2025, Week 15 journal.

Week 15 of 2025 began in the Virgen de la Caridad Hospital in Cartagena but finished back in my apartment in Los Alcazares.

Monday 7th April.

I woke up at about 6:45 am, and around 7 am, the nurse removed last night's drip and replaced it with a new one with painkillers in it. Around  7:30 am, I was brought my coffee and tostada for breakfast. After breakfast, the nurse removed the drip, allowing me to go and have a wash and change my clothes.

A short time later, a lady from the hospital administration asked me some questions about my treatment for a questionnaire. She asked me as a whole how I would score the hospital out of 10. I took a while to decide, but I decided 7 was the best score I could give them. She asked me if I could think of anything that I liked about the hospital, and the only answer I could give her was that the room was nice.

Before we could continue, two nurses came in to clean and redress the wounds on my foot. The nurse looked at the spot where you had been able to see an infection under the skin, sprayed something on it, and cleaned it but didn’t redress it. She cleaned and redressed the open wounds I had. As she began to clean the final wound over the ankle, my consultant came in.

I told the consultant, as she looked at the ankle, that although the wound was sore, it was still the ankle itself that was most painful. She told the nurse to continue to dress the wound and told me that I would be taken down for MRI scans on it this morning. While we talked, the woman from the hospital administration left and said goodbye. She had continued to write all the time she was there but had said nothing else to me. The consultant left, and the nurse finished dressing my ankle before I was left alone in my room.

At about 9:30 am, the male porter who had first helped me when I arrived 10 days ago took me down to the MRI room and left me there with the nurses. I had to wait for a while before being taken in, but I'm sure it seemed longer than it really was.

Once I was lying on the MRI scanner, the nurse positioned my ankles and put a strap around them to keep them in the position she wanted them in. It was pretty painful, and I was glad she had strapped them together as I would not have been able to keep them together without her help. Once ready, the nurse went back to the control booth and slid my ankle and lower leg into the scanner. I have lost count of the number of MRI scans I have had over the years on all the different injuries I've had and for different conditions, but this seemed to be the longest I have spent being scanned at any go.

Once she had finished the scan, the nurse helped me up and into the wheelchair. It was notable when she helped me that she took a lot more care of me helping me back in than she did when I arrived and had to get out of the chair and onto the scanner bed. She took me outside to wait for the porter again. He soon appeared, and after a quick chat with the lady that had done the MRI scans, he took me back to my room. On the way, he asked me if I was in pain, and when I told him the ankle hurt a little, he gave me a consoling pat on the shoulder and said he was sorry. When we got back to my room, he pushed me up to the sofa I had been sitting on and helped me back onto it before he left.

I sat on the sofa for a while and pondered the morning. It was now midday, and the scans had taken longer than I had thought they would. Indeed, the scan they took last week was done in just a couple of minutes. I was wondering what the MRI operator had seen that made her change her behaviour towards me after the scan and the porter to have consoled me and said he was sorry about the pain I was in. Your mind can see or invent things when you are in pain and worry about what may happen next. My mind was having a field day, and I had almost convinced myself that I was going to lose my foot or maybe even my leg due to its general state.

When my breathing and the pain had subsided a bit, I took the last of my change and went to the room opposite mine, which was a rest room with vending machines. I got myself a coffee and a bit of chocolate cake and went back to my room. When you need cheering up, chocolate cake always helps. I sat on my bed and typed up some notes about my morning before waiting to hear the results of this morning's scans and what to expect next.

Supper tonight was very bland: salad, burger, and potato with a tomato slice on. Meanwhile, I was missing out on going out with friends in Los Alcazares who were all going for curry at the Masala Cottage.

Tuesday 8th April.

I woke up around 6:30 am and was ready for the new drip when the nurse arrived. After breakfast and a change of drips, the nurse was able to remove the drips from my arm so I could wash.

The consultant came to see me at about 9:30 am. She told me that I had had high blood pressure for a few days and asked if I had had it before. I told her no, but said I was not surprised. Being in hospital on your own with nurses who only speak a little English is stressful.  Add the constant pain that I am in to this, and it's not surprising. She agreed but got me to take a tablet for blood pressure that I have to put under my tongue. She then told me that the course of antibiotics that they have me on will be finished soon and that I can go home at lunchtime on Thursday. She also said that I would need to go to my local clinic for them to dress the wounds on my leg and check my blood pressure, but that it would be better to arrange for a nurse to visit me at home.

I took the tablet, and now I had a new question: Why do blood pressure tablets taste so bad?

