Xplore

It is often said that 24 hours can be a long time and I’m hearing that loud and clear at present and counting my lucky stars that I managed to do my climb up Sweet Dreams last Sunday without any problem. It might have been so different, but for 12 hours…

 I’ve only managed to be hospitalised three times over the years, and one I’m not really counting as I really shouldn’t have been there, but more on that later. However, there was no doubting this time around, hospital was the best place for me…

 The Blue Mountains is about a 90-minute drive from Sydney and after Sunday’s climb up Sweet Dreams I headed for home, ensuring to hydrate well as I drove as it had been quite a warm day out there on the cliff-face and I was beginning to feel quite fatigued…

It was an ominous sign that went unrecognised …

Sunday night I woke up feeling cold and I was starting to shiver despite it being a reasonably warm night, but I didn’t think much of it.

Janet rolled the other way mumbling something about me being hot.

I just said, “I know!” 

By Monday something had taken hold of me and was giving a real good kicking, so I rested in bed, sweating profusely.

Perhaps this is what Janet meant when she called me hot, I thought?

There was a rapid deterioration on Tuesday and our family doctor sent me straight to hospital where I was admitted for assessment and observation. It turns out I had contracted a form of pneumonia called, mycoplasma, the “walking pneumonia”.

Well, at least that is how they are treating it…

After 24 hours on an intravenous drip and blood tests showing some improvement, especially in terms of hydration, they elected to send me home for some more rest…

Some rest?

 Crikey, I had to look that term up…

I thought you got to rest when the “big guy” upstairs blows the “full-time whistle” on you…

Anyway, I am well on the way to recovery thanks to the wonderful medical team at the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in Sydney’s northern suburbs.

And I’m back home now and in Janet and TomO’s tender care! The little fella was a bit upset at seeing his Dad all hooked-up to a machine last night, but he gave me a big long-hug and told me to get better soon!

Geez, he was brave, and he made me feel real proud!

And Janet, she winked at the nurses and said don’t worry I’ll make sure he rests, with that look that you never cross! So rest it will be…for a few days anyway!

And how is this for a co-incidence, as the wardman was taking me down for a chest x-ray, I said how lucky I was that it didn’t happen on a climb I was doing on the Sunday.

He said, “Yeah, that’s for sure”

“What were you climbing?” he asked,

“Sweet Dreams”…

Awesome was his response, he had climbed it just recently so we were able to share a discussion on the climb while I was getting x-rayed!

But, geez, just how lucky was I that my condition didn’t become acute 12 hours earlier while I was half-way up Sweet Dreams. It has been a good reminder to me that you must always consider your physical well-being at all times when undertaking something like mountaineering and climbing, or any activity that exposes you for that matter…

Not that I didn’t consider my well-being mind you, I felt fine, but it did highlight what might be lurking just around the corner, anywhere, anytime!

And on those other times in hospital?

Well, I did break my “bum” in 2008 in a mid-air incident whilst skydiving, which resulted in doctors’ needing to reattach my hamstring to my right butt and a spell in hospital! And what a great job they did, it just so happens that a local surgeon is world renown for this very type of surgery…

And the one in dispute?

Strewth, I was 5 years old and I feel that I fell victim to a misdiagnosis. Well that is the way I’m calling it.

I threw up mum’s cooking one night and she swore there were “toadstools” amongst the “throw-up”.

 Stone the flamin’ crows, how would you know what was in that mess I made?

I swear to this day I never ate them on the way home from school, but worn down by the constant questioning I simply said; they just “popped in my mouth” – what else could I say?

It got me a 5-day hospital sleepover whilst under observation!

Crikey, I don’t remember eating them, and maybe that was just the point.

It’s no wonder the Noddy and Big- Ears television show took on a new dimension that afternoon on the tellie…

Anyway, as usual, if all else fails, just remain out of control and see what develops…

Ps: I’m all good!