A storm in a tea cup!

After six months of travel and eating all sorts of different food I can honestly say that neither of us has been really ill or bed bound. I had to see a doctor for a spider bite and Warren had cut his leg on coral and it became infected. Other than that we are the picture of good health, until a week ago!

 

After the Royal luncheon, I could not keep my food down. My throat and oesophagus felt as though the lining had been scraped off. I had to go on a milk and yoghurt diet as everything that I swallowed, burnt. I googled my condition and this is common in Malaysia after Hari Raya as the spices used to prepare the dishes are strong and dangerous! So for a week I felt rather miserable and uncomfortable. This, I confess, was a wonderful way to shed a few kilos and kick start my healthy eating regime!

 

As Nick works in a medical centre he offered for us to go for full check ups as it costs a fraction here of what it would cost back home. Warren was keen but I was not interested until this setback. In particular I wanted to have my headaches checked out as I was worried I might be suffering from Blood pressure and I was nervous about our impending flight home. So I requested just a BP reading. This lovely doctor we visited insisted on doing an ECG as well....a first for me.

 

Lying on the bed with all the pads connected to my body I was not really worried as I had never had reason to believe I had anything wrong with my heart. The nurse takes the first reading through to the Doc, comes back, repeats the process and then tells me to dress as the Doc wants to talk to me. This Doctor has the most beautiful face and as he takes my hand and gazes into my eyes he says "I think you may have had a heart attack!" WHAT? what did you say? He then tells me I need to see a cardiologist immediately and has arranged for a driver to take my hubby and I across the city to see the right person. If I hadn't had an attack I was about to! It is Saturday morning, we fly in three days time ...what to do?

 

So off we go in a state of shock, my mind reeling and wondering exactly when this attack could have happened? Several strange scenarios take place in my mind I can assure you! Some funny and some not so funny. But it was not the time to get the giggles....we arrived at the most exquisite hospital ever. Evidently it is known as the Hotel hospital and is outlandishly expensive. We go off to the specialist and after fifteen minutes see this youngish fellow. He looks at the ECG results we have brought along with us, shakes his head and says the results indicate that I have suffered an attack, could be a week ago, a year ago, twenty years ago! The next thing to do is an Echo cardiogram. I slow him down and ask how much all this will cost as we have have just run out of our medical cover which was only valid for 200 days and we are just over that time period. With the consultation this investigation would cost six hundred ringgits which is about one thousand five hundred Rand which we thought is probably a fraction of the costs back home. So it Is agreed that we have no option but to proceed!

 

Once again my top is exposed and prepped for the Echo cardiogram when the nurse comes running through and says to hold off on that test and to just do another ECG. After reaching 65 and never having had an ECG, I am now having my third!! To cut a long story short, this specialist had worked out by looking at the original readings and then the new readings that the nurse in the previous rooms, had attached one of the pads upside down thus the strange results which led to the doctors thinking I had had a heart attack. In fact my heart seems fine. Much relief and without any further fuss we went home to lick our wounds and celebrate our good health! it really was a case of human error and at least I know what an ECG is now!

 

The above images are not mine but borrowed off the Internet!