Swallows and Thrushes

To my regular readers, the reason for the hiatus is that two months ago, I had a heart attack, followed by open heart surgery at the Halifax Infirmary.

It was quite a weekend because Heather, my wife, also went to the hospital for a pacemaker.

The good news is that these events were preemptive, as we went together to Emergency at the Aberdeen Hospital in New Glasgow in early September.

After two months in the Infirmary. I have a detailed understanding of hospital routines, staffing levels, as well as the DOs and DO NOTs of hospital life. In this blog, I will focus on a few lessons we have learned as well as some of the sustaining factors.

Lesson1.

In traditional Western marriages, day-to-day tasks are usually split between husband and wife. For example, financial matters may be the purview of the husband. Not a good idea, both partners need to be equally informed about all aspects of living.

Lesson 2.

In a marriage, each partner may select their own technology of choice. My life is iPad and emails. Heather’s life is mobile phones. It is critical in a crisis that both partners understand the common technology.

Lesson 3.

The community network is vital. Foremost is the contribution from family. In our absence, they organized a rental condo in Halifax where Heather can live, while I was in the hospital for two months. The other community can extend from neighbours to work colleagues from the last forty years. Or even old-school friends from England. In our communications, we can share news, and the local Geography, including photographs. My photos are simple; from the view of Halifax Citadel to the interior of my room.

Back to the title of my blog, ‘Swallows and Thrushes’. This goes back to a book by Arthur Ransome “Swallows and Amazons“. I read this as a child.

In my case, Swallows refers to the ‘Swallow Test’ taken to evaluate your throat muscles for food consumption. Thrush refers to a throat infection that can impact your digestion ability.

For most of my hospital stay, food was delivered through feeding tubes. This severely restricted my mobility.

To end on a positive note, my physiotherapist, Pascal loaned me a book that he had enjoyed — Graham Hancock’s “Magicians of the Gods“.

It is a long read, full of facts and hypotheses about a previous civilization, about 9600 years ago, before a comet destroyed the earth’s climate and civilization.

POSTSCRIPT

I was released to join Heather at the Halifax condo on November 14th. This blog was delayed because of technical difficulties encountered by Edward with WordPress on his Chromebook in Florida. As we explore the geography of the Halifax waterfront, I hope to return to regular weekly blogs

The other book, I would recommend, is “Paddling Pathways“, a collection of essays on the significance of paddling by canoe, in the northern rivers of Canada. This is very timely since, in September, we purchased a new canoe. It is now sitting in Patrick’s garage in Peterborough.