Martin Northey’s Blog

Having put my rubbish in the rubbish container at 8.40 am on a day in April 2006  I was walking back to my garage to get my jeep out in order to drive to spend the day instructing from Vilamoura Marina. Failing to notice a bollard that I must have walked past thousands of times, I tripped over it, cut my leg open and blood shot out of the gash like a burst water main!

30 minutes later I was in Albufeira hospital being stitched up. This was my first experience of a Portuguese Hospital, as I walked into the reception area without even breaking my stride (limp) I was ushered down a short passage and into a room where I was asked to lie down on a bed and within a minute my cut was being bathed and pain-killing injections were given followed by the cut being stitched up with about 15 stitches.

Half an hour after my arrival I left the hospital with a dressing on my leg, a prescription for antibiotics and instructions to keep the leg horizontal with an ice pack on it for 7 days! Plus I had to go back every other day for about two weeks to have the dressing changed.

The reality of my situation was that I cancelled my work for the next two days, but managed to work after that.

On my arrival at home I installed myself on my sofa with an icepack on my leg, and my lap top across my lap and began to make some changes to my web site (www.martinnorthey.net)

Having made a couple of important changes a great friend telephoned just to say hello, he had sent me details of ‘blogging’ a couple of weeks ago, but I did not realise what it was all about and had hoped that I would soon have an opportunity to talk to him about it all so I could understand a bit more about blogging and its advantages for me.

So there I was, with nothing to do for the next two days and realised that it is a heaven sent opportunity for me to find out all about blogging. So perhaps even this accident didn’t happen by accident! 

All this occured 2 1/2 years ago, I have had a blog since then, but admit that I did not update it at all after the first burst of enthusiasm. This blog is a brand new one, and instead of being totally separate from my web site it is part of it and I will endeavor to keep it up to date with my thoughts and anything of interest that I have been doing.

Reflecting briefly on the treatment that I received at the ’Centro de Saúde’ in Albufeira - It was excellent, both the speed with which they stitched me up after my accident and the treatment that I was given for the next two weeks, which I was able to have at a time that was convenient for me. Portuguese people are the first to critisise their health service, but following that experience I have the highest praise for the health service in Portugal.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 1:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.