My wife and I were excited at the prospect of spending this Easter week just past in Italy.
I didn't feel very well as I woke up on Maundy Thursday when we were due to drive up from Totnes to Bristol Airport to board a plane to Pisa where we were due to land in the early afternoon. (I can't begin to count the times when I told people we were going to Pisa how often I was asked if I was going to straighten up the tower). In any case our final destination was not Pisa. Our younger daughter was picking us up at Pisa Airport and driving us to a hotel in Bagni di Lucca where we were booked to stay in a hotel which had a swimming pool and a spa with healing waters.
As I said, I didn't feel too well on waking up, but recovered sufficiently for my wife and I to agree that I could drive to the airport. We arrived there without serious incident though my concentration was not as assured as it occasionally can be. When we arrived at the airport car park my wife took over the driving, not merely because she is better than me at manoeuvring our car in small spaces but also because I was exhausted. I felt increasingly physically weak and asked for a wheelchair at the check-in, something I would previously have been too proud to do. Somehow we navigated our way through security and reached the departure gate but I remained unwell. The airport first aid team was called to offer me support. I began to lose consciousness. I had a feeling of slipping away: a state that was averted by a sudden need to vomit and defecate. Certainly there was an impetus for both to occur simultaneously, but nothing, perhaps to the relief of everyone around, was evacuated.
I was told that in my condition I would not be allowed to board the plane and the airport first aid team called for an NHS paramedic who appeared, it seemed to me in my dazed state, from absolutely nowhere to tend to me. His name was Tomas. He gave me an ECG test and said that my heart beat was twice the rate it should be and my blood pressure was at a worrying level. He stayed with me.
Our plane departed without us and though I was sad for my wife's disappointment, I am glad she elected to stay with me. I apologise for that irony for in truth I am in a fortunate position to say - whether she should do so or not - my wife would always stay with me. She is a kind, generous woman.
Eventually an ambulance arrived to whisk me off to Bristol Royal Infirmary where I was given a whole raft of assessment tests over the next two days. They discovered I had hypertension, arrhythmia, and a urinary infection. They also threw in some newly discovered gallstones with these too. On allowing me to leave the infirmary they prescribed me blood thinning tablets, beta blockers and an antibiotic.
I will always be grateful to the Bristol Airport first aid team, to Tomas, the NHS paramedic, and to the staff of Bristol Royal Infirmary who all gave me prompt, sensitive, expert and effective attention at a time when I was feeling very ill. They put me on the road to good repair. Throughout my life my experience of our NHS has invariably been good. My family and I owe a great deal to it and I think its creation was one of the great achievements of the community that was the United Kingdom.
Just as I was to be hospitalised my wife called our daughter, who was waiting for us in Pisa, to explain to her what had happened. We had been due not only to meet her, but later on in the week, also my son in law and my eldest grandson. They were going to show us the house they had purchased in Tuscany which they are now renovating. Our daughter, who had booked into the same hotel as we had, said it was a very warm and special place which we would have liked. I couldn't help but think about all these events which were not now going to happen and I began to sense that my sudden illness had created disappointment for quite a few people who I loved dearly.
Ah, well that was our Italian Maundy Thursday this year. I wish I could wash my hands of it. In the meantime I will seek absolution, in mind and spirit at least, and wash the feet of all those I disappointed by my indisposition.
I didn't feel very well as I woke up on Maundy Thursday when we were due to drive up from Totnes to Bristol Airport to board a plane to Pisa where we were due to land in the early afternoon. (I can't begin to count the times when I told people we were going to Pisa how often I was asked if I was going to straighten up the tower). In any case our final destination was not Pisa. Our younger daughter was picking us up at Pisa Airport and driving us to a hotel in Bagni di Lucca where we were booked to stay in a hotel which had a swimming pool and a spa with healing waters.
As I said, I didn't feel too well on waking up, but recovered sufficiently for my wife and I to agree that I could drive to the airport. We arrived there without serious incident though my concentration was not as assured as it occasionally can be. When we arrived at the airport car park my wife took over the driving, not merely because she is better than me at manoeuvring our car in small spaces but also because I was exhausted. I felt increasingly physically weak and asked for a wheelchair at the check-in, something I would previously have been too proud to do. Somehow we navigated our way through security and reached the departure gate but I remained unwell. The airport first aid team was called to offer me support. I began to lose consciousness. I had a feeling of slipping away: a state that was averted by a sudden need to vomit and defecate. Certainly there was an impetus for both to occur simultaneously, but nothing, perhaps to the relief of everyone around, was evacuated.
I was told that in my condition I would not be allowed to board the plane and the airport first aid team called for an NHS paramedic who appeared, it seemed to me in my dazed state, from absolutely nowhere to tend to me. His name was Tomas. He gave me an ECG test and said that my heart beat was twice the rate it should be and my blood pressure was at a worrying level. He stayed with me.
Our plane departed without us and though I was sad for my wife's disappointment, I am glad she elected to stay with me. I apologise for that irony for in truth I am in a fortunate position to say - whether she should do so or not - my wife would always stay with me. She is a kind, generous woman.
Eventually an ambulance arrived to whisk me off to Bristol Royal Infirmary where I was given a whole raft of assessment tests over the next two days. They discovered I had hypertension, arrhythmia, and a urinary infection. They also threw in some newly discovered gallstones with these too. On allowing me to leave the infirmary they prescribed me blood thinning tablets, beta blockers and an antibiotic.
I will always be grateful to the Bristol Airport first aid team, to Tomas, the NHS paramedic, and to the staff of Bristol Royal Infirmary who all gave me prompt, sensitive, expert and effective attention at a time when I was feeling very ill. They put me on the road to good repair. Throughout my life my experience of our NHS has invariably been good. My family and I owe a great deal to it and I think its creation was one of the great achievements of the community that was the United Kingdom.
Just as I was to be hospitalised my wife called our daughter, who was waiting for us in Pisa, to explain to her what had happened. We had been due not only to meet her, but later on in the week, also my son in law and my eldest grandson. They were going to show us the house they had purchased in Tuscany which they are now renovating. Our daughter, who had booked into the same hotel as we had, said it was a very warm and special place which we would have liked. I couldn't help but think about all these events which were not now going to happen and I began to sense that my sudden illness had created disappointment for quite a few people who I loved dearly.
Ah, well that was our Italian Maundy Thursday this year. I wish I could wash my hands of it. In the meantime I will seek absolution, in mind and spirit at least, and wash the feet of all those I disappointed by my indisposition.
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