Incisions and losses

Well, I finally ran out of luck. Life took a turn for the worse. A series of most unfortunate events. Anyway you put it, the last two weeks have in some ways been more suboptimal than the others.

It all started with an unfortunate incision made into our newly installed multi-family prototype digester. The incision was made by a foot and happened very quickly - I was suddenly holding the person connected to the foot in my arms and helping her out of the smelly interior.

The week continued with the loss of my wallet. It ended with, what I thought, would be a short trip to the hospital, to investigate some newly acquired stomach pains and fever chills. I was quickly diagnosed with appendicitis and was, just a few hours later, lying in morphine induced relaxation mode on the operating table. After another incision and extraction, I was an appendix poorer, but very happy to have it over with. I got a high fever for the next few days and was worrying a bit when the doctors starting debating if it might be Dengue, Typhoid or Malaria, that I might be suffering from. Turns out it was probably just an infection caused by infectious tissue still left in my body or that popped in during the operation. I have now tried three types of Indonesian antibiotics and one of them seemed to work. And boy are they strong.



Daily shower routine, taken in bed.

Enough of the health-talk. I have been completely surrounded by helpful, caring and cheerful friends during my stay here at the hospital. My room became somewhat of a social gathering place and even a number of work-related meetings, where held in the couch next to my bed. I was brought flowers, sweets, fresh fruits, DVD's, books and of course good company. Albeit the great attention and care I've been getting here at the hospital, I am really looking forward to leaving. I will be picked up and dismissed (or whatever the term is) within an hour.

To complete the story and bring you to the happy ending, the digester with the great hole was operated on March 18. Thanks to Wawa's nimble fingers it has reached full recovery. I am maybe one week away from stabilisation. Hopefully this will be enough time to complete what I came here to do. My wallet is still lost somewhere in the wilderness of Lembang or in the urban jungle of Bandung. Happy enough ending for me.


Pre-op. preparations

Nice and tigth seal. Can you figure out how it was done? Not so easy, eh?