Oh, oh, I was called for jury duty in Nevada, USA…Medical update…Load shedding continues..

Their relatively easy-to-use website allowed me to enter the reasons why I can’t appear:  “emergency coronary bypass surgery while in South Africa.” I wrote a letter and attached it to the online form h, hoping this will be sufficient to be excused. I have no doubt it will be accepted.

In the past few posts, I hadn’t mentioned much in regard to my ongoing recovery. The infections in both of my legs have been quite a scare. On numerous occasions, I’d read those infections after this surgery brings an enormous amount of risk.

This morning Basket stopped by for breakfast.

The doctors both agree, local Dr. Theo and surgeon Dr. Haude in Nelspruit mutually agreed the infections could be treated as an outpatient after all and I could avoid going back into the hospital for IV antibiotics. 

When I hawasoved to the regular hospital after eight days in the ICU, I  insisted on being released to return to Marloth Park within 36 hours. The level of care was substantially inferior to that of the ICU. It wasn’t easy to get a nurse to come to my room for any reason. I knew Tom would take better care of me back “home.” And he did, far beyond my expectations.

Mom and Three Babies.  The fourth baby never reappeared.

Once back in Marloth I realized why the surgeon suggested I stay in the hospital for a few more days.  I was in terrible shape. But, as the days continued I gradually improved with a few setbacks including:

• A massive swollen, bleeding and painful incision in my right thigh that only now has begun to heal.
• A tear in a chest wall muscle from moving wrong the first night we were back.
• Infections in both of my lower legs from ankle to knee that is now being treated with powerful antibiotics (and strong probiotics to aid in maintaining a level of intestinal flora)
• Discomfort from the two incisions left from the chest drainage tubes removed on the sixth-day post-surgery proved to be the most painful of all.

Bushbucks are cautious around warthogs.

All of these setbacks have since resolved considerably except for the infections in my legs. This morning when removing the overnight bandages, cleaning the wounds with a prescribed antibacterial wash, slathering on antibiotic cream, applying new sterile bandages with Tom putting the compression stocking back on, I noticed some improvement.

Yesterday morning, with little improvement I asked the doctor to prescribe more of the antibiotics. The five-day course wasn’t enough. After taking two more tablets, 12 hours apart, finally, I see and feel some improvement. We are very optimistic at this point.  

This morning’s visit by kudus.

The holiday season has begun in South Africa and more and more tourists are coming to stay in the park. We can observe this by the number of cars passing along our road. Much to our surprise and delight, the wildlife is still abundant in our garden bringing both of us much joy.

On the lesser side, load shedding is annoying as it can be. Right now, there are three 2.5-hour outages each and every day. This results in no power for an average of about 30% of our day and evening. 

As mentioned in earlier posts,  load shedding is when the country’s only main electricity supplier, Eskom shuts off power in designated areas of the country in its entirety to conserve power resources.  I won’t get into the politics on this outrageous situation which results from years of poor management.

There we about a dozen kudus wandering in and out of this scene.

Photo from one year ago today, March 19, 2018:

Francolins often visit us. They are shy, run very fast, fly very little and make lots of noise during the day and early evening. We named this pair, Frank and the Mrs. who’ve yet to produce their first chick in over a year. For more, please click here.