Ouch!

After surviving a month’s backpacking around Asia (mainly to see daughter Iris Riddell) Number 8 Network’s Annette Taylor had a little slip last week.

The jetlag was abating when I got a call from a friend who needed to be taken to Waikato Hospital’s Emergency Department last Monday.  This was the day the hospital was at ‘overload’, and turning away non-emergency patients, says the NZ Herald.

We can attest to that.  My friend got the treatment she needed and excellent it was too, but the wait was long, too long.  We arrived at 3pm and left around 10.30 that night.  I couldn’t help but compare it with the experience at Chiang Mai hospital.  On our first day in Thailand, we needed to take our daughter to hospital for a minor medical matter.  We strolled in, gave our details to a friendly staff member, and were shown to comfortable seats.  Iris was seen almost at once, and while we were waiting a woman delivered cool drinks on a tray – to every person waiting.  Within an hour we were out, with medicine and able to get back to our holiday.  The place felt like a hotel, rather than a hospital and yet everyday people can rock up there and this is supposed to be a third-world country.  NZ needs to seriously address what is happening to its health system.

My friend and I were given the OK to leave, so back to her house we went.  I dashed back to the car in the rain to fetch something and then, disaster.  I skidded on the slippery driveway and crunched the side of my face on an inconveniently placed concrete step.

My friend, the one I was meant to be looking after, then spent oh, half an hour or more expertly cleaning and dressing the wounds.

I have been confined to bed, where the soup has flowed and the care has been most excellent.  My cheek is still sore and swollen, and my face is a lovely shade of…  daffodil yellow, says the husband.

Nothing is broken, and I should be wagging my tail within… a week or two. But it was an eye-opener to slow down and take care on slippery paths.

When I am feeling a bit more like my old self, I will post more stories on N8N but until then I am taking it easy.  And eating chocolate.

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