10-7 Jason’s Medivac – before surgery

There have been four medivacs this year.  Both of us have now been included.
The beautiful view landing in Brisbane

Before we left for New Zealand, I had an abscess developing on my leg.  I discussed it with our doctor and the hope was that it would go away while we were on vacation.  Unfortunately it didn’t and instead got bigger.  By the time I got back, it was gross enough that our nurse made a face.  Antibiotics and hot packs were applied to no result.  Then our doc cut it open and we tried to drain it.  A week later and it’s smaller but not gone by any means and still draining.  Now I am in Australia and getting it removed in a real operating room.
My medevac has been much smoother than Gaea’s was.  Much more what we understand to be the typical medevac experience.  There was still a small amount of scrambling involved to get my travel arranged.  The medical stuff was confirmed Tuesday morning.  Wednesday was a public holiday but also had the only direct flight before Saturday.  Bookings and travel expenses all happened Tuesday afternoon.  I wasn’t rushed but the staff was a bit.  Still, there were very few problems getting me out of the country.
My huge, cushy hotel room.  Not pictured: very nice kitchen.
Unfortunately, no internet at the hotel.

Most of my time since then has been spent waiting for things to happen.  Waiting to go to the airport, to get on the flight, for my appointments, and now A LOT of waiting for surgery.  The only “excitement” I’ve had is a few extra questions at immigration.  I’d want to ask more questions of anyone coming for medical treatment too and it really wasn’t that interesting.  I did have time to walk around yesterday and take a few pictures after my preliminary appointment with the doctor.  Those are now sitting in my expensive camera, locked up while I’m in surgery.  I really should have brought it up so I could A) upload the latest photos and B) take a picture of the fantastically stylish surgery duds.

I love the controls on this temperature control

Today is surgery day.  This means I sit around in the hospital.  We do have a woman here who is our point of contact and looks after us at this hospital.  She is quite nice and walked me up to surgery. No food since last night means I’m a bit hungry but that’s what the internet is here to distract me from.  There is also a TV here but I’ve already lost interest.  Now that I’ve found the outlet, I have the internet and I have books.

Hopefully the surgery will go smoothly and I’ll be updating sometime this evening.  Current plan has me out of the hospital tomorrow but I have no idea what that means for getting back to Vanuatu.  It would be great to be able to see a bit more of Brisbane while I’m here but we’ll see.

Send some good wishes for the surgery and I’ll check back in when it’s all over.

,
Posted on

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *