am and again at 10 am. I had slept very badly, and although I could put weight on my foot now, it was excruciating. I stayed in bed until around 2 pm before taking more painkillers and then getting up.

I felt sick and didn't have a coffee. I just drank water to keep hydrated. I did my best to stay awake as long as possible. I had intended to go to the doctor's, but I couldn't make it to the surgery, so I just sat in my armchair and probably because of the painkillers I dropped off to sleep again.

I was messaged throughout the day by Martin to see if I needed anything, more painkillers, water or food, but I had all that I needed. My neighbour Christine messaged me to see how I was and told me that she and her husband were suffering from bad colds. By about 6 pm, I couldn't stay awake any longer, and I went back to bed.

Tuesday 25th March.

I woke up at 4 am in pain and had to take more painkillers. I did manage to get back to sleep, but it seemed that I could only sleep for a very short time before waking up again. I stayed in bed and eventually got up around 10 am. The pain was terrible, and after refilling my water glass, I shuffled to my armchair, sat in front of the TV and tried to do some work on my website. Through a mix of pain and tiredness, I was having trouble seeing the monitor and had to give up.

I watched TV all morning and at lunchtime I got myself something to eat. I did not feel particularly hungry and was worried that I might be sick if I ate anything, so I had a couple of slices of cheddar and a slice of ham. It tasted terrible, but I ate it anyway; it was the first thing I'd eaten since Sunday lunchtime.

Martin messaged me several times during the day to see if I needed anything. He told me to message him if I needed anything when I told him I had everything I needed. I stayed in front of the TV, sleeping on and off. At 10 pm, I took another painkiller and went to bed, hoping that I would get a better night's sleep.

Wednesday, 26th March.

I woke up at 4 am but managed to fall asleep again, waking back up at 5:45 am. I got up and, feeling a bit better, I got myself a coffee before sitting down in front of my computer to do the Wordle puzzle. I finished the puzzle in three attempts this morning and then got myself another coffee and another painkiller.

My leg began to ache badly again, and I even started to have hallucinations. I knew my visions weren't real, and they didn't frighten me, but I did wonder why I was having them. I decided that I had to go and see the doctor. I went online and booked an appointment to see a doctor at 1:30 pm. I slept on and off, waking up when my alarm went off at 12:45 pm. I slowly got ready to visit the doctor, and at 1:20 pm, I went to the surgery on my disability scooter.

When I went in, only the person who was currently seeing the doctor, the receptionist, and myself were there. I spoke to Rosa, the receptionist, and told her I had booked an appointment for 1:30 pm on the online portal. She looked for my booking and told me that I had mistakenly made the appointment for tomorrow. I asked if I could get an earlier appointment, and she said she would have a look. The earliest appointment was at 8:30 am, but she told me to wait while she spoke to the doctor. She came back from seeing the doctor to tell me to wait and that the doctor would see me when she finished with her current patient. I was delighted to be seen but wondered how ill I must have looked for her to get the doctor to see me immediately.

The female doctor I saw was excellent and had obviously looked at my records before I went in and knew some of my medical history. She took one look at my leg and told me that I needed to go to the hospital in Cartagena because the tests I needed would take time for her to arrange because they couldn't do all the tests themselves. They would have to arrange separate tests and book them all in, whereas the main hospital would take me as an "Emergency" and do them all while I waited and keep me in if necessary. I thanked her for seeing me and then went home on my disability scooter.

When I had put my disability scooter away, I knocked on my neighbour, Liz's, door and asked her if she could take me to the hospital. She knew where it was and said to give her 10 minutes to get ready and to meet her outside. I went back to my apartment and packed a small bag in case the hospital kept me in. I went back outside and was soon picked up by Liz in her car. By the time we arrived at the hospital, I was in even more pain, the rash on my leg was a brighter red, and my leg's girth was growing.

