Belly Up Again

It had been my intention to write a little about our holiday in general, but something of more immediate importance arose. On Thursday evening I had the usual pains strike in the belly. I took the normal drugs and hoped for the best. No diarrhoea arose but the pains kept increasing. Seven hours later, at 2:00am, Alice was driving me to A&E at Mount Elizabeth.

Two injections later, one in each cheek, to prevent jealousy I suppose, the pain began to diminish. Bloods were drawn, more damn needles, and I was hoping we were finished. However they did not want to let me go. Neither could I get full admission due to a bed shortage! So I spent the night there, finally persuading Alice to go home and get some sleep.

Next morning after dropping Alistair off at school she was back to be the greatest nurse ever, as all caring wives are to their husbands. I was (as Arlo said) injected, inspected and detected. The gastro consultant I normally see organised a scope down the throat, through which he discovered an incipient ulcer and certain growths, which he excised. I forgot to ask him if these were withdrawn or left to be digested. Withdrawn I suppose, since later today I should get the results of the urgent tests being done on the damn things. He did not seem unduly worried, so I suppose they are unlikely to be cancerous, but I will be glad to get the result whichever way it goes. I prefer knowing rather than being left in uncertainty, however horrid the news.

One of the drugs I have been taking for the last five years can affect the stomach, regrettably it was one of my most effective painkillers, so that has been changed and I just have to hope the new one works as well. Yet more drugs, to make the ulcer go away, have been provided and I am back home, extremely tender around the middle and waiting for the test results. Unfortunately I am initially barred from that most effective painkiller which I prefer above all else. Oh well, such is life.