Enough Is Enough!

At last I have managed to do some walking!

We were at the doctor's again on Thursday – a different doctor. This does not mean we are hypochondriacs, despite the fact we live in France, the home of health insecurity and a very secure place to be a pharmacist. We always have our annual medical check-up in New Zealand rather than at home. It is well known that the health service in France is excellent, but we feel happier having our check-up in English, just in case something does crop up, some technical term which could possibly get lost in translation.

We saw our regular NZ doctor, Michael Thwaites. As with the doctor in Akaroa, he said we should take antibiotics to clear up the persistent infection. Having had a few more days without improvement or prospect thereof, this time we snapped his hand off and started guzzling the pills with gusto.

Coincidentally or otherwise, I feel much improved. Gay, who seemed to catch the infection from me and is therefore a few days behind in the cycle, is still quite ill.

So I have managed to salvage some exercise from our week in Akaroa, which looked as if it was going to be a complete washout. The kms for the past 3 days have been 10, 13, then 14 today. The last two walks were extremely hilly. Tomorrow we move on to Alexandra for a couple of days, then to the Catlins on the South coast of New Zealand (next stop Antarctica) for a week.

We are nothing without our health, are we? In the past month I have had more to remind me of that than the paltry infection already mentioned. In mid-December my eldest daughter Karen told me the doctor was sending her for tests for throat cancer. Unbelievably, in the same week my youngest daughter Nicola said she was waiting for a CAT scan and a MRI scan of her brain, with a possibility of a brain tumour. Karen had her tests a few weeks ago and was cleared. Nicola did not get her scans until a couple of days ago and she, also, is OK. But it was not a happy time.