Hurghada - New Bandage

Egyptian Hospital, Hurghada

The doctor had promised me that my plaster would be only for five days and then he would replace it with a much nicer plastic one that would be lighter and easier. I had been looking forward to this, imagining maybe something similar to a little firm plastic shoe, and I was curious to see how my foot was progressing.

I’d tried to get an appointment for Thursday, as I’d wanted to go to an event on Thursday evening, but it turned out the doctor wasn’t available until Friday at 1pm. I was surprised, as this was the equivalent to their weekend, but imagined that it was just the doctor’s allocated shift.

I ordered the taxi with my “new” driver (and at least the cost this time was less than the ambulance!), who turned up early and I duly arrived on time.

I proudly showed my new visa to the receptionist, as a subtle way of letting them know I was now expecting Egyptian prices, and said I had an appointment at 1pm. They took my name, discussed for a while, and then told me that, as I surely knew since I lived in Egypt, Friday was the weekend and no doctor would be available.

I explained that I did understand, and that I had originally asked for Thursday, but they had told me to come in at 1pm on Friday, because the doctor wouldn’t be there on Thursday. After a bit more discussion and looking around in their records, they somehow managed to find the doctor.

They also asked why I didn’t have the crutches they’d given me (actually, I’d paid a lot of money for them; they hadn’t given them to me!), so I explained that I found it easier to get around without them since I didn’t have any pain.

The doctor arrived, I lifted myself onto the hospital bed, and he removed my plaster and bandages. He too asked about my crutches. I gave the same answer. It felt good to be there this time without any pain. I looked on with baited breath, gazing at my right foot and trying to guess whether my left foot would now look exactly the same. The final bit of the bandage fell away. “Well, it’s looking a lot better from when you first came in”, the doctor remarked cheerfully.

Meanwhile, my heart sank as I looked at it. The foot bulged compared with my healthy foot. The doctor looked at me and nodded “Yes, it’s still quite swollen. Have you been walking much?” I had to concede. I didn’t tell him, but only last night I had walked to Il Gusto for a coffee and a change of scene.

To my horror, the doctor started re-bandaging the foot and leg. This wasn’t what I’d anticipated. He then put on the green, plastic bandage, whilst extolling its virtues of being light and yet firm and so therefore much better than the plaster. It may be light, but it was still taking up all my foot and half of my leg!

He advised me to use my crutches and that this bandage would have to stay on for five weeks. “Five weeks?” I exclaimed. It was only a small fissure! How can this take five weeks? The doctor thought for a moment and then relented that I could come back in four weeks and see how it was going, but there was a big “only maybe” hanging in the air as he spoke. I quickly did the calculations in my head – it would be just under four weeks before I went to the UK for two weeks. I needed this to be healed before then!

The doctor advised the nurse to give me two further injections to bring down the swelling. Again, my heart sank. I don’t really like injections. When I was at the hospital the last time, I didn’t mind what injections they gave as long as I had some hope of getting rid of the pain; this time, I felt like asking them not to bother as I couldn’t really care less about my foot being swollen.

As I swung my feet down to the ground, I suddenly felt the “firmness” to which the doctor had referred. My leg was in a vice, there was no softness, no room for movement or flexibility. The leg was dead. As I put my foot down on the ground, my foot slipped because of the hard, plastic bandage. I felt very unsure and unsteady. This wasn’t what I’d come back to the hospital for! It was supposed to be an improvement. Now I could hardly walk at all. And this was for five weeks. The doctor must have been having a laugh when he was extolling the virtues of this other bandage. How was I going to do my shopping? How was I to do my cleaning? Ahead of me lay another five weeks of not being able to shower and having to hand wash myself. All this because I’d trodden on a stone, how could it be?

I vaguely hoped they would have forgotten about the injections, but they didn’t. I complained this time that it hurt, partly because it did, and partly because I was starting to feel disgruntled. Afterwards, the nurse walked ahead at what now seemed like lightning speed to get to the lift, while I hobbled slowly and unsurely along. Inwardly, I was panicking as to how on earth I was going to cope, whereas another part of me reminded myself that every day hundreds of thousands of people must have this happening to them and they all manage perfectly well and that I mustn’t be so pathetic.

The nurse then called the same girl as before to do the lift, who was obviously reluctant at first until she saw me shuffling along in pigeon steps. I’d forgotten this from last time – the lift must have something wrong with it. The girl seems to have to come along and unlock it somewhere at the top of the door. She then has to stand, hand pressed on each side of the door to keep it open and sometimes she even has to stand with one leg midway on each side of the door, and one hand on each side at the top of the lift, hanging in the air, to make sure that the lift lands evenly to the floor and not a few inches up. It was quite a bit of a faff last time as she couldn’t keep the lift level with the floor, but it went without problem this time.

The small victory I did gain was that I got Egyptian prices at the hospital, so it was maybe 2% of the cost of my last visit. I paid, phoned my taxi guy to come and they rolled me out in a wheelchair to the taxi, which was a help.

I will now have to see how I go as to whether I can still do my UK visit. At the moment, I can’t see how it’s possible as I can barely walk, but maybe I will master it over the next few days.