As the consultant said to try to exercise a bit, I decided to try to walk to the hospital cafe. I managed it and sat down and had a coffee and an apple pastry; they were good. When I had rested for a while, I shuffled back to my room to rest. I was puffed out, and my ankle was sore, but it was great to get out of the room for a while.

As I sat in my room, I had a message from my friend Marcus, a German man I met on my cruise to Brazil. Amazingly, like me, he has just spent time in hospital with an infection and been on antibiotics, although his problem was in his hand, not his foot. He has been to Asia recently, including Japan, so we will have a lot to talk about when we meet next or when I get a proper Internet connection.

As I sat in the hospital, I decided that I would keep the bidet I currently have installed in my bathroom at home. I have never used it and couldn’t ever see myself using it. As I sat there, though, I realised it would be easier to use to wash my feet than bending over in my shower to try to clean them. I will have to get used to doing things a bit differently now, and the consultant has warned me about overdoing it. I also realised that my slippers stink and that they need to be thrown in the washing machine when I get home.

This afternoon, Martin and Kate came to visit me and we walked down to the cafe for a coffee. After a short visit, they went on a tour of Cartagena. I went back to my room. I was puffed out, and my ankle hurt when I got back to the room. I did notice that the afternoon fruit juice and biscuit had been left for me, and I sat on the sofa to play games on my computer. I had only been sat down for a while when the nurse came in and attached me back up to a drip of painkillers and antibiotics.

I will definitely have to learn how to pace myself for a while when I come out. My disability scooter will be getting a lot of extra mileage in the coming months. I received a message and a photo from my neighbour, Liz, in the afternoon. She kindly waited for DHL to arrive to deliver my old and new passports to me at my home and intercepted the delivery so that they would not be sent back to the UK. It was great news and meant that as soon as I felt I would be fit enough, I could start to look for my next adventure abroad and look in more detail about the trip to Australia and New Zealand that I wanted to do.

I spent the evening reading my Kindle and forgot that Arsenal were playing Real Madrid in the Champions League. When I remembered I switched on the TV in my hospital room because I knew it had Real Madrid TV, and I hoped it might have the game on. It was half-time by the time I found the channel. It didn’t have the game to watch but had Spanish Commentary played over a picture of the Emirates Stadium.

It was 0-0 when the second half started. I couldn’t understand any of the Spanish commentary; even trying to make out players' names was difficult. What I did hear was a massive cheer from the crowd at the stadium that drowned the commentary out briefly. I heard the name "Rice" from the commentators and hoped this meant that Arsenal had scored, and a very short time later, the score came up, and Arsenal were winning 1-0. I continued listening, and a little while later, the Emirates stadium crowd went crazy again, and I guessed that Arsenal had scored again. The only words I could make out from the commentators was "Rice", and I assumed it meant that Declan Rice had scored again. Before the game finished, the crowd went wild again and I could hear the name "Merino". I guessed that Arsenal had scored a third, and the score on the screen soon confirmed it. I spent the rest of the game just hoping that Arsenal could keep a clean sheet. They did, and beat Real Madrid 3-0.

As the game was finishing, the nurses arrived and put my last change of painkillers and antibiotics on the drip. The contents took a long time to empty tonight, and the three bags of fluid took around 2 hours to drain.

Wednesday, 9th April.

When I woke up this morning, I felt much better than I had yesterday. The nurse came in around 6:45 am to connect my first bag of drugs this morning. It drained quickly, and the nurse switched out the empty bag for a full one. When it had emptied, I turned it off and disconnected the drip myself so that I could wash.

Once I had washed, I put fresh clothes on. I gleefully put on my Arsenal shirt to show the porter that had moved me around a few times. He was a Real Madrid fan, and we had spoken about the game yesterday morning. A short time after I had got dressed, my breakfast was brought in, and after eating my tostada and drinking my coffee, I read my messages on WhatsApp and Bluesky. As I was reading them, the porter came into my room to see me, and I happily stood up to show him my shirt. He laughed, walked over to me and shook me by the hand, telling me he thought Arsenal would now win the Champions League. I hoped he was right.

At about 10 am, two nurses came in to redress the wounds on my leg. The consultant came in and looked at it and then asked me if I had been able to arrange a lift home for tomorrow. I told her that I had, and she said that I could go home tomorrow. She instructed the nurses to clean the wound carefully before going. The two nurses were talking to each other, and one was telling the other that the large scars were necrosis before then telling her that it was really a shark bite. She laughed out loud when I showed her my shirt with the name Sharky on it.