Liz helped me check in at the emergency reception. Due to the amount of pain I was in, I couldn't find my insurance card. I showed the receptionist the one on my Google Wallet account that ASSSA had set up for me, but the hospital didn't have a scanner to read it. Liz began speaking to the receptionist, asking what ID I could show as proof, and she asked for my TIE card. I was beginning to find focusing difficult, and as I pulled out my TIE card, I realised it was hiding my ASSSA card and managed to give them both to the receptionist. She quickly filled out all the necessary paperwork and showed me to another room where a nurse took details of my problem. He told me he had arranged an immediate blood test to be taken and then to see a doctor. He then explained that I would have a Doppler scan and see the doctor again, who would have my blood tests and decide on the next step.

I didn't have to wait long for another nurse to arrive to take my blood in a separate room. She had five attempts at getting blood out of my arms before finally getting a vein that only just gave her enough blood for one test. She asked me to wait to speak to the previous nurse again. When he collected me, he took me back to his room and explained that the nurse had told him of the difficulties she had in getting enough blood. He said if it were okay, he would try again. He tried once in both arms but couldn't get a drop. He then got a needle and injected a clear fluid into my arms one at a time. On each occasion, he asked if I could feel pain. I told him I could feel a cold sensation but nothing else. He told me this meant my veins were broken and that if they were required to, they would have to try to take blood another way. He showed me to the waiting room, where I had to wait for the blood test result they had managed to get and then see a doctor.

The doctor called me in to see him. Just as the receptionist and the first nurse had done, he spoke English very well and put me at ease. He asked me to get on the bed in his room, but as I got up, he saw my leg and told me to sit down. He knelt in front of me to examine my leg. He asked me lots of questions about my medical history and listened to me as I told him. I believe he must have read some of it on the computer as he was aware of some of the things I was telling him and not surprised by other things. He spoke to me very clearly and told me what he wanted. I must have been his last patient as he was leaving afterwards but told me I would be seen by his colleague when I got back from having the Doppler scans he wanted me to have. He told me what would happen next would depend on the results of the tests.

When I left, I sat back outside his room and only had to wait a short time before being taken to another reception desk. I was beginning to feel the pain even more and asked the nurse if I could sit down, and he told me to sit down. He spoke to the receptionist and told me I would be called to see a doctor for a doppler scan.

Liz and I sat talking for what seemed like a long time, but in reality, it wasn't that long, and my phone buzzed. When we looked, it was a message with the appointment time of 5:11 pm for me to see the doctor. Liz checked at the reception desk to see if this was what we thought, and they confirmed it was, but the doctor had only arrived at 5:13 pm.

While Liz had been confirming what the text meant, I saw a doctor arrive, and a short time later, I was taken in and had the doppler scan. I have had lots of doppler scans for blood clots throughout my lifetime and knew what to expect, and a short time later, I was back in the waiting room.

I only had to wait a couple of minutes before the nurse appeared and handed me the results of the scan to take back to see the doctor who would by now have replaced the first doctor. As I walked towards the doctor's room, the original doctor was still there waiting for me. He called the 2nd doctor over and introduced me to him before leaving.

The second doctor took me into his room and told me that the Doppler scan showed that I didn't have any blood clots. He told me that my blood tests showed an abnormality in a thing called "Proteina C Reactiva". The reading should have been between 0 and 8. Mine was 246.5 and needed to be brought back down with antibiotics. He put me on a course of antibiotic tablets and gave me an antibiotic cream to put on my leg, and because I am on Sintrom, he could only prescribe strong paracetamol for the pain. He told me to come back to the emergency room in 72 hours so that they could then look at my ankle again and give me another blood test.

As we left, the receptionist and Liz spoke to each other, and the receptionist said she would be working on Saturday and would keep an eye out for me. We left the hospital and stopped at a pharmacy to get the drugs the doctor had prescribed on the way home. After collecting the drugs at the local pharmacy in Los Alcazares, I was soon back home.

By now, I was in agony and took my first lot of tablets before sitting in my armchair for the evening. I sorted the tablets out into my pill box and set alarms on my phone to remind me when to take them before falling asleep in the chair.

