Unexpected

It's not only in such dramatic circumstances as being stranded abroad and threatened by fire, that the unexpected can catch you unawares. Take what happened to me less than two months ago.

I had been feeling unwell for weeks and put it down to allergic reactions, poor sleep and anything else I could think of to explain it away. However, one of the closest neighbours on the island where I've spent almost all my time since returning to Sweden from enforced exile in California, is a retired district nurse and she and her husband finally persuaded me to see a doctor at the local medical centre, about a fifteen minute boat ride away. Which I did, taking with me my shopping trolley as you can't buy anything on the island and I badly needed to replenish my food supplies. I would go to the supermarket after my appointment. Hmm.

Tests were taken. The doctor looked at the results – and sent for an ambulance! I had a very high level of infection, an even higher level of inflammation and low blood counts. Ten minutes later I was on my way to the hospital, shopping trolley and all.

I'll say this, if you absolutely must go to the hospital A & E, it is much better to arrive in an ambulance than simply to walk in. Your status is definitely higher, though unless you are deemed to be in the most urgent need of attention it doesn't mean you will spend very much less time waiting for someone to come and decide what to do with you. But you won't have to lie among a herd of other poor souls seeking help. At least I didn't.

I arrived in the afternoon. Well after midnight I was wheeled to one of the wards, having first been covid-tested. Without a negative result you won't be placed among non-covid patients. Of course. At about one o'clock in the morning I was given something to eat and later moved into a room with one other person, blissfully snoring in his sleep. By two o'clock I was attempting to join him in slumberland and might just have succeeded an hour or so later when I felt someone groping for my arm, needle at the ready. To take blood. A couple of hours later, maybe less, it was the turn of a young lady wanting to record my blood pressure, temperature etc. “Have you had a good night's sleep?” she asked.

I tried to open my mouth, but words wouldn't come.

(To be continued)

Life has its Contrasts

 

What do you say to forty-four degrees of scorching heat and having to escape from one of California's wildfires, compared to staying in a small timber-built cottage on a tiny, at times ice-bound, island in the Stockholm archipelago – which is where I am now? The pandemic has certainly brought contrasts into my life.

The present problem does not involve checking air quality and the progress made by fire fighters, but keeping a careful eye on the thermometer to know when the taps are likely to dry-, or rather freeze-, up and there is no running water. That has already happened a number of times. A lesson I learned the first time was to fill up everything available as soon as the weather gods relented for a day or two and the taps started to drip, drip and eventually run again. For a while.

There are no municipal supplies on the island so everyone has to make their own arrangements, which inevitably means having a well drilled deep into the post-glacial stone-strewn ground. Mine goes down about forty-five metres, which is far below the frost-free level, but the water has to come up to the surface. I have installed a small heater in the space below the cottage where it comes in, but the weak link is between that and the well outside. Of course, I should have made sure it was sufficiently well insulated long ago, but as I never envisaged staying here in the depths of winter, I never bothered.

But going without running water is by no means the only hazard to be aware of. There can be storm winds at this time of the year, and with them the likelihood of a power failure, like the one that occurred a couple of weeks ago, leaving the indoor warmth to fall alarmingly in the direction of the sub-zero temperatures outside. Fortunately, I was rescued by my kind neighbours, who invited me to sit in front of the efficient wood-fired appliance that spreads its warm glow around their place.

Then stepping outside also has its dangers as there are patches of smooth ice to look out for, sometimes artfully concealed by a thin layer of snow – like the one I fell over on with a nasty bump more than a week ago. It still hurts!