After the nurses had gone, another nurse came in to put the last of the morning's drip bags into the catheter connection in my hand. It emptied quickly, and once done, the nurse was able to remove the bag from my hand and leave me able to move around until this evening when I would be connected back up again. When it was all done, I did the Wordle puzzle on my phone and then typed up some notes on my laptop.

At 11 am, I decided to get some exercise and take a slow walk down to the hospital cafe for a coffee and an apple pastry. After my coffee, I went back to my room, and on the way back, I went outside to take a photo outside the hospital.

While I was standing in the empty car park, taking a selfie in front of the hospital, a woman in a car decided that out of all the empty spaces in the car park, she wanted to park in the one spot with something in it, namely me. I made her wait until I had finished taking my photo but resisted the urge to call her a stupid bitch and point out all the empty spaces. I did, however, pray to the god of carpark payment systems to lock her in the empty carpark when she needed to leave.

I walked back to my room and spent most of the day finishing the last book that I had been reading by Bernard Laskin, Say Uncle. While I did enjoy the two books in this series of his books, I preferred the first ones I read, The Will and Will 2.

The nurse had trouble getting the drugs in the drip to enter my arm tonight. She did seem a bit dim, and I couldn’t help notice that the connection she was using had a 90° turn in it and I wondered why she didn’t just use a straight connection so as not to restrict the flow, but what did I know I'm just a patient not a nurse.

I was attached to the drip for two hours while the three bags emptied into my arm. They usually take around 30 minutes. When they were finished, she removed them from my arm, and I was able to try to get some sleep, but it was already 2 am.

Virgen de la Caridad Hospital food.

Thursday, 10th April.

I didn’t sleep well at all last night, and it didn’t seem long after I finally fell asleep that the nurse was back, waking me up to attach the drips again. She did, at least this time, attach it using a straight connector and the three bags of drugs emptied quite quickly into my arm. After she had disconnected the drips for the final time, I got up and went to the bathroom.

I had a wash, packed up my toiletries and put fresh clothes on. I hadn't been sat back down for long when breakfast arrived. I quickly ate breakfast and then packed up my belongings into bags ready to take with me when I left. As I finished, a nurse arrived to take my blood and was able to find a vein on her first attempt.

A short time later, a nurse changed the dressing on my ankle, and then the consultant came in. She said that as soon as she had my blood test results, I would be able to leave. While I was sitting typing some notes up on my laptop, my neighbour, Liz, messaged me to see if I needed anything at home. I asked her to get me some milk, but I shouldn’t need anything else yet. When my friend George picks me up, I will get him to stop at Buen Sabor on the way home so that I can get some ready cooked food for today.

I had to wait until 12, midday, before I could leave, and at precisely 12, my friends George and Yvonne arrived to take me home. My medical documents were not ready, so we went down to the cafe for a coffee and pastry. We sat talking for a while before going back up to my room to try to get my paperwork to leave. When we got to my room, the nurses said that the paperwork hadn't arrived and that I had to wait for it. It eventually arrived just after 2 pm, and we left immediately.

George and Yvonne drove me back to Los Alcazares, and we stopped at Buen Sabor to get some takeaway boxed meals. I got myself a chicken in sauce with chips meal, to have as soon as I got in and a salad for later to go with a pork and chips meal. The food in the hospital was not very good, and I was going to make sure I had enough to fill me up tonight. George and Yvonne bought some meals and then dropped me off at my apartment. They helped me get my bags back to my apartment, told me to call them if I needed anything and then left me to eat dinner.

I really enjoyed my chicken meal, and I would get it again. I contacted my neighbour, Liz, to tell her I was home, and a short while later, she popped in to see me and to drop off my mail. I opened the two parcels from DHL that she had intercepted for me, and I was happy to see that it was my new passport. I could now start planning for when I am well enough to go on my next trip.

I then went online and booked an appointment to see a doctor at my local clinic tomorrow morning. I had to take the notes from the hospital to the doctor, get my leg redressed and see if I could maybe get some physio for my ankle to help with the pain and my walking. I made the appointment for 8:40 am and set my alarm to make sure I was up in time to go.

After Liz left, I watched a bit of the first round of the Masters Golf Tournament, which started today.

Friday, 11th April.

I woke up before my alarm went off at 7 am and got up to make coffee. When I got in the kitchen, I thought there were a lot of small flies around, and as I checked my coffee machine, I realised that the flies were all coming from some coffee grounds that had been left in the machine since before I went to the hospital. I emptied the grounds and put the trays outside to clean later.

I checked for messages on my computer and then did the Wordle puzzle before going to the garage to get my disability scooter and going to my appointment at the clinic.

I didn't have to wait long before I was seen, and the doctor read all of my hospital notes before checking my blood pressure and listening to my chest and breathing. She gave me a prescription for Gabapentin painkillers after checking that they did not react to Sintrom at all. She spoke to the nurse briefly and then told me that I would have to have more blood tests in the next couple of days back at the hospital. The nurse, however, said that because I am now registered at the medical centre in Los Alcazares, I can now go there instead.

As I left the doctor's surgery to get my prescription, I noticed the pharmacy was still shut and began to go home. Before I set off, my neighbour, Liz, messaged me to see how I was, and I said I would pop in to see her when I got back to the apartments. I went back along the beachfront on my disability scooter, and although it was very windy and looked like it would rain later, I did enjoy being outside.

When I got back to the apartments, I popped in to see Liz and told her what the doctor had said. Liz offered to come with me to the medical centre because she speaks Spanish and could help me speak to the receptionist to ensure they understood me. After having a coffee, we set off for the medical centre, and Liz drove us both there.

With help from Liz, I was able to make an appointment for the afternoon at 1 pm and another one for Monday to see the doctor that I have been assigned to on my medical card. When we left, Liz took me to our local pharmacy to get the medication I had a prescription for before taking me home.

Just before my appointment was due at 1 pm, Liz took me back to the medical centre, and after a short wait, I saw a nurse who cleaned both the wounds on my leg and ankle and redressed them. She then made an appointment for me to come back to have it redressed on Monday and to see my doctor immediately after having the leg dressed. It was excruciating; even the nurse was surprised at how painful it was, but she did take very good care of me.

When we left, Liz took me to Buen Sabor, where I bought some meals. We then went back to our apartments, and I was happy to be home. I put two of the meals I had bought away for later before sitting down in front of the TV while I ate the peppered steak and chip meal. After my meal, I took some painkillers and quickly fell asleep.

This evening, I watched some of the Masters golf on TV. I found I was very hungry later in the evening, so I ate both the tuna and egg salad and the meat stew I had purchased today before going to bed around 10 pm.

Saturday 12th April.

I slept very well last night and woke up at 6:45 am. If I had still been in the hospital, it would have been the time that the nurses would connect the painkillers and antibiotics to my arm. My body and brain got used to waking at that time to be ready for the nurses. Unfortunately, this morning, there was no pretty smiling nurse at my bedside, and I had to get myself up. I walked into the lounge, sat in my armchair, and took my tablets with water. 

I decided to get myself a coffee, and after putting the machine on to make coffee, I put my dirty washing in the washing machine and set that running. I then started to clean my kitchen up a little bit and set the dishwasher running to clean some dirty cutlery and plates. I then took my coffee and sat back down in my armchair in the lounge, puffing like a steam train and in a bit of pain.

This evening, I watched a very much changed Arsenal team dominate Brentford completely but only manage a 1-1 draw. The team did include many players that won't be playing on Wednesday in the Champions League. However, the game still hinged around Arsenal's inability to score more goals without a recognised centre forward. In fairness to them, they have done amazingly well to be where they are this season, but I am looking forward to the close season to see who they buy to strengthen the team and the squad.

After the game, I put away all the clothes that had been washed and dried in the washing machine. I put the cutlery and plates away from the dishwasher, and I then took the trays out of the air fryer, some pots and pans from the hob and the last of the dirty kitchenware and put them in the dishwasher to clean overnight.

I went to bed at around 11 pm, but I could not sleep and ended up getting back up to work on my website. I eventually forced myself back to bed around 6 am, where I did manage to go to sleep.

Sunday 13th April.

I woke up at around 9:30 am. I still felt tired, and I was still in pain. I got up and got myself a coffee. I also got some porridge with banana before sitting in my armchair with my feet up. In the middle of the morning, I logged onto my website and started to do some work on it. I had a problem with something that had made it crash, but the hosts soon got it running again, and I could continue to work on it.

I started to change the navigation system on my website, but it proved to be more difficult than I thought, and I worked on it all day. For lunch and in the evening, I had a peanut butter and jam sandwich because I had no food left that had thawed out.

Tonight, I watched the last round of the Masters Golf tournament. It was very exciting with two players, Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau, battling it out to win. As DeChambeau slowly fell out of contention, Justin Rose stormed through, and McIlroy faltered and let him back in. On the last hole, McIlroy missed his putt, and the competition went to a sudden-death playoff between Rose and McIlroy, which McIlroy won.

I was finally able to get to bed at around 1:30 am. The golf had been great, and I felt as drained as both the players must have been.