I woke in agony but had to wait until 11 pm before I could take my next lot of tablets. When I took the tablets, I immediately went to bed.

Thursday, 27th March.

Thursday was a rough day. I did as the doctor had told me; I kept my feet raised high all day and only got up from the armchair for a drink or to use the bathroom. I followed the instructions for the painkillers and antibiotics. The painkillers helped a little but not much.

Friday, 28th March.

Today was a repeat of yesterday except the pain from my ankle was getting worse. Sometime during the afternoon, my cousin Jill dropped some bread and milk off to me, and I gave her a key to my apartment that my neighbour Christine had let me have back.

Later in the day, an engineer from Avatel delivered and set up the new router for me.

This evening, I stayed awake as long as I could in the hope that I would sleep better when I did. It must have worked because I fell asleep quickly and slept well.

Saturday 29th March.

I stayed in bed after taking my tablets this morning. I was in a lot of pain, and the painkillers weren't working at all. I eventually got up and sat in my armchair and worked on my laptop for a couple of hours.

Just after 2 pm, I shuffled down to the apartment garage and met my neighbour, Liz. Thankfully, she deliberately took a slow trip to the Virgen de la Caridad hospital in Cartagena. She could see on my face and tell by my breathing how much pain I was in. When we arrived, she got a porter and a wheelchair to help me. By now, I was in so much pain I was having trouble thinking straight.

Luckily the receptionist in emergencies recognised me and helped me book in. After a short wait, I was wheeled in and had more blood tests taken. I can't remember much of what the doctor said because of the pain. I do remember telling him I couldn't take any more pain, and he agreed to keep me in before sending me for an x-ray of my chest for some reason.

Afterwards, Liz waited with me for a few hours, and I told her to go home. There must have been a bicycle race somewhere close. As we sat there, cyclists kept being brought in. After Liz left, cyclists kept being brought in, and after 3 hours, I still hadn't been taken to my room.

I sat in the corridor until I saw the doctor, and I stopped him and asked him when I would be taken to my room and be given something for the pain. He told me that the room was ready and left me. I wheeled myself back out of the way and could hear the doctor talking to someone about me but didn't understand what was said. A short time later, one of the porters appeared and took me to my room.

I was quickly put on a drip of both painkillers and antibiotics. After a while, a nurse asked how I felt, and I told her I was still in a lot of pain. She upped the dose, and slowly the pain began to recede.

At one stage, I turned to try to get comfortable and pulled the drip from my arm. I called for the nurse, and she connected a new one and secured it in my arm more securely. A short time later, I was brought a meal. A bowl of lettuce, tomato and artichoke. A bowl of potato soup and a meal of chicken and vegetables. Afterwards, I had some strawberry yoghurt. It was more than I had eaten the entire rest of the week.

As I got more comfortable and the pain eased, I had a message from my friend Kate telling me she would bring me anything I needed tomorrow. Because of the pain I was in when I left home, I had forgotten my phone charger and my Kindle, so I asked her to collect them and bring them to me.

The rest of the night, I drifted in and out of sleep, but I didn't sleep well because of the pain. Nurses checked the drips and added drugs throughout the night.

Sunday 30th March.

I woke around 6 am. The nurses continued to monitor me and added more drugs as required. I was still in pain when breakfast was brought in. Coffee, Tostado with tomato and orange juice.

The morning went slowly until Kate arrived with Aria and the things I had asked her to bring in. Aria was pleased to see me as she had got upset when she found out I was in hospital. She got distraught as the nurse began to treat my leg. I asked her if she would get me a coffee, and Kate took her for a walk. The nurse didn't take long to apply antibiotic cream to my leg and put a dressing on the always-open wound.

The nurse had been gone for a while when Aria brought my coffee in for me. Kate and I chatted for a while longer before she and Aria left. For dinner, I had salad, some chicken in salsa and a piece of lasagna. The pain killers must have been working because I ate it all and a short while later fell asleep.

I did finally fall asleep, only to be woken multiple times during the night when nurses changed my antibiotic and painkiller drip bags.